Cosco Shipping provided $800m for Cofco subsidiary Cofco Fortune while Avary Holding invested $136m in Interconnected Semiconductor Technology.

A man and a woman holding a test tube

Funds

Imbiba, a UK-based venture capital firm targeting lifestyle and entertainment investments, reached the £70m ($86m) first close of a £90m fund with backing from limited partners including Asahi UK, part of beverage producer Asahi Group. British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds scheme also contributed to the close.

India-based VC firm Z3Partners has raised roughly $67m for the final close of its Z3 Partners Tech Fund, having secured capital from insurer HDFC Life as well as family offices and financial institutions including Small Industries Development Bank of India.

Fubon Life Insurance, the insurance subsidiary of Taiwan-headquartered financial services group Fubon Financial, has put up about NT$1.2bn ($39.5m) for VC firm AppWorks’ fourth fund, Nikkei Asia has reported. The fund is targeting a $360m close by mid-2023, its executive team said.

Public markets

Structure Therapeutics, the Cayman Islands-registered, China-founded computational therapeutics developer drug developer formerly known as ShouTi, has filed to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It is backed by corporates Eli Lilly, WuXi AppTec and Schrodinger and had received $158m in funding as of a $100m series B round in late 2021.

M&A

Blockchain analytics services provider Crypto Slam has merged with Forkast.News, a China-based crypto news portal that raised $1.7m from investors including e-commerce group Alibaba and blockchain game publisher Animoca Brands in mid-2021. They are forming a Web3 data and news aggregator called Forkast Labs.

Air hygiene technology producer AeroClean Technologies has completed a merger with Molekule, a US-based air purifier provider that counts networking technology producer Inventec Appliances and contract manufacturer Foxconn as investors. Molekule had raised over $97m as of September 2021, adding $22.2m in June 2022 according to a securities filing.

Funding

Company Company description Sector Country Round Round size($m) Deal date Investors
Cofco Fortune Food processing and logistics subsidiary of Chinese state-owned agricultural group Cofco Services China N/A 800 17/01/2023 Cosco Shipping
Interconnected Semiconductor Technology Printed circuit board manufacturer IT  China N/A 136 16/01/2023 Avary Holding
Sublime Systems Developer of low-carbon cement production technology Industrial US N/A 40 17/01/2023 Siam Cement Group; Lowercarbon Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (The Engine)
Interstellar Technologies Rocket and satellite developer Industrial Japan D 30 17/01/2023 Nisso Corp (Nisso Kosan), CyberAgent, Satudora Holdings, Sunco Industries, Inclusive, OnsenDojo, RDS, IMV, Kadokawa, Hagiwara Construction Industry; SBI (SBI Investments), Seven Stars Capital, De Aardappeleters, Reiichi Sasaki, Norimasa Yamamoto, Kazunori Asada, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Teruyasu Nishino, Makoto Fujita, Masaki Yamamoto, Mizuki Nakajima, Anna Nakajima, Tomoya Nakano
Locad Logistics automation platform developer Services Singapore A 11 16/01/2023 Kuehne & Nagel and Temasek (Reefknot Investments) (lead), JG Summit; Sequoia India and Southeast Asia (Surge), Febe Ventures, Antler, Access Ventures, WTI
Mumbai Oncocare Centre Cancer and hemaetology care provider Healthcare India A 10 15/01/2023 Tata Group (Tata Capital Healthcare Fund)
Multus Biotechnology Cultivated meat developer Consumer UK A 9.5 16/01/2023 Asahi Kasei; Mandi Ventures (lead), SOSV, Big Idea Ventures, SynBioVen; Innovate UK (EIC Accelerator) ($2.5m grant)
Ferrum Health  Healthcare AI platform Healthcare US N/A 6 12/01/2023 Singtel (Singtel Innov8) (co-lead); Urban Innovation Fund (co-lead), Cercano Management (co-lead)
Bunzz Decentralised application development platform IT  Singapore Seed 4.7 17/01/2023 Coincheck Labs, Digital Garage (DG Daiwa Ventures), GMO (GMO Web3), Gree (Gree Ventures), Ceres; Arriba Studio, GMJP, Hyperithm, Kotaro Tamura, Kazutaka Mori, Mint, Spiral Ventures, 01Booster Capital
Bloomfield Robotics Agricultural robotics technology developer Industrial US A 4.4 16/01/2023 Kubota (lead), Oeneo Group
FilSwan Cross-chain Web3 infrastructure provider Financial Canada N/A 3 16/01/2023 Binance (Binance Labs) (co-lead), Protocol Labs, Filecoin Foundation, Chainlink; SNZ Holdings (co-lead), Waterdrip Capital, FBG Capital, Unicorn Hunter Ventures, Chain Capital, LD Capital, Cabin VC, Betterverse Dao, DAO Kondr VC
Gigged.AI Technology talent sourcing platform Services UK Seed 2 16/01/2023 Nile HQ; Par Equity (lead), Techstart Ventures, John Brodie, Nick Jones, Stewart Siegal, Grant Fraser, Mark Robinson, Warwick Beresford-Jones
StrategIT Developer of enterprise software linkage platform IT  Japan N/A 1.9 17/01/2023 Heroz
Greeneye Technology System Precise pesticide spraying technology developer Industrial Israel N/A N/A 10/01/2023 NuWay-K&H Cooperative
Man-Machine Synergy Effectors Robotics technology developer Industrial Japan B2 N/A 17/01/2023 Shiga Bank, Shiga Bank (Shigagin Lease Capital); Quantum Leaps Capital Partners
Zick Learn Enterprise learning platform developer Services Ireland Pre-seed N/A 16/01/2023 Zanichelli (Zanichelli Venture)
Lekatech Mining electrification technology developer Industrial Finland N/A N/A 13/01/2023 Normet
Surplus Food waste prevention service Consumer India Seed N/A 16/01/2023 Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines (Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines Ventures)
Eagle Genomics Bioscience information discovery platform Healthcare UK N/A N/A 16/01/2023 Omron (Omron Ventures)
Edison Fu

Edison Fu is head of Asia development at Global Corporate Venturing.