McCain helped meatless nugget producer Simulate secure a $250m valuation while retail technology developer Grabango raised $39m from investors including Unilever and Honeywell.

Funding Simulate, the US-headquartered owner of meatless chicken nugget brand Nuggs, has raised $50m from investors including frozen food producer McCain Foods, Bloomberg reported today. Venture capital firm Seven Seven Six led the round, which valued the company at $250m according to a person familiar with the matter, and it included Nomo Ventures, Imaginary Ventures, Day One Ventures and private investors Chris Sacca and Crystal Sacca. It followed an $11m series A round closed in July 2020 that was led by McCain and backed by media, data and investment group AgFunder, Nomo Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Rainfall Ventures, Greylock Discovery Fund, Maven Ventures, M Ventures and Acme Capital and various individuals. Grabango, a US-based developer of checkout-free retail systems, has secured $39m in a series B round featuring Unilever Ventures and Honeywell Ventures, subsidiaries of consumer goods producer Unilever and consumer and industrial technology producer Honeywell respectively. Commerce Ventures led the round, which included Founders Fund and Wind Ventures and which pushed its total funding to $57m. Propel Venture Partners, the VC firm funded by financial services firm BBVA, led Grabango’s $12m series A in early 2019, investing with Commerce Ventures, Founders Fund, Ridge Ventures and Abstract Ventures. Poka, the Canada-based creator of a manufacturing workforce management platform, completed a $25m series B round yesterday featuring SE Ventures, the VC fund backed by energy and automation technology producer Schneider Electric, and Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC), the investment arm of industrial technology producer Robert Bosch. The round was led by 40 North Ventures and included McRock Capital, CDPQ and retailer Leclerc, the latter two having joined SE Ventures and RBVC in a $4.7m round in June 2020. Poka said it has now raised over $45m in total. Optum Ventures, the corporate VC arm of healthcare services provider Optum, has contributed to a $20m series A round for Medallion, the US-based developer of a back office-management platform for care providers. VC firm Spark Capital led the round, which also featured BoxGroup, Susa Ventures and angel investors including Tom Lee, Joe Montana, Elad Gil, Zach Sims, Daniel Gross, Peter Reinhardt, Nat Friedman and Vivek Ramaswamy. Nearfield Instruments, a Netherlands-based semiconductor-scanning equipment producer backed by consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung, has secured €17.5m ($23.3m) in series B funding from Invest-NL and Innovation Industries. Samsung subsidiary Samsung Ventures had joined Innovation Industries to invest an undisclosed amount in Nearfield in 2017. Element, a Germany-based digital insurance provider backed by electronics producer Sony and insurance firms Mitsui…

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Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.