Funding Sary, the Saudi Arabia-based operator of a business-to-business marketplace, received $30.5m in series B funding yesterday from investors including Raed Ventures, the venture capital arm of conglomerate Almajdouie Holding, KrAsia reported. VentureSouq led the round, which also featured STV, the VC firm backed by telecommunications firm Saudi Telecom, as well as Rocketship.vc, MSA Capital and Derayah VC. It had raised $6.6m in an April 2020 round led by Raed Ventures and backed by MSA Capital and Derayah Ventures. Aerobiotix, a US-based developer of airborne infection control technology, secured $25m yesterday from investors including Asahi Kasei Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of chemicals producer Asahi Kasei. The round was led by VC firm Vivo Capital and the cash will support sales, marketing and further development of the company’s product, which is designed for use in hospitals, offices and as part of long-term healthcare. VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has led a $19m series A round for Bitski, a US-based developer of non-fungible token (NFT) storefronts that counts digital currency exchange Coinbase and app developer Animoca Brands as investors, TechCrunch reported yesterday. 3Lau and angel investors including Jay-Z, MrBeast and Serena Williams also took part in the round, which followed a $1.8m seed round in November 2019 featuring Coinbase, Animoca Brands, Galaxy Digital, Winklevoss Capital, SV Angel, Kindred Ventures, SV Angel, Signia Ventures and Bobby Goodlatte that took its total funding to $3.5m. Validus, a Singapore-based business finance platform developer backed by conglomerate Kuok Group and building materials producer Siam Cement Group, has received S$20m ($15.7m) in equity funding from asset manager Fasanara Capital together with $23.5m in capital for its Enterprise Financing Scheme, The Business Times reported today. Both corporates took part in its $20m series B-plus round in May 2020 with Vertex Ventures, FMO, Openspace Ventures and VinaCapital Ventures. Its overall equity funding now stands at roughly $55m. China-based autonomous robot developer Youibot has raised nearly RMB100m ($15.5m) in a funding round led by telecoms and internet group SoftBank through its SoftBank Ventures Asia subsidiary, TechCrunch reported today. Quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group and VC firm BlueRun Ventures – both described as existing investors – also contributed to the round, which came after a pre-series A round of undisclosed size in April 2020 that was led by ZhenFund and backed by existing investors HAX and C&I Capital. US-headquartered crypto data provider Coin Metrics secured $15m on Wednesday in a series B round featuring crypto lending platform developer BlockFi. Investment…

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Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.