Access Industries, Pfizer and SR One were among the investors in a $125m round for Nimbus Therapeutics while Aerwins agreed a reverse takeover.

Funds

Côte d’Ivoire-based social impact vehicle Janngo Capital Startup Fund has reached a €34m ($36m) first close having raised cash from limited partners including media groups Muller Medien and Hubert Burda Media, the latter through its investment arm, Hubert Burda Media. They were joined by European Investment Bank, African Development Bank and Agence Française de Développement’s Proparco unit.

US-based web3-focused venture capital firm MetaWeb Ventures has formed a $30m debut vehicle called Fund I with backing from cryptocurrency exchange Near Foundation, crypto trading firm GSR Markets and crypto network Octopus Network. Its LPs also include Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, SevenX Ventures, Mentha Partners as well as Illia Polosukhin, Bo Shao, Shawn Shi and Mark Wang.

US-based VC firm Kapor Capital has formed a $126m Fund III that included contributions from investors including PayPal, Twilio, Foot Locker, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, Bank of America and National Geographic Society. The LP roster was filled out by Cambridge Associates, Align Impact, Ford Foundation, EIP Elevate Future Fund, Southern Poverty Law, The California Wellness Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Stardust Equity.

Reverse merger

Aerwins Technologies, the US-based parent company of drone technology provider ALI Technologies, which counts corporates Fuyo General Lease, Kyocera, JR West, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Opt, Saibu Gas and Trust Tech as backers, has agreed to go public through a merger with Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company Pono Capital Corp. The deal will give the combined business a pro forma equity value of approximately $750m.

Public markets

Leapmotor, the China-based electric vehicle manufacturer backed by corporates Dahua Technology, Shanghai Electric and CRRC, has called off a $1.5bn initial public offering to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, two people privy to the development have told DealStreetAsia.

M&A

Turkey-based local services portal Armut has merged with ProntoPro, an Italy-headquartered peer backed by online real estate portal Immobiliare.it. Undisclosed existing ProntoPro investors are leading a €15m ($14.8m) funding round supporting the transaction.

Funding

Company Company description Sector Country Round Round size($m) Deal date Investors
Nimbus Therapeutics Small molecule drug developer Healthcare US N/A 125 12/09/2022 Access Industries (Access Biotechnology), Pfizer (Pfizer Ventures), GlaxoSmithKline (SR One); SV Health Investors, Atlas Venture, BVF Partners, Bill Gates, Lightstone Ventures, RA Capital Management, Bain Capital (Bain Capital Life Sciences)
Predictive Index Talent
optimisation software provider
Services US N/A 30 13/09/2022 JM Family Enterprises
Hone Executive learning and development platform Services US B 30 13/09/2022 Slack (Slack Fund); 3L Capital (lead), Fidelity (F-Prime Capital), Cowboy Ventures
Litmus Email marketing testing service Media US B 30 13/09/2022 Belden (lead); unnamed additional investor
Community Labs Power software developer IT US N/A 30 09/09/2022 Arweave; Lightspeed Venture Partners (lead) Bain Capital (Bain Capital Crypto), Blockchain Capital, Distributed Global, Road Capital Management
iSabers Materials Advanced semiconductor integration technology developer IT China A 28.8 09/09/2022 Beijing Integrated Circuit Advanced Manufacturing (Beijing Integrated Circuit Advanced Chip Fund), Sungrow; China Construction Bank (CCB Trust), Beijing Zhike Industry Investment Holding Group, Wofo Capital
Liquid Instruments Measurement hardware and software provider Industrial Australia B 28.5 13/09/2022 Lockheed Martin (Lockheed Martin Ventures); Acorn Capital (lead), Powerhouse Ventures, Spirit Super/ANU Connect Ventures, MA Growth Ventures, Significant Capital Ventures, Boman Enterprises
Applied EV Electric vehicle software developer Transport Australia N/A 14.2 13/09/2022 Suzuki; St Baker Energy Innovation Fund
Polimero Plastic waste recycling service Industrial Italy N/A 12 12/09/2022 Repeats Group
Jobbatical Workers’ immigration and relocation platform Services UK N/A 11.6 12/09/2022 Swiss Post (Swiss Post Ventures); Inventure (lead), Union Square Ventures, Karma VC, Metaplanet, Devotion Ventures, Kristel Kruustük, Indrek Prants, Andres Kull, Joe Zadeh
WhiteLab Genomics Gene and cell therapy developer Healthcare France N/A 10 12/09/2022 Debiopharm; Omnes Capital
B+J Studios Consumer NFT technology developer Financial US A 10 08/09/2022 Solana (Solana Labs); Brevan Howard (Brevan Howard Digital), Big Brain Holdings, Foundation Capital, Starting Line, Republic Capital
Procol Procurement management software developer IT India N/A 6.4 13/09/2022 GMO Internet Group (GMO Venture Partners), Alarko (Alarko Ventures); Esas Holding (Esas Ventures), FounderBank Capital, Anchorage Capital, Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital (Sequoia Surge), Beenext
Sender Crypto-driven ewallet provider Financial Singapore N/A 4.5 12/09/2022 WOO Network, Crypto.com, Octopus Network, Paras; Pantera Capital (lead), Jump Capital, Amber Group, SevenX Ventures, Smrti Lab, D1 Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, Shima Capital, Eniac Ventures, GFS Ventures, Ref Finance
Emulsion Flow Rare metal recycling service Industrial Japan A 3.1 13/09/2022 Honda Motor, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC Venture Capital), Mitsubishi UFJ (Mitsubishi UFJ Capital), KDDI (KDDI Green Partners Fund); RealTech Fund (lead), Okasan Securities (Okasan Capital Partners)
Neem Financial services provider for underbanked communities Financial Pakistan Seed 2.5 13/09/2022 Arif Habib; SparkLabs Fintech, Cordoba Logistics & Ventures Ltd, Taarah Ventures, My Asia VC
KNN3 Network Web3 relationship aggregator Media US Seed 2.4 09/09/2022 ShowMe, Mask Network; Hash Global (co-lead), Liang Xinjun (co-lead), MetaWeb Ventures, Eniac Ventures, Tess Ventures, Stratified Capital, Fundamental Lab, Incuba Alpha, Zeuth Ventures, Cogitent Ventures, Atlas Capital, Impossible Finance, RSS3, Yan Xin, Potter Li
Onmeta Web3 transaction service Financial India Seed 1.5 13/09/2022 Polygon (Polygon Studios); Skycatcher Fund (lead), Luno Expeditions, GSF Fund, Sandeep Nailwal, Ganesh Swami, Nitish Mittersain, Madhur Deep, Hiro Mashita
Neo Fantasy Blockchain game developer  Media India N/A 1.5 09/09/2022 Neo_Blockchain, BitKeep, Map Protocol, LeadWallet, Nextype; Shima Capital (lead), CatcherVC, Humble Ventures
Nawgati Fuel queue management service Energy and Natural Resources India N/A N/A 12/09/2022 MapmyIndia
Zero Emission Industries  Maritime hydrogen technology developer Energy and Natural Resources US A N/A 08/09/2022 Chevron (Chevron New Energies) (lead), Crowley
PharmaX Online pharmacy operator formerly known as Yojo Technologies Healthcare Japan N/A N/A 13/09/2022 KDDI (KDDI Open Innovation Fund 3), Globis (Globis Capital Partners); Anri
Yukai Engineering Communications and connected robot developer IT Japan N/A N/A 13/09/2022 Sumitomo Life (Sumisei Innovation Fund), Tsukui (Tsukui Capital), Koizumi Sangyo
Uena Local food and beverage delivery service Consumer Indonesia Seed N/A 13/09/2022 IDN Media; East Ventures (lead)
VitalConnect Remote and in-hospital wearable biosensor technology developer Healthcare US N/A N/A 13/09/2022 HCA Healthcare (Health Insight Capital)
Edison Fu

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