Actis is set to acquire a majority stake in Mitsui and Equinor-backed Yellow Door Energy while GMO, Yara International and Digital Garage all backed Jai Kisan's $50m series B round.

Fund

Germany-headquartered automotive manufacturer Audi’s innovation lab, Audi Denkwerkstatt, has teamed up with investment firm Techstars to form a pre-accelerator. It will focus on early-stage digitalisation and mobility technology developers based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is accepting applications until November 1 this year for a three-month cohort starting in January 2023.

M&A

Investment firm Actis has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Yellow Door Energy, a United Arab Emirates-based solar power provider backed by conglomerate Mitsui and energy group Equinor, for an undisclosed amount. The company’s only disclosed funding is a $65m series A round in 2019 that included both corporates.

Funding

Company Company description Sector Country Round Round size($m) Deal date Investors
Jai Kisan Rural resident-oriented credit provider Financial India B 50 29/07/2022 GMO (GMO VenturePartners), Yara International (Yara Growth Ventures), Digital Garage/Daiwa Securities Group (DG Daiwa Ventures); Blume Ventures, Arkam Ventures, Mirae Asset, Snow Leopard Ventures, Northern Arc, Alteria, MAS Financial
Novasenta Cancer therapeutics developer Healthcare US A 40 29/07/2022 UPMC Enterprises (lead)
Clean Energy Connect Solar power producer Energy and Natural Resources Japan B 13.7 01/08/2022 Dai-ichi Life, Shimizu Corporation, Tokyu Construction (Tokyo-Const GB Innovation Fund), Kansai Electric Power Company (K4 Ventures), Itochu, SBI Holdings (SBI Investment)
Stadium Live Gen-Z-focused sports fan platform Media Canada A 10 28/07/2022 Dapper Labs (Dapper Labs Ventures); KB Partners (co-lead), Union Square Ventures (co-lead), 35 Ventures, Origins Fund, Position Ventures, Valhalla Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Breakout Capital
Quasar Finance Blockchain project Financial Spain N/A 6 28/07/2022 Figment (Figment Capital), Evmos; Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, Lightshift Capital, Galileo, Hash CIB, Sunny Aggarwal, Collin Myers, Richard Malone, Karel Kubat, Jacob Blish, Carlo Velten, David Menard, Simon Telian
OrBit Markets Crypto product-focused liquidity provider Financial Singapore N/A 4.6 01/08/2022 Matrixport (lead), Westridge Markets; Brevan Howard (Brevan Howard Digital), New Form Capital, Maven 11 
TartanHQ Solutions Financial product development platform Financial India Pre-A 4.5 01/08/2022 Info Edge (InfoEdge Ventures); 500 Global, 9Unicorns, AngelList Quant Fund, WorldQuant Ventures, Varanium GenNext Fund 
Hutzper AI-equipped manufacturing robot developer Industrial Japan A 3.2 01/08/2022 Senshu Ikeda Bank (Senshu Ikeda Capital), Mitsubishi UFJ (Mitsubishi UFJ Capital), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC Venture Capital), Resona Bank (Resona Capital); Anri (lead), Future Venture Capital, unnamed existing investors
Antric Delivery vehicle manufacturer Transport Germany N/A 2.5 29/07/2022 Cenntro Electric
Soundraw AI-powered music composing service Media Japan N/A 1.4 29/07/2022 Ceres, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC Venture Capital), SoftBank (Deepcore); ISGS Investment Works, Mint
Mygol Golf simulator provider Media Japan N/A 1.1 01/08/2022 Crooz
Eridan Communications 5G power transceiver developer Telecoms US N/A N/A 26/07/2022 Mitsubishi Chemical Group (Diamond Edge Ventures)
Esep Inorganic membrane separation technology developer Industrial Japan N/A N/A 28/07/2022 Mitsui Mining & Smelting (CVC department)
Edison Fu

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