Naver, SoftBank and Samsung backed Kream’s $168m series C round while BMS and Lyell helped lift Outpace Bio’s series A to $55m.

Person Holding A Green Plant

Funds

US-based impact venture studio Fast Forward has raised $3m for its 10th Startup Accelerator initiative, from investors including corporates Alphabet (through Google.org), Hewlett Packard (through Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation), Bloomberg, Okta, Twilio (through Twilio.org), ServiceNow, Dell, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Salesforce, HubSpot, Splunk, Pinterest, DigitalOcean and NewRelic (through NewRelic.org) as well as investment and financial services group Fidelity (through Fidelity Charitable Trustees’ Initiative) and Endless Network.

M&A

Food surplus delivery service Yindii acquired Phenix by OnTheList, a Hong Kong-based peer backed by food producer Danone, for an undisclosed amount. Danone’s Manifesto Ventures unit helped provide $14.5m for the company in September 2022 following a $17m round in 2018.

Digital grocery platform Mathem bought Swedish counterpart Kavall for an undisclosed sum, allowing media company Bonnier to exit. Bonnier co-led a $16.4m round for Kavall in April 2022 through its Bonnier Ventures subsidiary, taking the company’s total funding to $22.2m.

Codealike, an Argentina-based coding process management platform that counts telecommunications firm Telefónica’s Wayra accelerator as an investor, has been purchased by freelancer talent network operator Torc for an undisclosed amount.

Funding

Kream, a South Korea-based luxury goods resale marketplace spun off by internet group Naver, raised $168m in series C funding at a $742m valuation, from investors including Naver, telecoms and internet group SoftBank and electronics producer Samsung, the last two through their SoftBank Ventures Asia and Samsung Securities units respectively. The round was led by Altos Ventures and also backed by Mirae Asset Capital and Axiom Asia.

Company Company description Sector Country Round Round size($m) Deal date Investors
Outpace Bio Cellular immunotherapy developer Healthcare US A 55 (updated) 23/03/2023 Bristol Myers Squibb, Lyell Immunopharma; Playground Global, Artis Ventures, Mubadala Investment Company (Mubadala Capital), Sahsen Ventures, Civilization Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Washington Research Foundation (WRF Capital)
Lunaphore Tumour-focused proteomic data technology developer Healthcare Switzerland D1 43.5 23/03/2023 PHC Holdings Corporation; Ernst Göhner Foundation (Ernst-Göhner Stiftung Beteiligungen) (lead), Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, Occident, Redalpine ($32.7m equity); Norgine Ventures ($10.8m debt)
Britive Cloud-based identity security software provider IT US B 20.5 23/03/2023 Liberty Global (Liberty Global Ventures); Pelion Venture Partners (lead), Crosslink Capital, One Way Ventures
Zeroboard Greenhouse gas emission calculation platform Energy and Natural Resources Japan A 19.2 (updated) 24/03/2023 Mitsubishi Corporation, Nagase, Kansai Electric Power, Mitsubishi UFJ, Iwatani, Toyoda Tsusho, Sumitomo, Fukuoka Financial Group (FFG Venture Partners), Orix, Mizuho Bank (Mizuho Capital), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC Venture Capital); Japan Green Investment Corp for Carbon Neutrality, U3 Innovations, Delight Ventures, Keryrock Capital Management, DNX Ventures, Inclusion Japan, Development Bank of Japan (DBJ Capital), Jafco, Coral Capital
Pragma Bio (formerly VastBiome) Immunologic disorder drug developer Healthcare US N/A 10 23/03/2023 Merck & Co (Merck Global Health Innovation Fund), CJ Group (CJ Investments); The Venture Collective (lead), Viking Global Investors
Gryfyn Custodial cryptocurrency wallet provider Financial China (Hong Kong) N/A 7.5 21/03/2023 Animoca Brands (Animoca Ventures), Liberty City (Liberty City Ventures); GameFi Ventures, Lavender Hill Capital Partners, Mind Fund, LeadBlock Partners, Angel Hub, Brinc, Gabby Dizon
Turnkey Cryptocurrency exchange operator Financial US Seed 7.5 22/03/2023 Coinbase (Coinbase Ventures); Sequoia Capital (lead), Variant
Vermiculus Financial Technology AI-based trading and post-trade management platform Financial Sweden N/A 5.6 15/03/2023 B3 (L4 Venture Builder)
Felix&Fido Veterinary service provider spun off by Pioneer Square Labs Services US Pre-seed 4 23/03/2023 Rover Group; Pioneer Square Labs (PSL Ventures) (lead)
MOGL Brand monetisation marketplace for collegiate athletes Media US Seed 2.6 23/03/2023 Penske Media Corporation; Magarac Venture Partners (lead), PivotNorth Capital, Chaos Ventures, Litquidity, Sand Hill Angels, Platform Venture Studio, Minkah Fitzpatrick
Ocean Drop Marine nutrient-based supplement brand Consumer Brazil N/A 2.8 06/03/2023 Eurofarma (Neuron Ventures)
Reject Professional esports team operator Media Japan A 2.3 24/03/2023 Z Holdings (Z Venture Capital) (lead), Adways Ventures, Yogibo; Jafco, East Ventures, six unnamed angel investors
GoJoe Social fitness app operator Media UK Seed 1.5 23/03/2023 Superbet (Superbet Ventures) (lead), Animoca Brands; Michael Carrick
Automni Autonomous industrial machinery manufacturer Industrial Brazil Seed N/A 10/03/2023 Grupo Viaduto; MSW Capital (Multicorp 2)
Aora Home services aggregator Services Ecuador Pre-seed <1 ($850,000) 09/03/2023 Telefónica (Wayra Hispam); 500 Global, Fondation Botnar, New Ventures Capital, unnamed others
Zero Acre Farms Cultured cooking oil developer Consumer US N/A N/A 23/03/2023 Chipotle Mexican Grill
Wota Developer of residential water reuse system Energy and Natural Resources Japan B ext N/A 24/03/2023 Swing Corporation, Daiki Axis, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL Plus), Kyoritsu Holdings, ShinMaywa, Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha, Sedia System (Watanabe Pipe), Kitaoka Group, YCP Holdings; Development Bank of Japan, Japan Green Investment Corp for Carbon Neutrality, SMBC Nikko Securities, Yusaku Maezawa, Hachijuni Bank (Hachijuni Sustainability Fund 1), Hokuhoku Financial Group (Hokuhoku Capital)
Uni-chem Fluorine-based material developer Industrial Japan N/A N/A 23/03/2023 Japan Material Technologies Corporation (JMTC Chemical & Materials Fund); Resona Bank (Resona Capital), two unnamed Corporations
Edison Fu

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