A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Corporate venturing deal net: 5-9 March 2018
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Aisin and Fenox assemble $50m automotive fund
Auto parts manufacturer Aisin Group will be a limited partner in the autotech fund, which will be managed by Fenox Venture Capital.
First Access to entertain startups
First Access Entertainment has turned to angel investor Simon Tikhman for a fund that will invest in businesses with the potential to satisfy the youth demographic.
People
Cannon fires herself to Index Ventures
CapitalG principal Sarah Cannon will become Index’s first US-based female partner in May, having spent three years at the Alphabet unit.
Giga trades Experian for Ericsson
Asif Giga has taken an investment director position at Ericsson Ventures having come from another corporate venturing unit, Experian Ventures.
Frédéric Rombaut had left Cisco, where he was managing director of Cisco Investment International, in early 2016 to focus on his FR Development vehicle.
Brian Pietras has taken a vice-president of corporate strategy role at Workday, having previously been head of technology ventures for Hays.
Mitra meets Cisco after Infosys stint
Pankaj Mitra has departed from Infosys Ventures in order to make investment and M&A deals for Cisco in India.
Intel’s Jorgensen forges new path to Macquarie
Erik Jorgensen, an investment director at Intel Capital for a decade, has taken a managing director position at Macquarie Capital’s European investment arm.
Golomb leaves HP to bank on IEG
A 2017 GCV Rising Stars winner, HP Tech Ventures partner Vitaly Golomb has joined IEG as global head of principal investments.
Exits
Acacia undertakes initial global offering
Lundbeck and Novo-backed nausea and vomiting therapy developer Acacia Pharma raised $49.6m in its initial global offering in Brussels.
S&P calculates $550m Kensho acquisition
S&P Global has agreed to acquire portfolio company Kensho, an AI-equipped information software provider, in a deal that will also allow GV to exit.
Chorus, which had raised seed capital from Chernin Group and UTA Ventures, has elected to shut down its group fitness app shortly after its launch.
IT
Cisco sends cash to IDG Ventures India
The corporate has become a limited partner in IDG Ventures India’s third fund, which achieved a $208m close last year.
Capital G gets on UiPath for $153m round
The enterprise automation software producer took its total funding to $185m in a series B round led by Accel that valued it at $1.1bn.
BugCrowd sources $26m in series C
Salesforce Ventures returned for a round that increased the crowdsourced cybersecurity platform’s overall funding to $50m.
Wipro tries on Denim with strategic investment
Cybersecurity technology provider Denim Group has agreed to an $8.8m investment by Wipro in return for a 33% stake.
Wecash mines corporates for $160m series D
Sea and Orix Asia Capital co-led a round that increased the credit assessment technology provider’s total funding to almost $270m.
Mist clears $46m in series C round
The wireless internet technology producer took its total funding to $88m with a round featuring GV, NTT Docomo Ventures and Dimension Data.
Health
Hua Medicine to hunt down $400m in IPO
The diabetes treatment developer will target at least $400m from a Hong Kong offering that will allow WuXi PharmaTech to exit.
Founding investors WuXi AppTec and Juno Therapeutics returned for a series A round that will support development of JW’s cell-based therapy pipeline.
Infosys-backed athlete analysis technology provider Whoop has added the NFL Players Association to its shareholders in its series C round.
MedGenome scans HDFC in $40m series C
HDFC Bank and two of its subsidiaries have added $10m to close MedGenome’s series C round, increasing its overall funding to $64m.
Insurance firm Aviva has co-led a round for Owlstone Medical, developer of a breathalyser that will help detect lung and colorectal cancer.
PharmEasy takes care in $30m series C
Manipal Education and Medical Group has participated in a round that took the total raised by the healthcare product and access platform to $53m.
Cullgen collects up to $15m from GNI
Life sciences researcher GNI has supplied seed cash to drive development of Cullgen’s drug discovery platform from research bases in the US and Asia.
TauRx talks of $71m investment
The Genting-backed neurodegenerative disease treatment developer has disclosed it raised $71m through a rights issue in October.
The immuno-oncology therapy developer, which is backed by Novo, Sanofi, EMS and Seattle Genetics, has raised $77m in venture funding.
Rare disease therapy developer Homology Medicines has raised approximately $130m in VC funding from investors including Novartis.
Vividion vivifies $101m partnership
Celgene has paid biotech startup Vividion $101m up front in a strategic partnership that includes an equity investment of undisclosed size.
Cancer Rop helps inject $12.5m in Oxford Vacmedix
The spinout is developing cancer vaccines based on research conducted in partnership by Oxford and Medical Research Council’s Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Novo sees new ViewPoint in $35m round
Eye disease therapy developer ViewPoint Therapeutics has completed a Rise Fund-led series B round featuring Novo, two years after its $4m series A.
Media
The Athletic works out $20m in funding
BDMI, Chernin Group and the WPP-backed Courtside Ventures were among the investors as the sports media platform looks to double its headcount.
Hot on the heels of its $630m investment in Douyu, Tencent has agreed another huge funding deal with a game-focused livestreaming platform.
Magic Leap surpasses $960m in series D
Public Investment Fund provided $400m as the AR technology developer took a round backed by Alibaba, Google and Grupo Globo to $963m.
Douyu gets to next stage with $630m Tencent investment
Tencent has been an investor in the game streaming platform since early 2016, the same year the companies formed a strategic partnership.
Edgybees captures seed funding
Motorola Solutions Venture Capital and Verizon Ventures helped the augmented reality video software developer secure $5.5m.
Consumer
Kujiale homes in on $100m series D
Existing investor Hearst Ventures returned to back the home design platform’s latest round at a $600m post-money valuation.
Panasonic joins Scrum to create BeeEdge
The BeeEdge accelerator, formed by Panasonic and Scrum Ventures, will launch startups based on underutilised Panasonic technologies.
Ant Financial confirms $200m slice of Zomato
Zomato has received $150m from Alibaba’s financial services affiliate, which also bought $50m of shares from classified listings operator Info Edge.
Existing investor Qualcomm Ventures has contributed to a $6.2m round for the online ticketing platform that will support partnerships and acquisitions.
Ant Financial confirms $200m slice of Zomato
Zomato has received $150m from Alibaba’s financial services affiliate, which also bought $50m of shares from classified listings operator Info Edge.
Bilibili looks to ring up $400m in IPO
The anime streaming platform has raised more than $510m from investors including Tencent and Legend Capital.
Big Deal: DoorDash fetches $535m
The SoftBank-led series D round is indicative of a startup space where logistics, buying and transport are moving closer together.
Financial
Ofer subsidiary OG Tech Ventures has bought the Santander-backed hospitality payment technology provider for an undisclosed amount.
SolarisBank charges to $70m series B
The round included Visa, BBVA, SBI Group, ABN Amro’s Digital Impact Fund and Bertelsmann’s Arvato Financial Solutions subsidiary.
8BTC News deciphers series A funding
The cryptocurrency news platform and blockchain protocol developer has received $15.8m from investors including Bitmain and QF Capital.
BBVA attends to Atom in $207m round
BBVA invested $119m to increase its stake in the mobile bank to 39%, with the round’s proceeds to support technology development and growth.
FIS made a strategic investment as part of a series A round that lifted the wealth management software provider’s overall funding to more than $18m.
NAB helps cement BrickX’s $7m series A
Fractional property investment platform BrickX had previously received funding from the Westpac-backed Reinventure.
Bloomberg enters the mix as Blender raises $16m
A Bloomberg subsidiary joined Eiffel Investment Group for a round that boosted the total raised by the online lending platform to $23.5m.
Industrial
Agricultural technology media, data and investment platform AgFunder is moving into direct corporate venturing.
Transport
The corporates contributed to a $28.4m round and will look to work with Tier IV to test its autonomous driving software.
Humax unloads $20m of funding for FleetUp
Humax’s chief strategy officer, Albert Son, has been appointed CEO of trucking telematics technology provider FleetUp alongside the $20m investment.
Volvo turns the key on investment fund
Volvo Cars Tech Fund will support developers of technology such as AI, electric vehicles and charging, autonomous driving and digital mobility.
Go-Jek hails IDX for flotation
The corporate-backed ride-hailing platform, currently valued at $5bn, has met with Indonesia Stock Exchange’s CEO to discuss an initial public offering.
Alibaba, which reportedly acquired $3bn worth of Ofo shares in a secondary transaction earlier this year, has provided another $280m in debt financing.
Services
HolidayMe takes hold of series B funding
The online travel booking platform, which counts Al Sanie Group as an investor, took its total funding to $23m with a round likely sized at $12m.
NestAway confirms $51m booking
Goldman Sachs has put up $19m for the Flipkart-backed rental services provider’s latest round, taking its funding past the $90m mark.
Tencent and Legend Capital provided the series C funding, which followed a $14.5m round for the online education provider 10 months ago.
Kr Space to expand with new funding
The co-working space provider, spun out from 36Kr, is set to use the $94.7m it has raised to add 300,000 square metres of office space by the end of 2018.
Shanhuishou recovers series A funding
Smartphone maker Xiaomi has participated in a $15.7m round for the electronics recycling service that included Shunwei Capital.
