A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Corporate venturing deal net: 11-15 December 2017
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Rosatom and Skolkovo to shape startup contest
Energy company Rosatom and Skolkovo Foundation have launched Vector, a competition
Navitas Capital builds $60m second fund
Saint-Gobain and JLL were among the limited partners that put up the cash, which VC firm Navitas will use for real estate and construction technology deals.
JD.com and Plug and Play launch US accelerator
JD.com has partnered Plug and Play to launch an accelerator for US startups developing technologies for the retail and logistics sectors.
Valeo drives Cathay’s cartech vehicle to $226m
Cathay Pacific has launched a fund that will invest in automotive and mobility technology, with Valeo supplying 25% of the capital.
6 Dimensions seeks $26m for affiliates fund
The firm, formed by the merger of WuXi Healthcare Ventures and Frontline Bioventures, is raising a $26m affiliates fund according to a securities filing.
People
Kevin Jacques gets Visa position
Jacques has become global head of Visa Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous US-listed payments firm.
Ferreira flees WME for FirstMark
Beth Ferreira has rejoined VC firm FirstMark Capital as managing director, bringing an end to her time at corporate venturing unit WME Ventures.
Exits
Quark dots the i’s on Docurated purchase
Rogers Ventures has exited data refining technology developer Docurated in an acquisition by Quark of undisclosed size.
Corporates see Mirriad possibilities in $35m IPO
Video advertising software developer Mirriad aims to raise $35m in a London initial public offering that will score exits for Unilever, STV and Zee Entertainment.
Big Deal: Cell Design acquisition shows immunotherapies sector success
Adding Cell Design and Kite Pharma to its portfolio brings Gilead to the top table in probably the hottest area for advanced therapies and follows the playbook the company has used over the past few decades to expand.
Cell Design sells to Gilead in $567m deal
The transaction includes a 12.2% stake in Cell Design held by Kite Pharma, which Gilead bought for $11.9bn in October this year.
Apple magics up $400m Shazam acquisition
Investors such as América Móvil, Sony, Universal and Access Industries will exit the music identification platform, though likely at a loss.
IT
ThinkForce breaks through to $68m series A
ThinkForce is working on semiconductor technology that integrates artificial intelligence, and has raised its inaugural funding round from investors including Yitu.
ShieldX Networks secures $25m series B
NTT, Symantec and FireEye all contributed to the $25m round for ShieldX, which previously raised $9m in a 2015 series A.
Menlo mines corporates to raise $40m
American Express, Ericsson, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC all contributed to the round, boosting malware protection technology developer Menlo Security’s total funding to $85m.
Kingsoft Cloud keeps going with $300m
Parent company Kingsoft invested $150m to retain a majority stake in its cloud services spinout, which has now raised about $500m in total.
OneWeb to attract another $500m from SoftBank
SoftBank initially invested $1bn in satetllite internet service provider OneWeb as part of a $1.2bn round late last year.
Vion invites corporates for $20m series B
Samsung and ABB have contributed to a $20m round for smart vision product developer Vion Technology, which will use the cash for hiring and product development.
Modsy enters funding mode to raise $23m
Advance Publications, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Oath and Alphabet have all backed interior design technology developer Modsy’s series B round.
Health
Relay completes $63m series B leg
GV has joined the investors in oncology treatment developer Relay Therapeutics, which has now raised $120m altogether.
Virtual Incision performs $18m funding procedure
The surgical robot developer will use the series B financing, co-led by SinoPharm, to support it through its application for market clearance.
InSightec’s series E operation raises $150m
Koch Disruptive Technologies led the latest round for the ultrasound surgery system developer, which is also backed by GE Healthcare and Elbit Imaging.
Novo enters NorthSea in series A round
NorthSea Therapeutics has secured $29.3m in series A funding to continue development of treatments for inflammatory and liver diseases.
Investors hand series B2 funding to SwipeSense
Hand sanitation monitoring system provider SwipeSense has secured $10.6m to expand its team and accelerate product development.
Hookipa Biotech hauls in series C cash
Gilead, Boehring Ingelheim and Takeda have contributed to a $59.6m round for Hookipa, a developer of immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer.
Metacrine meets Alexandria in $22m series B
Alexandria Venture Investments has participated in an NEA-led round that took the total raised by the metabolic disease drug startup to $60m.
Media
Skillz raises $25m to pay the bills
The mobile eSports platform has almost doubled its total funding with a series C round co-led by corporates Telstra and Liberty Global.
Dreamscape admits corporates to $30m series B
AMC led the round, which included Dreamscape’s fellow strategic partners Nickelodeon, Majid Al Futtaim, VRSense and Image Nation Abu Dhabi.
Daiichi Shokai, NTT Docomo, Opt, Yahoo Japan and Gree helped provide $21.7m for mobile video services startup Candee.
36Kr Media reports $45m series A round
The VC and technology-focused news platform, a spinout from technology group 36Kr, has raised capital from investors including Baidu Video.
The locally-focused social media platform, which counts GV and Comcast Ventures as backers, has secured funding from unnamed investors.
Spotify and Tencent subsidiary share equity
Spotify and Tencent-owned music streaming service TME have taken equity stakes in each other as they reportedly each prepare for an IPO.
Consumer
Clas Ohlson meets MatHem for $26m partnership
Clas Ohlson has agreed to invest in e-commerce platform MatHem as part of a partnership agreement that will enable the latter to sell Clas Ohlson’s goods.
Harry’s shaves off more funding
The Grace Beauty-backed online razor retailer has secured $63.7m according to a security filing, with the round reportedly set to stay open.
Alibaba is reportedly set to invest $200m in the online grocery retailer at an $800m valuation as part of a $280m funding round.
Analysis: Moda Operandi attracts $165m
The fashion e-commerce platform raised $165m in its latest funding round, which featured LVMH and Fidelity. This is one of the largest and latest rounds in the fashion space.
Tyson Foods has reinvested in the vegetarian burger producer as part of a round led by venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue.
Idagio tunes up $9.4m series A
The music e-commerce portal has raised funding in a Tengelmann-backed round as it looks to build the world’s biggest classical music catalogue.
Financial
Billie fills up series A round
Existing investor Rocket Internet has returned to take part in an $11.8m round for online business lending startup Billie.
iZettle nets funding at a $950m valuation
The Intel, Mastercard, Amex and Santander-backed small business payment and revenue platform has raised $47.3m in a Dawn Capital led round.
Investors insert $50m into Insikt
Grupo Coppel has led a $50m series D round for Insikt, an online lender to the underbanked, whose existing shareholders also include Rakuten.
Naspers finances Creditas in $50m round
Naspers, an investor in Creditas’ $19m series B round earlier this year, returned for a $50m series C that will support product development.
Aspiration ascends to $47m series B
The Renren-backed financial services provider, which gives 10% of its fees to charitable schemes, has now raised $67m altogether.
The Ola-backed mobile payment technology provider has added $10m from B Capital and DSG Consumer Partners to the $31m it raised in June.
Energy and Natural Resources
Chemicals producer BASF has led a series B round for ESS, which will use the funding to automate manufacturing of its iron flow battery.
Industrial
Corporates venture into iSpace
The lunar exploration company has raised $90.2m in a series A round featuring TBS, Konica Minolta, Shimizu, Dentsu, KDDI, Japan Airlines, Toppan and Suzuki.
Samsung guides Perceptin to $11m
Samsung Ventures has invested $1m in robotics vision technology developer Perceptin, which has revealed $11m in total funding.
Asilomar Bio harvests series B cash
The crop additive developer has secured $12.3m for product development and commercialisation from a consortium led by Syngenta.
Transport
Cox senses Ouster in $27m series A
The lidar technology developer has emerged from stealth with $27m of funding led by Cox Enterprises and backed by Exelon.
InMotion Ventures confirms 2017 investments
Businesses backed by Jaguar Land Rover’s strategic investment arm include ride hailing platform Lyft and flexible car insurance platform By Mile.
Services
MindTickle sells Qualcomm on $27m round
Qualcomm Ventures has contributed to the sales training platform developer’s series B round, having already participated in its 2015 series A.
Simility detects PayPal to raise $17.5m
The fraud detection platform developer will use the funding to expand its sales operations and grow its data science team.
Supermonkey swings to series C round
Fosun RZ Capital has participated in a nine-figure renminbi round for gym operator Supermonkey, having been an investor since its series A round.
Alumni networking platform provider Graduway has received a $12.7m investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity, a subsidiary of Susquehanna International Group.
