A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Weekly corporate venturing deal net 18 – 22 January 2016
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Summary of venture-backed tech to watch out for
A weekly update on interesting deals.
Fundraising
Qualcomm and Guizhou to conduct $280m joint venture
Qualcomm has inked an agreement with the government of Guizhou to set up its Chinese corporate venturing unit in the province and launch a $280m joint venture.
Cisco collaborates with Italy on $100m investment drive
Cisco has set up a $100m initiative to support Italian startups and provide training to students and teachers in the country.
Rocket Internet raises $420m for growth fund
Rocket Internet Capital Partners has reached a $420m first close, securing $50m from its parent company, with which it plans to co-invest.
The Wells Fargo-backed venture firm closed its third consecutive $1.2bn fund, after an 18-month period where it recorded 22 exits.
Evonik enters Asia with GRC SinoGreen investment
The industrial product maker’s latest fund investment is in GRC SinoGreen Fund III, a China-based investor in green and environmental technologies.
People
Cleantech analyst Edouard Bulteau has moved up to investment manager at Total Energy Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of oil and gas company Total.
Murray enlists in Revolution Growth
Steve Murray has left Softbank Capital after two decades with the unit to join venture capital firm Revolution Growth.
Li takes lead at Qualcomm Ventures, as Kashyap departs
Quinn Li is a 10 year veteran of Qualcomm Ventures, and for the last seven years has served in a managing director role, leading the group’s US operations.
Rising star: Quinn Li, incoming head of Qualcomm Ventures
Global Corporate Venturing’s Rising Stars’ supplement out next week, profiled Quinn Li as one of the ones to watch in the industry, as he takes the reins at Qualcomm Ventures.
Exits
Threadflip transfers to Le Tote
Norwest-backed Threadflip has shut down and revealed a partnership with Le Tote, though neither company has disclosed whether the deal is a formal acquisition.
Axway programs Appcelerator acquisition
Appcelerator, which had raised approximately $91m in funding from investors including eBay, Sumitomo and RedHat, has been acquired in a cash deal of undisclosed size.
Oncobiologics looks to grow with $115m IPO
Pharmaceutical firm Strides Arcolab holds a 12% stake in the biosimilar developer after investing $9m in 2014.
IT
GV finds Shape again in $25m series D
Shape Security has now raised $91m in funding since it was founded, after closing a fourth consecutive GV-backed round.
MindTouch reaches out to SAP in $12m round
SAP was among the participants as customer engagement technology developer MindTouch raised $12m in series A capital, 11 years after it was founded.
MiMedia stores away $15m in series C cash
The cloud storage company boosted its overall funding to $35m in a series C round backed by smartphone maker Micromax.
Neura recognises corporates for $11m series A
The SingTel-backed internet of things intelligence technology developer secured the funding in a round featuring Lenovo and AXA.
Intel helps relay $15m to Savioke
Intel Capital has led a series A round for the robot developer, which previously obtained seed funding from backers including Alphabet.
Estimote attracts Digital Garage to $10.7m series A
Estimote, which produces sensors and interactive beacons for indoor locations, had raised $3.1m in its 2013 seed round.
Cymbet energises itself with $10m
The solid state battery company, backed by Intel, Texas Instruments, Bekaert and Dow Chemical, plans to raise up to $7m more in the first half of 2016.
Blue Coat respects Appthority for $10m round
Appthority has revealed a series B round that included cybersecurity company Blue Coat Systems, adding on to the $6m raised in a 2012 series A.
Cox finds Euclid Analytics for $20m series C
The location analytics company took its overall funding to $44m in a Cox Enterprises-led round that also featured Groupe Arnault.
PlaceIQ, which has KBS+ as an investor, has now raised more than $50m in total, securing $25m in a series D round funded by undisclosed backers.
VeloCloud floats over to Cisco for $27m round
Cisco Investments and an undisclosed strategic investor co-led the series C round, which boosted the networking technology producer’s overall funding to $49m.
AISpeech makes a noise with $30m series C
The speech recognition technology company, funded by corporate venturing unit Legend Star at series A stage, has raised $30m from undisclosed backers.
Itochu-backed ForeScout has achieved unicorn status in its latest funding round as it gears up for an initial public offering.
Health
Tmunity sells Eli Lilly on $10m series A
The pharmaceutical firm’s Lilly Asia Ventures unit is co-investing in the T-cell technology developer with University of Pennsylvania.
Switzerland-based Novimmune, which counts Fracht as an investor, has now raised almost $230m and is working on cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune disease treatments.
Illumina, WuXi PharmaTech, Institut Mérieux and Fidelity have participated in the synthetic DNA manufacturer’s latest round, increasing its total funding to $133m.
Vcanbio helps engineer series A for iCarbonX
Artificial intelligence-driven healthcare analytics startup iCarbonX is raising $106m for a series A round that values the company at $760m.
Media
The video streaming platform has added Softbank to a list of shareholders that already included online video provider Youku Tudou.
Virtual reality software developer Envelop VR has completed a series A round that featured a $1.5m investment by corporate venturing unit GV.
Huanxi Media curates $50m for Mubi
The film production company will pay $40m to co-launch a Chinese service with curated film streaming platform Mubi, and another $10m for an 8% stake in the company.
Mitú successfully screens investors for $27m
The Chernin-backed Latino video network took its overall funding up to $43m with a series C round backed by WPP, Verizon and AwesomenessTV.
Deezer does the business, raising $110m
Existing investors Access Industries and Orange returned to fund a round that increased the music streaming service’s overall funding to more than $260m.
Consumer
China Internet Plus adds $3.3bn
The listings and group buying platform, formed through a merger between Dianping and Meituan, has confirmed the amount but not the investors.
The Norwest-backed food delivery service has secured capital to strengthen its position in the Indian market.
Financial
Salesforce hunts down FinanceFox for $5.5m round
FinanceFox reportedly built its mobile insurance management platform on the Salesforce platform, and has now raised cash in a round led by Salesforce Ventures.
Lufax raises $1.2bn in massive series B
The Ping An-backed trading platform has confirmed the financing, raised at an $18.5bn valuation, and will look to go public later this year.
Investors to transfer $1bn to JD Finance
China Taiping Insurance has participated in a first funding round for e-commerce company JD’s financial services subsidiary which valued it at about $7bn.
PolicyGenius draws up $15m series B round
Insurance firms AXA, MassMutual and Transamerica all made strategic investments in the insurance portal, which has now raised $21m altogether.
The cloud-based supplier payment platform took its overall funding past $130m in a series E round backed by all existing investors, including Telus and BBVA.
WeLab concludes series B round with $160m
A host of government investors have participated in a second funding round for the lending platform, which closed a $20m series A backed by Tom Group last year.
LendUp gets a hand up with $150m
The GV-backed online lending platform raised $150m in series B equity funding and debt, and could double its staff numbers this year.
Clean-Tech
Hanwha-backed solar module maker Ten K Solar has now raised more than $77m in financing after securing $25m from a Goldman Sachs alternative energy fund.
Transport
Best Logistics to package up $700m round
The Alibaba and Foxconn-backed e-commerce logistics company is raising the money in an IFC-backed round intended to precede an initial public offering.
Services
Dayuse finds room for Idinvest in $16m series A
Dayuse, which enables users to book hotel rooms during the day, will use the $16.3m raised in its series A round to expand internationally.
Novel TMT directs InTurn to $9.7m
InTurn, which runs an online service enabling businesses to sell excess stock to each other, has now raised more than $13m since it was founded.
Bertelsmann led the e-commerce services provider’s series A round, while Beenext, Nirvana Venture Advisors and 500 Startups all returned.
Comcast Ventures led the digital locksmith’s series B round, while 7-Eleven’s corporate venturing subsidiary returned to reinvest.
Foursquare checks into $45m series E
Microsoft and O’Reilly Media-backed Foursquare has secured $45m in fresh funding, less than a year after Yahoo was reportedly in talks to buy the company for $900m.
Telecoms
FreedomPop picks up $50m series C
The wireless service provider previously secured $36m in a series B round backed by Axiata and Intel and has now raised more than $109m in total funding.
