Israel-based specialty minerals and chemicals group has launched its programme to support businesses in the food tech and agtech space.

The offering would produce $500m, including up to $70.6m from the sale of new shares, and offer exits to Max Group and TVS.

New and returning investors have chipped into the ETH Zurich plant-based meat spinout’s pre-series B round, five months after it completed a series A.

Corporate-backed teleconferencing system provider Baijiayun raised cash at a $465m valuation while financial software provider Prime Trust closed a $64m round featuring Nationwide and Samsung Next.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund returned for the $1bn funding round that valued the personal services platform operator at $15bn.

The Assurant and Samsung-backed consumer device rental service has secured $29m in a series B extension provided by unnamed backers.

SoftBank-backed barbershop booking service Squire raised $60m at a $750m valuation while card issuing platform developer Lithic was valued at $800m in a round featuring Exor.

Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Q&A with Ryota Suzuki, senior investment manager, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV

Wipro has returned to back a $47.6m second close for the Amazon, L’Occitane and Times Group-backed beauty service provider’s series C round at a reported $300m valuation.