Rakuten is exiting the online reading platform developer in a $500m acquisition by online education provider Byju’s following $50m in funding.

Our data suggest that valuations in the HR tech space are picking up. Two deals stories from last week confirm the trend.

Branding services provider Tailor Brands raised $50m in a GoDaddy-led series C round while Orix is set to exit hiring software developer PandoLogic in a $150m acquisition.

The SoftBank-backed e-commerce services platform developer listed on the New York Stock Exchange, pricing the shares above their range.

Several corporates backed a $68m series D round for microbiome drug developer Vedanta Biosciences while grooming brand owner Pangaea raised the same amount from investors including Unilever.

The Salesforce-backed recruitment managemeent software provider was valued at $1.5bn in a round that pushed its overall funding past $200m.

Seek and Salesforce Ventures helped the human resources software provider raise cash in a series E round led by Insight Partners at a $568m valuation.

Telefónica-backed addiction treatment app developer Quit Genius raised $64m while oral care product maker NYSCPS received almost as much in a round featuring ByteDance.

Returning investor SoftBank was among the participants in a series F round that hiked the on-demand delivery service's valuation to $5.25bn.

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Salesforce Ventures co-led the corporate education resource provider's series D round, which took its overall funding to over $280m.