A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Weekly corporate venturing deal net 25 – 29 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.
The series B round closed by Ping An-backed Lufax is the biggest deal so far in what has been a bumper month for China’s online finance sector.
GCV Analytics partners with Bell Mason on benchmarking among CVI² initiatives
Global Corporate Venturing has entered into a data consultancy initiative with long-time partner Bell Mason Group designed to help new units get up to speed on corporate venturing best practices.
Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Introduction
Editorial: Rising Stars showcase industry’s success
The industry is laying a firm foundation for a bright future.
GE: Industry shares collective responsibility
Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Dinner Remarks – Sue Siegel, CEO of GE Ventures, 26 January, 2016.
Fundraising
One winner will receive $25,000 and a place in the Launch incubator.
Publicis looks for 90 startups to back
The Publicis90 platform (www.publicis90.com) will be open for submissions until February 28.
AstraZeneca, GSK and Johnson & Johnson have joined forces with the tech transfer offices of three universities to form the Apollo Therapeutics Fund.
Rakuten stays home with $85m fund
The Rakuten Ventures Japan Fund will provide capital for startups in its parent company’s home country and is the fourth fund it has launched in the last three years.
Nomura has partnered Keio University to raise an $84m fund aimed at startups in sectors such as space technology, life sciences and regenerative medicine.
People
Kashyap resurfaces at Microsoft
Ex-Qualcomm Ventures head Nagraj Kashyap has now confirmed he has joined software provider Microsoft as corporate vice-president to build the venture group reporting to Peggy Johnson, the executive vice-president behind more strategic transactions, such as its investment in Facebook back in 2006.
The corporate-backed private equity firm has taken on Emmanuelle Pierret and Mathias Raynaud as its two latest investment directors.
Exclusive: Corporate venturing icon Fan Munce to retire from IBM
During her varied career Fan Munce has taken a leadership role within the corporate venturing and wider venture capital community, serving as chairwoman of the board of Global Corporate Venturing’s Leadership Society.
Exits
Softbank, KT and Recruit have exited Ustream in an acquisition by IBM, which will integrate the video streaming platform into its new Cloud Video Services division.
Sidecar closed in December and its assets purchase by GM’s is reported as helping its move into the driverless quasi-taxi space after it invested $500m in Lyft.
Mindtree will make an upfront payment of $37m with the remainder as performance fees over the next two years.
Spotify ties up Cord Project acquisition
GV exited the voice messaging app developer, which had raised $1.8m in 2014, and which Spotify acquired alongside Ireland-based social network Soundwave.
Sony to conduct $212m Altair acquisition
Sandisk is set to exit Altair Semiconductor, just over a year after it invested an undisclosed sum in the company, which had already raised about $125m.
Alibaba agrees $900m sale for China Internet Plus stake
Alibaba will sell a stake in China Internet Plus, formed by the merger of Dianping and Meituan late last year, said to be sized at about 7%.
IT
Maluuba speaks investors’ language, raising $6m
The Samsung-backed natural language learning technology provider secured the money in a series A round featuring Emerillion Capital and Nautilus Ventures.
In May 2014, Rakuten led a $1m seed round for ESTmob.
In May, GMO Venture Partners, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based internet group GMO, invested Y300m ($2.5m) in ChatWork.
Kumu Networks dials up strategics
Its November 2013 round raised $15.2m, according to a regulatory filing, a year after it had closed towards a $10m round.
Captricity climbs $35m deal mountain
Teresa Chia, senior vice-president at White Mountains Capital, will join Captricity’s board.
Instart Logic calls up Telstra
Mark Sherman, managing director of Telstra Ventures, said: “We are looking forward to working with Instart Logic to apply their technology in our business.”
Other new investors included venture capital firms Scale Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners and Qumra Capital, as well as participation from existing investors.
Infor joins existing investors, venture capital firms Marlin Equity Partners, Kinetic Ventures and ITC Holding Company. In December 2014, Marlin led a $15m round for Predictix, its first disclosed round.
Intel Capital returned to back a round that took database technology developer MariaDB’s overall funding to almost $40m.
Glu attaches itself to Plain Vanilla
Plain Vanilla, the developer of mobile trivia game QuizUp, has received $7.5m in financing from Glo Mobile, which joins backers including Tencent, IDG and Riot Games.
Idinvest optimises Botify in $7m series A
Search engine optimisation service Botify secured $7.2m in a round featuring corporate-backed Idinvest Partners and VC firm Ventech.
GigaSpaces attracts Intel for $20m series C
Intel Capital has invested in big data technology developer GigaSpaces for a third time, and the funding will go to innovation, sales and marketing.
Qubole holds $30m in series C round
Wells Fargo-backed Norwest Venture Partners returned to reinvest as part of the round, lifting the big data company’s total funding to $50m.
Arrayent makes $15 series C connection
Arrayent, the developer of a platform that can transform traditional consumer products into connected devices, added Orix to an investor base already containing Intel.
GE gets to mPrest with $20m series A
Internet of things management technology company mPrest Networks has raised $20m in a round co-led by GE Ventures and OurCrowd.
Nubo welcomes Motorola Solutions as new investor
Motorola Solutions took part in a $7m series A round that the remote enterprise technology company will use to expand its sales, marketing and customer support.
Jitterbit fits itself into $20m series B
Investment firm KKR led the latest funding round for Salesforce and Autodesk-backed cloud integration company Jitterbit.
Cedexis directs corporate traffic to raise $22m
Citrix, Foxconn and Nokia have supported a series B round closed by Cedexis alongside debt financing from French state-owned bank BPIfrance.
HSBC enters CustomerMatrix in $10.5m series B
Cognitive computing technology provider CustomerMatrix took its total funding to almost $20m in a round led by financial services firm HSBC.
Fireglass sets series A round alight with $20m
SingTel Innov8 invested as part of a round that Fireglass will use to expand R&D, sales and marketing as it prepares to release its first cybersecurity product.
Citi and Alphabet units Google Capital and GV have injected capital into Pindrop, boosting the fraud prevention technology provider’s total funding to $122m.
Health
Inivata passes Johnson & Johnson test for $45m
Johnson and Johnson reinvested in Inivata, which will use the series A funding to advance its cancer diagnostics platform through clinical studies.
Jolly Pharma helps Carsgen harvest $30m
Jolly Pharma has backed a funding round for cancer immunotherapy developer Carsgen Therapeutics through its Jolly Innovation Ventures unit.
Jan Medical experiments with Brainlab again
Brainlab, which had provided neurological diagnostics tool developer Jan Medical with series B funding, has invested another $7.5m.
Akili interacts with investors for $30m
Healthcare R&D company PureTech Health, which co-founded Akili Interactive Labs, has participated in a $30.5m round for the digital medicine company.
BioTheranostics leaves the BioMérieux nest with $32m
BioMérieux has spun out molecular diagnostics test provider BioTheranostics in a $32m funding round led by venture firm MVM Life Science Partners.
Joincare ventures into Apricot Forest with $30m
Joincare Pharmaceutical acquired a 14.9% stake in Apricot Forest as part of a series D round that will value the physician information app at $200m.
Novartis helps treat Adicet to $51m
Immunotherapy developer Adicet Bio revealed the series A funding alongside its acquisition of Israel-based Applied Immune Technologies.
Novo finds a new Blend in $38m series C
Cancer treatment developer Blend Therapeutics has now raised almost $78m altogether and has changed its name to Tarveda Therapeutics.
Media
The virtual reality headset maker has attracted funding from investors including film studio Huayi Brothers, which participated as an existing backer.
Canal+ ventures to Africa as iRoko raises $19m
African video streaming service iRoko has now raised $44m since it was founded in 2010, and media group Canal+ will help it scale its French-language content.
Vidyard embeds itself into $35m
Salesforce returned for video analytics platform Vidyard’s $35m series C round, having previously backed its $18m series B in January 2015.
Tapdaq hits up BGF for $6.5m series A
The mobile app cross-promotion platform has added the bank-backed BGF Ventures to its list of shareholders having raised $1.4m in seed funding in 2014.
Echo resonates with Beijing Enlight Media
Film producer Enlight has supplied $30m in series C funding in return for a 20% stake in music app developer Echo.
Spotify gets ready for $500m convertible note offering
The 4% notes will convert to equity in the event of an initial public offering according to bank documents, though the music streaming company has not disclosed investment plans.
Consumer
Investors rate FiveStars for $50m
Rogers-backed loyalty scheme tool FiveStars has obtained $50m in series C capital from both new and returning backers, taking its overall funding to $105m.
Corporates help raise BaubleBar in $20m series C
The online fashion jewellery retailer has now raised $35m altogether, after Hubert Burda and DSW contributed to a $20m funding round.
IDG goes the distance for 5miles B+ round
International Data Group was among the investors providing $30m for the hyperlocal mobile marketplace app developer, helping to raise its overall capital to more than $50m.
RedMart aims to avoid the blues with $100m
The online grocery seller has raised $54m from backers including SoftBank and Garena, and is targeting another $100m to expand out of Singapore.
Financial
Corporates invest in Digital Asset for $50m round
A total of 13 financial services firms have backed a $50m funding round for Digital Asset, a developer of distributed ledger technology software.
Founded in 2013, BlueVine has raised $64m in total.
Patreon wins $30m of strategic support
In June 2014, Patreon raised $15m in series A funding from investors including CAA Ventures and UTA Ventures, the corporate venturing arms of entertainment management agencies CAA and United Talent Agency respectively.
WeBank to secure $450m investment
WeBank, a financial services affiliate of internet company Tencent, is raising its first external funding at a $5.5bn post-money valuation.
Energy and Natural Resources
Powerhive buzzes corporates for $20m
The First Solar-backed microgrid developer attracted Total and Caterpillar’s corporate venturing units for a series A round that will support geographical expansion.
Industrial
Ralph Taylor-Smith of GE Ventures and Bingyi Lin of YFY have joined Omni-ID’s board.
Transport
In November, Jugnoo raised $3m in a B round provided by mobile payment company Paytm.
Expedia led the series B round, which will support the nationwide expansion of the airport ride booking service.
Services
SoftBank moves another $15m into Housing.com
SoftBank has followed a reported $70m investment in 2014 with another $14.8m for the online realty portal, also backed by Qualcomm.
The property selling platform reportedly raised the money late last year in a series C round led by Access Industries.
James Austin, an investor at BGF will join Adestra’s board and said: “Their dedication to their clients’ success has made them a go-to resource in the UK and has them poised to make a significant mark in the US and beyond.”
In February, Alice announced a $3 million seed round led by Tishman Realty Principles, NeueHouse Founders, 645 Ventures, and the founders of Seamless.
PayPal-backed restaurant ordering platform Olo has received $40m from Raine Group, taking its total funding to almost $55m.
