A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 16-20 March 2015
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fund in the News: AXA Strategic Ventures
The insurance company’s newly launched strategic fund, the result of a three-year process, will invest internationally and be stage-agnostic.
Fundraising
Corporates accelerate AppWorks with $50m
Companies including FarEastTone Telecommunications, UDN Group, Fubon Life, Cathay Life and Phison Electronics have backed the Taiwan-based accelerator.
People
Pruitt joins Santander’s venture unit
Tee Pruitt will act as an investment manager at Santander InnoVentures Fund, set up last year to invest along the fintech spectrum.
Rob Rosenberg, an alum of Lucent Technologies and corporate spin-out specialist New Venture Partners, has joined eye test technology developer EyeNetra.
Spirit ghosts into digital role at WPP
Scott Spirit, WPP’s chief strategy officer, will now oversee WPP Digital, together with the marketing company’s investment and merger and acquisitions strategies.
Exits
Janssen crosses off XO1 acquisition
Antibody developer XO1, backed by a Johnson & Johnson-backed fund, has been acquired by another Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Janssen Parmaceuticals.
Tausendkind shops around for investment
A range of corporates including several media companies, have backed the e-commerce company’s latest round, while publisher Gruner + Jahr exited.
Gene editing company Cellectis increases IPO stakes
Pfizer-backed Cellectis, which is developing cancer treatments, will issue 3.5 million shares and could raise about $129m.
AppNexus stops to acquire Yieldex for $100m
Hearst and Amazon both exited the revenue management company after it was acquired by AppNexus, which will integrate its technology into its own platform.
Novartis-backed Pulmatrix merges with Ruthigen
Pulmatrix, an inhaled drug developer that had raised $65m in venture funding, will be acquired by publicly-listed Ruthigen in an all-share deal.
Seachaid Pharmaceuticals-backed Cidara, which is developing therapies to treat fungal infections, has raised $74m in the past two years.
IT
Media conglomerate Liberty Interactive has led the latest funding round for the big data company, which added 80 blue-chip companies to its client list last year.
Wipro makes first investment out of $100m fund
The IT services company has invested $5m in cloud services provider Drivestream as part of a deal to collaborate on integrated cloud technology.
Salesforce and Microsoft go InsideSales
Salesforce Ventures returned to back the sales platform’s series D round, which also included Microsoft, taking InsideSales’ funding to almost $200m.
Vidder spies Sumitomo for $12m series B
Sumitomo subsidiary Presidio Ventures has joined the cybersecurity company’s backers, helping increase its overall funding to more than $18m.
Ncino, which raised a $29m first series B tranche last month, has extended the round to a possible $37.6m after securing funds from backers including Salesforce.
Motorola pilots CyPhy investment
Unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer CyPhy Works has received an undisclosed amount from communications equipment maker Motorola Solutions.
Cybersecurity technology developer Interset secures $10m
Interset, the creator of an intellectual property protection platform, raised the cash from backers including software provider Informatica.
Glispa goes to Market for $77m
Real-estate and e-commerce business Market Tech has acquired a majority stake in the advertising technology company for $77m.
Microsoft withdraws from forthcoming $110m Cyanogen round
Tencent-backed mobile operating system developer Cyanogen is set to raise the series C cash without Microsoft, which reportedly prefers a licensing deal.
Google and Bloomberg gain Orbital Insight stakes
Big data company Orbital Insight has raised $8.7m in its series A round as it looks to expand its engineering and sales capabilities.
Health
Modernizing Medicine records $20m series D
IBM helped the electronic medical record company close its series D round, which included brand management firm Pentland Group.
Pfizer has co-led a second funding round for the biotechnology company, which also counts Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline as backers.
Glooko monitors $16.5m series B
The diabetes management platform developer has now received $27m in total funding, after raising $16m from backers including Samsung and Medtronic.
Health Catalyst gets the right investor reaction
The healthcare data company has secured $70m from backers including Partners HealthCare, Kaiser Permanente and Indiana University Health Company.
Merck spends money on exciting Liaison
Merck has followed up a $30m investment in the data management company with funding that brought its total equity financing to $90m.
Corporates help launch Marseille immunotechnology centre
Pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and Innate Pharma have joined a range of backers to launch a centre focused on therapies for cancer and inflammatory disease.
Media
Hungama begins talks for $100m round
Existing backer Intel Capital is reportedly one of the prospective investors in talks with the entertainment streaming company over a $100m funding round.
Pinterest draws $367m for series G
The online scrapbooking site has now raised more than $1.1bn from investors including Rakuten, and aims to secure a further $210m in the series G round.
China Mobile tunes into $160m Imgo.tv investment
Imgo.tv, an online television and video streaming subsidiary of media company Hunan Television, has reportedly received $160m from China Mobile.
Consumer
GGV Capital connects to Xiaomi-backed startups
The venture capital firm has led $15m series B rounds for portable battery charging company Zimi and headphone maker 1More.
Industrial
Bionic Robotics arms itself with new funding
The robotic arm developer has raised series A funding in a round backed by Abacus Alpha and High-Tech Gruenderfonds.
Sakti3 sucks up $15m from Dyson
Dyson made the investment as part of a $20m series C round that took the advanced battery maker’s funding to more than $50m.
Transport
Comcast returned for the family-focused ride sharing company’s series A round, bringing its total funding to $12.2m as it prepares to expand from San Francisco.
Baidu rides in to $170m Uxin round
Used car auction site Uxin, which has now raised $430m in less than a year, plans to use the cash to expand its business-to-customer sales platform.
GoJavas delivers 20% stake to Snapdeal
E-commerce company Snapdeal has acquired a minority stake in logistics company GoJavas for $19.1m, valuing it at more than $95m.
Bitauto drives $20m series A for Uuzuche
The China-based car sharing platform has increased its series A round to $20m after a $10m investment by automotive information provider Bitauto.
Services
Pet supplies retailer Petco has returned to back the latest round to be raised by dogsitting network Rover.
Gree took part in the round, which boosted the online restaurant and business review service’s funding to almost $13m.
Qfang bites into $67m series A
Real-estate company WorldUnion is set to take a 15% stake in the online property listings platform after leading a $67m series A round.
Quikr to accelerate growth with $150m
The Ebay and Nokia-backed classified listings service has already raised almost $200m, but could use the imminent funding to make acquisitions.
