Consumer

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

University of Washington’s artificial intelligence-powered customer support spinout AnswerDash has been bought by CloudEngage.

The Fosun-backed smart apparel technology provider has filed to raise just over $50m on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext market.

The merchant group’s LDC Innovations fund will back food and agtech startups, with Max Clegg, its former head of food innovation, heading up the unit.

One vaccine developer, CureVac, has received a generous backing from Germany’s government-owned development bank KfW, while another – Vaxcyte – went public raising $250m.

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

The nutrition and biotechnology company is accepting applications for its five-month Ajinomoto Group Accelerator initiative, which is scheduled to begin in December.

The SoftBank-backed food delivery service hiked its valuation from $13bn to $16bn in a round led by Durable Capital Partners.

The Alphabet-backed smart vending operator is set to close down in the next two weeks having been valued at $100m in its last round.

The demographic phenomenon of ageing populations will present challenges to both developed and developing nations. Along with the challenges come opportunities, however, and corporate venture capitalists may be a particularly well-positioned group to help with them, as it is the connecting tissue between the world of incumbent corporate industry leaders and the space of disruptive innovation.

Monthly data: May