Consumer

The IPO boom was helped by the emergence of Shanghai's Star market and the trend for reverse mergers, while corporate venturers were increasingly looking outwards.

Ant Group, Info Edge and Delivery Hero-backed food ordering service Zomato was valued at $3.9bn in a series J round that has reached $660m.

Ride-hailing service Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) subsidiary agreed to merge with self-driving technology developer Aurora with Uber investing $400m in the latter.

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

The GV-backed consumer goods marketplace hit a $2.8bn valuation in a Tiger Global-led series E round, which brings its total funding to $490m.

The Recruit-backed second-hand luxury goods marketplace had added an eight-figure dollar amount to the $20m it raised last year.

The mobile commerce platform developer priced its initial public offering at the top of its range, with JD.com set to exit in the flotation.

The UK moves to second phase of quantum initiative, programme links universities to industries at tech hubs, ‘Ion traps’ alternative to superconductors are a key focus

China is benefiting from its government’s focus on artificial intelligence (AI) with unlisted companies having raised RMB203.7m ($30bn) in venture capital since 2016, according to Nikkei Asia Tech and 36kr.

Temasek has pumped $51.5m into classified listings operator Info Edge's debut consumer technology fund, bringing its corpus to almost two thirds of its $100m ceiling.

Marui’s D2C&Co unit, Pola Orbis and Takram were among the investors that helped the online bespoke suit vendor reach the first close of a convertible bond and debt financing round.