Consumer

The Chinese instalment buying platform is seeking between $500m and $800m in a US IPO that will provide exits to Kunlun Tech and Ant Financial.

The modular shoelace developer received the funding from backers including Sforza, the owner of new strategic partners Topper Brazil and Rainha, and a footwear brand that is most likely Adidas.

The firm, already backed by Lenovo and Macrolink, has added Heilan Home, Hengxing Group, Yihua Group, Man Wah, Yuyue Group and Luye Pharma to its shareholders.

Huawen Food produces a large range of snacks and has secured the investment from agricultural group Joyvio as part of a strategic partnership agreement.

The personal robot developer has secured $13.1m, after raising more than $52m last year from investors including Samsung, Acer, KDDI, LG Uplus, Dentsu, NetPosa and Ningbo GQY.

The Corporate Venture in Brasil 2015 event in October last year was the launch of a program with a full suite of resources to support corporations doing business and matching partners, deals and technologies. Around 600 leaders and investors joined hosts Apex-Brasil and Global Corporate Venturing for this first industry meeting point in Sao Paulo. Last month was the second annual edition, with the third planned for the week of 23 October 23 next year.

Legend Capital and the Alibaba-backed Riverhill Fund have invested $20m in seafood trading platform Gfresh, which will leverage their affiliate companies to grow.

Home appliance retailer Suning Commerce has led a $200m series C+ round for fresh food e-commerce platform Yiguo.com that included existing investor Alibaba.

Tom Whitehouse, contributing editor, and chairman of London Environmental Investment Forum, explores trends in cleantech

Sector focus: Financial Services