Consumer

Hitachi grows its cell therapy portfolio, SoftBank slims down in India and Foresight Williams backs ID tags for diamonds.

Hanwha Group took part in a $250m round for Carrot General Insurance while JP Morgan Chase helped lift LetsGetChecked’s series D to $170m.

Lab-grown milk is becoming commercially viable — and studies have shown that consumers aren’t averse to it. So, is it time for corporate investors to back these startups?

SoftBank, Bristol Myers Squibb and Hitachi were among Arsenal Biosciences’ $220m round while MegaChips led a $140m round for Morse Micro.

After two years at venture firm Verve Ventures, João Duarte has taken up a Switzerland-based senior manager role at eBay Ventures.

SK has provided $50m in funding for Ascend Elements while ServiceNow took part in a $35.6m series C round for Fairmarkit.

Tencent and Sony have provided $263m for FromSoftware while Piramal Capital & Housing Finance backed EarlySalary’s $110m series D round.

Corporate-backed investments in energy storage technology have quadrupled in value in the last quarter as energy prices soar.

FTX and Coinbase took part in a $200m round for NFT game developer Limit Break while Schaeffler, Kingspan and Marcegaglia backed H2 Green Steel’s $190m series B.

From board seats to leading rounds to deciding when to back boom stocks — there are a lot of VC obsessions that corporate investors can skip.

Bertelsmann-backed paywall management software provider Zephr is set to be acquired by Zuora in a $44m deal while Meituan co-led a $875m round for EV battery producer Sunwoda.