Financial

Aviva has agreed to buy a majority stake in home protection platform provider backed by its own corporate venturing fund as well as Munich Re.

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

IBM Blockchain Accelerator will focus on later-stage startups, while Columbia Blockchain Launch Accelerator has been established for pre-seed companies.

Ping An has led a $47.3m investment in Finleap through its Global Voyager Fund, joining a list of shareholders that already included Hannover Re and Signal Iduna.

Visa has provided a reported $200m in equity funding for bill payment platform BillDesk and bought up to $100m worth of shares in a secondary transaction.

PayPal and Rakuten-backed savings platform Acorns Grow is looking to raise more than $100m in a corporate-led round that will value it at $700m.

The Hakim Unique, Shanda Interactive and Dong Yi Ri Sheng-backed lending platform raised $45m, floating in the middle of its range.

The number of flotations of companies that have previously received corporate backing has been growing over the past couple years. More interestingly, it has been companies from the life sciences sector that beat other sectors in going public.

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

The home insurance provider boosted its overall funding to $109m in a round co-led by Lennar and backed by Comcast and Munich Re.

HSBC added $4m to a series B round for blockchain financial product developer Axoni that includes NEX Group, Citi and Wells Fargo.