Industrial

Among the many news released by Salesforce Ventures last year, the unit announced in early December two new $100m funds in Canada and Japan, both aiming to boost startup innovation that is part of the global Salesforce ecosystem.

Having significantly increased its market share in the US in recent years, on-demand transportation company Lyft recently appointed JP Morgan to lead its planned initial public offering (IPO) with an estimated valuation of $15.1bn.

Currently valued at over $3bn, Katerra, which aims to revolutionise the construction sector with its technology, is said to be the most well-funded construction tech startup.

Rob Lavine, News editor for Global Corporate Venturing, reviews the trends in venturing from 2018

UNL spinout Drone Amplified has devised a drone that conducts fire management stress tests on parklands by dropping small combustible balls filled with glycol on targeted pieces of land.

Additive manufacturing provider Desktop Metal raised a $160m round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and featuring other corporate investors

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

GE Ventures is reportedly being considered for a spinoff as part of an ongoing, wide-ranging reorganisation of General Electric.

Purdue’s Trask Innovation Fund has committed $50,000 each to short-term research projects into sodium-ion batteries and a handheld plant scanner, in addition to $21,000 for a data security project.

Koch Disruptive Technologies led a $160m round for the 3D metal printer provider that also featured GV, Panasonic and Techtronic Industries.

Australian National University helped supply series A funding to scientific testing device manufacturer Liquid Instruments, which is led by a professor from the university’s College of Science.