Industrial

ZF Friedrichshafen has paid an undisclosed sum for a stake in engineering services provider ASAP Holding sized at over 35%.

The Flex spinoff is developing industrial robotics software and has secured $179m in a series A round led by Eclipse Ventures, which was founded by Flex alumnus Lior Susan.

The natural chemistry developer has increased its funding to $50m altogether, in a Kraft Group-backed round that will support an expansion into the textile industry.

Kanematsu-backed microsatellite launch services provider Vector has collected $70m in a series B round that brought its total funding to more than $100m.

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

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, Dai-ichi Life ans SBI all invested in a $17.7m round for robotics devloper Meltin MMI, after a $2.1m series A last year.

The Csiro Innovation Fund has invested $890,000 in RapidAim, co-founded by three Csiro researchers, to support a trial of a fruit fly monitoring system.

NeuCloud has landed $14.4m for its industrial IoT services business, having previously raised funding in Eisoo-backed rounds in 2015 and 2016.

Fosun RZ Capital supplied $5m for trucking services provider LetsTransport, which reportedly already counts GMO, Flex, CBC Group and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance as backers.

Michigan materials spinout Ecovia Renewables has secured capital from the university's Mints fund to take its total to $1.6m.

Based on research at MIT, Accion Systems has received corporate backing from Boeing to develop more nimble and efficient propulsion for spacecraft.