Industrial

The Global and China L4 Autonomous Driving and Start-ups Report, 2021, found that except for a few companies, such as Waymo and Uber, which performed worse than expected, level four (L4) autonomous driving firms in other fields gained momentum.

Hikma led a $15m extension to surgical robotics developer Activ Surgical's series B round, now sized at $60m, while data collaboration software provider Hex raised $52m from investors including Snowflake and Databricks.

Digital asset exchange Zipmex increased its corporate-backed series B round to over $51m while Digital Garage-backed 1plusX in a $150m acquisition.

Deutsche Telekom-backed DTCP was among the investors that pushed the cybersecurity management platform developer’s valuation to $2.6bn.

Artificial intelligence technology developer Aibee raised cash from Xiaomi at a unicorn valuation while industrial technology provider Bluetron received $78.6m.

IISc Bengaluru-backed AI and Robotics and Technology Park is seeking approval from the Indian regulator to raise a $100m venture fund.

Intel Capital was among the investors bringing the fabless semiconductor producer’s total funding to over $350m and its valuation above $2.5bn.

With a remit across healthcare, life sciences and advanced materials, Merck’s corporate venturing unit is scoping an opportunity-filled landscape.

Radiopharmaceuticals developer Precirix completed an $88m series B round featuring Novo while corporate-backed kitchen technology provider Bear Robotics raised $81m.

Q&A with Victoria Lietha, principal, ABB Technology Ventures

Monthly analysis: February 2022