IT

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.

The CapitalG-led round valued the data governance software producer at more than $1bn and increased its total funding to $233m.

City Football is the anchor investor in Sapphire Sport, which is also backed by SAP, Adidas, Sinclair, AEG, Major League Baseball, the New York Jets and the San Jose Sharks.

The SoftBank-backed smart windscreen display developer has received $14.8m in pre-series B funding from Cathay Capital and Dohold Capital.

Digital Garage has exited the database technology developer, which had raised about $11m, in an acquisition of undisclosed size by Microsoft.

Hana Ventures intends to provide some $890m in loans and direct investment for VC firms targeting biotech and ICT companies, over the next three years.

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

The document-reading software developer plans to expand in the US after a round featuring TIS, Sony, Itochu, SBI, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Bank of Fukuoka and Nomura Group.

Worldpay-backed fraud detection software provider Featurespace won $32.9m from investors including commercialisation firm IP Group to bring its overall funding to $70.9m.