Sectors

Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Two weeks after filing to go public, Grail has instead accepted an $8bn acquisition offer from Illumina, which had spun off the cancer diagnostics technology developer five years ago.

Baidu, Tencent and China Minmetals-backed electric vehicle producer WM Motor has raised $1.47bn in a series D round to support R&D, marketing and sales activities.

Zhonggu Logistics has filed for a $218m on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, providing exits to Zhonggu Shipping and SoftBank.

Unnamed corporates have provided capital for Panlin’s $148m fund that will focus on healthcare, digital transformation and smart hardware.

SoftBank’s Latin America Fund and General Atlantic have co-led a $107m series B round for Acesso Digital, a facial recognition technology developer that will use the money to scale.

Digital Garage has helped launch mobile gaming platform Playco with a $100m series A round and a valuation of more than $1bn.

The website development tool provider’s Wix Capital subsidiary will invest in early-stage startups that are developing AI, e-commerce, web design and automation technologies.

The Kunlun-backed customer engagement software provider has closed its series C round at about $44m, having raised a similar amount in series C1 funding four months ago.

Tal Heppenstall will stand down as president of UPMC Enterprises to be replaced by Jeanne Cunicelli, promoted from executive vice-president.

K Wah Group’s subsidiary has taken part in the tumour therapy and drug developer’s $29.3m round, which came a year after its $28m series B round.