Services

Monthly analysis: May 2019

Winner of the CVC Investment in a Spinout of the Year: Ribon Therapeutics - Novartis Venture Fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation–JJDC, Takeda Ventures, Celgene

Tencent has led a $160m series D round for business-to-business e-commerce platform Zhenkunhang that was also backed by return investor Legend Capital.

The telecoms firm SoftBank has backed a substantial $300m round of gym membership provider Gympass, which is part of the beauty and fitness space, which has seen stable corporate-backed deal flow with rising valuations in recent years.

Big data education provider Jigsaw Academy has been bought by Manipal Group four years after raising money from the corporate.

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

Publishing group Axel Springer's Aviv subsidiary has reportedly picked up a 20% stake in real estate marketplace Housell by leading a $13.6m round.

WeWork India, a local franchise of co-working space operator We Company that is backed by Embassy, is set to sell a 70% stake for a $1.9bn in cash and shares.

General Electric had considered spinning out its corporate venturing operation, but has now shifted its focus to finding a buyer for a portfolio consisting of stakes in more than 100 companies.

The round, reportedly $300m in size, featured both SoftBank’s Vision Fund and its Latin America Fund, valuing the gym subscription service at more than $1bn.

The logistics subsidiary of eBay and Singapore Press Holdings-backed e-commerce marketplace Qoo10 has raised $50m to expand its operations.