Services

SoftBank led the series C round, increasing the funding raised by the last-mile delivery startup, now valued at $300m, to $165m this year.

The mobile jobs marketplace has now raised $35m in total, and will use the capital to support an expansion drive across North America.

Although the Alphabet-backed messaging service has no firm plans to do so, it has begun preparations to go public and could hypothetically float 18 months from now.

Holtzbrinck Ventures, which contributed to the moving services company's seed round two months ago, has returned for a $7.4m series A.

Sales training software provider MindTickle has now raised more than $14m in just over a year, with Qualcomm Ventures now among its investors.

Stuart secured the capital in a series A round led by the La Poste subsidiary as it prepares to launch its rapid logistics service in five European cities.

The language learning platform, backed by Alibaba and CyberAgent, raised the money at a $1bn valuation and intends to expand into other on-demand services.

The $307m Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund and $129m Entrepreneurs Fund for Hong Kong will invest in companies leveraging its technology ecosystem to develop products.

Business Growth Fund has invested a combined $21.5m in Acro Aircraft Seating and Giggling Squid, and an undisclosed sum in Braidwater.

Times Internet has taken a majority stake of undisclosed size in the microjobs marketplace, which pays users for completing small assignments.