Telecoms

BAT is vying to become a leader in the on-the-go wellbeing and stimulation space through a new corporate venturing unit that has been quietly investing in the space since last summer.

Berkshire Hathaway led a second tranche of a series G round, raised by Nubank, a Tencent-backed virtual bank based in Brazil, at a $30bn valuation.

Transcarent has raised $58m from Bayer and Merck, while Nvidia has bought DeepMap, one of its portfolio companies also backed by Bosch.

Blockchain game developer Mythical Games pulled in $75m while enterprise software developer Morning Consult reached a unicorn valuation in an Advance Venture Partners-led round.

Etsy is acquiring the Gen Z-focused social commerce platform Depop, giving an exit to Lumar. The transaction and its large size may be indicative of a potential momentum for exits from emerging enterprises in this space.

Airbus-backed space mapping software provider LeoLabs closed a $65m round while Qualcomm took part in supply chain technology developer Locus's series C funding.

AI-based online tutor developer Riiid raised a sizeable $175m round from SoftBank. Riiid is part of the broader edtech space, which has been given much attention by corporate investors in recent years.

The gamification of life continues, just updated for the modern world it seems.

Crop monitoring technology developer Prospera is to be acquired by Valmont Industries in a $300m deal, giving exits to Tekfen Ventures, Cisco Investments and Qualcomm Ventures.

Monthly analysis: April 2021

Spinouts always operate, by their very nature, on the cutting edge of science, but every once in a while, one comes along that could prove truly transformational by inventing an entirely new field.