Big deal: Oxford goes from strength to strength
University of Oxford’s spinouts have raised $655m between them over the past twelve months, more than a quarter of the total raised since 2011.

Frontier IP explores Portugal more
Frontier IP has partnered the UK Department for International Trade to establish support and networking opportunities in the country.

Parkwalk enrols UCEF IV
University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund VI has debuted under the management of Parkwalk Advisors after five earlier vehicles launched between 2013 and 2017.

Fifth Eye detects $2.4m seed round
The critical care data analytics technology developer was founded in 2017 and has its system in testing on 200 hospital beds in the Michigan Medicine centre.

Everbright Photonics shines a light on $22m series B
Chinese Academy of Sciences has taken part in a series B round for Suzhou Everbright Photonics, which manufactures high power lasers.

Google realises GraphicsFuzz acquisition
Less than four months after being launched by Imperial College, GraphicsFuzz has been acquired by Google and will be integrated into the Android Graphics Team.

Perpetuum mobilises investors for $3.9m
Rail data analytics technology developer Perpetuum has added Rail Supply Growth Fund to a group of shareholders that already includes IP Group and Parkwalk Advisors.

Mindwell snacks on $100,000
University of Michigan’s Zell Lurie Founders Fund has made a seed investment in Mindwell, a plant-based jerky producer founded by two then-students at the institution.

Frontier IP prints stake in NTPE
Frontier IP will take a 31.8% shareholding in NTPE, an electronics printing technology spinout from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

StreetLight illuminates $10m series C
Osage University Partners has backed StreetLight Data’s latest round, which takes the urban transportation analytics company’s total to $25.6m.

Apica optimises $12.7m round
KTH Chalmers Capital, which first backed IT software developer Apica Systems in 2007, has been joined by Industrifonden, SEB, Almi and Oxx for the latest round.

Formlabs forges $15m round
MIT spinout Formlabs has achieved unicorn status after obtaining $15m from New Enterprise Associates.

Pretoria exhibits Tuksnovation incubator
Tuksnovation launched with help from government-owned bodies to spark business ideas emerging from University of Pretoria’s faculty for engineering, IT and the built environment.

Sui strolls into Arkansas position
Daniel Sui will leave OSU to become University of Arkansas’s vice-chancellor for research and innovation from October 1.

Essenlix needles $20m of funding
Blood sampling technology developer Essenlix was co-founded by Stephen Chou, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University.

BlackThorn charts Yale licence
Scripps Research Institute spinout BlackThorn Therapeutics will use Yale’s Gemini-Dot technology to identify drug targets for neurobehavioural disorders.

Arizona produces 16 spinouts in 2017-2018
Building on last year’s records, Tech Launch Arizona has added another 16 spinouts to its portfolio in the fifth financial year since the office was formed.

McLeod leaps onto MEC
Colin McLeod will be executive director of the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre, which will be based at the Innovation Precinct when it opens in 2020.

SQZ indexes $72m in series C round
Illumina, GV and Orient Life supported a $72m series C round for MIT spinout SQZ Biotechnology, with the money set to fund therapies for solid tumours and autoimmunity.

Wagner ascends at Humboldt University
Thomas Wagner will lead Humboldt University of Berlin’s Venture Service, overseeing assistance given to students, alumni and researchers in forming companies.

Therachon takes $60m in series B funding
Therachon has welcomed back Inserm Transfert Initiative for its series B round, led by Novo.

DNAlite musters $1.5m seed round
Founded by two UC Berkeley graduates, DNAlite Therapeutics has been backed by the university and its Berkeley Catalyst Fund.

Artios absorbs $84m series B
Existing shareholder IP Group has returned to back an $84m series B round for Artios, which also attracted corporates Pfizer, Novartis, AbbVie and Merck Group.

Imperial unleashes Cagen with seed round
ICL spinout Cagen raised an undisclosed sum from Imperial Innovations and UKI2S to commercialise protein nanocages for shielding therapeutic payloads.

Corporate venturing deal net: 6-10 August 2018

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

Fundraising

SBI and OSK okay $20m fund

Financial services provider SBI has partnered private equity firm OSK Ventures on a Southeast Asia-focused fund with an initial $20m commitment.

Splice to spit out $1m through media fund

Digital media company and journalism organisation Civil plan to help launch 100 Asia-based media startups in the next three years.

SoftBank eyes India with $5bn Asia fund

The corporate plans to begin talking to prospective investors next month for a fund that will invest half its capital in India.

THG to try out corporate venturing

The diversified conglomerate intends to invest between $50m in areas such as energy, infrastructure, materials and environmental services each year.

M12 lays path for female founders

Microsoft’s corporate venturing unit has joined EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group to form a contest that will invest $4m in two female-led startups.

People

Rehman runs to Vision Fund

Faisal Rehman has become the latest ex-Deutsche Bank executive to join SoftBank Vision Fund, where he will head Middle Eastern investments.

Pivotal BioVenture Partners prises Preston from TPG

Heather Preston, formerly managing director at TPG Biotech, has taken a managing partner position at Nan Fung-backed Pivotal BioVenture Partners.

Exits

Koubei and Ele.me consider big-money merger

Alibaba spinoff Koubei could merge with another subsidiary, Ele.me, as SoftBank Vision Fund enters talks to lead a round of up to $5bn.

Uproxx rolls over to WMG

WPP and UTA are exiting digital media company Uproxx Media, which had raised some $42m in funding, in an acquisition by Warner Music Group.

Falabella falls for Linio in $138m acquisition

E-commerce marketplace Linio had raised $230m from investors including Tengelmann, Access Industries and Rocket Internet.

SatoshiPay to sate public markets appetite

The Axel Springer-backed nanotransaction processor will execute a reverse merger with another investor, London-listed Blue Sky Capital.

IT

Test.AI gets $11m result in series A

Google’s Gradient Ventures led a round that boosted the total raised by app testing technology developer Test.ai to $18m.

Rigetti reveals $50m in funding

The Bloomberg Beta-backed quantum computing system developer said it raised the cash late last year, boosting its total funding to $119m.

RiskRecon locates $25m in series B round

Dell Technologies Capital has reinvested in the third-party cyber risk assessment platform having led its series A round last year.

Slack puts $400m round on the slate

The Alphabet, SoftBank and Comcast-backed communications platform developer is reportedly set to close a General Atlantic-led round at a $7bn valuation.

Skyworks fires up $405m Avnera acquisition

Best Buy, Panasonic, Intel, Polycom and Onkyo are all set to exit chipmaker Avnera, which had raised almost $77m in funding.

Tianrang tees up $26m series A

Retail analytics technology developer Tianrang has picked up $26m in series A funding from a consortium that included fintech producer Wacai.

Apica accepts SEB investment

SEB subsidiary SEB Venture Capital contributed to a $12.7m round for the software performance-monitoring technology developer, which has raised $35m in total.

Tencent helps supply almost $50m for Suiyuan

The corporate has led a $49.8m pre-series A round for Suiyuan Technology, which will use the proceeds for research and development.

Corporates open Moviebook with $199m

SenseTime and the SoftBank-backed SBCVC co-led the online advertising technology developer’s series D round, which included Oriental Pearl.

Quantexa hits up HSBC in $20m round

HSBC, which co-led the data analysis platform’s series A round last year, has returned to invest in the company’s series B.

Cisco drives Dremio’s series B to $30m

The networking technology provider has added $5m to the data sourcing software provider’s latest round, taking its overall funding to $45m.

Bloomberg helps serve up $14m for Survata

The advertising measurement platform has raised series B funding, with Bloomberg Beta making its second investment.

DefinedCrowd absorbs series A investors

The AI testing data platform secured $11.8m in an Evolution Equity Partners-led round that included Mastercard, EDP, Sony and Amazon Alexa Fund.

Health

Akili accepts extra funding for $68m round

The digital therapy developer added $13m from backers including Digital Garage to a series C round already featuring Amgen and Merck Group.

Tot Biopharm adds $102m in funding

Formosa Laboratories-backed cancer treatment developer Tot Biopharm has raised $102m in series B capital from a range of institutional investors.

SQZ indexes $72m series C

Illumina, GV and Orient Life supported a $72m series C for SQZ Biotechnology, which will use the money to fund therapies for solid tumours and autoimmunity.

Therachon threads in $60m

Walmart put up $320m of the cash for grocery delivery service Dada-JD Daojia while the rest came from another existing investor, JD.com.

Artios attracts $83m in series B funding

The oversubscribed round included Pfizer, Novartis, Merck Group and AbbVie, and boosted the cancer drug developer’s overall funding to $120m.

Akouos aces series A with $50m

Novartis Venture Fund and Partners Innovation Fund both took part in a round that will fund the first human trials for the company’s gene therapies.

Impact forms $30m series C round

Impact Therapeutics will invest the cash from the Lilly Asia Ventures-backed round to further develop its lead cancer treatment candidate.

Corporates help treat MDLive to $50m

Cigna, HCSC and Novo have taken part in a $50m funding round for MDLive, a telehealth platform already backed by Sentara and Sutter Health.

Evidation escalates fundraising with $30m

Corporate VC units GE Ventures and Sanofi Ventures both invested to help the health behaviour tracker take its funding to $61m altogether.

Karuna tunes into $42m series A

The psychiatric and cognitive disorder drug developer secured the financing in a round backed by its founder, PureTech Health.

Media

Xinai wins $73m in series A

IDG Capital and Huiying Borun have invested in Xinai Sport Media Technology, a joint venture launched by iQiyi and Super Sports Media this week.

NewTV broadcasts confirmation of $1bn in funding

Alibaba, Liberty Global and 10 entertainment groups were among the investors in the short-form original video platform.

Bytedance tries for $3bn at $75bn valuation

The SIG-backed online media company is reportedly seeking a $70bn to $75bn valuation on the way to a 2019 initial public offering.

Weimob winds up for Hong Kong IPO

The social media marketing platform is backed by HNA, Jinzi Ham and Tencent, and has reportedly raised almost $210m.

Consumer

Letgo nabs $500m from Naspers

Naspers invested the first $150m of the cash this summer, it revealed, and has pledged another $350m to bring the e-commerce platform’s total funding to $975m.

Dada-JD Daojia gets $500m from shopping trip

Walmart put up $320m of the cash for grocery delivery service Dada-JD Daojia while the rest came from another existing investor, JD.com.

Financial

Freee accounts for $60m series E

The accounting software developer added Line, Mitsubishi UFJ and Life Card to a roster of shareholders that already included Salesforce, Sharp, Recruit and SBI.

Skyline AI homes in on $18m

The real estate value assessment startup raised the capital in a JLL Spark-backed series A round just four months after closing seed funding.

Barclays comes back to Cloud9 in $19m round

Barclays led the voice-based trader communication platform’s series B round, investing with fellow long-term backers NEX and JP Morgan.

BlueVine bolsters series E to $72m

Corporate venturing units M12 and Nationwide Ventures added $12m to small business finance provider BlueVine’s series E round.

TransferMate finds a friend in ING

ING is supplying $24.5m in funding for cross-border payment platform TransferMate, nine months after a $35m investment by fellow bank AIB.

Dianrong digs up $40m from DFIIG

DFIIG invested in Dianrong having formed a strategic partnership with the Orix and Standard Chartered-backed online lending platform in January.

Salesforce helps pay out $15m to RaiseMe

The higher education micro-scholarship provider has now raised more than $31m altogether, securing capital in a Salesforce Ventures-backed round.

Industrial

NEA forges $15m investment in Formlabs

Autodesk-backed 3D printing technology developer Formlabs took its total funding to $100m with a New Enterprise Associates investment that valued it at more than $1bn.

Terran Orbital reaches new heights with $36m

The small-scale satellite builder has completed a series B round featuring existing investor Lockheed Martin Ventures.

Everbright Photonics shines a light on $22m series B

The Up Optotech-backed diode laser technology developer raised the cash from investors including SDIC and Suzhou Chengxin Venture Capital.

Transport

Temasek takes a $225m stake in Ola

Temasek has bought a sub-10% stake in Tencent, SoftBank and Didi Chuxing-backed ride hailing platform Ola in a secondary transaction.

Shell Ventures finds Ample reason to invest

EV charging technology startup Ample has secured $31m in a Shell Ventures-led series A round that included Repsol Energy Ventures.

RideOS brings corporates on board to raise $25m

Siemens’ Next47 led the ride hailing management platform’s series B round, which included corporate venturing unit ST Engineering Ventures.

Shuttl confirms $11m arrival

Amazon Alexa Fund and Dentsu Ventures co-led a round that also featured existing investor Times Internet.

Services

SoftBank goes to WeWork with another $1bn

The co-working space provider has secured $1bn in convertible note financing from long-term investor SoftBank despite heavy 2018 losses.

Zhihu confirms $270m series E round

The Tencent-backed online Q+A platform was originally reported to have raised $300m in the round last month.

Manbang makes tracks en route to $1bn

The trucking services provider, which counts Alphabet, Tencent and SoftBank among its backers, is pursuing a $10bn valuation.

Shadowfax gets $22m series C delivery

NGP Capital led a series C round for the on-demand delivery services provider that included Qualcomm Ventures, taking its total funding to about $41m.

Namely spells out $60m series E round

The Vayner/RSE-backed human resources software provider has now raised a total of approximately $200m.