Big deal: Roche derives MS treatment
Versant’s unusual build-to-buy model has resulted in Roche acquiring a target for MS based on UCSF research and the venture firm launching a new spinout, Pipeline Therapeutics.

Origami powers up $26.3m round
Origami has welcomed a follow-on investment from Cambridge Innovation Capital as it prepares to take its energy management and control platform into international markets.

ITBMed secures $67m equity transplant
The immunomodulation therapy developer has been backed by Pablo Legorreta in the wake of a phase 2 trial of its therapy for organ transplant patients.

Illinois universities lift activity
The number of Illinois university-linked businesses founded in the past five years has more than doubled on the preceding period.

Arvinas balances $55m series C
Yale spinout Arvinas has added cash to its coffers as it prepares oncological treatments for forms of prostate and breast cancer.

Constellation aligns with investors for $100m round
UC Investment Office, an existing Constellation backer, has returned to contribute to a $100m round that took its total equity funding to $229m.

Camras snaps series A picture
Partially based on research at Duke University, Camras Vision is working on a treatment for refractory glaucoma.

Allied Minds leads two rounds with $7.5m
The commercialisation firm has invested $3.5m in Orbital Sidekick and another $4m in TableUp.

Mars Innovation and Pfizer research fund
The pharmaceutical firm has committed $800,000 to launch the Mars Innovation – Pfizer Translational Research Fund.

C-Sats records acquisition
Johnson & Johnson has bought UW spinout C-Sats, which has created a platform to evaluate surgeons and helps them boost their skills.

UC helps allocate $300m to Allogene
UC’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer has backed a new immuno-oncology startup that has licensed 17 assets from Pfizer.

Midlands Innovation launches accelerator network
University of Birmingham will lead a connected system of incubators after Midlands Innovation secured a $7.1m award from Research England.

Frontier IP harvests bigger Fieldwork stake
Frontier IP now owns 27.5% of Plymouth’s Fieldwork Robotics and has agreed to lend extra development and engineering expertise to the soft robotic arm manufacturer.

Promethera prises bond financing from corporates
Université Catholique de Louvain spinout Promethera has sold $11.5m in convertible bonds to investors including Shibuya.

Ceres seals capital
The Ceres Agritech Knowledge Exchange has secured $28m and will exploit research from the universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Hertfordshire, Lincoln and Reading.

Zapata executes $5.4m round
Zapata, which remains in stealth mode, filed a security filing naming two of its directors as partners from MIT’s the Engine and VC firm Pillar.

GlaxoSmithKline picks stake in Orchard
Orchard Therapeutics has licensed a range of gene therapies from GSK, which will get a 19.9% stake in the UCL spinout as part of the deal.

Spectral Edge refines $5.3m round
Parkwalk Advisors has returned from earlier rounds to help drive the UEA spinout’s bid for additional markets for its image augmentation technology.

Enterprise boldly goes to $41m series B
IP Group has committed a total of $6.6m to a series A round for Enterprise Therapeutics, which had previously attracted capital from Touchstone Innovations.

CMU irons out Chrysalix partnership
Carnegie Mellon has become VC firm Chrysalix’s third university partner after Delft and University of Waterloo.

Flavin heads back to private sector
John Flavin joined University of Chicago in 2013 to head its commercialisation arm and innovation hub Polsky Center, but will now become chief financial officer at Endotronix.

UVC Partners launches $100m fund
The firm, an affiliate of TUM’s tech transfer arm, has attracted investors including KfW and the European Investment Fund for its second vehicle.

Deal net: 9 – 13 April 2018
The Global University Venturing deal net rounds up all the latest smaller deals and tracks emerging companies accessing university funds.

Corporate venturing deal net: 9-13 April 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

Ripple transfers $25m to Blockchain Capital

Venture firm Blockchain Capital revealed last month it had raised $150m across two funds but did not reveal Ripple’s involvement at the time.

Conductive launches $100m Panasonic-sponsored fund

Conductive Ventures, which is solely funded by Panasonic, will focus on enterprise software and hardware companies, and has announced its first four investments.

NTT makes $188m corporate venturing call

NTT Group is preparing to launch a third corporate venturing fund in July this year aimed at technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Inspire Medical to make inroads on public markets

Medtronic spinout Inspire Medical Systems, the developer of a neurostimulation device for sleep apnea, has targeted $86.3m for its IPO.

People

Sommer comes to Intel Capital

Intel’s newest investment director, Chiara Sommer, came from High-Tech Gründerfonds and will join Abdul Guefor in Intel Capital’s European team.

Exits

Palo Alto snags Secdo in $100m deal

RDC will exit cyber threat detection platform Secdo through an acquisition by Palo Alto Networks reportedly sized at about $100m.

Dropbox drives IPO to $869m

The Salesforce-backed file storage platform expanded the offering after the underwriters bought an additional $113m of shares.

Huya targets $200m as it joins IPO stream

The YY-founded live game streaming platform raised $462m from Tencent last month at a valuation of $1.16bn.

Pivotal pinpoints $530m target for IPO

The Dell EMC spinout has set the range for an offering in which General Electric will sell up to $62m of shares.

Unity Biotechnology gets to IPO age with $85m filing

The age-related disease drug developer, which counts Mayo Clinic and WuXi PharmaTech as investors, raised $55m as recently as last month.

IT

Corporates identify Element for $12m series A

BCA, BRI and Telkom Indonesia all invested in the biometric identification software, whose early backers include Recruit and Sinar Mas.

Axa’s CVC unit becomes Axa Venture Partners

The rebranding comes after Axa’s corporate venture capital arm launched a $175m fund-of-funds initiative and committed more resources to Asia.

Verkada secures $15m in Siemens-led round

The smart security system developer raised the money in a series A round led by Siemens’ Next47 subsidiary.

Workday helps Suplari procure series A cash

Suplari, the developer of a procurement management platform, has raised $10.3m in a Workday Ventures-backed round.

Symphony signs for $67m

Barclays, BPIfrance, CLSA and unnamed existing investors have increased the communication software provider’s overall funding to more than $300m.

Alibaba makes SenseTime’s $600m series C

The artificial intelligence technology producer secured the money at a reported $4.5bn valuation, with Alibaba leading the round and Suning also investing.

Health

GlaxoSmithKline picks stake in Orchard

Orchard Therapeutics has licensed a range of gene therapies from GSK, which will get a 19.9% stake in the company as part of the deal.

Enterprise boldly goes to $41m series B

The respiratory disease specialist took its overall funding to $55m with a $41.4m round led by Novartis Venture Fund.

Livongo links to corporates to raise $105m

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Microsoft Ventures, Zaffre Investments and Echo Health Ventures invested in a round that valued Livongo at $800m.

Amgen helps Aetion ace series B round

Medical analytics platform developer Aetion raised $36.4m in an Amgen Ventures-backed round that took its total funding to $50m.

Ayala finds pathway to $17m series A

Harel Insurance and Finance, which helped form cancer therapy developer Ayala Pharmaceuticals in November, is among the investors.

Nutrino feels $8m glow

Nielsen Ventures was among the participants as the nutritional data platform completed a series A round to boost its overall funding to $10m.

Promethera prises bond financing from corporates

Shibuya Corporation and Shinsei Bank joined existing investors in the liver disease therapy developer to buy $11.5m in convertible bonds.

Somatus sums up with $11m

Inova Health and BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners contributed to a series B round that will fund the strengthening of the startup’s services and technology.

Pfizer helps allocate $300m to Allogene

Pfizer, which is providing 17 licensed drug assets to the immuno-oncology startup, will own a 25% stake once the series A round formally closes.

Constellation aligns with investors for $100m round

GlaxoSmithKline’s SR One unit, an existing Constellation backer, has returned to contribute to a $100m round that took its total equity funding to $229m.

Magenta Therapeutics manages $52m in series C

Access Industries contributed to a round that lifted the bone marrow transplant drug developer’s overall funding to $150m.

Media

Chargifi channels $7m in series B round

Wireless charging terminal developer Chargifi, whose past investors include Intel Capital, raised the cash in a Hewlett Packard Enterprise-backed round.

SoftBank produces funding for Iyuno Media

Media localisation services provider Iyuno has raised $23.5m from SoftBank Ventures in what appears to be its first external funding round.

Tencent produces series B funding for L² Studio

Animation producer L² Studio has raised an undisclosed eight-figure renminbi sum in a Tencent-backed series B round.

Watcha wins $12m in series C funding

Doosan Group and AJU Capital invested in Kakao-backed streaming portal Watcha, taking the company’s total funding to $21m.

Consumer

Tencent buys into $3bn Pinduoduo round

Tencent has reportedly led a $3bn funding round for e-commerce company Pinduoduo at a $15bn valuation, having previously backed a $110m round in 2016.

Financial

Ant Financial anticipates $150bn valuation in latest round

Alibaba’s financial services affiliate has reportedly already raised $3bn from investors including Temasek and is targeting an $8bn to $9bn close.

CloudMargin clears $10m in funding

IHS Markit and Leucadia National both invested in collateral management platform developer CloudMargin, which will use the cash for sales, marketing and product development.

CNP helps Alan cover series A round

Returning investor CNP Assurances contributed to a $28.4m round led by Index Ventures that increased the health insurance startup’s total funding to $45m.

Youzu assesses IceKredit for $25m round

Game producer Youzu Interactive led a round that took the credit risk assessment platform’s overall funding to more than $50m.

Energy and Natural Resources

Corporates help distribute funding to Origami Energy

Aggreko and Fred.Olsen both invested in distributed energy management platform developer Origami as part of a $26.3m round.

Industrial

SpaceX explores $500m in new round

The GV-backed space exploration company is reportedly raising money at a valuation of almost $24bn, in a round that will be led by Fidelity.

Nongfenqi harvests series C cash

Bertelsmann Asia Investments was among the investors to return for farming e-commerce platform Nongfenqi’s series C round.

Bloomberg mines Cobalt in $13m series A

Bloomberg Beta had previously co-led a seed round of undisclosed size for security robot developer Cobalt Robotics two years ago.

Transport

Hellobike turns wheels toward $700m

Existing investors Fosun and Ant Financial contributed to the first tranche of the bicycle rental platform’s series E round, four months after a $500m series D.

Reaction rockets to new funding

Rolls-Royce, Boeing and existing investor BAE Systems all contributed to a $37.3m round for advanced engine developer Reaction Engines.

Karamba rakes in $10m

The Liberty Mutual, Sumitomo and Asgent-backed automotive cybersecurity technology developer’s overall funding stands at $27m.

Allianz climbs aboard Go-Jek with $35m investment

Go-Jek, which is in the process of raising $1.5bn in a round that will value it at $4bn, has pulled in $35m from Allianz X.

Xiaopeng Motors to recharge with $2.7bn

Electric vehicle developer Xiaopeng Motors intends to raise $2.7bn this year, having already secured $348m from investors including Alibaba and Foxconn in January.

DeepScale arrives at $15m series A

Siemens’ Next47 co-led the vehicle sensor developer’s latest round, which will drive recruitment and product development.

Services

Checkr fetches $100m in series C round

The background checks provider, which counts Alphabet as an investor, secured funding in a round led by funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price.

Workana gets funding commission from Seek

Existing investor Seek has invested $6.8m in Workana, a freelancer recruitment marketplace that will now expand from Latin America into Southeast Asia.

Directly powers through to $20m series B

Microsoft Ventures took part in a round that increased the customer services platform’s overall funding to $32m altogether.

Knotel books in $70m

Newmark Knight Frank and The Sapir Organization co-led a series B round that reportedly valued the workspace provider at about $500m.

Edovo locks down series A funding

Edovo, the Twilio-backed developer of an educational platform for incarcerated users, raised $9.8m from 30 investors.

Octopus arms itself with $95m

The travel services marketplace secured the series C funding from Tempus Group, Ant Financial and CCB International.