A round up of all the latest news on www.globalcorporateventuring.com for our subscribers.
Corporate venturing deal net: 9-13 October 2017
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
SCG cements place in Wavemaker Partners fund
Siam Cement Group’s corporate venturing arm, AddVentures, is one of the limited partners in a $66m fund closed by Wavemaker Partners today.
Akatsuki equips entertainment tech fund with $50m
Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund will target entertainment technology startups, with an initial focus on augmented reality.
Generali Italia vists H-Farm for accelerator initiative
The insurer is offering $12,000 in seed funding as part of a new health and welfare accelerator formed in partnership with incubator H-Farm.
New Oriental pores over strategic funds
Education services provider New Oriental Education and Technology is looking to invest more than $300m in education startups and another $1.5bn in larger deals.
Microsoft to meet AI startups in $3.5m competition
Microsoft has joined Madrona Venture Group, Notion Capital and Vertex Ventures to launch a contest for early-stage AI startups called Innovate.AI with a total prize pot of $3.5m.
Shell energises India with accelerator
The new E4 program is looking for startups in India with the potential to impact the future of energy and will offer support and up to $20,000 of investment.
Insurers back new Hartford accelerator
Cigna, The Hartford, White Mountains and Travelers and USAA are partnering an insurtech startup accelerator set up by Startupbootcamp.
People
Nadkarni energises Total Energy Ventures
Girish Nadkarni, president of ABB Technology Ventures from 2009 until late last year, is set to take the president position at Total Energy Ventures.
Karapataki carries herself to BEV
Christina Karapataki, formerly a venture principal for Schlumberger Technology Investments, has taken an investor role at venture fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Exits
Lundbeck and Sham have celebrated an exit after medical device developer and portfolio company Biom’Up floated on the Euronext Paris market.
Allena Pharmaceuticals, a Pharmstandard-backed developer of metabolic and kidney disorder treatments, has filed to go public after raising $93m in venture capital.
HelloFresh dishes out IPO plans
The Rocket Internet and Vorwerk-backed meal kit subscription service has confirmed it is seeking $295m to $355m in proceeds from a Frankfurt Stock Exchange flotation.
Spero spies opening in public markets
Bacterial infection treatment developer Spero Therapeutics has filed to raise up to $86.3m in an initial public offering that will enable a host of corporates to exit.
The internet company has bought Tiny Garage Labs, the Bloomberg Beta-backed developer of podcasting app 60dB, and will bring its team in-house.
Avizia has acquired Carena, which counted McKesson, Cambia Health Solutions and Catholic Health Initiatives as investors, to form a diverse telehealth platform.
Sea sets IPO range with $695m target
The Tencent-backed Southeast Asian online services provider is set to raise between $596m and $695m from its US initial public offering.
Aquantia to connect itself to public markets
The integrated circuit producer, which has raised more than $195m from investors including GlobalFoundries, Cisco, Intel, LSI and Xilinx, has filed for an $86m IPO.
Microsoft has acquired the Comcast, Tencent and Alphabet-backed social VR developer, saving it from shutting down and allowing it to continue its previous work.
Ace Hardware gobbles up The Grommet
Hardware retailer Ace has acquired the Rakuten-backed e-commerce platform to serve as an e online discovery platform for its business.
The open-source database platform developer will raise $160m if it floats at the top of its range, with Intel, Dell, Red Hat and Salesforce set to exit.
HelloFresh spruces up IPO plans
Rocket Internet-backed HelloFresh had filed for a $332m offering in 2015 but halted the plans a month later.
IT
SecurityScorecard registers series C funding
Nokia Growth Partners led the cybersecurity software provider’s $27.5m round, which included Intel Capital, Axa Strategic Ventures, Moody’s and GV.
Attivo attends to $21m series C
The Macnica-backed cybersecurity software developer has raised $21m in funding from existing investors, just five months after closing its series B round.
Ross Intelligence motions for series A
Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund has backed the legal research software developer’s $8.7m series A round as it looks to expand into new practice areas and product lines.
SoftBank helps put $164m in Mapbox
Mpabox, a location services provider for app developers, took its total funding to nearly $230m with a series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund.
SoftBank led the machine learning techology startup’s series B round, which comes less than a year after its $15m Tencent-backed series A.
Open-Xchange meets investors for new funding
The United Internet-backed communication and productivity software developer has added $24.9m to its coffers in order to increase recruitment.
GitLab experiments with $20m series C
GV has led a series C round that will help GitLab, which has now raised $45m altogether, evolve to a software development and operations company.
Health
Novartis fits the picture as ImaginAb raises $8m
ImaginAb, which has now raised approximately $4m in total, will continue development of the imaging agent it is developing for T-cell tumours.
PanOptica sees $11m in series B
The ophthalmology-focused drug developer, which is backed by pharmaceutical company Novo, plans to use the money to further test its lead product candidate.
The protective clothing developer has now raised more than $36m in total, after closing a round that included Northwell Ventures and Mercy Health.
Media
Magic Leap targets $1bn landing
The augmented reality technology developer, which counts several large corporates as investors, aims to raise $1bn in funding, according to a securities filing.
Kobalt kicks series D up to $89m
Kobalt has secured $14m in a Section 32-led second tranche of the round, which features Hearst and which valued the music services provider at $700m pre-money.
Consumer
Tencent considers throwing $100m into Sea
Tencent, online services provider Sea’s largest investor, has expressed interest in buying $100m of shares in the latter’s forthcoming initial public offering.
21Buttons fixes $10m series A round
The fashion e-commerce app developer has raised funding in a Mediaset and Banco Sabadell-backed round as it looks to expand into new international territories.
Financial
CoverWallet gets fatter in series B round
Insurer CV Starr has participated in an $18.5m round for business insurance startup CoverWallet as part of a product development collaboration deal.
Intel Capital and Info Edge-backed online insurance and loans marketplace operator eTechAces has raised $77m in a round that valued it at $500m.
True Link assembles $8m series A round
True Link, a Cambia Health Solutions and Ziegler-backed financial services provider for the elderly, has secured $8m from a trio of investors.
ValueInsured claims $6.5m in new round
Seed-stage investors investors Everest Re Group and Houston International Insurance Group have returned to reinvest in the down payment insurance supplier.
JPMorgan Chase and Temasek co-led a round that increased the Amex-backed business payment processor’s total funding to $230m.
Slice Labs pieces together series A funding
XL Innovate co-led an $11.6m round for the cloud insurance platform that included Sompo Japan and Munich Re/HSB Ventures, and which will fund geographic growth.
BrickVest banks series A funding
The online real estate investment platform has formed a strategic partnership with Berlin Hyp, which led the $11.8m round.
Spotcap lends itself to new funding
The Rocket Internet-backed online lender has secured $25.8m in equity and debt financing from existing backers, and revealed it has issued more than $140m in credit to SMEs.
Energy and Natural Resources
Clean Energy Innovation Fund provided $5m of the funding, as solar system startup Redback Technologies added funding to the cash raised from EnergyAustralia last year.
Transport
Corporates drive XL Hybrids’ series D to $22m
The vehicle electrification technology provider has now raised more than $50m altogether, after securing $22m in a round featuring Ikea and Exelon.
PSA helps ship series A capital to Deliveree
The last-mile delivery services platform has raised $14.5m in a PSA International-backed round that was led by venture capital firm Gobi Partners.
Tencent has led a $1.1bn round for Ola that included SoftBank, and the Indian ride hailing service is aiming to boost the round to $2bn.
Services
Autodesk spins out Creative Market
The design marketplace, acquired by Autodesk in 2014, has raised $7m in series A funding from five investors to fund its return to independence.
Andela devises $40m series C round
Salesforce Ventures and GV both took part in a series C round for Andela, the developer of an African IT recruitment platform, taking its total funding to more than $80m.
Ascendify recruits corporates for $11m series A
GE Ventures and Cisco Investments have contributed to an $11m round for a developer of software that helps companies intelligently recruit and manage talent.
Verve spreads word of new funding
Verve, The Universal Music-backed marketing service formerly known as StreetTeam, will use its $18.5m series B round to support international growth.
Airtasker breathes in new cash
Seven West Media was among the participants in the task marketplace’s $25.7m round and now owns a stake in excess of 18%.
Travel agency Ctrip has co-led a $300m round for holiday home platform Tujia, two years after the corporate contributed to a series D round of the same size.
Eventbrite gets $25m in Square deal
Ticketing management platform Eventbrite has received $25m in funding from Square as part of a strategic partnership deal, taking its total funding to $225m.
Flexport flags Wells Fargo in $110m round
The freight management software provider, which counts Bloomberg Beta and GV as investors, has confirmed its DST-led series C round, which included Wells Fargo.
