Ghent joins Imec to start Sentea
Sentea has been spun out with $1.9m in seed funding to commercialise fibre optic sensor technologies that monitor engineering structures for wear and damage.

Utec helps Locix structure funding
Logistics data analytics platform Locix has emerged from stealth with $20m in funding provided by investors including University of Tokyo Edge Capital.

Twentyeight-Seven counts down to $65m series A
Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics has officially launched with $65m in series A funding to commercialise oncology treatments based on research at Harvard Medical School.

Barrow to roll onward from UMass
Abigail Barrow will stand down as interim executive director of University of Massachusetts’s office of technology commercialization on September 14 after three and a half years.

OncoResponse answers questions with $40m series B
Helsinn Investment Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments both invested as MD Anderson-backed OncoResponse looks to advance five immuno-oncology drug candidates.

Fujifilm delivers funding to Suono Bio
Suono Bio is based on MIT research and is aiming to use low-frequency ultrasound to bring therapeutic compounds to target cells with greater efficiency.

Merrick captures KiwiNet chairwoman role
Ngaio Merrick has been on the commercialisation initiative’s board since 2016, having previously worked with a municipal development agency.

BennuBio screens $1.5m round
BennuBio has assumed control of an existing UNM licence for cytometer technology, securing commitments from three investors to target a commercial release by next year.

BridgeSat rockets into $10m series B
Allied Minds has backed a series B round for its portfolio company BridgeSat, which also welcomed Boeing HorizonX Ventures as an investor.

UniQuest hits 100 spinouts
University of Queensland revealed it has generated more than 100 spinouts since 1988, with probiotic drink manufacturer Perkii becoming number 100 in 2016.

CIC leads Audiotelligence’s $1.7m round
Audiotelligence also counts Cambridge Enterprise among its investors, having spun out of from 1988 Cambridge spinout Cedar Audio last year.

Exotrail finds path to $4.1m
Small satellite propulsion technology developer Exotrail has been backed by Satt Paris-Saclay as it prepares for a 2019-2020 market launch.

Atreca carries on funding streak with $125m
The immunotherapy developer, co-founded by Stanford professor Lawrence Steinman, closed an oversubscribed round that took its total funding to approximately $226m.

Elevian energises $5.5m seed round
Elevian will commercialise research from Harvard and Stanford indicating young blood cells could be used to restore tissues in older patients.

Avid rates $6m series A
4490 Ventures, the VC firm co-founded by Warf in 2013, has joined Beringea for customer experience software provider Avid Ratings’ series A round.

Imec expands to $135m
The research institute has achieved a $135m close for its Imec.xpand fund, breaking through its target of $116m just over a year after launching fundraising efforts.

HawkEye 360 locks in $14.9m series A-3
HawkEye 360 has raised $5.3m in a series A-3 extension to take the round’s total to $14.9m, with the cash going towards the launch of its first commercial satellites.

Francis Crick secures $520,000 for KQ Labs
Ten businesses will receive $52,000 in grant funding for participating in a Francis Crick-operated accelerator for data science-powered biomedical interfaces.

Growers reaps $5m series A
VTC Innovation Fund is among the investors in agricultural management software developer Growers’ latest round.

DyeMansion polishes $5m series A
3D finishing technology developer DyeMansion has been backed by UVC Partners, AM Ventures and BtoV Partners.

Main Sequence rearranges fund to $167m
University of Melbourne and Lockheed Martin have contributed to an additional $94.8m tranche for the Csiro Innovation Fund, bringing its total to $167m.

Corporates get on AutoGrid in $32m series D
AutoGrid, the distributed energy management platform backed by Stanford, will use the capital from the Eon, CLP, Innogy, Total, Ørsted and Tenaska-backed round to boost hiring.

Corelight spots $25m series B
UC Berkeley cybersecurity spinout Corelight has added General Catalyst to earlier investors including Accel Partners to bring its total funding to $34.2m.

IU reveals 2017-18 results
Indiana University has marked a successful three-year period during which it reported 154 licensing agreements and $17.1m in tech transfer revenue.

Akili treats itself to new UC licence
UCSF digital therapy spinout Akili Interactive Labs previously disclosed $97.4m in funding from investors including Amgen and Merck Group.

SkyDeck extends beyond Berkeley
UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck accelerator is now open to founders from any University of California campus as well as foreign nationals applying through its global acceleration stream.

Seven Peaks culminates in $28m fund
OSU Foundation has become a limited partner in Seven Peaks Ventures’ second fund, which has already backed seven companies, including University of Washington’s Owl City.

Boehringer revisits ViraT for $245m acquisition
Medical University of Innsbruck immunotherapy spinout ViraTherapeutics has been bought for $245m by its existing shareholder Boehringer Ingelheim, enabling EMBL to exit.

Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 14-18 September 2015

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

Fundraising

State Farm plants $100m in investment fund

State Farm has become the latest insurance firm to get involved in corporate venturing, launching a vehicle called State Farm Ventures.

Cigna signs off on $250m investment fund

The healthcare provider, which has become an increasingly active investor, has formed a corporate venturing unit called Cigna Ventures.

Main Sequence rearranges fund to reach $167m

Lockheed Martin was among the limited partners that helped Main Sequence Ventures add almost $95m to its Csiro Innovation Fund 1.

Imec attracts corporates to close fund at $135m

Samsung, Philips, Applied Materials, SK Hynix, KBC, Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis and KPN Ventures have all backed the Imec.xpand fund.

Alabama Futures Fund aligns with corporates for $25m

The fund has closed with backing from Protective Life Insurance and Hoar Construction and will target seed-stage deals for local startups.

Exits

WeWork gets a new Teem in $100m deal

GE Ventures and NGP Capital have exited workplace software provider Teem in a $100m acquisition by WeWork.

Westwing to decree $139m IPO

Rocket Internet-backed furniture e-commerce company Westwing is aiming to raise $139m in an initial public offering in Frankfurt.

Meituan Dianping makes out with $4.2bn in IPO

The Tencent-backed local services portal has priced the offering near the top of its range at a valuation of about $52bn.

Nio parks in public markets with $1bn

The Tencent,Baidu, Lenovo and JD.com-backed electric carmaker floated near the foot of its range at a reported $6.4bn valuation.

Intel catches NetSpeed in acquisition deal

Network-on-chip technology developer NetSpeed has been acquired by Intel, an investor in the company since 2014, for an undisclosed amount.

NetGear draws up Meural acquisition

Electronic art frame producer Meural has been acquired by NetGear less than a year after the corporate took part in its series A round.

Chain goes Interstellar with Lightyear merger

Chain, a blockchain technology provider backed by Visa, Orange, Fiserv, Nasdaq, Citi and Capital One, has merged with Lightyear to form a new company dubbed Interstellar.

Augmenix gels with Boston Scientific for $600m

Boston Scientific will pay $500m upfront and up to $100m in milestone payments to acquire Augmenix, providing exits to Varian Medical Systems and Ascension Health.

Eventbrite sets price range of IPO admission

Square-backed event ticketing management platform Eventbrite will price its shares between $19 and $21 and could raise up to a total of more than $241m when it goes public.

Guardant Health to chaperon shares to Nasdaq

Guardant Health is targeting $100m in proceeds for its initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, which would offer an exit to SoftBank.

IT

Packet opens up to let in $25m

Samsung Next, JA Mitsui Leasing and existing investors SoftBank and Dell Technologies Capital all chipped in to Packet’s series B round.  

Cosmo Tech shoots for $21m series B

Inven Capital led a round for Cosmo that included Credit Agricole Creation, Total Energy Ventures, BNP Paribas Developpement and Aster.

Pendo tends to fundraising with $50m

The Salesforce-backed product assessment platform has now raised $106m altogether, after Sapphire Ventures led its latest round.

Locix locates series B funding

Murata Manufacturing led a round of undisclosed size for the spatial data technology developer, whose backers include Sumitomo, iRobot, Acer, Yaskawa and NTT Docomo.

PingCap indexes $50m in series C funding

Cloud-based database developer PingCap will use the proceeds from the round, co-led by Fosun, to drive global growth and technology development.

HawkEye 360 turns to Raytheon

Raytheon led a $5.3m second tranche of a $14.9m series A-3 round for the RF signal analytics system developer.

Ringle.ai rings up $30m

Bertelsmann Asia Investments and IDG Capital provided the funding for AI-based data management platform developer Ringle.

Sentera goes Continental in series A round

Continental Grain Company was among the investors as agricultural data technology developer raised $14m.

Uberall finds investors for $25m extension

United Inernet reinvested in the location data management platform, which doubled its series B round to $50m in the transaction.

Branch to spread into $129m series D

Samsung-backed Branch is raising $129m at a valuation of at least $1bn, though investors have not yet been revealed.

Health

Epic applies itself to $52m series E

Oncology diagnostics technology developer Epic Sciences, whose investors include Genomic Health, Pfizer and Roche, has now raised at least $135m in total.

Boehringer Ingelheim greets ViraTherapeutics in $245m purchase

Cancer drug developer ViraTherapeutics has been acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim, three years after the corporate led its series A round.

InfoBionic gets pulse racing to raise $50m

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas both backed a round that boosted the heart monitor developer’s total financing to $77m.

Atreca carries on funding streak with $125m

The GlaxoSmithKline-backed immunotherapy developer closed an oversubscribed round that took its total funding to approximately $226m.

Biodesy seizes $20m

Alexandria Venture Investments led a series C round that included existing investors Pfizer Ventures and Roche Venture Fund.

OncoResponse answers questions with $40m series B

Cigna makes Cricket match in $24m series ACricket Health, developer of an integrated kidney care service that helps patients stay out of hospital, has completed an Oak HC/FT-led series A round.

Twentyeight-Seven counts down to $65m series A

Novartis Venture Fund, a founding investor, co-led a $65m series A round to launch cancer treatment developer Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics.

Media

Pixellot picks up $30m

Shamrock Capital led a round that boosted the overall amount raised by the Baidu-backed sports media production platform developer to $40m.

Dream11 wakes up to $100m series D

Tencent has led a $100m series D round for fantasy sports company Dream11, a deal that was first rumoured in April this year.

Consumer

Fave faces SIG in $20m series B

Fave, the loyalty and rewards platform formerly known as Groupon Singapore, has secured series B funding from investors include SIG Asia.

Ctrip sets $100m course for Zomato

The online travel booking platform is in talks to invest $100m as part of a $400m round that will value the restaurant listings platform at up to $2bn.

Shea Ventures cheers on Drinks in $15m round

JF Shea’s corporate venturing unit has invested in online wine retailer Drinks as part of a series B round led by Beverly Pacific.

Financial

Kissht consumes $30m

Sistema Asia Fund and Vertex Ventures co-led a $30m series C round for buy now, pay later service Kissht that included existing investor Fosun.

CrossLend accesses SolarisBank and ABN Amro

The banks, both now strategic partners of debt marketplace CrossLend, have also invested in a $16.2m round for the company.

Acorn OakNorth reaches for $100m

NIBC Bank has contributed to a $100m funding round for lender Acorn OakNorth, which is now valued at $2.3bn.

Energy and Natural Resources

Solid Power shows strength to raise $20m

The solid-state battery developer has closed a series A round that included Hyundai, Samsung, Solvay, Sanoh Industrial and A123 Systems.

Corporates get on AutoGrid in $32m series

Distributed energy management platform AutoGrid will use the capital from the Eon, CLP, Innogy, Total, Ørsted and Tenaska-backed round to boost hiring.

Industrial

Benson Hill reaps $60m in series C

GV led Benson Hill Biosystems’ latest round, which increased the total raised by the crop specification technology provider to more than $94m.

Transport

Lithia makes Shift in $140m series D

Automotive sales services provider Shift Technologies raised debt and equity financing in a round led by Lithia Motors and backed by BMW i Ventures.

Banma gets $2.3bn in the can

Alibaba and SAIC Motor’s smart car joint venture has closed its first funding round with the support of SAIC’s investment management arm, Shangqi Capital.

Services

ShipBob handles $40m series C delivery

Recruit-backed e-commerce fulfilment services provider ShipBob increased its total funding to more than $62m in a round led by Menlo Ventures.

MasterClass addresses $80m series D

Evolution Media has put its weight behind MasterClass, an online education provider already backed by Bloomberg and Novel Group.