Virtual Incision performs $18m funding procedure

The surgical robot spinout from University of Nebraska will use the series B financing, co-led by SinoPharm, to support it through its application for market clearance.

Remynd secures licence agreement

Remynd could receive as much as $413m from healthcare firm Novo Nordisk if its ReS39 diabetes treatment is proven to be effective.

Genequine sells therapy for up to $64m

Flexion will pay an undisclosed up-front sum for Genequine’s arthritis therapy, which is currently in pre-clinical development.

Relay completes $63m series B leg

GV has joined the investors in oncology treatment develolper Relay Therapeutics, which has now raised $120m altogether.

Pionyr institutes $62m series B

NEA has led a series B round for cancer treatment developer Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, co-founded by researchers from UC San Francisco and University of Toronto.

Enpulsion powers up $1.4m investment

The spinout from University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt has obtained capital from AWS Seedfinancing, a program operated by Austria’s federal development bank. 

Medherant patches $5.1m

The Warwick spinout has received $5.1m in capital from investors such as Mercia Technologies to fund commercialisation of a transdermal ibuprofen patch.

GenXComm connects to series A investors

UT Horizon Fund has returned for a $7m series A for GenXComm, having also contributed to a $1.5m seed round in June this year.

ImmunoBiochem targets funding

The company is working on treatments for breast cancer and solid tumours, based on research at University of Toronto and the Centre for the Commercialization of Antibodies and Biologics.

Spirochem synthesises investment

ETH Zurich spinout Spirochem has raised cash to accelerate its sales activities and boost productivity.

Abingdon adds $1.5m

Existing shareholders have provided additional funding to Abingdon Health, which is developing a test for multiple myeloma.

Carbon Air breathes in $850,000

University of Salford spinout Carbon Air has closed a funding round led by Mercia Fund Managers.

TearSolutions eyes $8.5m series B

The ocular biotech spinout was has received cash from backers including the VTC Innovation Fund as it prepares to take its dry eye syndrome treatment through clinical testing.

Multiwave Innovation scans MRI licence

Satt Sud-Est has licensed technology relating to metamaterial-based antennae for very powerful MRI scanners to Multiwave Innovation.

TactoTek shapes $5.9m round

VTT spinout TactoTek has attracted $5.9m in funding from Ascend Capital Partners.

Fusion Antibodies amps up for IPO

Queen’s University spinout Fusion Antibodies is targeting $7.4m in proceeds in an IPO that will provide an exit to Qubis and Invest NI.

Cambridge shows off Intellegens

The artificial intelligence developer has secured seed capital of undisclosed size to commercialise its AI-based neural network platform.

Mirriad to insert shares into Aim

University of Surrey in-video advertising spinout Mirriad is set to raise $35m in an initial public offering at a market cap of $84.4m.

Lab150 – a new paradigm in drug discovery

The initiative, launched by Mars Innovation and Evotec in September 2017, seeks to bridge academic research, translation and commercialisation.

UM Ventures launches Baltimore Fund

University of Maryland’s tech transfer office is set to form a fund that will invest in local university-linked startups.

Imperial and Tsinghua seed $300,000 exchange fund

The vehicle will support small-scale experiments and prototypes and give researchers linked with both institutions the opportunity to exchange ideas.

Corporate venturing deal net: 11-15 December 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

Rosatom and Skolkovo to shape startup contest

Energy company Rosatom and Skolkovo Foundation have launched Vector, a competition

Navitas Capital builds $60m second fund

Saint-Gobain and JLL were among the limited partners that put up the cash, which VC firm Navitas will use for real estate and construction technology deals.

JD.com and Plug and Play launch US accelerator

JD.com has partnered Plug and Play to launch an accelerator for US startups developing technologies for the retail and logistics sectors.

Valeo drives Cathay’s cartech vehicle to $226m

Cathay Pacific has launched a fund that will invest in automotive and mobility technology, with Valeo supplying 25% of the capital.

6 Dimensions seeks $26m for affiliates fund

The firm, formed by the merger of WuXi Healthcare Ventures and Frontline Bioventures, is raising a $26m affiliates fund according to a securities filing.

People

Kevin Jacques gets Visa position

Jacques has become global head of Visa Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous US-listed payments firm.

Ferreira flees WME for FirstMark

Beth Ferreira has rejoined VC firm FirstMark Capital as managing director, bringing an end to her time at corporate venturing unit WME Ventures.

Exits

Quark dots the i’s on Docurated purchase

Rogers Ventures has exited data refining technology developer Docurated in an acquisition by Quark of undisclosed size.

Corporates see Mirriad possibilities in $35m IPO

Video advertising software developer Mirriad aims to raise $35m in a London initial public offering that will score exits for Unilever, STV and Zee Entertainment.

Big Deal: Cell Design acquisition shows immunotherapies sector success

Adding Cell Design and Kite Pharma to its portfolio brings Gilead to the top table in probably the hottest area for advanced therapies and follows the playbook the company has used over the past few decades to expand.

Cell Design sells to Gilead in $567m deal

The transaction includes a 12.2% stake in Cell Design held by Kite Pharma, which Gilead bought for $11.9bn in October this year.

Apple magics up $400m Shazam acquisition

Investors such as América Móvil, Sony, Universal and Access Industries will exit the music identification platform, though likely at a loss.

IT

ThinkForce breaks through to $68m series A

ThinkForce is working on semiconductor technology that integrates artificial intelligence, and has raised its inaugural funding round from investors including Yitu.

ShieldX Networks secures $25m series B

NTT, Symantec and FireEye all contributed to the $25m round for ShieldX, which previously raised $9m in a 2015 series A.

Menlo mines corporates to raise $40m

American Express, Ericsson, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC all contributed to the round, boosting malware protection technology developer Menlo Security’s total funding to $85m.

Kingsoft Cloud keeps going with $300m

Parent company Kingsoft invested $150m to retain a majority stake in its cloud services spinout, which has now raised about $500m in total.

OneWeb to attract another $500m from SoftBank

SoftBank initially invested $1bn in satetllite internet service provider OneWeb as part of a $1.2bn round late last year.

Vion invites corporates for $20m series B

Samsung and ABB have contributed to a $20m round for smart vision product developer Vion Technology, which will use the cash for hiring and product development.

Modsy enters funding mode to raise $23m

Advance Publications, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Oath and Alphabet have all backed interior design technology developer Modsy’s series B round.

Health

Relay completes $63m series B leg

GV has joined the investors in oncology treatment developer Relay Therapeutics, which has now raised $120m altogether.

Virtual Incision performs $18m funding procedure

The surgical robot developer will use the series B financing, co-led by SinoPharm, to support it through its application for market clearance.

InSightec’s series E operation raises $150m

Koch Disruptive Technologies led the latest round for the ultrasound surgery system developer, which is also backed by GE Healthcare and Elbit Imaging.

Novo enters NorthSea in series A round

NorthSea Therapeutics has secured $29.3m in series A funding to continue development of treatments for inflammatory and liver diseases.

Investors hand series B2 funding to SwipeSense

Hand sanitation monitoring system provider SwipeSense has secured $10.6m to expand its team and accelerate product development.

Hookipa Biotech hauls in series C cash

Gilead, Boehring Ingelheim and Takeda have contributed to a $59.6m round for Hookipa, a developer of immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer.

Metacrine meets Alexandria in $22m series B

Alexandria Venture Investments has participated in an NEA-led round that took the total raised by the metabolic disease drug startup to $60m.

Media

Skillz raises $25m to pay the bills

The mobile eSports platform has almost doubled its total funding with a series C round co-led by corporates Telstra and Liberty Global.

Dreamscape admits corporates to $30m series B

AMC led the round, which included Dreamscape’s fellow strategic partners Nickelodeon, Majid Al Futtaim, VRSense and Image Nation Abu Dhabi.

Candee sweetens funding pot

Daiichi Shokai, NTT Docomo, Opt, Yahoo Japan and Gree helped provide $21.7m for mobile video services startup Candee.

36Kr Media reports $45m series A round

The VC and technology-focused news platform, a spinout from technology group 36Kr, has raised capital from investors including Baidu Video.

Nextdoor moves in $75m

The locally-focused social media platform, which counts GV and Comcast Ventures as backers, has secured funding from unnamed investors.

Spotify and Tencent subsidiary share equity

Spotify and Tencent-owned music streaming service TME have taken equity stakes in each other as they reportedly each prepare for an IPO.

Consumer

Clas Ohlson meets MatHem for $26m partnership

Clas Ohlson has agreed to invest in e-commerce platform MatHem as part of a partnership agreement that will enable the latter to sell Clas Ohlson’s goods.

Harry’s shaves off more funding

The Grace Beauty-backed online razor retailer has secured $63.7m according to a security filing, with the round reportedly set to stay open.

BigBasket to pack up $280m

Alibaba is reportedly set to invest $200m in the online grocery retailer at an $800m valuation as part of a $280m funding round.

Analysis: Moda Operandi attracts $165m

The fashion e-commerce platform raised $165m in its latest funding round, which featured LVMH and Fidelity. This is one of the largest and latest rounds in the fashion space.

Beyond Meat consumes $55m

Tyson Foods has reinvested in the vegetarian burger producer as part of a round led by venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue.

Idagio tunes up $9.4m series A

The music e-commerce portal has raised funding in a Tengelmann-backed round as it looks to build the world’s biggest classical music catalogue.

Financial

Billie fills up series A round

Existing investor Rocket Internet has returned to take part in an $11.8m round for online business lending startup Billie.

iZettle nets funding at a $950m valuation

The Intel, Mastercard, Amex and Santander-backed small business payment and revenue platform has raised $47.3m in a Dawn Capital led round.

Investors insert $50m into Insikt

Grupo Coppel has led a $50m series D round for Insikt, an online lender to the underbanked, whose existing shareholders also include Rakuten.

Naspers finances Creditas in $50m round

Naspers, an investor in Creditas’ $19m series B round earlier this year, returned for a $50m series C that will support product development.

Aspiration ascends to $47m series B

The Renren-backed financial services provider, which gives 10% of its  fees to charitable schemes, has now raised $67m altogether.

Mswipe gets away with $41m

The Ola-backed mobile payment technology provider has added $10m from B Capital and DSG Consumer Partners to the $31m it raised in June.

Energy and Natural Resources

ESS stores $13m in funding

Chemicals producer BASF has led a series B round for ESS, which will use the funding to automate manufacturing of its iron flow battery.

Industrial

Corporates venture into iSpace

The lunar exploration company has raised $90.2m in a series A round featuring TBS, Konica Minolta, Shimizu, Dentsu, KDDI, Japan Airlines, Toppan and Suzuki.

Samsung guides Perceptin to $11m

Samsung Ventures has invested $1m in robotics vision technology developer Perceptin, which has revealed $11m in total funding.

Asilomar Bio harvests series B cash

The crop additive developer has secured $12.3m for product development and commercialisation from a consortium led by Syngenta.

Transport

Cox senses Ouster in $27m series A

The lidar technology developer has emerged from stealth with $27m of funding led by Cox Enterprises and backed by Exelon.

InMotion Ventures confirms 2017 investments

Businesses backed by Jaguar Land Rover’s strategic investment arm include ride hailing platform Lyft and flexible car insurance platform By Mile.

Services

MindTickle sells Qualcomm on $27m round

Qualcomm Ventures has contributed to the sales training platform developer’s series B round, having already participated in its 2015 series A.

Simility detects PayPal to raise $17.5m

The fraud detection platform developer will use the funding to expand its sales operations and grow its data science team.

Supermonkey swings to series C round

Fosun RZ Capital has participated in a nine-figure renminbi round for gym operator Supermonkey, having been an investor since its series A round.

SIG connects with Graduway

Alumni networking platform provider Graduway has received a $12.7m investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity, a subsidiary of Susquehanna International Group.