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Deals
Mobile wallet operator Mobikwik has raised more than $120m from an investor base that includes corporates Net1, Cisco, American Express, GMO and Mediatek, and is currently in talks with investors for a round that could value it at up to $1bn, CEO Bipin Preet Singh has told Reuters.
View has been developing its Dynamic Glass, which tints to help control light and temperature in a building, since 2007 and has now added $100m in funding in a round that included $50m from Nuveen affiliate TIAA Investments.
Urban logistics services provider Shansong Express has raised $50m in a series C round co-led by SIG Asia that will be spent on growth and product development.
Alphabet subsidiary GV has led a $45m series C round for metal 3D printing technology developer Desktop Metal that included fellow corporate venturing units BMW i Ventures and Lowe’s Ventures. Desktop Metal, now valued at $350m according to the Wall Street Journal, has raised approximately $97m in total and its previous investors include General Electric and Saudi Aramco.
Mojo Networks, a 13-year old company that provides cloud wifi services to large businesses, has raised $30m in series E equity financing and debt, with strategic partner Alpha Technologies among the participants.
Cisco Investments has co-led a $30m series C round for Exabeam that took the cybersecurity platform developer’s overall funding to $65m.
On Global University Venturing we’ve had Tsinghua Holdings, a subsidiary of Tsinghua University, leading an $18m series B round for THG Ventures, a China-based cancer diagnosis and therapy company.
We also have Leeds University, which has spun out Dietary Assessment, which has developed a tool to enable researchers and health professionals to monitor diet and analyse food and drink consumption with a view of helping reduce diet-related conditions such as diabetes.
Indiana University meanwhile has established Digital Health Solutions to exploit a software that helps paediatricians make better use of electronic health records by collecting and analysing questions about a child’s health and flagging potential health issues.
On GGV, India-based online automotive classifieds service CarTrade, has raised $55m in funding co-led by Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek.
Funds
Legend Capital, the Chinese venture firm sponsored by Lenovo owner Legend Holdings, has raised $243m for a fund it is looking to close at $375m, according to a regulatory filing.
In Southeast Asia meanwhile, ride ordering service Grab has committed to providing at least $100m for Indonesia-based startups as part of a $700m investment initiative in the country.
Indian consumer electronics producer Micromax is set to the be the anchor investor in a venture capital fund called Orbis Capital, and is in the process of securing limited partners that will increase the fund’s size to $100m.
Frontline Ventures, a VC firm based in the UK and Ireland, closed a €60m ($65m) fund on Tuesday with support from investors including the European Investment Fund.
Greece on Monday launched a call for financial institutions and private investors to participate in its VC fund Equifund.
Government-owned export credit agency Enterprise Ireland’s €175m ($185m) seed and venture capital programme, the state-owned €8bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and the European Investment Fund have committed capital to VC firm Seroba Life Sciences’ €100m third fund.
And finally, Russia Direct Investment Fund, the country’s government venturing arm, has said it expects more than $1bn in additional funding by the end of 2017 as its peer Qatar Investment Authority pledges to increase the size of its co-investments alongside RDIF.
Exits
Kuaishou, the China-based developer of a photo and video-sharing app similar to Instagram and Snapchat, is planning an IPO in the US in the second half of 2017, undisclosed sources have told TechCrunch.
Sophos has agreed to acquire Invincea in a deal that will give an exit to Dell Ventures, just three months after the unit took part in a $10m round for the anti-malware software developer.
Detsky Mir, a Russia-based children’s retailer backed by the Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF), raised 21.1bn rubles ($355m) yesterday in its initial public offering on the Moscow stock exchange. RCIF is a joint initiative between sovereign wealth funds China Investment Corporation and Russian Direct Investment Fund.
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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