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Editorial: A Look at Unicorns
Funds
Toyota’s research division, Toyota Research Institute, has launched a dedicated corporate venturing fund called Toyota AI Ventures that will invest in artificial intelligence as well as robotics, autonomous mobility, data and cloud technology.
Partech Ventures, a US-headquartered venture firm with a significant presence in Europe,has closed its seventh VC-stage fund, Partech International Ventures VII, at $455m.
Global Brain heads for $180m close
Ground transport-focused venture firm Autotech Ventures, which had already revealed commitments from BorgWarner and Autoliv to its first fund, has now closed it at $120m.
Government
Hong Kong to launch matched venture fund
Singapore springs to action with new fund
University
Adelaide realises ThincLab
Exits
Set-top box producer Roku has hired underwriters for an IPO that could value it at up to $1bn, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The merger agreed by DraftKings and FanDuel in November was supposed to help them combat long-running regulatory issues, but those seem to have struck again.
Symantec finds Skycure in $250m acquisition
Fireglass to melt into Symantec
Baidu catches Kitt.AI
Samsung Next embarks on European trip
Government
SBI Life prepares $1bn IPO
Investments
Uber’s on-demand ride and food ordering operations in 21 cities across four countries in Eastern Europe will be merged with Yandex Taxi, a subsidiary of Russian internet company Yandex, in a deal that will create a $3.7bn company, of which Uber will own 36%.
Co-working space provider WeWork has raised $760m in a series G round that reportedly increased its valuation to $20bn.
Artificial intelligence technology provider SenseTime has completed a $410m series B round featuring Dalian Wanda that reportedly valued it at more than $1.5bn.
Shouqi Limousine and Chauffeur, a ride hailing offshoot of services Shouqi Group and Xianglong Taxi, has raised $88m in series B funding from an undisclosed investor at a valuation of about $750m.
Darktrace, the developer of a cybersecurity platform that looks to mimic the human immune system, has received $75m in a series D round led by Insight Venture Partners that valued it at $825m.
E-Scape Bio has reached the final close of a $63m series A round featuring Novo as well as CVC units Lilly Asia Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Novartis Venture Fund which E-Scape will use to advance its pipeline of neurodegenerative disease treatments.
Growth equity firm Spectrum Equity has acquired a majority stake in link management platform Bitly in return for a $63m investment.
CompareAsiaGroup, the operator of a comparison platform for financial products in Southeast Asia, has closed a $50m series B round that included Alibaba and SBI Group.
Government
Floadia flows towards $14.5m series B
University
NYGC spins out Gencove
Phytelligence harvests series B
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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