Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:47 — 15.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
Deals
Online services provider Meituan-Dianping has raised an astonishing $4bn in a funding round led by Tencent at a reported $30bn valuation, putting it just outside the world’s five most valuable VC-backed private companies.
Uber and Didi Chuxing may be the fundraising kings in the on-demand ride sector, but Lyft is no slouch. It’s closed a $1bn round led by Alphabet subsidiary CapitalG at an $11bn valuation, taking its overall funding zooming past the $3bn mark.
Flipkart has reportedly entered talks to acquire a significant minority stake in online ticketing platform BookMyShow at a valuation of $500m to $700m, having previously inquired about an acquisition.
Magic Leap has formally announced that it has raised $502m in a series D round that included Grupo Globo, Alibaba, Google and Singapore state-owned Temasek and Edbi, and which took the augmented reality technology developer’s total funding to about $1.9bn.
Intel Capital has disclosed $60m of investments in 15 data-focused companies, taking its outlay for 2017 to $566m.
On GUV, US-based cancer therapy developer Forty Seven, a spinout from Stanford University, closed a $75m series B round led by Wellington Management.
Funds
You’d be forgiven for thinking that SoftBank’s $93bn Vision Fund will last the corporate a while – though just how long is an interesting question, considering the fund’s activity over the past several months. Masayoshi Son is already thinking bigger and is keen to raise a vehicle that is even larger and could include all the limited partners from the Vision Fund. The follow-on fund could be part of a $300bn asset management arm that SoftBank is reportedly considering setting up.
Foxconn and IDG Capital announced today that they’ve invested $150m to form a strategic venture capital fund intended to close at about $1.5bn.
Guardian Media Group already had a partnership with accelerator operator Founders Factory, but has now decided to get into corporate venturing in a more direct manner, announcing a fund that will be armed with approximately $55m in capital.
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company put up $15bn of the $93bn raised by SoftBank for its Vision Fund, and they’re continuing their partnership as Mubadala establishes a San Francisco VC arm.
And in another nice crossover between the corporate and government venturing universes, RWE Generation has become the latest limited partner to join public-private partnership High-Tech Gründerfonds’ HTGF III fund.
In the university venturing world, the universities of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield have announced a $6.6m bid to improve access to finance for spinouts in the north of England. The Northern Triangle Initiative (NTI) will focus on joint intellectual property (IP) generation in common areas of expertise for the universities, including advanced materials, medical technologies and computer science. The scheme will receive the £5m injection over three years, to support the creation of some 75 tech transfer projects. The universities also plan to launch an investment fund for northern England to help raise £350m of capital from the private sector.
Exits
Business lending platform PPdai is the latest China-based internet company to choose the US for its initial public offering, and has filed to raise up to $350m on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ant Financial and Kunlun Tech-backed online lending platform Qudian has raised $900m from an upsized IPO in the US.
Database software provider MongoDB has raised $192m in its initial public offering, after floating at a price considerably above the range it set earlier this month.
The IPO market appears to be fully heating up again across the world. China’s video streaming platform iQiyi, majority-owned by Baidu, has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Bank of America to help manage an initial public offering expected to take place as early as the first half of 2018.
In the US meanwhile, Apttus is also gearing up for a flotation and has allegedly reached out to Goldman Sachs to manage an IPO, though neither have confirmed the report.
When it came to Global University Venturing, the big exit news is the hostile takeover of Touchstone Innovations, the commercialisation firm spun out of Imperial College London. After IP Group received the go-ahead from the UK’s Competition and Market Authority on Tuesday, the offer became unconditional on Thursday.
And on Global Government Venturing, diversified agro-business Godrej Agrovet has entered the public stock market following an oversubscribed $135m initial public offering. The company, backed by Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek, undertook a dual listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0