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Deals
Internet group Tencent has led an $818m series C round for China-based automotive e-commerce platform Chehaoduo. Shougang Fund, an investment branch of steelmaker Shougang, and ICBC International, a subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, also took part in the round.
Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has led a $535m series D round for US-based delivery services provider DoorDash, increasing the company’s overall funding to $722m.
Augmented reality technology developer Magic Leap is raising money at a $6bn valuation and has entered talks with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over a $400m investment.
Viela Bio has been spun out by MedImmune to develop six of its molecules to create drugs that will fight severe inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
US-based personal genomics marketplace developer Helix has closed the first tranche of a $200m series B round featuring genomics technology provider Illumina and medical research firm Mayo Clinic.
Health management system developer Collective Health raised $110m in funding from a consortium featuring GV, the early-stage investment arm of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
Chinese apartment rental platform Danke Apartment has secured $100m in a series B round that included Bertelsmann Asia Investments.
Working capital marketplace C2FO closed a $100m funding round that was co-led by Allianz X, the digital investment arm of insurance provider Allianz.
ID Quantique (IDQ), a Switzerland-based quantum cryptography spinout from University of Geneva, secured a $65m funding commitment from telecoms firm SK Telecom. ZDNet claimed the corporate will own a majority share of slightly more than 50%.
Funds
Denmark-based pharmaceutical firm Novo Holdings has launched a $165m impact investment fund that will back developers of drugs that can combat antimicrobial resistance.
SkyDeck, the startup accelerator run by University of California (UC), Berkeley, closed an oversubscribed $24m fund with capital from LPs including e-commerce group Alibaba. Venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Mayfair Venture Capital supplied capital along with assorted alumni that participated through various investment vehicles.
Indiana University Research and Technology Corp (IURTC), the commercialisation arm of Indiana University (IU), has launched a $15m evergreen fund to invest in spinouts formed by faculty, students and staff at IU’s campuses.
The House Fund, a venture capital firm focused on companies emerging from University of California (UC) Berkeley, is raising $50m for its second vehicle.
And on GGV, a group of institutional investors have joined forces to create a new $700m investment body called Capital Constellation.
Exits
Baidu holds almost 70% of China-based company iQiyi, a platform that combines streaming services similar to those of YouTube and Netflix. It has filed to raise up to $1.5bn in its own IPO, which will take place in the US, with 50% of the proceeds earmarked for content.
One of this year’s biggest tech IPOs is set to be Dropbox, the file storage and sharing platform that was valued at $10bn as of its last round in 2014.
Smart electric vehicle developer Nio has appointed underwriters for an initial public offering expected to be sized between $1bn and $2bn later this year.
It definitely looks as if the IPO market is finally gearing up again for real, with Spotify being another unicorn to file to go public. The filing confirmed that Spotify will not issue any new shares, but its investors will get the chance to sell $1bn of shares that will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Grail, the cancer testing startup launched by Illumina two years ago, is reportedly planning its own IPO and will target Hong Kong, where rule changes are set to come in this year that will make it more hospitable to tech companies.
Alibaba is considering buying out the other investors in Ele.me, the China-based food ordering platform in which it owns a reported 23% stake, according to Bloomberg, in a deal that would value it at $9.5bn.
Online marketplace eBay coul pay $700m to acquire the Japanese business of e-commerce platform Qoo10, in a transaction that would also involve it divesting its stake in Qoo10’s parent company, Giosis.
Rocket Internet has sold another $242m of shares of Delivery Hero, the online food ordering platform for which it provided $568m in funding in 2015.
Qualcomm, American Family and JF Shea are all set to generate returns after smart security tech provider Ring agreed to an acquisition by Amazon, which will pay upwards of $1bn.
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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