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Deals
Showing that China’s online education sector continues to grow, VIPkid has raised $500m in a series D+ round that reportedly valued it at more than $3bn.
Restaurant listings and reviews platform Zomato is beginning to expand into delivery services, and is also in talks with existing investors Ant Financial and Temasek to raise $400m in a new funding round.
Deep learning chip producer Cambricon has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in a series B round featuring Alibaba Innovation Ventures that valued it at $2.5bn.
Endpoint protection software provider CrowdStrike has pulled in about $200m in a series E round that valued it at more than $3bn. CapitalG was among the investors, having led the company’s $100m series C round in 2015 before returning for a $125m series D that closed late last year.
Taihe Music Group owns several record labels as well as substantial music publishing and live music interests, and has just raised $154m in a round co-led by Legend Capital.
Mevion Medical Systems, the developer of a proton therapy system intended to function as a less damaging form of radiation-based cancer treatment, has received $150m in a round including Henan Maisheng Medical Technology to take its overall financing to about $500m.
Stealth BioTherapeutics is developing elamipretide, a therapy intended to treat a range of disorders related to mitochondrial dysfunction, and it’s revealed $100m of convertible note financing across two rounds.
Viva Republica, the Korea-based owner of financial services app Toss, has secured $40m in funding from Sequoia Capital China and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC in what it called a bridge round, boosting its total funding to almost $120m.
And on GUV, Freeline Therapeutics, a UK-based gene therapy spinout from University College London (UCL) and commercialisation firm Syncona, received $116m in a series B round backed by both founding partners.
Exits
Xiaomi is getting closer to what looks set to be the biggest tech IPO since Alibaba back in 2014, and has secured seven cornerstone investors that will combine to buy 10% of the shares, potentially spending in excess of $600m.
Fresh from its $85bn merger with Time Warner, AT&T has begun talks to acquire online advertising platform AppNexus for a reported $1.6bn, in a deal that would enable WPP, Microsoft, News Corp and Deutsche Telekom to exit.
Finance trading technology provider Stellar has entered talks to acquire blockchain technology developer Chain for $500m in a transaction that will reportedly include some cash but will primarily involve Stellar’s cryptotokens, known as Lumens.
Home products marketplace Home24 has raised about $174m in an initial public offering in Frankfurt, floating near the top of the IPO’s range.
Salesforce has already notched up two big IPO exits, from Dropbox and DocuSign, so far this year, and is set to follow that up with two more. Online surveying service SurveyMonkey, which was valued at $2bn when it last raised money in 2014, has filed confidentially for its own offering.
Business optimisation platform Domo, which also counts Salesforce as an investor, has set the terms for its own IPO and will raise $202m if it floats at the top of its range.
On GUV, Anandia Laboratories, a Canada-based cannabis research services provider spun out from University of British Columbia (UBC), has agreed to an acquisition by medicinal marijuana distributor Aurora Cannabis for C$115m ($86.5m) in shares.
Funds
Norway-based research organisation Sintef has launched a NOK500m ($61m) seed fund called Venture V that will look to help commercialise local research. Sintef put up $13.5m for the fund through its venture capital arm, Sintef Venture.
The British Business Bank has announced the creation of a new £2.5bn ($3.6bn) investment fund aimed at supporting high-growth companies in the UK.
US-based spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners made a regulatory filing yesterday indicating it will seek $250m for its third fund.
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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