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Deals
Last month Alibaba formally merged Ele.me, the food listings and delivery platform it acquired in April, with Koubei, its local services spinout which raised $1.1bn in early 2017. There were reports at the time suggesting it would source $3bn of funding for the entity, but it turns out it has actually raised $4bn from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund as well as Alibaba and Ant Financial at a valuation of about $30bn.
Reports last month suggested SoftBank Vision Fund was mulling an investment of up to $20bn to take a majority stake in one of its largest portfolio companies, workspace provider WeWork.
SoftBank Vision Fund has had quite a week, following up $3bn of financing for WeWork by investing $300m in Automation Anywhere at a reported valuation of $2.6bn.
Brazil-based online food ordering platform iFood has raised $500m from investorsincluding its majority owner, mobile commerce platform Movile, and Naspers, the media and e-commerce group that’s probably Movile’s most prominent investor.
Baidu lifts XinChao’s latest round to $302m
Instacart has reportedly raised $271m in new funding from investors including Tiger Global, Coatue Management and Valiant Capital, taking its series F round to $871m, and is now valued at almost $7.9bn post-money.
UiPath has added $40m to a series C round co-led by existing backer CapitalG and Sequoia that now totals $265m.
A lot of electric vehicle producers have raised big money this year but that push isn’t restricted to cars. Nikola Corporation is developing a hydrogen-powered semi-truck it plans to unveil in 2019, and has doubled the size of a now oversubscribed series C round to $210m.
Ucommune absorbs $200m of series D cash
Roivant revs up with $200m
BlaBlaCar, valued at $1.6bn in 2015, has received $114m in funding from investors including its latest strategic partner, rail operator SNCF.
NAB and US Bancorp reach Poynt for $100m
NextCure looks forward with $93m
University
Amal Therapeutics amplifies series B round
University Ventures enrols in $28m Unicaf round
Funds
Speaking of Vision Fund, SoftBank has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Mizuho Bankto oversee a $4bn credit facility, one that looks to be separate to the $9bn in debt financing it’s said to be seeking from the banks underwriting the IPO of its wireless division.
Speaking of repeating patterns, energy and industrial management technology producer Schneider Electric has resurrected its old corporate VC unit, Schneider Electric Ventures, and will commit up to $565m to the vehicle.
ComfortDelGro composes terms for $100m fund
Toyoda Gosei assembles corporate venturing fund
Talkdesk sets aside $10m for Innovation Fund
University
Universities hit Material Impact for $110m fund
Exits
Mogu, the Chinese owner of social commerce platform Mogujie, has filed to raise up to $200m in an initial public offering in the US. Tencent and fellow corporate investors Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Ping An Ventures own almost a third of the company between them, and Mogu plans to channel the IPO proceeds into expanding its offering and further developing the platform, which averaged nearly 63 million monthly active users in the year ending in September 2018.
Vapotherm inhales $56m in IPO
Messenger RnA vaccine and drug developer Moderna Therapeutics was valued at $7.5bn in a funding round earlier this year, and now it’s filed for an initial public offering initially slated to raise $500m.
Investors in endpoint security technology provider Cylance meanwhile look set for a different kind of exit. Blackberry has confirmed that it has agreed to pay $1.4bn to acquire endpoint cybersecurity software provider Cylance, allowing Dell Ventures, Citi Ventures and Capital One Ventures to exit.
Sapho, the developer of a micro app for employees, has meanwhile been acquired by Citrix Systems for $200m, having raised just over $26m in funding.
Forescout successfully tracks SecurityMatters in $113m deal
Symantec gains Appthority in acquisition deal
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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