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Deals
SoftBank invested $1bn in online marketplace Coupang three years ago, and has returned to provide another $2bn in funding through its Vision Fund at a $9bn valuation. South Korea-based Coupang expects to generate about $5bn in revenue this year and will use the funding to upgrade its end-to-end fulfilment system and add new features to its platform.
It looks like a busy week for SoftBank, as the Coupang agreement was disclosed shortly before news that SoftBank has reportedly also led a $1bn round for another Asian e-commerce platform, Indonesia’s Tokopedia, this time at a $7bn valuation.
Walmart completed its $16bn acquisition of a 77% stake in Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart in August, and it has now reportedly increased that stake to 81.3%.
Leap Motor has become the latest Chinese smart electric car startup to raise big money, taking in $288m through a series A round co-led by corporates Shanghai Electric and CRRC Corporation.
Visa has invested $200m in Billdesk and bought between $80m and $100m in secondary shares, in a deal that reportedly valued the Indian bill payment platform at $1.8bn.
Golden Education, a China-based provider of professional trading for members of the financial services industry, has raised $115m in a series C round that was co-led by investment bank Morgan Stanley and Hillhouse Capital.
Xiaoqule launched its community-based e-commerce platform in August and is so far present in 30 Chinese cities. It has also secured $108m in series A funding from investors including Ping An Ventures and SIG Asia.
On Global University Venturing, OMass Therapeutics, a UK-based biopharmaceutical spinout of University of Oxford, closed $17.9m series A round featuring university venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation and Syncona, which led the round.
On Global Government Venturing, Geek+, a China-based developer of artificial intelligence and robotics services, has raised $150m in a series B round backed by Vertex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek.
Funds
Applied Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of semiconductor producer Applied Materials, has teamed up with New York State’s Empire State Development vehicle in a drive to invest in companies based in upstate New York.
Japanese telecommunications company NTT has closed its newly formed Silicon Valley VC fund, NTT Venture Capital, at $500m.
On Global University Venturing, Chinese Academy of Sciences and financial services holding company Guangzhou Finance Holdings have launched a $43.2m fund partly focused on commercialising the academy’s research.
Exits
Rocket Internet has had several of its e-commerce entities go public in recent years, and the latest looks likely to be Global Fashion Group, the entity that operates five online fashion retailers in different territories.
Autodesk has agreed to acquire construction management software provider PlanGrid for $875m in an all-cash deal that will provide healthy exits for Alphabet’s CapitalG unit as well as Box. PlanGrid had raised less than $70m and both the corporates invested at seed stage.
Babytree is meanwhile set to raise $217m in its own IPO, in Hong Kong. The China-based media and e-commerce platform will be valued at $1.5bn, a drop of around 30% from June when Alibaba subsidiary Taobao invested a reported $214m.
Online travel services provider Tongcheng-eLong has floated in Hong Kong, in a $180m initial public offering that represents a downturn from the reported $1bn target the company initially set as well as the $233m target it put up earlier this month.
Vegan meat substitute developer Beyond Meat has filed for a $100m initial public offering that would enable Tyson New Ventures and the General Mills-owned 301 Ventures to exit.
On Global University Venturing, Synthorx, a US-based immuno-oncology drug spinout of Scripps Research Institute, has filed for a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market.
“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
