16 July 2018 – Swisscom Venture to Set Up $200m Digital Transformation Fund

Funds

Telecommunications company Swisscom has run its corporate venturing unit, Swisscom Ventures, since 2005 but has constantly looked to fine-tune its approach. Its latest move is to access external investment, for a fund sized at about $200m. Swisscom is putting in about 25% of the capital for Digital Transformation Fund, which will invest in Europe, the US and Israel as well as its home country of Switzerland.

Longzhu Capital logs $300m close

SoftBank’s Misra makes plans for $250m fund

Health Enterprise Partners hits up corporates

New Voices makes noise with $100m close

Cayuga Venture Fund targets $100m

Deals

Last week’s Big Deal focuses on Lime, the operator of an electric bicycle and e-scooter rental service, which has just raised $335m in a GV-led round backed by GV owner Alphabet and Uber, valuing it at $1.1bn.

The $14bn round closed by Ant Financial last month was the largest venture capital round of all time, but Alibaba’s financial services spinoff isn’t the only player in that space pulling in big money.

Xiaopeng Motors raised $348m in January but is in talks with Alibaba, which co-led that round, over $600m to $700m more at a valuation of almost $4bn, as it gets ready to launch its first car, a smart electric SUV.

Consumer goods delivery service Dianwoda has secured $290m in funding from Alibaba-owned logistics provider Cainiao Networks, which will take a controlling stake in the company through the deal.

Healthcare technology provider Cerner has invested $266m in Essence Group Holdings, the owner of care services provider Lumeris, in connection with a 10-year partnership meant to enhance efficiencies in healthcare.

GoGoVan merged with another China-based delivery services platform, 58 Suyun, to form a billion-dollar company last year, and it has just raised its first funding since that deal, capturing $250m from investors including Cainiao and 58 Suyun’s ex parent company, 58 Daojia.

Convene may be up against a hugely-funded rival in the form of WeWork, but it’s justraised $152m in a series D round backed by property developers QuadReal, Brookfield, The Durst Organization and RXR Realty to expand its workspace provision services.

Electronics recycling service Aihuishou has secured $150m from backers including existing investor JD.com at a $1.5bn valuation.

Lionbridge links with corporates for $150m

Compass Therapeutics has been around since 2014 but has finally closed its series A round, at $132m, having secured contributions from life sciences property developers Biomed Realty and Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Keep offers online fitness programs through an app, and has just raised $127m in a series D round featuring existing investors Tencent and Bertelsmann Asia Investments.

Movile mobilises Naspers to raise $124m

Investors pay $115m tribute to Toast

Pony.ai picks up pace with $102m

ASR accesses $100m in series B round

High-speed internet provider Starry has secured $100m in new funding according to a regulatory filing, taking its overall funding to $163m.

University

Antiva adds $15m series C1

Exits

AT&T agreed to pay a reported $1.6bn to acquire online advertising exchange AppNexus last month, and now it’s fixed a deal to buy cybersecurity software provider AlienVault for a price reportedly around the $600m mark.

Thoma Bravo takes majority stake in Centrify

Autodesk builds with Assemble Systems acquisition

Visterra accepts $430m invitation from Otsuka

Elsewhere in China, Bytedance, the owner of a digital media portfolio headed up by aggregated news app Toutiao, is lining up its own IPO, according to the Wall Street Journal, and seeking a $45bn valuation.

Peer-to-peer lending marketplace WeLab had a good 2017, moving into profit while increasing its revenue fivefold, and it intends to cash in on that by going public in Hong Kong.

Qeeka Home floats in $137m IPO

51credit lines up $129m IPO

University

Akasol plugs into public markets


“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

04 September 2017 – Expedia CEO Moves to Uber

Funds

University

OSI secures Legal & General backing

Imperial gives founders a choice

Government

Vertex pushes beyond $150m

Széchenyi gains $31m

St Louis hammers out fund details

Exits

Dara Khosrowshahi, the new chief executive of Uber, did not waste any time in making clear his ambitions for the ride-sharing company: in an all-hands meeting ahead of officially taking over – he starts his job on Tuesday – he declared not only that he is committed to paying the bills and taking big shots to secure the company’s future, but also that he intends to take Uber public within 18 to 36 months.

Best, a supply chain services provider backed by Alibaba, Cainiao and, reportedly, Foxconn, has increased the stakes of its initial public offering by filing an updated regulatory document that puts the figure at $1bn, up from $750m.

Berry Genomics has completed its reverse merger with Shenzen-listed Chengdu Tianxing Instrument and Meter, first announced in December 2016.

Synlogic processes Mirna merger

CSL accesses Calimmune for $91m

Western Digital gets Upthere

University

Big deal: Nightstar to light up stock market

Investments

Singapore-based Grab is slowly inching towards its $2.5bn goal for a series G round that already stood at $2bn thanks to commitments from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing.

GoGoVan reaches for 58 Suyun

Food delivery is hotly contested sector and many of the startups involved have changed hands – be that for example TastyKhana being purchased by Food Panda, which in turn was later acquired by Delivery Hero, or Just Eat subsidiary Hellofood Brazil becoming part of iFood. Now another one is joining the list: Waimai has been acquired by Ele.me for a reported $800m (which would be down significantly from the estimated $2.5bn valuation last year).

Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital, the investment vehicle of the e-commerce group’s founder Jack Ma, have put $152m into cloud computing business Qiniuyun.

Freenome, a healthtech developer has added $7m to its series A to close the round, already backed by GV, at $72m.

Armo Biosciences has added $67m to its coffers in a series C1 round that featured GV and Celgene, who both also participated in a $50m series C in February last year.

The biggest deal of the day comes from the US, where Qadium has amassed $40m in a series B round led by Institutional Venture Partners.

In China, Abcfintech has added $30m to its coffers thanks to investors such as Susquehanna International Group’s SIG Asia Investment. Abcfintech operates cloud-based AI platforms that help financial services firms visualise their data and predict the performance of public stock.

Alice, the developer of a hotel management platform, has secured $26m in series B funding from Expedia in a deal facilitated by Khosrowshahi before he stepped down to join Uber.

VideoAmp, the developer of an advertising technology platform that tracks the impact of campaigns across television, video on-demand, over-the-top and digital content, has secured $21.4m in series B capital from Mediaocean and returning backer RTL, among others.

Government

Vulog eyes $20m series B

University

CureFit exercises with $25m


“Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0