01 April 2019 – Uber to Acquire Careem for $1.4bn

The Big Three

Uber has confirmed it will acquire Careem, its biggest rival in the Middle Eastern market, for $1.4bn in cash and $1.7bn in convertible notes. The price will mark a significant uptick on the reported $2bn valuation at which Careem last raised money, and a lot more than that for Saudi Telecom, which supplied the company’s $1.7m seed funding back in 2013 through its STC fund managed by Iris Capital, which fortuitously hosted its corporate day at the Eiffel Tower on the day it was announced (and which helped make the after-party go with a swing).

But it’s notable to see five large deals involving Tencent in the week after its financial results: Ke.com, Yipinshengxian, MiningLamp, Airwallex and Shuidi.

JD.com for its annual results for last year noted an “increase in investment in equity investees and investment securities of RMB22bn [$3.3bn]”.

Exits

McDonald’s is also making a sizeable acquisition, having agreed to pay more than $300m to buy Dynamic Yield, a developer of machine learning technology that will make its drive-thru kiosks more intelligent.

Kyriba to score $160m in acquisition deal

Lyft has raised a huge $2.34bn in its initial public offering, floating at the top of its range having extended that range upwards on Wednesday. The IPO valued the company at more than $24bn and should prove somewhat of a vindication for those who invested big money in the ride hailing space when some onlookers suggested it was overvalued.

The year’s biggest IPO will almost certainly be Lyft peer Uber’s, but Pinterest has finally filed for an initial public offering expected to value it at some $12bn. T

Zoom comes face to face with $100m IPO

Hookipa looks to public markets

Turning Point to face IPO moment of truth

Deals

Reports earlier this week revealed mattress producer Casper is getting ready to begin prepping its IPO, but in the meantime it’s raised $100m at a reported $1.1bn valuation.

Paytm owner One97 Communications is reportedly in discussions to raise as much as $2bn in funding from a consortium that will include existing backers SoftBank Vision Fund and Ant Financial, at a valuation of $16bn to $18bn.

Elsewhere in the transport sector, Leap Motor, one of several China-based electric car developers to emerge in the past five years in the wake of Tesla’s success, is reportedly looking to raise approximately $372m in what would be its series B round.

Connected robot developer CloudMinds is in the process of raising $300m in funding and has so far secured SoftBank Vision Fund as an investor in the round.

Delhivery picks up another $413m

Lidar technology developer Innoviz Technologies is a bit further along in the fundraising process, having nailed down $132m in a series C round that includes Phoenix Insurance and Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services.

Mobvoi looks to mobilise $100m

SoftBank feels out PharmEasy for $100m round

University

Hyalex extricates $33m in series A

Inivata invites investors to series B

Volta charges up $180m fund with corporate help


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

02 October 2017 – Roscosmos Establishes Space Ecosystem Fund

Deals

Chinese online services portal Meituan Dianping is reportedly nearing the close of a $3bn round featuring long-term investor Tencent that will value it at up to $30bn.

Alibaba has paid approximately $800m to hike its 47% stake in logistics affiliate Cainiao to 51%, as part of a $5bn investment drive to strengthen its logistics technology capabilities over the next five years.

Food ordering platform Deliveroo has secured $384m in a round co-led by Fidelity and T. Rowe Price set to be announced this week that will reportedly value it at $2bn.

Fosun-backed personal accounting platform Shenzhen Suishou Technology has secured $200m in a series C round led by private equity firm KKR’s newly formed Asian Fund III.

Ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing has invested $200m in Renrenche, the third largest second-hand car e-commerce marketplace in China by market share.

Qingting.fm, an online radio platform that reportedly counts Youku Tudou among its investors, has raised $151m in series E funding from undisclosed investors, according to AllChinaTech.

Pfizer has spun out a startup called SpringWorks Therapeutics to develop treatments for incurable conditions such as desmoid tumours and post-traumatic stress disorder based on therapies licensed from the corporate.

Letgo launched in 2015 as a mobile-focused competitor to Craigslist and eBay, and claims to be one of the fastest growing apps in the country. That growth is set to be fueled by $100m of new funding at a $1bn valuation from undisclosed existing investors.

Customer relationship management software provider ProsperWorks has received $53m in a series C round that took its overall funding to $87m, a sum CEO Jon Lee has claimed makes it the most well-funded CRM company founded in the past 10 years.

Treasury and finance management platform Kyriba has raised $45m in funding from investors including HSBC, the bank that backed its series C and D rounds, in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

We’ve already had the biggest deal on GGV – Cainiao – and on Global University Venturing, the biggest deal came from the UK. Autolus, a biopharmaceutical spinout from University College London (UCL), raised $80m in a series C round that included investment firm Woodford Investment Management. Syncona, backed by medical charities Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK, also participated in the round, as did Arix Bioscience, Cormorant Asset Management, Nextech Invest and a range of unnamed investors.

Funds

The Netherlands government-owned Dutch Investment Agency (NIA) and the EU-owned investment vehicle European Investment Fund (EIF) have committed €100m ($117.7m) to a fund targeted at growth-stage startups dubbed the Dutch Growth Co-Investment Program.

The Russian government-owned space agency Roscosmos has established a venture capital fund to commercialise inventions from the space ecosystem.

Exits

Sea, the Southeast Asian online services provider formerly known as Garena, has filed to raise up to $1bn in an initial public offering in the US.

Chinese online video streaming platform iQiyi is considering an initial public offering that will take place in the US early next year and has already started talking to banks, sources have told Bloomberg.

SAP has paid a reported $350m to acquire customer identity management software provider Gigya and will incorporate the company into its SAP Hybrid offering.

Roku has priced a $219m IPO in which Sky Ventures will sell some $9.4m of shares, and is set to float on the the Nasdaq Global Select Market tomorrow.

Nexon has paid $80m for a 65% stake in Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Korbit, ironically at the exact point when the Korean government has banned initial coin offerings.


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