Tag: “Liquidia Technologies”

09 July 2018 – Telstra Ventures Partners HarbourVest to Create Investment Vehicle

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Funds

Telstra Ventures has had some big exits in the past four years including IPOs for Snap, DocuSign and Box, but the unit is now electing to reshape itself by forming a partnership with private equity firm HarbourVest that will create a $500m investment vehicle.

Malaysia-based conglomerate Sunway is raising $50m for a venture capital vehicle called Sun Sea Capital that will invest in early-stage Southeast Asian tech companies.

Tokyo Electric powers up new unit

Université PSL assembles deep tech fund

Deals

Altana adds funding to Landa Digital Printing

American Well last received funding in January this year when Allianz invested $59m in connection with a strategic partnership, but the telehealth platform developer has now raised a further $291m of a planned $315m funding round according to a securities filing.

I-Mab Biopharma was formed in March last year from the merger of immunotherapy developers Third Venture Biotech and Tasgen Bio as well as $150m in series B funding from corporate Tasly Pharmaceuticals and C-Bridge Capital.

Trax has developed a computer vision-based platform that uses photos taken by mobile devices to assess retail displays, and the Singapore-based company has secured $125m in funding from investors including DC Thomson.

Small business-focused lending platform Furongbao last raised funding in a 2015 series A round featuring SoftBank’s SBCVC unit, but it’s now added to that with a reported $120m in series B funding that was provided by a single undisclosed investor.

Aikucun, the operator of a service that enables fashion brands to sell excess inventory to online merchants, has raised $87.5m in a Legend Capital-led series B round that included Xiamen C&D Corp and Eastern Bell Venture Capital.

Airwallex accesses corporates for $80m

Corporates get in Bind for $70m round

BitSight builds $60m series D

BrightFarms reaps $55m in series D cash

Haifeng hits up TAL Education for cash

Comcast goes Away again in $50m round

One of several up-and-coming insurance providers, Bought By Many started life as a platform that enabled those wanting specialist insurance options to band together for discounted rates from providers. Now however, it’s moving into offering that cover itself, and has raised $19.8m in a CommerzVentures-led series B round that included Marsh and Munich Re.

XL Innovate goes Windward in series C round

Cerebri celebrates $5m series A

Manus Bio makes series A breakthrough

Xcelerator embraces first cohort

Exits

Uber has already merged its businesses in China, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe with local operators, and next on the block could be its Middle Eastern operations. The company has opened talks with Careem, the MENA-based operator that is backed by a host of corporates and which is currently raising cash at a $1.5bn valuation, but reportedly favours an outcome in which it will take a majority stake in any merged company.

BP fuels BMW exit with Chargemaster acquisition

Cloud-based business management software provider Domo has gone public in a $193m IPO that allowed WPP and Salesforce to exit.

Forty Seven fetches $112m in IPO

Neuronetics, the developer of a device that uses magnetic stimulation to treat psychiatric disorders, has closed its initial public offering at $107m after the IPO’s underwriters exercised the over-allotment option.

Hong Kong may be surging but the US is still proving to be the destination of choice for many Chinese tech companies looking to go public.The latest is group buying platform Pinduoduo, which has filed for a $1bn initial public offering that would allow Tencent to exit.

Liquidia Technologies is among the life sciences companies aiming for the public markets. Liquidia, which is developing therapeutics based on its particle engineering platform, has filed to raise up to $57.5m in its IPO.

IndiaMart formed its business-to-business e-commerce marketplace back in 1996 and received its first corporate investment in 2007, and now it’s finally looking to go public.

Hujiang to graduate to public markets

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

26 February 2018 – EasyHome Raises Over $2bn

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Deals

Chinese furniture and home improvement retail chain EasyHome has raised just over $2bn in a round in which Alibaba invested approximately $860m in return for a 15% stake.

Uber could acquire what sources told CNBC would be a sizeable stake in Southeast Asian counterpart Grab through a deal that will involve Grab taking on its local business.

Procept BioRobotics, the developer of an aquablation treatment for a prostate condition called benign prostatic hyperplasia, has secured $118m in a round led by Viking Global Investors.

Harry’s has been one of the two biggest players in the razor blade subscription market, along with Dollar Shave Club, and the Grace Beauty-backed company has raised $112m in a round that will precede an expansion of the business model into areas like personal care items for both sexes as well as baby products and household goods.

Kallyope, a US-based company developing drugs that focus on the gut-brain axis, received $66m in a series B round featuring Illumina Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of genomics technology producer Illumina.

AI data analytics platform SparkCognition has added $24m from investors including corporate venturing units Invenergy Future Fund and CME Ventures to close its series B round at $56.5m.

Glossier, a US-based skincare and beauty product company backed by talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME), raised $52m in a series C round yesterday co-led by VC firms IVP and Index Ventures.

Financial services provider Power Financial has invested another $51m in robo-advisor operator WealthSimple, taking its total commitment to $165m according to the latter.

Smart glasses developer OrCam has received $30.4m in funding from investors including Clal Insurance at a reported valuation of about $1bn. OrCam, which counts Intel Capital as an earlier investor, is said to be prepping an IPO for 2019 and will aim to raise one more substantial round of funding before then, having so far secured a total of $130m according to Reuters.

On GUV, Liquidia Technologies, a US-based biopharmaceutical spinout from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has raised $25.5m in funding.

Funds

SoftBank Vision Fund has already secured some $40bn from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds PIF and Mubadala Investment Company, and now the CEO of Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat has confirmed it too is in talks to invest.

Cove Fund, a family of seed-stage venture capital funds that invests in companies affiliated with University of California (UC) System, has raised more than $12m for its second fund. The figure represents a first close for Cove Fund II, with a regulatory filing indicating a $15m target size.

Switzerland-headquartered biotechnology and chemicals supplier Lonza Group has formed a corporate venturing fund in partnership with US-based venture capital firm Prolog Ventures.

Exits

Flatiron Health agreed to an acquisition by investor Roche in mid-February that will involve the latter paying $1.9bn for the company’s outstanding shares, and much of the attention has understandably been on Roche.

And talking of GV’s recent spate of life sciences exits, it looks like the next one will be Arcus Biosciences. Immuno-oncology therapy developer Arcus has filed for a $100m initial public offering, having previously raised some $227m in VC funding.

Social media company Momo agreed today to acquire China-based social engagement platform Tantan for about $760m, allowing media group Bertelsmann and social network operator YY to exit.

Faceu, the developer of an augmented reality app that allows effects to be overlaid on photos or videos in real time, has reportedly been acquired by mobile news platform Toutiao for $300m.

Enterprise cloud security technology provider Zscaler had raised $148m in funding from investors including the Dell-owned EMC and Alphabet unit CapitalG, and has now filed to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering.

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