03 October 2016 – Funding news from Canada, the EU and the UK, Exits for Nokia and Much More

People

Jack Leeney, US head of investing for Telefonica Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous Spain-based phone operator, has left after nearly five years at the firm in order to be a partner at SP Global Capital.

Microsoft Ventures has hired Leo de Luna, previously a principal at venture capital firm Split Rock Partners, as managing director to cover California’s Bay area and New York; Rashmi Gopinath, previously an investment director at Intel Capital, as an investing partner covering enterprise software investments in the Bay area; Lisa Nelson, previously chief of staff to the head of business development and the chief financial officer at Microsoft, as a partner; and Priya Saiprasad, previously part of financial services startup Square’s corporate development team, as a principal.

Mérieux Développement has appointed Jean-François Billet, Daniel Fero and Benoit Pierret as it expands its investment capabilities in Europe and the US.

Funds

Canada could start a second funds of venture capital funds (FoF) support programme in its next federal budget allied to support for corporate venturing.

The government-backed European Investment Fund (EIF) has set up a collaboration with national promotional institutions (NPIs) or banks (NPBs) across European Union (EU) member states, with one of its first initiatives expected to be a venture capital coinvestment programme with the Netherlands, according to an attendee.

Baidu, the internet company has added another fund, the $60m Easterly Ventures, to its arsenal. This latest vehicle will focus on Brazil-based technology startups.

Line, the messaging app spun out of Naver, has joined forces with its parent company to put $112m in a fund being raised by Korelya Capital – both companies providing $62m.

ServiceNow has set up an investment division dubbed ServiceNow Ventures and launched a competition to award a total of $500,000 to startups.

Havas, the France-based advertising and PR firm, will provide capital and consulting to Australian startups.

Wayra joins UK government for cybersecurity accelerator
The Telefónica subsidiary will establish the accelerator initiative

Daimler’s Startup Autobahn accelerator reaches Singapore
The scheme, initiated in Stuttgart last year, will be replicated in Singapore in partnership with NUS

Nationwide Children’s Hospital partners Rev1 for $5.5m fund
The healthcare system has joined venture capital firm Rev1 Ventures for a unit that will invest in life sciences

Exits

One of the companies that was expected to list back in January after filing for a $200m IPO at the backend of last year was Nutanix, an enterprise cloud company backed by Sapphire Ventures, the VC firm spun out of SAP. Market conditions turned out to be less than favourable then, but the company has now finally moved ahead valuing the company at $4bn.

Nokia exits Gridsum in $87m IPO

Nokia gets out of Intermedia in MDP acquisition

One97 comes to the rescue as EduKart crashes

SoundCloud, a music streaming service popular with independent artists, is reportedly in acquisition talks again. This time it’s not Twitter, which discussed such plans in 2014 but withdrew that same year before injecting $70m in series E capital a few months ago, but Spotify.

Investments

Another maybe deal but Wal-Mart enters talks to drive $1bn Flipkart investment

FIH Mobile subsidiary has contributed $125m to Tink’s funding round, a company that partners hotels and puts smartphones in rooms that are free to use for guests.

Didi Chuxing enters Ofo’s funding cycle

Online sales technology developer Apttus, backed by Salesforce Ventures, has welcomed back sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority for an $88m series D round that put the company’s total equity at $274m.

Bloomberg helps ship $65m to Flexport

Xiaochuan Chuhai does its series B homework

Merck Ventures takes a ride on iOMX

Line seasons $45m Snow investment

Shape Security fits $40m into series D

Instacart consumes Whole Foods funding

NS1 directs $20m to series B

Eli Lilly breaches Fortis in $18m series A

University Corner

GE and Allied Minds study collaboration

Government Department

Druva drives $51m series E


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

5 September 2016 – A look at Lidar, $1bn fund for UK Ministry of Defence and more

People

Renard heads west after SanDisk merger

Wang heads Tsinghua fund

Funds

Reliance pledges $750m for digital startup funding

Elevator advertising firm Focus Media prefers partnerships when it comes to corporate venturing and has agreed to put together a $750m fund with state-owned investment holding group China Everbright.

European insurance firms have been pretty active in the VC space, and ASR seems to be no exception, providing approximately $5.6m for Dutch impact investor Social Impact Ventures, which has closed its first fund at about $45m.

Rev1 fires up $22m Ohio fund

UK Ministry of Defence arms Iris with $1bn

Exits

Caterpillar and Volvo Construction Equipment are set to record decent sized exits from IronPlanet, an online machinery and equipment trading platform that Ritchie Bros Auctioneers has agreed to buy for about $758m.

Phagenesis, developer of a medical device to treat dysphagia, had raised about $20m from investors including Nestlé’s Inventages Venture Capital unit.

Nokia exits Citymaps as it folds into TripAdvisor

IT business management technology provider Apptio has filed for a $75m IPO, after raising more than $135m in venture funding.

Khan Academy catches Duck Duck Moose

Investments

Immuno-oncology startup Arcus Biosciences has revealed it has raised $120m across two rounds.

Yi Technology records $90m series A

Compass, the Advanced Publications-backed operator of an upscale real estate listings platform, has secured $75m in a Wellington Management-led round that took its total funding to $210m.

There have been several reports recently that One97 Communications, operator of online payment platform Paytm, is raising money, and now founder and CEO Vijay Sharma has confirmed that MediaTek subsidiary Mountain Capital has invested $60m at a $4.8bn valuation.

Shyft keys in $12.5m

Helix Sleep gets in bed with Simon Property

BBoxx packages $20m series C

NephroPlus cleans up $15m series C

Blackwood Seven broadcasts $15m round


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