20 January 2020 – Joby Aviation Raises $590m in Series C to Create Flying Taxis

The Big Ones

Joby Aviation is developing an electric-powered aerial taxi for urban use, a product that would appear to be a big jump into the future even without taking into account sustainability issues concerning its stated aim to serve ‘a billion’ people a day. But corporate investors are taking it seriously and none more than Toyota which invested $394m to lead its $590m series C round.

UPMC Enterprises functions as the investment and innovation arm of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (which sounds like it’s just the one but actually it’s a system comprised of 40 hospitals) and has built up an 18-strong portfolio alongside investments in internal projects. It looks to be upgrading its activity as well, announcing plans to allocate $1bn in capital through 2024, $800m of which is newly disclosed and $200m has already been dedicated to an immuno-therapy research partnership with the university.

Visa invested in financial data technology provider Plaid just four months ago and must have liked what it saw because it has agreed to acquire financial data technology provider Plaid in a $5.3bn transaction that what will surely be one of the year’s biggest acquisitions of a VC-backed company.

Deals

Xiaohongshu, the social commerce platform also known as Little Red Book, is resuming fundraising activities and is reportedly seeking $400m to $500m at a $6bn valuation. The company secured $300m in a 2018 series D round featuring Tencent and Alibaba at a $3bn valuation and was exploring new funding last year, only to suspend efforts after its app was temporarily pulled from Chinese app stores.

Tradeshift, a provider of supply chain-management and payment processing software, has raised $240m in debt and equity financing from undisclosed new and existing investors. No word on the former but its existing backers include American Express Ventures, Wipro Ventures, PayPal, Intuit, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund and HSBC.

EQRx has launched with $200m in series A funding from GV and Nextech and a mission to develop more affordable copies of drugs already on the market. In contrast to licensed biosimilars, the startup will use advanced technology to create its own patent-protected versions, in theory providing more accessible medicines while generating more profit.

Electric vehicle technology developer Arrival has been relatively stealthy since it was founded in 2015 but has disclosed a $112m investment by carmaker Hyundai and subsidiary Kia. The funding came as part of a strategic collaboration through which Arrival will provide technology for Hyundai’s own mobility and EV initiatives.

Emendo Biotherapeutics is developing genetic medicines using a proprietary platform that utilises Crispr gene editing and protein engineering. It has also raised $61m in a series B round led by biopharmaceutical company AnGes, which is developing its own genetic therapies and which plans to work with Emendo on certain indications.

Funds

China-based insurer Taiping, has formed a $1bn investment vehicle called TP-CICC GBA Investment Master Fund in partnership with China International Capital Corporation’s CICC Capital division. The fund will target companies based in China’s Bay Area that are developing technology for the financial, healthcare, consumer and insurance sectors among others.

Saudi Aramco has pumped its IPO up to $29.4bn, making it the largest in history, and the petrochemical producer is also looking to expand its corporate venturing activity. The corporate is reportedly lining up a $500m second fund for its Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures unit that will likely be launched later this year.

IT services firm Wipro launched its Wipro Ventures subsidiary in 2015 with a $100m fund that has so far invested in 16 companies and exited two – one of which was Palo Alto Networks’ $560m acquisition of Demisto. The unit has now announced a second fund with an upgraded size of $150m.

Exits

Teladoc has agreed to buy telehealth technology producer InTouch Health for $150m in cash and $450m in shares. The company had raised less than $100m in funding, $6m of which was supplied by iRobot through a 2012 expansion to a partnership agreement.

Suzhou Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals has priced a $294m initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market that is impressively sized despite not meeting its initial target of $346m. The cancer therapy developer had raised money across five rounds including a $62m series B two years ago that included insurance firm Minsheng Life.

NGP Capital has exited on-device AI technology developer Xnor.ai in an acquisition by Apple reportedly sized around the $200m mark. NGP Capital was spun off from Nokia but the corporate is still a prominent backer, and the deal will be pulling in some decent returns considering Xnor had disclosed less than $15m in funding pre-acquisition.

Casper Sleep, one of a wave of high-end mattress developers to launch in recent years, has filed to go public having raised $340m in venture funding from investors including Target. It is set to beat corporate-backed competitors like Helix and Eve Sleep to the public markets, though it’s as yet unclear whether the $67m loss it suffered in the first nine months of 2019 will affect its valuation, which stood at $1.1bn as of last March.


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

26 November 2018 – Coupang Gains Second SoftBank Investment

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