Chinese Hellobike Raises USD 700 Mn, Tel-Aviv’s LawGeex Secures USD 12 Mn And More…
Here’s what happened around the Globe this week [16-20 April]
ASIA
Peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Societies, secured USD 25 Mn in Series B funding round. Softbank Ventures Korea led the round with participation from Sequoia India, others.
Zimplistic, the startup that has developed Indian-style flatbread-maker Rotimatic, has landed USD 30 Mn series C fundraise co-led by private equity firm Credence Partners and EDBI, the investment unit of Singapore’s Economic Development Board.
Singapore government has ordered Uber to continue operations in the country until May 7, following Grab’s agreement to take over Uber’s Southeast Asia business last month, prompting an investigation into the merger. The watchdog has laid out several measures for the ride-hailing firms to follow in the meantime.
Taiwanese mobile software company Kdan, which offers content creation tools and online cloud services to users, has scored USD 5 Mn in series A financing round. Investors included WI Harper Group, Darwin Venture Management, and Accord Ventures.
Mynamar’s Oway Group, a company that runs an online travel service provider and a ride-sharing app, nabs USD 7 Mn investment, PE firm Belt Road Capital Management has invested in the startup.
Chinese authorities ordered the shutdown of 370 live-streaming apps because of supposed failures to comply with regulations. This news comes hot on the heels of a series of clampdowns on content apps like Toutiao, Watermelon Video, and Youku.
Chinese Hellobike has secured USD 700 Mn in fresh investment. The bike-sharing startup secured the funding from previous backers Ant Financial and Fosun, and others. Hellobike raised US 350 Mn in its December 2017 series D round. It acquired rival bike-sharing startup Youon Bike the preceding October. Ant Financial and its parent Alibaba also back bike-sharing giant Ofo.
Big data solution provider MiningLamp gets USD 159 Mn in series C. Tencent and Chinese asset management firm China Renaissance.
Sinovation Ventures, a Chinese Venture capital fund has raised USD 500 Mn. The fund raised will be invested in AI start-ups.
India’s AffordPlan, a savings-led platform for medical expenses, has raised USD 10 Mn in Series B funding led by Lok Capital. Omidyar Network, alongside existing investors Prime Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital, also participated in the round.
Gurugram and Korea-based mobile balance management service startup True Balance has raised USD 23 Mn in a bridge round of funding from Line Ventures Corporation, Korean search engine Naver, Korea’s Shinhan Bank and TS Investment amongst others.
Tea retailer Chai Point has bagged a USD 20 Mn in a series C funding round led by private equity firm Paragon Partners. The round saw participation from all its existing investors including Eight Roads (Fidelity’s India PE arm), Saama Capital and DSG Consumer partners.
The real estate investment manager – LaSalle – has closed its fifth LaSalle Asia Opportunity fund with a corpus of USD 1.15 Bn. Capital came from 20 external institutional investors in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.
EUROPE
Sanofi, a French multinational pharma company, has its European generics business is set to be acquired by Advent International for USD 2.37 Bn. The deal is expected to be closed by the end of the year.
Dawn Capital, claiming itself to be the largest European VC fund to be entirely focused on B2B businesses, has closed the third fund round– Dawn III, at USD 204 Mn. Out of this, USD 64.3 Mn came from European Investment Fund (EIF), after apprehensions brewing post-Brexit on whether EIF would invest in the UK.
The perceived synergies led Adecco to acquire General Assembly for USD 413 Mn. Adecco which is a Swiss staffing company targeted to boost its growth by this step.
London based start-up, BenevolentAI has raised USD 115 Mn to continue the different operations of the firm and especially to develop the “AI brain.” The venture round led to the firm valuation of USD 2.1 Bn
In a funding round led by Aleph with participation from Lool Ventures, Tel-Aviv based LawGeex closed USD 12 Mn. LawGeex operates in AI-backed legal tech space enabling companies to ensure their legalised documents are reviewed and sanctioned.
Denmark’s OrderOYO that has been developing its online food ordering software has secured USD 6.68 Mn in Series A funding round. The funding was led by VF Venture with the participation of SEED Capital, Preben Damgaard, and Jesper Johansen.
USA
Los Angeles based AppOnboard, a mobile technology platform for app developers, has raised USD 15 Mn in its series A fund round led by Korea Investment Partners (KIP) alongside Mirae Asset Management, Mantaray, MTG, and Runa Capital.
Hyperloop-a tube-based system to move people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a half hour is being developed by Elon Musk’s Boring Co. that has received USD 113 Mn to support the digging of tunnels for the project.
Tempo Automation, an electronics manufacturer, has announced that USD 20 Mn were received in its series B funding round. P72 Ventures led the round.
Cloud storage software solutions provider, Scality is a start-up based out of San Francisco and has recently secured USD 60 Mn in Series E fund round. A total of USD 152 Mn has been raised since its inception.
Saviynt, a provider of Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solutions has announced that it has secured USD 40 Mn in its series A fund round. Carrick Capital Partners made the investment.
Squarefoot, a commercial space aggregator has received USD 7 Mn in a new financing round led by Rosecliff Ventures, with RRE Ventures, Triangle Peak Partners, Armory Square Ventures, and others.
Kolide, a Cambridge company that collects and analyzes data from your organization’s devices to deliver actionable insights, has picked up USD 8 Mn in series A financing round led by Matrix Partners.
