Indonesia’s P2P Lending Startup KoinWorks Raises USD 16.5 Mn, World Bank Offers First Public Blockchain Bond And More…
Here is a quick recap of last week’s major headlines from startup world [20-24 Aug]
ASIA
Internet population in China has crossed the 800 Mn mark. This means that the country now has as many netizens as the combined populations of the US, Indonesia, and Brazil. However, two in five Chinese people are offline, meaning that there’s still ample room for internet growth.
Linkedin’s local rival in China Maimai has banked USD 200 Mn in series Dledby DST Global, which has Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Snapchat, and other internet juggernauts in its portfolio.
Sequoia India has closed its sixth fund at USD 695 Mn. It said it would “double down” on tech, healthcare, and consumer-focused investments to “unleash the potential” of startups in India and Southeast Asia.
Capital Float bought personal finance startup Walnut for USD 30 Mn. The Amazon and the Sequoia-backed online lender has acquired the startup to boost its new consumer-lending venture.
Flipkart has acquired speech-to-text startup Live.ai. Its solutions would potentially help Flipkart customers to shop using voice input. It has also put an end to the EBay tie-up with the launch of its refurbished goods platform 2GUD.
Hyundai has led a USD 14 Mn funding round in car-sharing startup Revv. The duo will jointly develop car-sharing products and mobility services platforms.
Indonesia’s peer to peer lending startup KoinWorks has pocketed USD 16.5 Mn to build new technologies. The series A funding came from lead investor Mandiri Capital Indonesia, the VC arm of Bank Mandiri.
World Bank offers the world’s first public blockchain bond. Called the Bondi, the instrument is managed by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and is supposedly the first bond to be built and managed solely on the blockchain.
Europe
London based digital bank startup Monzo closed a USD 150 Mn financing round led by Accel Partners. The company is now valued at USD 1.5 Bn.
Its British competitor Revolut had just closed a USD 250 Mn round at USD 1.7 Bn valuation.
Netherlands based file sharing company WeTransfer has acquired US based FiftyThree, the maker of the Paper and Paste applications for an undisclosed sum. WeTransfer opened its US office in 2016 in LA.
Simple Feast, a plant-food startup from Copenhagen, has raised USD 12 Mn in a series A funding. It offers ready-to-eat plant-based food that is sustainably produced, organic, and delivered straight to the doorstep.
USA
Bungalow, a housing startup that offers people relatively affordable places to live with others who have been vetted by it’s platform, has raised a USD 14 Mn funding in a Series A round led by Khosla Ventures. It also raised a USD 50 Mn debt facility.
Root Insurance, an Ohio-based car insurance startup raised USD 100 Mn in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global Management, pushing the company’s valuation to USD 1 Bn.
Nylas, a provider of an API for integrating software with email, has raised USD 16.2 Mn in Series B round, led by Soark Capital with participation from Slack Ventures, ScaleUp, Great Oaks Capital, others.
Semmle a San Francisco based software engineering analytics platform, raised USD 21 Mn in Series B funding. This funding round, led by Accel Partners with participation from Work-Bench, brings the total raised by the company to date to USD 31 Mn.
