India’s Entertainment Booking Platform BookMyShow Secures USD 100 Mn In Series D, Spaceflight Startup Orbex From UK Raised USD 40 Mn And More…
Here’s the weekly roundup of global startup news [16-20 July]
ASIA
Didi Chuxing’s taxi-booking service will soon launch in Japan. The ride-hailing giant has teamed up with SoftBank to establish its new Japan unit, which avoids the ban in the country by working with licensed taxi companies. The company has also bagged a massive USD 500 M from US travel firm Booking Holding. A strategic partnership struck between the two will allow, Didi’s ride-hailing services to be ordered through Booking Holdings platforms. Didi is currently valued at USD 56 B.
Social investment platform Snowball Finance netted USD 120 M for its series D financing round from Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
When Xiaomi’s stock debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 9th July, it received a lukewarm response. The debut gave it a market cap of around USD 50 Bn. But as it’s share prices are surging, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s net worth is soaring higher than ever before. He is today worth over USD 19B.
Advance.ai nets USD 50 M funding in a series B round. China’sVision Capital, Zhen Fund, and GSR Ventures participated in the round.
India’s BookMyShow, the entertainment ticketing website has bagged USD 100 M. TPG Growth led the series D. BookMyShow says it has 30 M users and sells about 12 M tickets monthly.
Cars 24, the online marketplace for buying and selling used cars has tanked up USD 50 M in funding coming from Sequoia, and others.
OfBusiness, the tech-based lender for small businesses has closed USD 29 M series C funding round led by Creation Investments and Falcon Edge. The company has raised a total of USD 73 M to date.
Unacademy, an edutech platform got a USD 21 M Series C infusion from Sequoia India, SAIF Partners and Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.
South Korea’s Spoon Radio scooped up USD 17 M investment. The social radio app allows users to create personal broadcasts, chat with their listeners and even send gifts to their preferred streamers.
Europe
Spanish on-demand delivery service Glovo has picked up USD 134 M in Series C round of funding. Lead investors in this USD, 349 M startup, include Rakuten Capital, Seaya Ventures, and Cathay Innovation.
Orbex, a UK based spaceflight startup has received USD 40 M in public, and private funding from the VC funds Sunstone Capital and the High-Tech Gründerfonds, others. The company is constructing a lighter orbital launch vehicle, called Prime, to deliver small satellites into Earth ‘s orbit.
FINANZCHECK.de, an online portal for comparing loans, has been acquired by Scout24, a German digital marketplace, for USD 332 M.
France’s biggest telecoms group Orange has bought Basefarm Holding in a deal worth USD 409 M. Basefarm is a cloud infrastructure and critical application service provider, founded in Norway.
USA
Driverless car startup Zoox has picked up USD 500 M in fresh funding to take on rivals like Alphabet’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise, in a deal that valued the startup at USD 2.7 B.
Oakland-based fintech platform Even.com has raised a USD 40 Mn series B round led by Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures.
San Fransisco based edge cloud platform Fastly has raised another USD 40 M funding led by Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners (DTCP), in a series F round before going public.
Dialpad, a cloud business communications provider has announced the closure of a USD 50 M funding round led by ICONIQ Capital. This brings the firm’s total funding to USD 120 M.
Knotel, an office space rental in Manhattan has gobbled up 42Floors, a commercial real estate search engine, to accelerate its plan for creating a blockchain based platform. The terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
GreyCoft Partners has closed the latest funding vehicle at USD 250 M, its third in three years. The VC has backed companies like the Huffington Post, Plated and Venmo.
