Deals SoftBank has agreed to pay $3.3bn to acquire Fortress Investment Group, an investment manager with some $70bn of assets under management. Jera, the joint venture formed by Japanese energy utilities Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, has invested $200m in India-based solar and wind energy producer ReNew Power, taking a 10% stake. Lytro, … Continue reading "20 February 2017 – Ford Invests in Argo AI, Enterprise Ireland backs 4 Funds and Much More"

Deals Mobile wallet operator Mobikwik has raised more than $120m from an investor base that includes corporates Net1, Cisco, American Express, GMO and Mediatek, and is currently in talks with investors for a round that could value it at up to $1bn, CEO Bipin Preet Singh has told Reuters. View has been developing its Dynamic … Continue reading "13 February 2017 – Used Vehicle Marketplace Uxin Raises $500m and Much More"

Deals Chinese used vehicle marketplace Uxin has raised $500m in new funding, making it only the latest player in the sector to close a nine-figure round. Mobile commerce platform Letgo has taken its overall funding to $375m since the start of 2015 with a $175m round backed by early investor Naspers. Zoom Video Communications has … Continue reading "23 January 2017 – $20m Series B-1 for Moon Express, Rocket Internet Capital Partners Fund Closes at $1bn and Much More"

Deals Insurance and reinsurance firm Arch Capital Group has contributed to a $510m round that has launched Premia Holdings, a Bermuda-based company that will offer property & casualty runoff insurance to businesses. Chinese real estate service Lianjia raised more than $920m at a $6.2bn post-money valuation last April, in a series B round backed by … Continue reading "16 January 2017 – Funding Circle Raises $100m, Starship Technologies Raises $17.2m Seed Funding and Much More"

Deals Easy Life Financial Services, a tourism-focused financial services spinout of aviation and travel conglomerate HNA Group, has raised approximately $273m in series B+ funding from a string of Chinese investors. Bike sharing looks likely to be a big area for VC funding in 2017, and China’s Mobike, which raised more than $100m in autumn … Continue reading "9 January 2017 – Welcome to 2017 with Bike Sharing Deals, Fund backing from Apple and Much More"

Deals Bayer and investment firm Versant Ventures have jointly provided $225m in series A funding for a regenerative medicine startup called BlueRock Therapeutics. Symphony emerged two years ago with $66m from 14 banks and followed that funding up with a $100m Google-backed round last year. Now the company, which offers a secure messaging platform for … Continue reading "19 December 2016 – $225m for BlueRock Therapeutics, Microsoft Ventures Invests from its AI Fund and Much More"

People Mary Kay James, previously a managing director at DuPont Ventures, has joined Tyson Foods as the US-based meat processor unveils a $150m corporate venturing unit dubbed Tyson New Ventures. Mike Dimelow, former vice-president of strategic business development at semiconductor technology developer Arm, has left to co-found a venture capital firm called Accelerated Digital Ventures … Continue reading "12 December 2016 – Tinder creates Swipe Ventures, Australia launches $150m Csiro fund and Much More"

Covering the week’s venturing news including funding, investments, exits and people moves. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

News Walgreens sues portfolio company Theranos for $140m Alphabet rebrands Google Capital as CapitalG Funds Ten oil their way to $1bn fund Imax screens partners for $50m VR fund University Corner Ramot harnesses corporates for $20m investment initiative Huawei visits Singapore for IoT incubator Government Department Planetary Resources mines Luxembourg for new funding Exits ZMP … Continue reading "14 November 2016 – Imax VR Fund, Space Mining for Luxemburg and Much More"

People Lak Ananth has left US-based technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) to join Germany-based conglomerate Siemens as managing partner of its €1bn ($1.1bn) Next47 corporate venturing unit. Markus Solibieda has left private equity firm Mandarin Capital Partners to become managing director. Funds SoftBank to make space in its Vision for Mubadala Alibaba to cultivate … Continue reading "7 November 2016 – Alibaba cultivates $1.5bn Fund, $100m First Fund for Keen and Much More"