No podcast this week but we’ll be back next week with all the biggest corporate, government and university venturing news. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Feature GV’s new leader’s steady hand People Microsoft continues rapid hiring and investment pace Leeney leaves Telefonica Funds Spanish VC firm Kibo Ventures has raised $79m for the first close of its second fund, which it aims to expand to roughly $110m for its final close. Ideo designs investment firm University Corner KU Leuven researches … Continue reading "10 October 2016 – Possible Snap IPO, Exit for Time Warner Investments, Investment News and Much More"

People Jack Leeney, US head of investing for Telefonica Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous Spain-based phone operator, has left after nearly five years at the firm in order to be a partner at SP Global Capital. Microsoft Ventures has hired Leo de Luna, previously a principal at venture capital firm Split Rock … Continue reading "03 October 2016 – Funding news from Canada, the EU and the UK, Exits for Nokia and Much More"

Deals LeEco, has announced a $1.08bn funding round backed by Lenovo and Macrolink, and will use the funding to further develop LeSee, an autonomous electric car it is working on with Aston Martin and Faraday Future among others. Airbnb has reportedly closed an $850m round. Grab has picked up $750m in a SoftBank-led series F … Continue reading "26 September 2016 – Deals for LeEco and Airbnb, Finance Wales Launches Wales Business Fund plus much more"

Deals AcuFocus, developer of a medical device that improves near vision, has raised $66m in a KKR-led round. Microprocessor and system-on-chip technology developer Soft Machines came out of stealth mode in late 2014 with $125m from investors including AMD and Samsung, and has raised almost $175m from backers also including GlobalFoundries. 3D printing technology developer Carbon … Continue reading "19 September 2016 – Clear Vision Investment, A Fund for Baidu and Russian State Exits plus much more"

Deals Best Logistics has closed a massive $760m funding round that shows how big China’s logistics sector is growing in the wake of the country’s e-commerce success. SoFi received $1bn from backers including Renren and SoftBank at a $4bn valuation in October, followed that up with another $150m from Renren the following month, and is now reportedly lining … Continue reading "12 September 2016 – Automotive Deals, UK Funds and more funding for Didi Chuxing plus more"

People Renard heads west after SanDisk merger Wang heads Tsinghua fund Funds Reliance pledges $750m for digital startup funding Elevator advertising firm Focus Media prefers partnerships when it comes to corporate venturing and has agreed to put together a $750m fund with state-owned investment holding group China Everbright. European insurance firms have been pretty active in the … Continue reading "5 September 2016 – A look at Lidar, $1bn fund for UK Ministry of Defence and more"

Investments One97 Communications, which has reportedly raised almost $1bn to date, most of which came after it formed mobile payment subsidiary Paytm in 2010. It’s now set to formally split from Paytm and has set up a separate entity for its e-commerce activities. Snapdeal, which raised $500m in a round led by the Chinese firm last … Continue reading "29 August 2016 – University and Government Venturing Summer Catchup and more"

Funds China has just reportedly approved the establishment of a state-owned $30bn VC fund in Shenzhen. ONGC to drill into startups with $15m fund Uber and Digi to experiment with Malaysian ideation lab Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), a university venturing fund commercialises science and technology advances made at Cambridge University, has raised £75m ($90m). Prudential … Continue reading "22 August 2016 – Autonomous and Smart Car Investments, $30bn Fund in China and more"

People Friday was Bill Maris’s last day at GV, the corporate venturing unit he helped to set up for search engine Google in 2009. But it is a new start for David Krane, who is taking the CEO position at GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) and who will have a tough act to follow … Continue reading "15 August 2016 – VR and Food Delivery Investments, GV People Moves and more"