People Intel Capital has chosen Christine Herron and Trina Van Pelt to manage its $125m Intel Capital Diversity Fund. A former startup CEO, Herron joined Intel Capital in 2010 after a combined five years as a venture investor at First Round Capital and Omidyar Network. Funds Rozenfeld’s new firm targets $30m fund Alibaba Pictures is … Continue reading "01 August 2016 – Asian Funds, MyTaxi hails Hailo, University Record Breaking and 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

Investments Unity, which is the game engine that helped build Pokémon Go, raised $181m in its series C round led by DFJ Growth and including China Investment Corporation – the sovereign wealth fund of the People’s Republic. A $45m investment for iCarbonX whose shareholders include internet company Tencent, which led a $154m series A round … Continue reading "18 July 2016 – The Power Behind Pokémon Go raises $181m plus more"

People Rich Miner helped to launch Google Ventures in 2009 as general partner but seven years later, he’s dropped down to a venture partner position so he can concentrate on a secretive edtech project within the Google organisation. Microsoft Ventures continues to build up its team, the latest recruit being Matthew Goldstein who comes from VC firm Trinity Ventures … Continue reading "11 July 2016 – Microsoft Venturing Fund, Exits for Multiple Companies and Investment News plus more"

News and Deals Corporate On GlobalCorporateVenturing.com, the week’s biggest news was the downfall of Zenefits, a US-based HR software provider that closed a $500m series C round backed by Comcast in May 2015. Not only has the company struggled to deliver on the predicted revenue, but it’s also run into serious regulatory issues. Zenefits might … Continue reading "04 July 2016 – Crispr investment, Siemens fund and more Intel Capital people moves plus more"

Deals Corporate While not technically new, we have more information on the massive $7.3bn round for Didi Chuxing that we talked about on last Monday’s podcast. Poly Group, a Chinese state-owned real estate and trading business, contributed a whopping $400m in return for a 1.45% stake. HR Bio Holdings, a joint venture between pharmaceutical company Jiangsu … Continue reading "27 June 2016 – Blade Therapeutics, Kellogg, and IPOs for Twilio and Selecta Biosciences and more"

Didi Chuxing, the ride-sharing app developer that’s been causing a headache to Uber, has raised the largest venture round of all time with $7.3bn in combined equity and debt financing. Verto Analytics in a $16.1m series B round from Finnish Industry Investment and also featured EQT Ventures, a private equity firm that closed a government-backed … Continue reading "20 June 2016 – Post-lean interview with Frode Odegard, Didi Chuxing, FII, Rgenix, Imperial Innovations and more"

Cisco is in the news for not so positive reasons following the walkout of its spin-in team. Exits Line, the messaging platform, wholly-owned by Naver, is aiming for $1bn in proceeds at a valuation of $5.5bn Thailand-based back-office services provider Netbay is aiming for a $4.5m flotation on the domestic stock exchange. Singapore Press Holdings … Continue reading "13 June 2016 – Cisco shakeup, Line flotation, Oxford ISIS rebranding and more."

Moves Stephen Lowery, partner at venture capital firm Frog Capital, has joined Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) UK team to lead it corporate and independent VC relationships. Julia Rebholz, founder and head of Ignite, the UK’s first energy-based corporate impact investment fund, has left to join a consultancy encouraging other companies to set up similar funds. … Continue reading "06 June 2016 – Funds from Microsoft and Romulus, job moves, Alibaba and Uber gain investments and more"

No episode today due to the UK bank holiday. The podcast will be back as usual next week. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0