Weekend Edition: Beyond Limits announced a $25 million strategic partnership with Xcell to build the world’s first AI-controlled power plant

VC Deals Only

A firm developing drugs that target what it calls “notorious” pathways in oncology has raised a big round of equity financing. Redwood City, California-based Revolution Medicines said Tuesday that it had closed a $100 million Series C financing that it will put toward pipeline programs including drugs that go after targets in RAS, a pathway that plays a key role in the development of cancers but has often been considered unreachable by pharmaceutical means. More

Kyndi, a startup developing what it describes as an explainable natural language processing platform, today announced that it’s secured $20 million in series B funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from UL Ventures, PivotNorth Capital, and existing investors. More

Growing D2C brands face an interesting challenge. While they’ve eliminated much of the hassle of a physical storefront, they must still deal with all the complications involved in managing inventory and manufacturing and shipping a physical product to suppliers. More

BioNTech has raised $325 million (€289 million) in a private fundraising round. The series B positions the immuno-oncology player to advance its multidrug clinical pipeline and grow its manufacturing footprint. More

Amsterdam-based Dott, the European micro-mobility company has raised a €30 million Series A funding round to fund the production and market launch of its new e-bikes and e-scooters to replace cars in urban centres. The investment was co-led by existing investors EQT Ventures, and the South African multinational Naspers with participation from Axel Springer Digital Ventures, Felix Capital, FJ Labs, U-Start Club, and angel investors. More

Waresix, one of a handful of startups aiming to modernize logistics in Indonesia — the world’s fourth most populous country — has pulled in $14.5 million to grow its 18-month-old business.This new investment, Waresix’s  Series A, is led by EV Growth  — the growth-stage fund co-run by East Ventures  — with participation from SMDV — the investment arm of Indonesia corporation Sinar Mas — and Singapore’s Jungle Ventures. More

Byju’s, India’s most valuable edtech startup, has received $150 million as it races to expand the reach of its learning app in the country and some international markets. The unnamed financing round was led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, and included participation from Owl Ventures, a leading investor in education tech startups. More

OPay, an Africa-focused mobile payments startup founded by Norwegian browser company Opera, has raised $50 million in funding. Lead investors include Sequoia China, IDG Capital and Source Code Capital. Opera  also joined the round in the payments venture it created. OPay will use the capital (which wasn’t given a stage designation) primarily to grow its digital finance business in Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy. More

Sponsor

This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the Canadian private equity and startup markets; offering strategic communications, public relations & investor relation services to Canadian VCs, PEs, Angels, Endowments/Trusts, Family Offices, and Canadian startups involved in ICT, IoT, blockchain, life sciences, healthcare, agribusiness, clean energy, fintech, AI and robotics.

Are you a Canadian GP/LP/CI or a Canadian startup that needs to grow or scale? Give us a call! One of our representatives would love to explain how we vertically design, and then systematically layer each of our communication platforms to effectively reach niche target audiences for our clients. WC offers a unique synergistic approach to effectively communicate our client's message to their target audience. 

Serving Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, and Halifax.  

New Funds

India’s growing number of startups now have one additional VC fund that will listen to their business ideas. A91 Partners, a new VC fund founded by former partners at Sequoia Capital India, has closed their maiden fund at $351 million. A91 Partners will focus on high-growth startups in consumer, technology, financial services and healthcare sectors in India. More

IPOs

Yet another tech-ish IPO is making steps towards getting out. This week Phreesia filed an updated S-1 with a pricing range, bringing the IPO of the New York-based healthcare technology provider closer 

to execution. More

M&As

Cisco said it will acquire Acacia Communications in a deal worth $2.6 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Cisco will acquire Acacia for $70 a share in cash. Acacia, which makes optical interconnect technology, is an existing supplier to Cisco. Acacia develops algorithms for digital signal processing as well as technology for ASIC design and verification, software, integration, and optics optimization. More

New Partnerships

Beyond Limits, a Glendale, California-based company developing explainable AI for a range of industries, today announced a $25 million strategic partnership with Xcell to build what it’s calling the world’s first AI-controlled power plant. Beyond Limits CEO AJ Abdallat said it’ll be designed from the ground up and from scratch, and that it’ll embed intelligence into the “entire operation” to make the plant “safer” and maximize efficiency, productivity, and environmental friendliness. More

ICT Health News

Through a new partnership between Amazon and the U.K.’s National Health Service, patients will be able to use Alexa devices to answer health-related questions. Amazon’s algorithm extracts information from the NHS website to answer basic medical questions like common treatments for migraines and symptoms of the flu. The NHS pitches the service as being especially useful to elderly patients, blind patients and those who cannot access the internet through traditional means. More

Patent News 

IBM doesn’t actually make any of the mobile computers people carry these days — smartwatches, phones, tablets, or laptops — but that isn’t stopping the legendary computing pioneer from patenting ideas that might become viable in the future. IBM has successfully patented a smartwatch that physically transforms into a wrist-mounted phone or tablet, a concept that’s implausible today but could become real with advances in display technology. More

Up Coming Events

Fintech Canada Conference, August 14, 2019. More


Beyond Limits announced a $25 million strategic partnership with Xcell to build the world’s first AI-controlled power plant

 BioNTech Raises $325 Million to grow its immuno-oncology footprint