VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition: BMW and Daimler join forces to co...

VC Deals Only: Weekend Edition: BMW and Daimler join forces to co...: VC Deals   It’s anticipated that the autonomous vehicles market will reach $667.77 billion by 2026, and according to marketing firm ABI, ...

Weekend Edition: BMW and Daimler join forces to co-develop automated driving technologies

VC Deals 

It’s anticipated that the autonomous vehicles market will reach $667.77 billion by 2026, and according to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025. Startups like ZongMu Technology are taking full advantage of the influx of venture capital, unsurprisingly. The Shanghai-based company today revealed that it has secured a $14.5 million follow-on series C investment led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Lenovo Group’s Legend Capital and Chuangtu Investments. More

There’s a reason why mothers are instructed to breastfeed their babies soon after they’re born. The milk they produce in the days after giving birth is rich in nutrients, immune cells, and antibodies. While this “first milk,” also known as colostrum, is crucial in getting newborns off to a healthy start, PanTheryx CEO Mark Braman says the fluid’s components can also help resolve gastrointestinal disorders rooted in the gut microbiome. Now, the company has $50 million in new capital to ramp up its research. More

SINGAPORE Life - a fintech with an insurance and wealth focus - has secured a US$90 million investment from Sumitomo Life Insurance, with the major life insurer in Japan buying about 25 per cent in Singapore Life. The latest fund injection brings Singapore Life's valuation to US$358 million. More

India’s Ola is further widening its lead over Uber in the nation — and getting the help it needs from their mutual investor. Ola Electric has raised $250 million from SoftBank as India’s largest ride-hailing firm pushes to scale its electric vehicles business in the country. More

Sweet Escape, a startup founded in Indonesia that helps connect photographers with customers, is all smiles today after it announced a $6 million Series A round. More

Versant Ventures’ Century Therapeutics has exited stealth with $250 million to take allogeneic cell therapies into the clinic. Bayer’s VC wing led the investment with the support of Versant and Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics (FCDI). Century, like other allogeneic cell therapy players, is trying to improve on autologous products that require the administration of a patient’s own cells back to them by creating off-the-shelf alternatives. More

Venture Global LNG, Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based provider of American-produced liquefied natural gas, raised $675m in additional capital from institutional investors. The capital will be used for the further development of the company’s 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) Plaquemines LNG export project in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. More

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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. 

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New Funds

Insight Venture Partners (Insight), a leading global private equity and venture capital firm, announced today the close of its Fund X at $6.3 billion, the firm's largest to date. The oversubscribed fund will be used to further its leading growth equity technology investment engine. With the close of the new fund. More

The firm e.ventures, a 20-year-old, early-stage venture outfit that has historically invested out of dedicated funds in numerous geographies, including the U.S., Russia, Germany, Asia and Brazil, has raised $400 million in fresh capital across two new funds: a $225 million U.S.-focused fund that’s based in San Francisco, and a $175 million fund that’s focused on Europe and based in Berlin. More

Sony is doubling down on the world of startup investment. The Japanese tech giant announced a new fund that is aiming to raise 20 billion JPY (around $185 million) to invest in companies within “key high-growth industries.” More

Exits

SpaceLife Origin is pulling out of its plans to help people conceive and deliver babies in space. The Netherlands-based startup made headlines in October with the lofty goal of becoming the first company to "make human reproduction in space safely possible." But, according to a statement posted by CEO Kees Mulder on the company's website in June, there were "serious ethical, safety, and medical concerns" that have caused him to suspend the two missions planning to safely conceive and deliver babies in space. More

Acquisitions & Mergers

With a new acquisition, Independence-based cybersecurity firm Keyfactor is going international. Keyfactor has acquired Spain-based Redtrust, which is described as a "digital identity solutions company providing centralized certificate and digital signature management." Terms of the deal were not disclosed. More

A U.S.-based diagnostics company is expanding its presence in lung cancer with the acquisition of assets from a firm based in the U.K. Boulder, Colorado-based Biodesix said Friday that it would buy Nottingham, U.K.-based Oncimmune’s U.S. operations, including a CLIA lab in De Soto, Kansas, and its incidental pulmonary nodule malignancy test. More

Partnerships

Global automakers BMW and Daimler will join forces in a new long-term partnership to co-develop automated driving technologies, including levels of automation all the way up to SAE Level 4, which is defined as full self-driving, no human intervention required, but only under exactly defined conditions or domains – steering wheel and brakes not necessarily even present I the car.  More

AI News

The World Economic Forum today announced its list of 56 companies selected as Technology Pioneers, and this year’s class demonstrates the growing embrace of artificial intelligence and machine learning across a broad range of sectors. Of those selected, at least 20 companies say they are using AI or machine learning in some fashion to tackle challenges in fields such as advertising technology, smart cities, cleantech, supply chain, manufacturing, cybersecurity, autonomous vehicles, and drones. More

5G News

As the first half of 2019 came to a close, every major cellular carrier in the United States was officially offering 5G service to customers: Just days after blasting rivals AT&T and Verizon for lying about their limited 5G offerings, T-Mobile commenced initial service on June 28, becoming the last U.S. national carrier to launch 5G. More

VC Deals Only: ZongMu Technology raises $14.5 million for driver ...

VC Deals Only: ZongMu Technology raises $14.5 million for driver ...: It’s anticipated that the autonomous vehicles market will reach $667.77 billion by 2026, and according to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8...

ZongMu Technology raises $14.5 million for driver assistance products

It’s anticipated that the autonomous vehicles market will reach $667.77 billion by 2026, and according to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025.

Startups like ZongMu Technology are taking full advantage of the influx of venture capital, unsurprisingly. The Shanghai-based company today revealed that it has secured a $14.5 million follow-on series C investment led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Lenovo Group’s Legend Capital and Chuangtu Investment.

The fresh funding comes after a roughly $14.5 million series B in February 2017 and brings ZongMu’s total raised to about $30 million at a valuation of $146 million (RMB1 billion). “This round of funding is of vital significance as it will not only boost the development of our technology, but will make contributions to explore more opportunities in both domestic and foreign markets as well,” said ZongMu founder Tang Rui in a statement.

ZongMu — which is headquartered in Shanghai Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park with research and development subsidiaries in Beijing and Xiamen — focuses the bulk of its research and development efforts on advanced driver assistance systems. Solutions in its growing portfolio address lane departure and blind spot detection, in addition to things like door open warnings.

One of its flagship products is SurroundView, a camera system that stitches together four feeds from fisheye lens-equipped sensors and corrects for distortion and warped perspective, displaying the finished video on an in-vehicle screen. Meanwhile, ZongMu’s forthcoming automated valet parking, which is expected to launch in the second half of 2020, will enable drivers to leave their cars in designated drop-off areas and summon them with their smartphones, much like Tesla’s Enhanced Summon.

ZongMu also offers a “mobility solution” service that facilitates fleet management and operations, and which interfaces with third-party products and services like garage payment, parking slot reservation, and wireless charging systems. It’s complemented by the company’s Automatic Parking Assistant, which detects parking slots in lots by fusing and analyzing data from cameras and ultrasonic sensors.

ZongMu claims to have long-term strategic partnerships with a number of original equipment manufacturers and tier-one suppliers, and it says its products are currently sourced by China-based automakers and parts suppliers including Geely Automobile Holdings, SAIC Motor, and Yema Auto.

Another reliable client is Qualcomm, unsurprisingly. ZongMu and the San Jose chipmaker unveiled the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820A at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, which powers the infotainment systems in select Volkswagen models. (A demo at the conference used a proprietary ZongMu AI model that output multi-class object detection and road semantic segmentation simultaneously.)

“Qualcomm Ventures is glad to invest in ZongMu to accelerate pace of 5G revolution in auto industry,” said Qualcomm Ventures’ Shen Jing.

ZongMu’s revenue grew from $16,193 (RMB111,300) in 2014 to about $6.11 million (RMB42 million) in 2016, according to public disclosures, increasing by 379 times in the span of two years.

Source. Weekly Review, Kyle Wiggers, July 2, 2019

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This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the venture capital, 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.

VC Deals Only: Kabbage Receives New $200M Revolving Credit Facili...

VC Deals Only: Kabbage Receives New $200M Revolving Credit Facili...: Kabbage, Inc., an Atlanta, GA-based data and technology company offering automated cash flow solutions to small businesses, closed a $200m ...

Kabbage Receives New $200M Revolving Credit Facility

Kabbage, Inc., an Atlanta, GA-based data and technology company offering automated cash flow solutions to small businesses, closed a $200m revolving credit facility.

The new four-year credit facility commitment is provided by a subsidiary of a life insurance company, managed and administered by 20 Gates Management, and Atalaya Capital Management.

The debt capital will support the company’s growth in the USA.

Kabbage provides small businesses access to lines of credit up to $250,000 by analyzing their real-time business data. With more than 2 million live data connections with its customers, the company provides small businesses access to capital in minutes.

To-date, it has provided more than 185,000 U.S. small businesses access to over $7 billion in capital.

All of the company’s U.S.-based loans are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah-Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC.

Kabbage is funded and backed by leading investors, including the SoftBank Vision Fund, BlueRun Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures and others.

Source. FinSMEs, Staff, July 2, 2019

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This post was brought to you by Woewoda Communications, your partner in the venture capital, 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.

VC Deals Only: Bayer powers Versant cell therapy startup to $250M...

VC Deals Only: Bayer powers Versant cell therapy startup to $250M...: Versant Ventures’ Century Therapeutics has  exited  stealth with $250 million to take allogeneic cell therapies into the clinic. Bayer’s V...