Global Venturing Review

Our Leadership Series interview where James Mawson talks to Tony Cannestra from Denso International America. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The week’s podcast takes a look at the Covid-19 Crisis and the funding opportunities that have come from it. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Our Leadership Series interview where James Mawson talks to Bonny Simi from JetBlue Technology Ventures. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones It is the sort of line to awaken the curiosity in an annual report: “Cash payments to acquire equity investments amounted to £258m [$314m] (2018 – £309m), primarily relating to Lyell Immunopharma.” Thus, the accountants revealed UK-listed drugs maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had invested a sizeable amount in US-based cancer treatment developer Lyell Immunopharma, … Continue reading "06 April 2020 – Lyell Immunopharma Gains $493m Investment from GlaxoSmithKline"

Our Leadership Series interview where Thierry Heles talks to Darek DeFreece from UC Berkeley. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones In what may be an ominous sign, electric scooter rental service Lime is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a $400m valuation, a steep fall from its last round just over a year ago, when it secured $310m in a series D round featuring Alphabet that valued it at $2.4bn. The … Continue reading "30 March 2020 – Lime in Talks to Raise Funding at a Reduced $400m Valuation"

Our Leadership Series interview where Thierry Heles talks to Tom Vanhoutte from Imec.xpand. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones When SoftBank emerged with a $9.5bn rescue package for beleaguered workspace provider WeWork in October, $3bn of the amount had been earmarked for a tender that would have involved it buying shares from existing investors and shareholders – likely including hotel chain Jin Jiang International and Legend Capital. However, the company has … Continue reading "23 March 2020 – Fox Agrees to Buy Tubi for $440m in Cash"

The second part of our Leadership Series interview where Izzy Woolgar talks to Jonathan Tudor from Centrica and our very own James Mawson. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones Insightec is targeting up to $150m in a series F round valuing it at $1.3bn post-money, and has already received a $100m commitment from Koch Disruptive Technologies to lead the round. The company is developing a system that will use ultrasound to conduct brain surgery without making an incision, and KDT also … Continue reading "16 March 2020 – Insightec Targets $150m Series F"

The first part of our Leadership Series interview where Izzy Woolgar talks to Jonathan Tudor from Centrica and our very own James Mawson. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones Waymo began life in Alphabet’s secretive Google X division but has now fully emerged as a standalone company, securing $2.25bn from investors including AutoNation, Magna International and Alphabet itself – an amount it said only represents the initial close of its first external round. No official word on valuation but Morgan Stanley … Continue reading "09 March 2020 – Waymo Secures $2.25bn in Initial Close of First External Round"

James Mawson interviews Ippei Akiyoshi from Mitsubishi. The first in a series of interviews. Recorded remotely. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The Big Ones There may be fewer rounds being closed but ride hailing continues to be a money magnet, with Grab raising $856m from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group – which invested $706m – and TIS, both investing through newly struck partnership deals that will centre on the joint development of payment and financial services technology. … Continue reading "02 March 2020 – Grab Raises $856m from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group"

The Big Ones Grab had raised $4.8bn for its series H round as of mid-2019 but did not confirm a close for the round. Now however, the on-demand ride provider is set to raise approximately $714m from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group as part of a venture where the two will collaborate on a lending and … Continue reading "24 February 2020 – Imara to Raise Up To $86.3m in its IPO"

The Big News It’s been a good week for healthcare flotations, with Revolution Medicines following in the footsteps of successful IPO closures by Schrödinger and Beam Therapeutics by going public in a $238m offering that represented an increase in size of almost 50% from when it first set the range earlier this month. The precision oncology therapy … Continue reading "17 February 2020 – Revolution Medicines Goes Public in $238m Offering"

The Big Ones Sequoia Capital Global Equities has led a $340m round for cloud security platform developer Netskope at a valuation of near $3bn. Netskope has now raised $740m altogether from investors including Dell Technologies Capital. Given the propensity of cybersecurity companies to be acquired, the unit – which has already scored exits from Packet … Continue reading "10 February 2020 – Netskope Gains $340m in Round Led By Sequoia Capital Global Equities"

The Big News The US government’s effort to change the regulatory landscape for venture capital is coming to a head with this week’s sold-out Global Corporate Venturing and Innovation Summit in California. Investment banks could face more relaxed restrictions concerning investments in venture capital funds from the Federal Reserve and other watchdogs under proposals expected … Continue reading "03 February 2020 – Corporate Venturing and Innovation Summit Roundup"

The Big Ones Tokopedia is already one of the biggest companies to have emerged from Southeast Asia’s increasingly vibrant startup scene, but it is reportedly approaching the close of a $1.5bn round that would include existing investors SoftBank and Alibaba. The round is set to value the e-commerce marketplace at $8bn to $9bn and be … Continue reading "27 January 2020 – Tokopedia Approaches Close of $1.5bn Round"

The Big Ones Joby Aviation is developing an electric-powered aerial taxi for urban use, a product that would appear to be a big jump into the future even without taking into account sustainability issues concerning its stated aim to serve ‘a billion’ people a day. But corporate investors are taking it seriously and none more … Continue reading "20 January 2020 – Joby Aviation Raises $590m in Series C to Create Flying Taxis"