Netherland’s Virtuagym Secures USD 7.03 Mn, Chinese Government Rates Ethereum As The Top Public Blockchain Project And More
Here’s a recap of this week’s headlines from around the globe [21-25 May]
ASIA
Singaporean E-commerce company EZBuy has got USD 17.6 Mn in a pre- Series C round from new and existing investors. The website allows users to buy from online stores based in overseas markets like China, the US, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Singapore’s wealth advisor WeInvest has picked up USD 12 Mn series A funding led by London-based asset manager Schroders along with several angel investors.
China’s robotics startup CowaRobot has pulled in USD 21.2 million series B funding in a round co-led by SoftBank China Venture Capital and China Creation Ventures.
Ethereum has been listed as the top public blockchain project, Bitcoin lands on 13th place. The ranking comes from the Chinese government’s first monthly Global Public Chain Assessment Index.
Chengxin Credit that runs a database of credit information for individuals, as well as companies, has raised USD 70.5 Mn in series A round from Citic Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and others.
India’s digital payments and ecommerce firm PayTM has purchased Orbgen – operator of online ticketing platform TicketNew –The stock-based transaction is estimated to be worth between USD 30 to 40 Mn.
Japanese conglomerate Softbank has confirmed that it has sold its 20 percent share in the e-commerce platform Flipkart to Walmart for an estimated USD 4 billion after Walmart purchased a 77 percent stake in Flipkart for USD 16 billion earlier this month.
Indonesian, ride-hailing firm, Go-Jek has plans to enter Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines – the same countries dominated by its rival Grab – over the next few months and will be spending USD 500 Mn on the expansion.
Australia’s SafetyCulture, the maker of safety checklist app iAuditor, gets USD 45.4 Mn in series C round. The enterprise software provider bagged the investment in a round led by Tiger Global.
EUROPE
As the EU’s new data privacy rules come into force, there’s major panic brewing. Many tech firms have blocked EU residents from using their services because of concerns that they are not compliant with the new laws. A number of high-profile US news websites have gone temporarily unavailable in Europe.
The rules give the public more rights over how personal information is used and raises the amount firms can be fined.
Virtuagym, a Netherland based fitness platform has secured USD 7.03 Mn in its series B fund round. Endeit Capital led the round.
Early stage investor Seedcamp has announced the closure of its fourth fund with a corpus of USD 70.3 Mn. It plans to invest this in about 100 startups across Europe in pre-seed and seed fund rounds.
UK based AI startup Ultromics has pulled in USD 11.7 Mn in a series A funding round. The investment was led by Oxford Sciences Innovation, with participation from others.
USA
Pennsylvania based firm Phenom People has raised USD 22 Mn in its series B funding round. The round was led by AXA Venture Partners with participation from existing investors Sierra Ventures, Sigma Prime Ventures, and Omidyar Ventures.
Event technology firm Surkus, based in Los Angeles, has picked USD 10 Mn in its series B funding round. EOS Global led the round.
Self-learning data platform Reltio, a California headquartered firm, has raised USD 45 Mn in Series D funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from other existing investors.
Miami’s digital payment startup YellowPepper has announced the close of its USD 12.5 million Series D financing, with participation from Visa and current investors.
Washington based firm, Rover.com has secured USD 155 Mn in equity and debt financing. USD 30 Mn has been received as credit from Silicon Valley Bank and USD 125 Mn as equity in a round which was led by T. Rowe Price Associates.
