Leading US Telecom Tower company Crown Castle has entered into an agreement to acquire Wilcon, a fiber infrastructure services provider for $600M. The acquisition provides Crown Castle with fiber assets to help it deliver fiber-fed Small Cell Infrastructure. (Link)

Crown Castle is one of the ‘Big 3’ in the US Telecom Tower industry. Others include American Telecom Corporation (ATC), and SBA Communications Corporation, and they jointly own 80% of the country’s mobile towers. Over the past five years, these companies have seen an opportunity to expand in the Small Cell Infrastructure market to help Telecom Operators serve denser areas. This market is also served by National fiber providers such as Zayo and Lumos, and Telecom Operators directly. Highlights:

Small Cell Infrastructure is a high growth market

• Small Cell Infrastructure market is expected to expand at 28.8% CAGR to reach $2.08B by 2019 (note by MarketsandMarkets)
• Globally, 90% mobile operators have already started deploying Small Cells while remaining are expected to deploy by 2017 end (note by IHS Markit)
• Market growth is driven by Small Cell Infrastructure’s capability to better handle increasing wireless data demand in denser markets (note by Gregory Miller, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity)

Small Cell will be a major revenue driver for Crown Castle in the long run

• Crown Castle’s management expects Small Cell business to generate $3B in revenues (~50% of total) in the long term (quote by Jay Brown, CEO of Crown Castle)

• Small Cell currently contributes $400M (~10% of total revenues)

Crown Castle has invested more than $3B in this market since 2015

• Acquired FiberNet, fiber service provider, with 11,500 route miles of fiber in Florida and Texas, for $1.5B, in 2016
• Acquired Sunesys, fiber service provider, with 10,000 route miles of fiber in major US metropolitan markets, for $1B, in 2015

Crown Castle is paying a premium for Wilcon’s complementary fiber assets in Los Angeles and San Diego

• Valued at $315K per route mile of fiber, compared to $100K for Sunesys and $130K for FiberNet
• High quality set of assets with a low utilization rate in high density areas of South California (note by Company Management)
• Adding 1,900 route miles of fiber assets in Los Angeles and San Diego. Crown Castle will own rights to more than 28,000 route miles in the area after this acquisition.

Other two major players in the US Telecom Tower industry are staying away from this market

• ATC views Small Cell Infrastructure as a complementary business to be used in special cases (note by Vertix Consulting)
• SBA Communications has strategically  moved away from the business by selling its stake in ExteNet Systems in 2015
• Small Cell Infrastructure business has lower margins than the Towers business due to operational complexities (note by New Street Research)

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RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – SMART GRID

• HgCapital invests $25M in utility customer and billing system provider Gentrack. Link
• Invenia, a machine learning platform that optimizes power grids and reduces harmful emissions, raises $5M in Series A funding. Link
• Enervalis, a distributed energy resource management platform raises $4.5M from ABB Technology Ventures, LRM and Nuhma. Link
• Smart grid analytics company In2lytics raises $3M in Series A funding from  Enerdigm Ventures and Referentia Systems. Link
• Zenneck surface wave technology developer Texzon Technologies raises $2.3M funding as per SEC filing. Link
• Peak Power receives a strategic investment from Osmington. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Omega Grid  (2017, Chicago) – Omega Grid offers a P2P energy sharing platform. The solution helps utilities with grid balancing and enabling market settlements.
Cuecent RETINA (2016, Chennai) – Cuecent RETINA provides asset management solutions for industrial applications. The company offers IT/OT integration, predictive analytics, grid distribution analytics and real-time asset management.

LEADER BOARD – SMART GRID

Horizontal
Silver Spring Networks (2002, Redwood City, IPO) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Backed by KPCB, Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Northgate Capital Group and DFJ Growth. Went Public in March 2013.
LandisGyr (1896, Zug, $265M, Acq.) – End-to-end smart grid solutions provider. Acquired by Toshiba in May 2011.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Smart Meters
Elster (1994, Ocala, Acq.) – Provide AMI and AMR metering solutions for electricity, gas and water segments. Acquired by Honeywell in December 2015.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Communication Systems
Power Plus Communications (2001, Mannheim, $15M) – Broadband powerline communication systems for smart grids, smart metering, and smart homes.Backed by Siemens Venture Capital, British Gas, Climate Change Capital, Siemens Financial Services.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure – Meter Data Management
eMeter (1999, San Mateo, $69M, Acq.) – Offer software solutions and meter data management software. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Northgate Capital Group, Foundation Capital, DBL Investors and Siemens Venture Capital. Acquired by Siemens in December 2011.

Load Management
Ice Energy (2003, Santa Barbara, $92M) – Energy storage system and demand side management for the smart grid. Backed by Energy Capital Partners, Second Avenue Partners, Good Energies and Goldman Sachs.
Green Charge (2009, Santa Clara, $66M) – Load balancing using battery storage devices. Backed by TIP Capital, K Road DG. Acquired by Engie in May, 2016.

Transmission Automation
Smart Wires (2014, SF, $79M) – Smart wires to push power from overloaded line to underutilized lines. Backed by RiverVest Venture Partners, Jane Capital Partners, ARPA-E.

Distribution Automation
Gridco Systems (2010, Woburn, $54.5M) – End-to-End hardware and software platform to solve distribution challenges. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Lux Capital, RockPort Capital, Reinhausen.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Suite Solutions
Trilliant Networks (1985, Redwood City, $146M) – Provides single dashboard management of an entire smart grid infrastructure. Backed by MissionPoint Capital Partners, Zouk Capital, VantagePoint Capital Partners, GE, ABB and Capital Growth Investments.

Utility Services – Network Operations Platform – Distributed Energy Resources
GridPoint (2003, Arlington, $294M, Acq.) – Energy management solution(EMS) provider with real-time data collection, big data analytics and cloud computing to maximize energy savings. Backed by Goldman Sachs, Advantage Capital Partners, Skypoint Capital, Altira Group. Acquired by TFC Utilities in November 2015.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Suite
Opower (2007, Arlington, $65.5M, Acq.) – Cloud-based software comprising energy reports and demand response programs. Backed by New Cycle Capital, Accel Partners and KPCB. Acquired by Oracle Corporation in May 2015.
Nexant (2000, SF, $65M) – Cloud-based business process management software platform for utilities to analyze the demand response. Backed by Oak Investment, Intel Capital, TeleSoft Partners and Beacon Capital.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Customer End
Tendril (2004, Boulder, $115M) – Cloud-based software platform which provides the infrastructure, analytics, and personalized energy services for demand response. Backed by VantagePoint Capital,  Vista Ventures, Access Venture Partners, Appian Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital.
FirstFuel (2011, Lexington, $45M) – Building-wide energy analytics that helps utilities and government agencies deliver energy efficiency across commercial building portfolios. Backed by Next World Capital, Battery Ventures, Vast Ventures, Nth Power, RockPort Capital, E.on, Electranova Capital, Idinvest Partners.

Utility Services – Energy Management Solutions – Utility End
Space-Time Insight (2008, San Mateo, $54.5M) – Real-time analytics by capturing data from various assets. Backed by  Informatica, Opus Capital, NEC Corporation, EnerTech Capital, Novus Energy Partners, Start Up Farms International, Zouk Capital, E.on.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit Smart Grid feed.

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RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – TRANSPORT TECH

• Didi Chuxing, China-based ride-hailing platform, raised $5.5B in Series G round led by Softbank and others  Link
• Go-Jek, Indonesia-based motorbike on-demand platform, raised $1.2B in Series D round from Tencent Link
• Lyft, US-based on-demand taxi paltform, raised $600M in Series G round from KKR and others Link
• OlaCabs, India-based cab-hailing service provider raised $104M in Series I round from Falcon Edge and Ratan Tata Fund Link
• 99, Brazil-based ride-hailing platform, raised $100M in Series C round from Softbank Link
• Cabify, Spain-based on-demand cab service provider, raised $100M in Series D round from Rakuten and others Link
• Hyperloop One, US-based Hyperloop-based ground transportation builder, raised $93M from Sherpa Capital, Khosla Ventures and others Link
• Getaround, US-based P2P car sharing marketplace, raised $45M in Series C round led by Braemar Energy Ventures and others Link
• Spin, US-based dockless bicycle rental service provider, raised $8M in Series A round from Grishin Robotics and others Link
• Ofo, China-based P2P bicycle rental platform, raised an undisclosed round by Alibaba’s Ant Financial Link
• Gett, Israel-based taxi hailing app acquired Juno, New York-based on-demand taxi service provider for $200M Link
• SpotHero, US-based app for parking reservations acquired Parking Panda, US-based parking space finder for an undisclosed amount Link
• TravelCar, France-based car sharing service provider, acquired Tripndrive, P2P car rental service provider for an undisclosed amount Link 
• Audi acquired Austin-based Silvercar, premium airport car rental service provider for an undisclosed amount Link 
• Cabconnect, back-office management software solution provider acquired US-based Flywheel, marketplace for taxis and Taxi OS solution provider Link
• Europcar Group, France-based vehicle rental services provider acquired Buchbinder, Germany-based car rental service provider for an undisclosed amount Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Kasper Cab (2016, Jeddah) – Provides on-demand cab booking service & ride-sharing solutions for women
Parky (2016, Athens) – App to find & rent parking spaces

LEADER BOARD – TRANSPORT TECH

Taxi
Didi Chuxing (2012, Beijing, $13.8B) – Didi Chuxing is a company made up of China’s two largest taxi-hailing firms- Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache as result of a merger in Feb 2015. Backed by Tencent and Alibaba among others.
Uber (2009, SF, $10.71B) – Uber is an on-demand taxi service provider. Backed by First Round Capital, Benchmark, Menlo Ventures, Baidu, Fidelity Investments, Google Ventures and Tata Capital among others.
Lyft (2012, SF, $2.7B) – Lyft facilitates cab hailing and peer-to-peer ridesharing by connecting passengers who need a ride with drivers. Majority ride providers are professional drivers. Backed by A16Z, Alibaba, and Facebook among others.
Ola (2011, Bengaluru, $1.59B) – Ola is an on-demand taxi service in India. Backed by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, SoftBank, Sequoia, Accel and Didi-Kuaidi among others.
Grab Taxi (2012, Singapore, $1.44B) – GrabTaxi is an automated location-based smartphone booking and dispatch platform for the taxi industry in South East Asia. Backed by Vertex Ventures, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Qunar among others.

Self Drive Cars
eHi Car Services (2006, Shanghai, IPO) – eHi is a car rental service provider. Backed by CTrip, Enterprise Holdings, and Goldman Sachs among others.
Turo (2009, SF, $101M) – Turo is a P2P car sharing platform. Backed by KPCB, Google ventures, August Capital and GM ventures among others.

Car Pooling
BlaBlacar (2004, Paris, $311.5M) – BlaBlaCar connects drivers who have empty seats with people looking for a ride through their car share service. Focuses on longer trips. Backed by Index ventures, Accel and Insight partners among others.

On-Demand Driver
Edaijia (2011, Beijing, $125M) – Edaijia allows users to find and connect with the nearest available temporary drivers via their app. Backed by LSVP and Matrix Partners among others.

Nontraditional
Hyperloop One (2014, LA, $253M) – Hyperloop is a vacuum tube-based transportation technology. Backed by Sherpa Ventures, 8VC, ZhenFund, Caspian Venture Partners, 137 Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Fast Digital, Western Technology Investment (WTI), SNCF, the French National Rail Company and GE Ventures among others.

Public Transport
Moovit (2011, Ness Ziona, $81.5M) – Moovit gives commuters a complete real-time snapshot of what their trip will be like and suggests the fastest, most comfortable routes. Backed by Sequoia and Gemini investors among others.

Smart Shuttle Service
Dada bus (2014, Shenzhen, $59M) – Dada Bus is a bus ridesharing app for a shuttle service that leverages big data to smartly match users with routes.

Bi-Cycle
Ofo (2015, Beijing, $585M) – Ofo.so is a P2P bicycle rental platform. Backed by Matrix Partners China, Didi Chuxing, and GSR Ventures China.
MoBike (2015, Shanghai, $325M) – MoBike is a bicycle rental platform. Backed by Foxconn, Tencent, Sequoia, CTrip, Joy Capital, and Panda VC Fund.

Employee Transportation
Move In Sync (2009, Bengaluru, $5M) – MoveInSync Technology Solutions is an employee transportation solutions provider. Backed by Inventus Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Saama Capital and others.

Motorized Two Wheeler
Go-Jek (2010, Jakarta, $1.75B) – Go-Jek is a bike taxi aggregator. Backed by Sequoia, KKR, and Warburg Pincus among others.

Traffic Management
Inrix (2004, Kirkland, $133M) – Inrix is a SaaS company which provides applications pertaining to road traffic control. It is a serial acquirer targeting comprehensive traffic data. Backed by August Capital, Venrock, Bain Capital, KPCB, Intel Capital, Porsche

Car Sharing Tech
Vulog (2006, Paris, $9M) – Vulog is a provider of in-car technology and modular software platform for car sharing. Backed by Bpifrance, Conseil Plus Gestion, Paca Investment, ETF Partners

Maps Routing
mapbar (2004, Beijing, $78M) – mapbar is a provider of online and wireless maps. Backed by IDG Capital.
Waze (2004, Beijing, $67M, Acq.) – Waze is a provider of social driving and navigation app. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield, Byers Digital Growth Fund, Qualcomm Ventures, and iFund among others. Acquired by Google.

Parking
Luxe (2013, SF, $75.5M) – Luxe provides on-demand valet parking service. Backed by Hertz Global Holdings, Redpoint Ventures and Venrock among others.
Streetline (2005, SF, $50M) – Streetline has developed a device to find empty parking spaces. Backed by True Ventures, Citi Group, RockPort Capital and Sutter Hill Ventures among others.

Fleet Management
inthinc (1997, Salt Lake City, $24M) – inthinc provides fleet management and driver saftey solutions. Backed by Innoventures Capital Partners, Partners for Growth

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest update visit Transport Tech feed.

Funding in product management tools fell sharply in 2016, going from $169M to $67M in 2016. This fall was most pronounced in late stage investments.

The space’s largest round was Amplitude’s $15M series B round in June 2016, led by Battery Ventures,  Benchmark Capital, Data Collective, Merus Capital and others. There were three acquisitions in 2016, while 2017 YTD has seen one.

Product feedback platforms was the most favoured business model, netting $53M in 2016, despite the sector’s overall investment decline. Of this, platform’s providing analytics and data inputs about the usage of software products and websites were the most favoured. This sub-sector also covers companies like Amplitude and Apptimize – who bagged some of the biggest rounds in the sector in this period.

There were a considerable number of seed stage investments, while early and later stage rounds were scanty. Y Combinator and 500 Startups were most active in seed rounds, while Index and Accel Partners made two and three investments respectively in later rounds.

Note: You can download the part view of the report here. The full version of this report is available for our paid subscribers. Should you want to access the complete report and explore the Tracxn platform, drop us a note on bd@tracxn.com

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A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – FOOD TECH

• Delivery Hero, a food delivery startup which has presence in 40 countries, raises $421M from Naspers at the current valuation of over $3.1B amid speculation of IPO. Link
• Soylent, a brand and manufacturer of meal replacement products, raises $50M in Series B round led by GV (formerly known as Google Ventures). Link
• Dinova, an online restaurants marketplace for corporate diners, raises $40M from Frontier Capital. Link
• Frichti, a French startup that operates delivery only kitchens, raises $33.7M led by Verlinvest and Felix Capital. Link 
• Eatclub, a corporate lunch delivery startup raises $30M in Series C round led by a strategic investor Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company. Link
• Zomato, a restaurant discovery and online ordering platform, raises $20M from existing investors. The company claims that its annual cash burn reduced to $12M from $64M in previous year. Link    
• Chef’d, a meal kit delivery startup raises $10M in a Series B round led by Campbell Soup. Link
• Bluecart, a wholesale procurement platform for restaurants, raises $10M in a Series B round led by Jagmohan Bansal and Konstantin Zvereff. Link
• Sun Basket, a meal kit delivery startup raises $9.2M in a Series C-2 round led by Unilever Ventures. Link
• Spotluck, an app based platform to avail discounts at restaurants, raises $4.8M led by Jobi Capital. Link
• Mail.ru, a Russia-based diversified internet-media company, acquires remaining 90% shares of Zakazaka, a food delivery platform in an all cash deal for $18M. Link
• Whirlpool acquires Yummly, a crowd sourced recipe aggregating platform which was last valued at $100M. Link
• Just Eat’s $200M acquisition of Hungryhouse, a food delivery company, faces an indepth probe from British regulator, Competition and Markets Authority. Link 
• Zomato to reach out to 6.6M customers to update their account security after 17M customer records were hacked from its database. Link
• HungryGoWhere, a Singaporean restaurant discovery platform, partners with Foodpanda for meal delivery service. Link
• Opentable, a restaurant reservation platform, introduces online booking feature through Facebook Messenger. Link
• TerraVia, a manufacturer of algae based food ingredients, plans to sell part of or entire company to restructure its debt. The company reported $22.6M loss in 1Q17 compared to $26.5M in 1Q16. Link
• 1919, a Chinese etailer of alcoholic beverages, reports 141%  increase in annual revenue to $420M boosted by growing offline presence. Link
• Delivery Hero, reports 71% increase in annual revenue, in terms value of orders processed, to $2.6B. Link

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

EVOQ Therapeutics (2016, Ann Arbor) – Nano-vaccines for cancer immunotherapy. The company nanodisc technology can enhance multivalent T-cell responses and can be used to develop personalised cancer vaccines.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

• Aerie Pharmaceuticals raises $125M from its At-the-market program. Read More
• Kite Pharma receives FDA Priority Review for its CAR-T, Axicabtagene Ciloleucel. Read More
• Avicanna raises 1st equity finnancing, residency in J&J Labs Toronto. Read More
• BioCryst gets a big boost from its latest HAE data, but it still faces a dangerous high wire act and giant rivals. Read More
• Cipla decides to drop out of Biosimilars race. Read More

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

Aneak (2016, Chaoyang) – Provider of fast charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and mobile phones. The company partners with local business to provide charging points which can be located using a smartphone app.
Recycle Track Systems (2015, NYC, $260.06k) – Focuses on smart waste collection. The company uses its proprietary IOT-enabled software solution to optimize the collection routes.

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

Nova Legal Funding (2015, Los Angeles) – Pre-settlement financing provider for plaintiffs. Funds up to $2.5M for cases related to personal injury, accidents, medical negligence, product liability, employment and labor laws, defective drugs and medical devices. The funding is non-recourse, meaning that plaintiff will not need to repay anything if the case is lost.
Payjo (2016, Bangalore) – AI-based banking platform through which banks can serve customer requests. Financial institutions can deploy the platform on facebook messenger, website, and within their app and reduce servicing costs.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – CONSTRUCTION TECH

• 3D Robotics, a developer of both consumer and commercial drones & autopilot systems and BIM solutions, raised $53M in a Series D round from Atlantic Bridge Capital, Foundry Group, Mayfield, Autodesk, and True Ventures. Link
• OfBusiness, an online B2B marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of industrial supplies, raised an undisclosed amount in a Debt round from InnoVen Capital. Link
• Field ID, a provider of safety and compliance management solutions, was acquired by eCompliance for an undisclosed amount. Link
• Yard Club, an online equipment rental marketplace, was acquired by Caterpillar for an undisclosed amount. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Smartsite Safety (2016, Birmingham, $120.00k) – provider of sensor-based safety solutions for construction sites.

LEADER BOARD – CONSTRUCTION TECH

Design Tools
Autodesk (1982, San Rafael, IPO) – Provides design and information modeling software for architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, entertainment and media industries. Went public in 1985.
Trimble (1978, Sunnyvale, IPO) – Provides advanced positioning and mobile solutions for productivity enhancement across various industries. As of part of its Connected Construction Site strategy, Trimble is making acquisitions to provide AEC industry with tools to manage entireconstruction project lifecycle. Notable acquisitions include SketchUp, Tekla, Gehry Technologies, Vico Software and Meridian Systems. Went public in 1990.

Project Management – Suite
Aconex (2000, Melbourne, IPO) – Provides solutions for document management, BIM collaboration, bidding & tenders, workflow management, field inspections, and reporting. Went public in 2014.
Textura (2004, Deerfield, IPO, Acq.) – Provides CPM, EPP, field management and submittal exchange services. Went public in 2013. Acquired by Oracle in April 2016 for $663M.
Procore (2003, Carpinteria, $181M) – Provides owners and AEC professionals with cloud-based & mobile collaboration and project management solutions. Backed by Iconiq Capital, Bessemer VP and Great Pacific Capital.

Project Management – Pre-Construction Management
BuildingConnected (2012, SF, $8.5M) – Platform for preconstruction bidding. Contractors send invites, network and communicate with bidders, and subcontractors securely bid. Backed by CrossLink Capital, Brick and Mortar Ventures, Bee Partners and Freestyle Capital.
iSqFt (1993, Cincinnati, $16M, Acq.) – Helps project owners, architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, building product manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors to find commercial construction leads, build connections, sell more products, control the bid management process, and perform digital takeoffs. Acquired by Genstar Capital in October 2014.

Project Management – Field Management
PlanGrid (2011, SF, $59M) – Provides professionals in construction with drawing management solutions, sharing photos, managing RFIs, punch lists and tracking issues. Backed by Y Combinator, Base Ventures, 500 Startups, Navitas Capital and Sequoia Capital.
Newforma (2003, Manchester, $21M) – Provides Project Information Management (PIM) software for AEC firms. Helps manage Submittals, Punch List, RFIs, documents and create daily reports. Backed by Borealis Ventures, Kodiak VP and NBVP.

Marketplaces – Heavy Equipment
Noble Iron (2010, Houston, IPO) – Equipment rental service and enterprise software applications to manage the complete equipment ownership lifecycle from acquisition, renting and sales. Went public in 2012.
Ironplanet (1999, Pleasanton, $92M, Acq.) – An online marketplace for buying and selling of used heavy equipment, such as construction, mining, forestry, and agricultural equipment and related peripheral items. Also provides physical inspection services for equipment listed in its marketplace. Backed by Accel Partners and KPCB.

Marketplaces – Construction Materials
BuildDirect (1999, Vancouver, $104M) – Online retailer and marketplace for home improvement products. Backed by OMERS Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, BMO Asset Management, Difference Capital and Dynamic Funds.

Building Technologies – Robotics
Fast Brick Robotics (2005, Perth, Acq., IPO)  – Developed a brick laying robot that uses information fed from a 3D CAD representation of the home to place bricks with a laying speed of 1,000 bricks per hour and can construct an average house in 1-2 days. Was acquired by DMY Capital in September 2015 and went Public through reverse IPO in November 2015.

Building Technologies – 3D Printing
WinSun (2010, Shanghai, $23M) – An architectural 3D printing technology company. Investor undisclosed.

Building Technologies – Modular Construction
ConXtech (2004, Hayward, $56M) – Provides chassis based modular steel building systems. Backed by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Columbus Nova.

Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates visit Construction Tech feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – B2B ECOMMERCE

• Lampenwelt.de, an online distributor of lighting products, has raised $129.6M from 3i, a VC firm. Link
• Eat Club, an online service for corporate food delivery, has raised $30M in a Series C round from a group of investors. Link
• Ruigushop, an online supplier of MRO products, has raised $14.5M in a Series B round led by Source code capital and Chengwei Capital. Link
• Haishangxian, an online B2B platform for seafood, has raised a $10.2M funding round. Link
• Uxiaor, an online B2B platform for fuel trading, has raised a $10M pre-Series A round. Link
• 51Zhaoyou, an online trading platform for petroleum and oil products, has raised a $8M Series B round. Link
• Vipmro, an online B2B platform for industrial supplies, has raised $7.2M in a Series A round of funding. Link
• Ninjacart, a B2B marketplace connecting farmers with retailers, has raised a $5.5M Series B round from a group of investors. Link
• 360imprimir, an online printing service provider for businesses, has raised $4.3M from Omnes Capital and Pathena. Link
• Aggrigator, a B2B e-commerce platform for agricultural commodities, has raised $3.3M funding round. Link
• Full Harvest, an online B2B marketplace for substandard food produce connecting farmers with retailers, has raised $2M in a seed funding round. Link
• Traede, a B2B e-commerce web-shop platform, has raised $500k in a seed funding round. Link
• Mbiz, an online B2B marketplace, has raised a Series A round from Lippo Group. Link
• Zhaomuwang, an online B2B trading platform for timber products, has raised an undisclosed Series A round of funding. Link
• Okguo, a B2B supplier for fruits and vegetables, has raised a pre-Series A round. Link

A weekly newsletter summarizing recent activity in the Chinese startup ecosystem.

DEALS OF THE WEEK

Alibaba Health Acquires Parent Group’s Nutrition Supplement Unit For $490M
Hong Kong stock exchange-listed Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd. said it would acquire a nutritional supplement unit of its parent Alibaba Group for $490M. The nutritional supplement unit, called Ali JK Nutritional Products, recorded gross merchandise volume of $390M for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.

INTERESTING FUNDRAISING ACTIVITY IN CHINA

Frontline BioVentures, WuXi Healthcare To Merge, Creating $800M Fund
Two Chinese venture firm, Frontline BioVentures and WuXi Healthcare Ventures, have agreed to merge to form one healthcare investment group named 6 Dimensions Capital, in a rare case of two venture firms merging to become one entity of $800M asset.

Industrial Securities Leads $140M Round In Chinese Live Streaming Firm Panda TV
Panda TV (2015, Shanghai), an Online entertainment company focused on broadcasting live e-sports events, raises $140M in Series B round of funding led by Chinese brokerage firm Industrial Securities Co. with participation from Bright Stone Investment Management, Hanfor Capital Management Co., Ltd., and Lighthouse Capital Group.

Co-Working Space Firms UrWork, 5Lmeet Raise $116M From Beijing Xingpai
UrWork (2015, Beijing), provider of co-working spaces for Chinese startups and 5Lmeet (2015, Beijing), co-living spaces developer, raises $58M each in funding from Beijing Xingpai Group, a Chinese conglomerate engaged in the sports, real estate and investment businesses.

CCB International Co-Leads $100M Round In Chinese Mobile App Maker Chubao
Chubao Technology (2008, Shanghai), Mobile communication app developer, raises $100M in Series D round of funding led by CCB International, an investment unit owned by China Construction Bank, and Chinese venture firm HG Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital China, Qiming Venture Partners and SIG.

CBC Capital leads $26M Series C in Chinese APM provider Cloudwise
Cloudwise (2010, Beijing), a solution provider for cloud application performance management raises $26M in Series C round of funding led by CBC Capital with participation from SIG and Sequoia Partners China.

Chinese Biopharma Firm CANbridge Life Sciences Raises $25M In Series B Round
CANbridge Life Sciences (2012, Beijing), a biopharmaceutical company, raises $25M in Series B round of funding led by Lapam Capital with participation from Qiming Venture Partners, Yuanming Capital, Yanyuan Capital, Biossom Investment Management and Wuxi App Tec.

JOY Capital Leads $20M Round In Chinese Co-Working Space Mydream+
Mydream+ (2015, Beijing), Co-working space startup, raises $20M in Series B round of funding led by JOY Capital with participation from Wecash and K2VC.

Tian Ge Interactive invests $14M In Chinese Live Streaming Platform Huajiao
Huajiao Live Video (2015,  Beijing), a live video streaming mobile app, raises $14M in funding from Hong Kong-listed Tian Ge Interactive Holdings Ltd., a Hangzhou-based live social video platform.

CASH Capital Leads new Round In Chinese Big Data Firm Boray Data
Boray Data (2014, Beijing), a real-time big data solutions provider, raises an undisclosed amount in Series B round of funding from Beijing-based CASH Capital Investment Management.

INVESTMENTS BY CHINESE INVESTORS AND COMPANIES

TP Therapeutics raises $45M co-led by China’s Lilly Asia Ventures
TP Therapeutics (2014, San Diego), structure-based drug design company for the discovery and development of precision medicines for cancer and other diseases, raises $45M in Series C round of funding co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors and S.R. One, with participation from Cormorant Asset Management and SV Tech Ventures.

A weekly newsletter summarizing recent activity and interesting startups in South East Asia.

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

Brikl (2017, Bangkok) – Online fashion design platform with a direct connection with manufacturers. Global comparables include Bespokify (2015, HK, Undisclosed) and Strypes (2015, SF).
Finema (2017, Bangkok) – MFA solution for mobile digital identity management. Global comparables include Okta (2008, SF, $228.5M) and Solus (2013, Kuala Lumpur).

SEA – FUNDING UPDATES

Soft Space raise funding
Soft Space (2012, Petaling Jaya), a centralised EMV processing, raises $5M in Series A from Transcosmos.

Luxstay raises funding
Luxstay raises undisclosed amount in funding from Genesia Ventures.

Coins raises funding
Coins (2013, Manila), Bitcoin wallet for transactions, raises $5M in Series A from Naspers.

CamboTicket raises funding
CamboTicket (2014, Phnom Penh), online bus booking platform, raises $100k in Seed round from OBOR Capital.

SEA – RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

GREE Ventures closes second fund
GREE Ventures closes second fund at $67M.

B Capital Group reaches second close of $181M
B Capital Group reaches second close of $181M.

Vulpes launches Myanmar-focused tech VC fund
Singapore’s Vulpes launches Myanmar-focused tech VC fund.

Deskera partners Alibaba Cloud
Deskera, a company that provides cloud-based ERP and CRM solutions for mid-market enterprises, partners Alibaba Cloud.

Malaysia VC, PE association joins ASEAN Venture Council
Malaysia VC, PE association joins ASEAN Venture Council.

Global Founders Capital to invest up to $10M in Indonesia by year end
Global Founders Capital to invest up to $10M in Indonesia by year end.

Grab launches next phase of $700M master plan
Grab launches next phase of $700M master plan.

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

Tolerogenixx (2016, Heidelberg) – Developing cellular therapeutics for individualised immunosuppression in transplant patients. The company is harvesting peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the donor, treating with mitomycin C and then infused into the patient prior to the transplant.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

• Ge Li melds WuXi VC with Frontline, creating an $800M trans-Pacific powerhouse fund now hunting fresh biotech capital. Read More
• World Bank’s private investment arm plans to inject $60M into vaccine maker Biological E. Read More
• Sun Pharma shares plunge nearly 12% on bleak FY18 forecast. Read More
• German Checkpoint Inhibitor for brain cancer prioritized by the EMA. Read More
• Congo approves Merck’s anti-Ebola vaccine to combat outbreak in remote northeast. Read More

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

Machinup (2017, Bangalore) – Develops AI-based predictive maintenance solutions for Oil & Gas and Power industry. The applications include asset performance management, reducing downtime, and operations optimization.
Minimula (2015, Hangzhou) – Developer of smart electric folding kick scooters. The vehicle connects to an app which informs the user about the mileage, battery status, trip stats and also has an anti-theft feature.

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND

SpaceVault (2016, SF) – Digital banking platform that provides Space-centric financial products and services, such as Certificates of Deposit (CDs) and Savings accounts. It provides anyone the to securely invest and participate in the emerging commercial Space industry.
Flip (2015, Jakarta) – Bank-to-bank money transfer solutions provider to individuals. It helps reduce the money transfer cost, making the process cheaper.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally 

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – PR TECH

• Social Native, a platform for branded content on demand, has closed a $8M seed round. Link
• Takumi, an influencer marketing platform, has raised a $4M Series A financing round to fuel its US and global expansion. Link
• Popular Pays, an influencer marketplace, has raised around $3M in Series A funding round. Link
• Ripjar, a data intelligence platform, has raised $4.5M in follow-on funding from Winton. Link
• Hootsuite has acquired Naritiv, an analytics solution for SnapChat. Link
• Tickr has acquired Market.Space, a company that provides visualizations of competitive data in real time, across a variety of online sources, including news, blogs, social media, videos, and apps. Link
• Music Audience Exchange, an influencer marketing platform to connect brands and artists, has raised $6M in Series A round. Link
• Meltwater has acquired an Oxford University spin-out Wrapidity to add AI to its media monitoring capabilities. Link
• NewsWhip, a social signals platform, has raised $6.4M to give newsrooms the data to spot breaking stories and trends. Link
• Meltwater, a media intelligence solution provider, has closed a $60M debt funding round with Silicon Valley Bank, and Vector Capital in order to ramp up strategic acquisitions.  Link
• Local Measure, a location-based social media monitoring platform, has raised $4.5M in a funding round. Link
• Talkwalker, a Luxembourg-based social media analytics startup, has raised $5.2M in funding from the Dutch software investor Main Mezzanine Capital. Link
• Reputation.com, a SaaS-based online reputation management platform, has raised $20M in funding in a round led by Ascension Ventures along with participation from existing investors.  Link
• Tracx, a Social Media management platform, has raised $12.5M in growth financing in a round led by Camden Partners, with participation by Edison Partners and Tracx CEO Rick Rudman. Link
• Signal media, an AI based media monitoring solution, has raised $7.4M in a Series A funding round. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

IndiPR (2016, Gurgaon) – Automated platform to boost PR releases through influencer marketing. Uses a proprietary algorithm to identify the best bloggers based on an internal rating system and PR release category.
Trapica Labs (2016, Tel Aviv) – Automated Social Media audience segmentation platform using machine learning and AI to optimize campaign performance in real time based on converted users.

LEADER BOARD – PR TECH

PR Suite
Cision (1892, Chicago, Acq.) – Provides integrated PR Software. Offers media monitoring and analysis, Content Distribution, media database. Acquired PRWeb, HARO, iContact, Viralheat, Visible Technologies. Acquired by GTCR in 2014.
Marketwired (1994, Toronto, Acq.) – Provides news distribution and social communication solutions to public relations, investor relations and marketing professionals representing companies from start-up to Fortune 500. Acquired by Nasdaq in 2016.

Content Creation
Scripted (2011, SF, $14.5M) – Online marketplace to connect freelance writers with companies who need written content. Used for writing blog posts,articles, social media updates etc. Backed by Crosslink Capital and Redpoint Ventures.
CrowdSource (2010, Illinois, $12.5M) – Provides full-service crowdsourcing solutions to accomplish labor-intensive tasks at scale, such as content creation. Backed by Highland Capital Partners.
Visually (2011, SF, $16M, Acq.) – Marketplace for creating visual content like infographics, video, data visualizations or presentations. Backed by Crosslink Capital, Correlation Ventures, SoftTechVC. Got acquired by ScribbleLive in 2016.
Ebyline (2009, Sherman Oaks, $6.5M, Acq.) – Online marketplace for freelance journalists. Provides photos, videos, and infographics in addition to text content. Acquired by IZEA in 2015.

Content Distribution
PR Newswire (1954, NYC, Acq.) – Offers tools to distribute news to journalists, bloggers and key influencers worldwide. Amplifies and optimizes the content as well as measures the impact of the news. Acquired by Cision in 2015.
Business Wire (1961, SF, Acq.) – Transmits full-text news releases, regulatory filings, photos and other multimedia content to journalists,media outlets, Investors, Social networks and other audiences. Acquired  by Berkshire Hathaway in 2006.

Analytics – Media Monitoring
Brandwatch (2007, Brighton, $64M) –  Provides a social media monitoring platform that crawls over 80 million sites and parses that information to provide insights to businesses like analysing trends, campaigns and competitors. Backed by Highland Capital Partners and Nauta Capital.
Trendkite (2012, Austin, $36M) – Provides media monitoring and analytics. Uses NLP and big data analytics to model the PR ecosystem.Backed by Adam Street Partners, Silverton Partners and Mercury Fund.
Zignal Labs (2011, SF, $28M) – Helps brands and organizations monitor online media in real time. Offers Dashboard which updates automatically to show current analysis-sentiment, influencers, competition and indicate story trajectory. Backed by Andy Ballard, Managing Partner of Figtree Partners; Mitchell Cohen, Manager of Ross Investment Associates; and Jim Hornthal, co-founder and Chairman of Zignal Labs.

Analytics – Social Monitoring
NetBase (2004, Mountain View, $87M) –  Provides a social intelligence platform that enables brands to publish, monitor, analyze and engage with customers in real time. Uses a proprietary natural language processing engine combined with text analytics and machine learning to process social media data. Backed by Altos Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, MMV Financial, WestSummit Capital, SAIF Partners, ORIX Ventures.
Curalate (2012, Philadelphia, $40M) – Applies image recognition algorithms to social media conversations and scours the social web including Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook to find people communicating about the user’s brand in pictures. Backed by First Round Capital, NEA, MentorTech Ventures and Vayner/RSE.

Influencer Marketing
Augure (2002, Paris, $36.5M) – Enables PR and Marketing practitioners to identify and engage their key influencers, perform online media monitoring, analyze the impact of campaign on lead generation and sales volume. Backed by Serena Capital, Ventech, OTC Agregator and Amundi.
TapInfluence (2009, Boulder, $23M) – Offers Influencer Marketplace, on which brands can bring in their own influencers or search a database of more than 100,000 content creators based on things like reach, topic, and audience demographics. Backed by Grotech Ventures and Access  Venture Partners.

Other companies in this sector include:
IZEA (2006, Orlando, IPO) – Online marketplace that connects brands with influential content creators with a network of 850,000 registered influencers in 147 countries and 50,000 registered advertisers. Went IPO in July 2011.
theAudience (2011, West Hollywood, $20M, Acq.) – Creates content and amplifies it through a select network of influencers. Provides MCN management, video syndication and detailed performance analytics. Acquired by Al Ahli Holding Group in 2015.

CRM- PR
Babbler (2013, New York, $2.5M) – Allows PR professionals to share and store latest news, content, events, speakers with media communities through a centralized dashboard. Backed by CM Cic Private Capital, Omnes Capital, FRED & FARID MEDIA, Fashion Capital Partners.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates visit PR Tech feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Pesave (2017, Mumbai), mobile-first banking platform. Founder is ex-director Unimex and alumnus of SPJIMR and Mithibai College. Local comparables include Nuofox (2017, Mumbai) and PayZello (2017, Hyderabad). Global comparables include Varo Money (2015, SF, $32M) and Moven (2011, NYC, $24M).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

SastaSundar (2013, Kolkata), online marketplace for health care products, raises $5M in funding from Rohto Pharmaceutical. Link

SimpliLend (2016, Delhi), P2P lending startup in stealth mode, raises an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding from two HNIs based out of Singapore and India. Link

Leadsquared (2012, Bangalore), cloud-based marketing automation and lead generation software provider, raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Jyoti Bansal. Link

Rentomojo (2014, Bangalore), online portal to rent furniture, raises an undisclosed amount of venture debt from IntelleGrow. Link

MonkeyBox (2015, Bangalore), online platform to book lunch-box delivery to school kids, acquires RawKing (2014, Delhi), cold-pressed juice manufacturer and delivery service, for an undisclosed amount. Link

TiE Hyderabad and Woxsen B-school launches accelerator program for startups. Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Market Logic (2006, Berlin), business Intelligence platform for Market Research, raises $50.2M in funding from Sycamore, Summit Partners and Genui. Link

Wave (2009, Toronto), provider of financial management software for entrepreneurs and small business owners, raises $24M in funding from National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Portag3 and others. Link

CounterTack (2007, Waltham), cloud analytics and behavior based malware detection platform, raises $20M in Series D round of funding led by Singtel Innov8 with participation from SAP National Security Services and others. Link

Evolve BioSystems (2011, Davis), microbiome company committed to developing novel solutions to restore and maintain a healthy newborn gut microbiome, raises $20M in Series B round of funding led by Spruce Capital Partners/MLS with participation from Horizons Ventures and Tate & Lyle Ventures, Bow Capital and Acre Venture Partners. Link

GameMine (2017, LA), mobile game publisher, raises $20M in Series A round of funding led by Palisades Venture Capital. Link

High Brew Coffee (2013, Austin), canned cold-brewed coffee company, raises $17M in Series B round of funding led by Boulder Investment Group Reprise (BIGR). Link

AB Tasty (2011, Paris), developer of user testing, user experience and personalization platform, raises $17M in Series B round of funding led by Korelya Capital and Partech Ventures with participation from Xange Private Equity and Omnes Capital. Link

Tyler Technologies (1996, Plano), provider of end-to-end information systems for local governments, acquires Modria (2011, San Jose), online dispute resolution platform for government and commercial entities, for an undisclosed amount. Link

New Harbor Capital, Chicago-based lower middle market private equity firm, closes Sophomore Private Equity Fund, at $250M. Link

Concerns about the ills of tobacco and smoking led to the recognition of May 31 as World No Tobacco Day by the WHO. Since decades, governments and multinational corporations across the world have vowed themselves to this cause for want of healthier lifestyles and pro-life alternatives. After years of clever campaigns and awareness slogans, now the startup ecosystem is coming up with ingenious solutions to kick the butt. We’ve compiled for you a list of warrior startups that will help you win the war against smoking.

Download this Infographic

Here’s a list of the above startups:

Company	Info	About the company	Investors
	Chrono Therapeutics (2004, Waltham, $79.70M)	A transdermal nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation.	Canaan Partners, Mayo Clinic
	PAX Labs (2007, San Francisco, $54.31M)	Developer and manufacturer of premium vaporizers	Novartis, Tao Capital Partners
	Euthymics (2009, Cambridge, $38.5M)	Evaluating Amitifadine for the treatment of AUD and smoking cessation	Sand Hill Angels, Venture Investors
	Embera Neuro (2007, Sudbury, $12.7M)	Combination therapeutics for smoking cessation (tobacco, cocaine) and other addiction disorders	Louisiana Fund, Keiretsu Capital
	e-Nicotine Technology (Los Gatos, 2012, $3.80)	Nicotine delivery along with e-health tools to help individuals transition from smoking.	Life Science Angels, Xandex Investments
	CureApp (Tokyo, 2014, $3.40M)	Algorithm driven mobile app for smoking cessation	SBI Investment, Beyond Next Ventures
	Somatix (2015, Herzliya, $750K)	Analytics software for scanning smoking pattern	Dreamit Ventures
	Vapor4Life (2009, Northbrook, $200K)	Online store for E-cigarettes	-
	NicoTrax (2014, Raleigh)	Makers of smart cigarette case to track smoking habits and quit	Jumpstart foundry
	Quitbit (2013, Boston)	Makers of app-connected smart lighter to track smoking activity	Plug and Play Tech Center, SOSV
	Senseable (2015, Darmstadt)	Prediction model based smart connected lighter for smoking cessation	Unfunded
	Intelliquit (2010, Jersey)	Pocket-sized tobacco consumption breathalyzer	Unfunded
	Craving To Quit (2012, Boston)	Web/mobile-based cessation program using mindfulness and meditation techniques	Unfunded

While quitting may be for losers, quitting this one means a healthier life, and of course 11 more minutes!

Interesting Startups

INTERESTING COMPANIES FOUND