Amadeus Does India Deal, Lightspeed Bulks Up, WeWork Goes Asian

CHINA

China’s government-backed venture funds raised roughly $231 billion in 2015, tripling capital under management to roughly $338 billion. This represents nearly five times the total raised by other venture firms last year globally, and is the largest single pool of money for startups in the world. The capital, in so-called “government guidance funds” modeled after government-backed programs in the U.S. and Israel, are part of Premiere Li Keqing’s effort to bolster the slowing Chinese economy. But will more money effectively drive innovation? Read Bloomberg’s take on a trend Silicon Dragon has been following, story here.

 

Beijing-based PE firm Legend Holdings and its parent company Hony Capital have led a $430 million Series F round at a valuation of $16 billion in WeWork to help fund an Asian expansion. Six-year-old WeWork, based in New York, previously raised more than $900 million equity financing from firms including Benchmark Capital, Harvard Management Co., JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. With the fresh funds, WeWork is preparing to expand throughout Asia, where demand for co-working space is growing rapidly as young workers gravitate to cities and to communal surroundings. In the near future, WeWork plans to open shop in China, Hong Kong and Seoul.

 

In another impact move, Alibaba’s financial arm, Ant Financial, which operates online payments platform Alipay and is valued at more than $50 billion, plans to raise $3 billion in a funding round from both new and existing investors. The funds set the stage for Ant Financial’s highly anticipated IPO, predicted for 2017. Though the payments unit is separate from Alibaba, the two often team up on deals. A profit-sharing agreement would allow Alibaba to cash in on an IPO. Ant Financial owns stakes in Snapchat and Groupon in the U.S., India’s Paytm and Snapdeal, and China’s Youku Tudou.

Though seemingly capital rich, Alibaba has agreed to a $3 billion loan to continue buying stakes in companies in China and overseas. These strategic acquisitions are designed to expand beyond the core e-commerce business into growing verticals such as online video. In the last three months of 2015, Alibaba’s capital expenditure reached $752 million, triple that of the same period in 2014.

In another outreach, both Ant Financial and Alibaba Group have signed a deal with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), spanning collaborations on cloud computing, mobile payments and online finance. This mirrors rival Tencent’s August 2014 deal with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp in mobile payments and media marketing.

China apparel manufacturer Dayang Group has paired with Vancouver-based custom menswear company Indochino by investing $30 million for a stake in the nine-year-old company. Indochino had previously raised $17 million from investors including Silicon Valley’s Highland Capital Partners and Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group. The latest deal with Dayang will help Indochino expand its online menu including suit designs and fabric selections and its offerings in 130 countries as well as U.S. retail showrooms. For Dayang, the deal is a way to reach a larger segment of the North American market. The manufacturer’s notable clients include Macy’s and Ralph Lauren, as well as Warren Buffett.

 

China-based cloud computing platform QingCloud has raised a $100 million Series C round led by existing investor BlueRun Ventures in Silicon Valley. Two other undisclosed RMB funds also participated. The startup plans to use the new capital for R&D, to enhance software offerings and build new cloud infrastructure. BlueRun previously committed $2 million to QingCloud’s Series A round, and participated in its $20 million Series B, which was led by Lightspeed China in 2014. QingCloud claims over 45,000 enterprise customers globally.

 

Shanghai-based China Media Capital (CMC) has positioned itself as one of Hollywood’s most advanced investors and partners from China, teaming up with U.S. merchant bank Raine Group to take a minority stake in Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer and acclaimed film director Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Domestically, CMC is credited with facilitating the creation of IMAX China, and the firm went into business with Warner last year. The group was founded in 2009 by Li Ruigang, who is often compared to Rupert Murdoch in China. The latest deal is part of an ongoing trend of Chinese investment in Hollywood, which Silicon Dragon has spotlighted previously.

 

Competitions for startups are popping up everywhere, and this one from GWC has some substantial prize money ($1 million) involved from the group’s Global Innovation fund, which counts Cheetah Mobile and Sequoia Capital among its LPs. On the China scene, GWC’s G-Startup Worldwide’s primary competition is in Beijing, which will feature VC judges Hans Tung of GGV, Rui Ma of 500 Startups and Anna Fang of ZhenFund. Teams will vie for the chance to fly to Silicon Valley and pitch onstage at Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in September, alongside winners from Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Jakarta, São Paulo, Taipei, Bangalore, Seoul and Silicon Valley.

 

INDIA

 

As its first investment in an Indian company, London-headquartered Amadeus Capital has led an undisclosed Series C round for IndiaMART, a domestic online marketplace giant. Westbridge Capital and the Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund (managed by Quona Capital and existing investor Intel Capital) also participated. IndiaMART will use the fresh capital to further scale up its B2B platform for small and medium-sized businesses connecting global buyers with suppliers, as well as grow Tolexo.com, its online marketplace for businesses. The Indian B2B sector is on track to expand 2.5 times to $700 billion by 2020 and IndiaMART and its investors are tapping a growing opportunity.

 

Accel Partners has led a $3 million Series A round for Bangalore-based Ninjacart, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, Singapore’s M&S Partners and ZopSmart, the parent of Indian online grocer ZopNow. Ninjacart plans to use the new funds to expand its team, enhance technology and invest in supply chain infrastructure. In India, Accel Partners’ star portfolio includes Ola, Flipkart, BookMyShow and Perfint Healthcare.

 

JAPAN

 

Tokyo telecom and tech giant SoftBank plans to split its business into two parts: domestic and overseas, as it unshackles the 35-year-old company from its Japanese roots in a move to increase shareholder value. The international division includes a majority stake in wireless career Sprint in the U.S. and a 32 percent stake in Alibaba. The internal reorganization follows SoftBank’s mid-February announcement of its biggest ever buyback. SoftBank has made a splash with holdings that include Weibo, Snapdeal and Groupon. Former Google executive and current Group President Nikesh Arora has signed on as CEO of the international division.

 

Japanese mobile analytics tool Repro has raised $2.6 million to expand to the U.S. from investors including JAFCO, Voyage Ventures, and angels. The financing follows a prior funding of $835,000 from DG Incubation (a subsidiary of Tokyo’s Digital Garage Group), Brain Pad and Shift in May 2015.

 

Mobile game publisher Colopl has opened a VR studio in San Mateo, California. The Japanese game publisher aims to develop casino and story-driven games for emerging platforms such as Facebook Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Sony PlayStation VR.

 

THAILAND
CyberAgent Ventures and 500 Startups have ponied up $500,000 in seed funding for Bangkok-based GetLinks, a top talent hiring tool for tech companies. In contrast to LinkedIn, GekLinks focuses on growing its user base through offline events, creating meet-ups that attract thousands of attendees who seek opportunities at employer partners such as Rocket Internet, Line, Uber and Google. Look for the startup to grow its presence in Vietnam and expand in Singapore.

 

VIETNAM

 

500 Startups has launched a $10 million micro fund for Vietnamese startups, the latest in a series of investment vehicles the Silicon Valley-based accelerator has launched in the past year in Asia and other emerging markets. Partners Binh Tran and Eddie Thai will run the Vietnam-focused fund in this mobile-first market.

 

SINGAPORE

 

After a Singaporean consumer detailed what he described as a two-month ordeal of getting a license for his Tesla Model S electric to drive on local roads, Elon Musk took to Twitter to respond to the Twitterverse’s disappointment at Singapore’s policies, which include a $15,000 carbon surcharge.

 

Musk tweeted that he had spoken with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.  Now Tesla is reviewing the case in cooperation with the city-state’s Land Transport Authority.

 

MALAYSIA

 

UK satellite TV operator Sky has put $45 million into Kuala Lumpur-based iFlix, a leading Southeast Asia streaming TV service that boasts more than 1 million subscribers and offers content ranging from Hollywood shows to regional shows and movies. iFlix, which is available to consumers in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, aims to extend its service to Southeast Asia, as well as push into the Middle East and Africa in the coming months. The deal with Sky effectively links two Netflix rivals across the world from each other. Sky has previously invested in streaming aggregator Pluto TV and Web TV box Roku.

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Melbourne and San Francisco-based startup Culture Amp, which specializes in staff surveying and analytics, has raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Europe and San Francisco-based Index Ventures, bringing its total backing to $16.3 million. Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures also participated. Culture Amp’s technology, described as “people analytics,” gleans insights about worker attitudes and behavior using short surveys.

 

ISRAEL

 

Intel has made another investment in the virtual reality space, acquiring Israeli VR startup Replay Technologies, which specializes in the digitization of sports, for $175 million. The startup uses high-resolution camera and computer-intensive graphics to let viewers experience sporting events from any angle.

 

SILICON VALLEY

 

Lightspeed Venture Partners, an active investor in India, Israel, and China, has raised two new funds totaling $1.2 billion. The firm currently manages $4 billion in committed capital.

 

U.S.-China cross-border firm GGV Capital has joined the $11.5 million new funding round of Bustle, a New York City-based news site aimed at millennial women, which claims an audience of more than 30 million. Saban Capital led the round, and existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Time Warner Investments, and Social Capital participated