Japanese digital payment processing startup Opn raised $120M Series C+ from Japan Investment Corporation, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Mars Growth Capital. The company became one of a small group of Japanese unicorns. More: - Though investment in Japanese startups has become more common, the country is only host to five unicorns, compared with neighboring South Korea’s and Singapore’s 12 each.
- Formerly known as Synqa, Opn has now raised $222M to date from inventors including Toyota Motor Corp and Siam Commercial Bank.
- The company was founded in 2013 and saw its first launch in 2015 in Thailand. It currently also operates in Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
- It has reported having 500 employees and serving over 7,000 merchants.
- Opn focuses on online cross-border payments, blockchain technology for fintech apps, and digital transformation solutions.
- It has benefitted from the Japanese government officials using digitization as a buzzword to describe their policy plans.
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Dublin-based e-commerce company ESW, formerly known as eShopWorld, has agreed to acquire Los Angeles-based Scalefast. While the companies did not disclose terms, reports peg the sum above $300M (€285M). The deal is expected to close by mid-year. More: - The deal is ESW’s first foray into M&A since it was acquired last year by Asendia, an international mail joint venture of French La Poste and Swiss Post.
- Asendia nabbed a remaining stake in ESW early last year, valuing the company at over $1.1B (€1B).
- Given Scalefasts’s e-commerce-as-a-service solutions allowing merchants to set up online shops, the deal will boost ESW’s clothing, beauty, personal care, and luxury brands.
- It will also provide its new parent company with access to the entertainment, gaming, and electronics markets.
- Scalefast’s existing clients will receive access to checkout, payment gateway, and logistics offerings from ESW.
- The combined workforce of the two companies will exceed 1,000, of which 650 come from ESW.
- Prior to today’s deal, Scalefast had raised $32M from investors including French Partners, Adara Ventures, FJ Labs, and more.
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Indian e-commerce company GoKwik has raised $35M Series B, led by Think Investments and RTP Global. The deal, which saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Matrix Partners India, was completed at an unknown valuation. More: - The latest capital injection comes on the heels of a $15M investment last November, meaning that GoKwik has raised $60M in the last year.
- GoKwik offers companies an e-commerce enablement stack designed to drive incremental sales, reduce cart abandonment, and more.
- It claims 250 brand customers, including Snapdeal, Lenskart, Be Bodywise, boAt, Mamaearth, The Man Company, The Souled Store, and Bombay Shaving Company.
- By charging a fixed commission ranging between 1.5% and 2% per order, it has achieved 3,500% growth in revenue and served over 80 million consumers.
- In its first operational year, GoKwik generated just Rs 35.6 lakh ($45,730) operating revenue with losses of Rs 76 lakh ($97,625). Growth of 3,500% would mean $1.6M in revenue.
- Having already grown its team by 80% quarter-over-quarter, the company hopes to add another 200 members by the end of 2022.
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Best of Last Week M&A - DigitalBridge will buy Switch Inc., a data-center provider laden with a substantial amount of debt, for $11B.
- Zoom doubled down on its customer service offerings by entering a definitive agreement to acquire Solvvy.
- Datadog, a monitoring and security platform for cloud applications, acquired Spanish security software testing platform provider Gipuzkoa for an undisclosed sum.
- Unified open banking API provider Yapily will acquire German competitor finAPI for an undisclosed sum.
- Salesforce acquired Troops.ai, a bot-based data retrieval service that integrates with Slack, for an undisclosed sum.
- Boulder, Co.-based ColdQuanta acquired Super.tech to expand its quantum hardware and software capabilities, terms undisclosed.
- Checkout.com is set to acquire French remote identity verification startup Ubble, terms undisclosed.
- Italian fintech company Nexi Group has acquired Orderbird, a German company providing point of sale fintech products for the hospitality industry.
IPO/SPAC New Funds - Insurance provider Axa, consumer goods company Unilever, and asset management group Tikehau Capital joined forces to create an impact fund, expected to garner $1.06B (€1B) in capital.
- Flow, originally developed by Dapper Labs, raised an Ecosystem Fund with $725M to invest in companies building on its protocol.
- Private investing platform Republic’s venture capital arm is looking to raise $700M toward two cryptocurrency-focused funds.
- Dragonfly Capital announced the final closing of its third crypto-focused venture fund with $650M in commitments.
- East Ventures pulled together a $550M fund for Southeast Asia (focus on Indonesia), with $150M for early-stage and $400M for growth-stage bets.
- YL Ventures, a 15-year-old U.S.-Israeli venture outfit with cybersecurity-focused investment thesis, just raised a new fund with $400M in capital commitments.
- Fasanara Capital is looking to raise $350M for a new fintech and cryptocurrency-focused venture fund.
- Emerald Technology Ventures rolled out a $260M (€250M) fund for bets on climatetech companies.
- Black Bay Energy Capital has closed its second fund at an oversubscribed $210M to place ~$30M bets on energy companies.
- Texas-based growth venture capital firm Elsewhere Partners closed its second fund with $175M in commitments.
- Archetype, an early-stage crypto VC outfit, announced plans to close its second fund at $150M this month.
- 6th Man Ventures will back early-stage cryptocurrency companies with its new $145M fund.
- Venture capital firm Educapital secured $105M in commitments toward its second edtech-focused fund.
- NextGen Growth Partners, known for its Entrepreneurship through Acquisition investment model, has closed a second fund above its $100M target.
- Indian accelerator fund 9Unicorns announced the fifth closing of its debut fund at $100M.
- Chingona Ventures, a Chicago-based venture outfit investing in pre-seed startups from the Midwest, raised a second fund at $52M, a massive step up from its $6M maiden vehicle.
- INX International has launched a $50M investment platform with a focus on sustainability and circular economy solutions.
- Singapore-based Good Startup raised Good Protein Fund I at $34M to continue investing in alternative proteins. It is focused on early-stage companies and has an average check size of $500,000.
- CyberArk Ventures, a provider of identity security, has launched a $30M global investment fund aligned with Venrock, YL Ventures, Team8 Capital, and Merlin Ventures.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 Biotech/Health - Turquoise (San Diego, Calif.), price transparency platform for healthcare: $20M led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Cybersecurity - devOcean (Tel Aviv, Israel), SaaS platform to enable security teams to clearly see every risk in their cloud applications: $6M Seed led by Glilot Capital Partners.
Data/Analytics - Improvado (San Diego, Calif.), revenue data platform: $22M A led by Updata Partners.
Enterprise - Whoz (Paris, France), smart staffing, talent, and project portfolio management for IT divisions: $26M led by PSG Equity.
- Katanox (Amsterdam, Netherlands), travel accommodation distribution and fintech platform for B2B uses: $5.7M A from Juan Pablo Ortega, Jan Joost Kalff, Bas Blommaart.
Fintech - Altro (San Francisco, Calif.), platform that helps people build credit through non-traditional payments: $18M A led by Pendulum, participation from Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures, Citi Ventures, Black Capital Fund, and Concrete Rose Fund, et al.
- Gravystack (Phoenix, Ariz.), gamified family finance app: $5.2M Seed led by Altrus Capital, participation from Chad Willardson, Mark Timm, Gino Wickman, et al.
Gaming - Sizzle.egg (San Francisco, Calif.), platform that creates highlights for esports leagues and teams: $5M Seed led by White Star Capital, participation from Progression Fund, Eterna Capital, Play Ventures, Mindset Ventures, Xoogler Ventures.
Industrial - Tignis (Seattle, Wash.), AI process control for semiconductor manufacturing: $7.2M A led by DN Capital, participation from Clear Ventures, Paul Maritz, Harel Kodesh.
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- Swiggy, an Indian delivery giant, will acquire Dineout, a popular dining out and restaurant tech platform, from conglomerate Times Internet for a reported $200M.
- Aquiline Capital Partners has closed its second growth fund at $365M. It will place bets on early- and growth-stage companies across fintech, insurtech, and enterprise.
- Better.com’s CEO Vishal Garg, notorious for announcing layoffs via video call, is personally on the hook for a $750M loan SoftBank provided his company. The deal was struck as part of an amended SPAC merger, which saw Better’s funding reduced from $1.5B.
- Apple should acquire EV maker Canoo, writes Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Canoo is currently under financial stress, and its designs are reportedly very similar to those of Apple’s fledgling car project.
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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