San Francisco, California-headquartered venture capital firm Headline raised three funds amounting to $954M. The funds raised include $408M for its seventh North American fund, $183M for its third Latin American fund, and $363M (€320M) for its seventh European fund, each of which will be managed independently by the offices in respective regions. The firm is also soliciting investments for a $400M growth fund. More: - Headline, formerly E.ventures, leverages AI tools to analyze and source investment opportunities across automation, fintech, and climate tech sectors.
- Each region will invest in 30 to 35 companies across seed and Series A stages over the next three years.
- Individual check size will range from $1.5M to $15M.
- The firm’s Asia-focused venture arm closed its fourth fund with $100M in capital in August last year.
- Headline’s notable portfolio companies include Creditas, GoPuff, and Gympass.
- The firm counts Bumble, SEMRush, and The RealReal amongst its successful exits.
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Blackstone is set to invest $400M in Xpansiv, a marketplace for ESG-inclusive commodities. The private equity firm will invest through its energy-focused arm, Blackstone Energy Partners. The fresh funding, Xpansiv’s largest fundraising over its 10-year history, will enable the firm to boost its growth and back acquisitions. More: - Per Financial Review, Blackstone’s investment is expected to grant them a one-third stake in the firm, according to the terms associated with the recent capital infusion.
- Blackstone’s funding is a term loan financing that will convert into equity at a later date.
- Xpansiv received a $1.2B post-money valuation at the recent funding.
- The $400M financing is believed to be part of a larger $525M funding round sought by the firm.
- The San Francisco-based company’s platform lets investors trade sustainable assets, including carbon offsets, renewable energy credits, and assets linked to green projects.
- Xpansiv has exchanges in the U.S. and Australia.
- In the first quarter of this year, the platform attracted 150 new clients, surpassing the total number of consumers added in the entire last year.
- Last year, the firm reported $277M in losses.
- The firm had plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange at a $2.3B valuation, which was since put on hold.
- Xpansiv’s founders intended to use the funds from the IPO to fund the $300M acquisition of carbon registry APX.
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European venture capital firm XAnge secured $224M (€220M) in capital commitments toward its fourth fund. The firm is looking to invest in seed- and early-stage startups across digital health, DeFi, Web3, dev tools, and the bioproduction sector in Europe. Individual check sizes will range between $305,000 (€300,000) to $10.16M (€10M). More: - With a view to concentrating 30% of its investment in Germany, the firm recently opened its new office in Berlin.
- XAnge’s assets under management now total over $610M (€600M).
- The firm is looking to raise $81.3M (€80M) for its dedicated Web3 fund called Digital Ownership Fund.
- Last year, the firm backed several seed- and Series A-stage startups, with its total investments amounting to $81.3M (€80M).
- Unicorn startups in its portfolio include Believe, Deposit Solutions, Ledger, Lydia, Odoo, and Flink.
- Previous portfolio companies Believe and Mister Spex debuted on the public markets.
- It recently led a $50M Series B funding into WorkMotion and a seed funding into Pina Earth.
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British insuretech platform YuLife closed its Series C funding round with $120M (£95M) of financing. The funding round doubled the firm’s valuation to $800M, up from its $346M valuation at the previous fundraiser. Japanese insurance company Dai-ichi Life led the funding round. More: - Existing investors Creandum, LocalGlobe, Target Global, Latitude, Anthemis, OurCrowd, Notion, MMC, and Eurazeo participated in the recent funding.
- YuLife’s latest fundraise brings the company’s total funds raised to $206M, which includes last year’s $70M Series B funding round.
- In addition to providing life insurance, YuLife has brought a gamified approach that rewards user’s for completing wellness activities every day.
- The company counts Del Monte, Jaguar Land Rover, Santander, and CapitalOne amongst its 500 enterprise customers.
- For now, the company intends to stick to its B2B approach.
- Across its SME and large business customers, the company covers over 500,000 policyholders, with total coverage of $50B.
- Incoming funds will help the firm to expand its business reach and develop new products.
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Netherlands-based intranet platform for enterprises Happeo secured $26M in Series B financing. Endeit Capital, Smartfin, and Evli Growth Partners co-led the funding round. Participants in the funding include INKEF Capital, Maki.vc, and Vendep Capital, amongst others. More: - Happeo provides an intranet platform for large-scale organizations with cross-platform content indexing and search, internal communications, and data analytics functionality.
- The startup intends to use the proceeds from the current funding to accelerate product development and expand its North American team.
- Happeo intends to increase its employee count to 160 by year-end, up from its current tally of 124 employees.
- To date, the firm has raised $46M in total funding, including an Inlef-led $12M Series A in May 2020.
- Prior to that, Happeo secured $8M in seed funding in July 2018.
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Ganymed Robotics, a French manufacturer of surgical assistant robotics, raised $21.3M (€21M) in funding from its oversubscribed Series B funding round. Cathay Health led the funding, joined by Credit Mutuel Innovation, Kurma Partners, and BNP Paribas Développement. The firm intends to use the incoming funds to expand its presence in France and the U.S., accelerate the development of its surgical robotic assistant, and broaden its product portfolio. More: - The European Commission provided Ganymed with a $2.54M (€2.5M) grant in Oct. 2021.
- Ganymed’s advanced AI and computer vision-powered robotics assist orthopedic surgeons in surgeries such as joint replacement and knee arthroplasty.
- The company claims that its solutions help improve patient outcomes and the efficiency of interventions.
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- Gaming-focused venture firm Konvoy Ventures raised $150M for a new fund. The firm has earmarked between 20% to 30% of the new fund for backing blockchain and crypto games.
- Rajeev Misra, a key executive at SoftBank Group, is stepping down from his role to launch his own venture firm. Misra will continue as CEO of Vision Fund 1. He has reportedly secured $6B for his new fund.
- Partners Capital, a private equity firm with $48B of assets under management, secured $143M in capital commitments for its inaugural environmental impact fund called 15 degrees Fund.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company Kernal Biologics Inc closed its Hummingbird Ventures-led Series A funding round with $25M in capital. Amgen Ventures, HBM Genomics, and Civilization Ventures participated in the funding.
- Iceland-based anti-money laundering (AML) software developer Lucinity raised $17M in Series B funding led by Keen Venture Partners, with Crowberry Capital, Karma Ventures, and byFounders in participation.
- NewRoad Capital Partners led a $16.4M funding into Logiwa, a cloud-based logistics fulfillment platform for 3PL companies. The Chicago-based firm’s Series B round saw participation from Valor Siren Ventures, Runway Venture Partners, and Spider Capital.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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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