Here’s a round-up of the most important deals in venture capital this week.
Gogoro raised $300 million in a series C round led by Temasek Holdings, and joined by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management group, Sumitomo and others. Gogoro makes electric scooters and battery-swapping kiosks where users can charge or swap them out.
SoftBank poured $250 million into Slack, the workplace collaboration platform that competes with Microsoft-owned Yammer and Facebook’s Workplace. The deal valued Slack at $5.1 billion.
Patreon, a crowdfunding platform, raised $60 million, TechCrunch reported. Other crowdfunding sites, including Kickstarter or GoFundMe let users raise money for a project or a cause. Instead, Patreon helps creatives raise money from subscribers for products that are ongoing like a podcast, or a webcomic.
Chinese Autonomous driving firm JingChi raised $30 million in angel funding, China Money Network reported, and has targeted a Series A round of $100 million. The company’s founder, Wang Jin, was formerly the general manager of Baidu’s autonomous driving unit.
Food-tech startup MealPal raised $20 million in a series B round of funding led by Menlo Ventures. The company’s customers can order and carry out meals from restaurants for just $6.
C2Sense raised $3.2 million for its “digital nose” that detects gas compounds. Among other things, its technology can alert food makers when ingredients are about to go bad, or construction workers when toxic gases are in the air.
The Hong Kong government created a USD $256 million fund (the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund) to co-invest alongside other venture firms that agree to back local tech startups there.
S2G Ventures closed a $180 million fund, its second, to invest in food and agriculture startups. The Chicago firm was co-founded by OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton in 2015.
The Engine, a venture firm founded at MIT, announced that its debut fund has expanded to a total of $200 million. The firm also disclosed a batch of startups that it has invested in, all working on “tough tech,” or advanced tech and science.
ProductHunt founder Ryan Hoover on Thursday unveiled a $3 million fund, dubbed the Weekend Fund, to back very early stage tech companies. ProductHunt, now owned by AngelList, helps startups stir up a buzz about their newest products, and has attracted some famous users including
Source: Tech CNBC
Top VC deals this week: Electric scooters, Slack, and a Chinese self-driving car firm