A weekly recap of some of the most interesting venture capital deals, funds and start-ups.
Here’s a round-up of the most important deals in venture capital from the past week.
Apple acquired Vrvana, the makers of Totem, a „mixed reality headset,“ in a deal worth an estimated $30 million, TechCrunch first reported. Earlier this year, Apple launched its ARKit to let developers make augmented reality apps for iOS devices. Apple CEO Tim Cook said AR has „broad mainstream applicability across education, entertainment interactive gaming, enterprise, and categories we probably haven’t even thought of.“ Prior to the acquisition, the Montreal start-up focused on workplace and industrial uses of VR and AR.
Niantic Labs, makers of the popular Pokemon Go mobile game, raised about $200 million in a new round of venture funding, according to an SEC filing. Niantic has a hotly anticipated Harry Potter game in the works, as CNBC previously reported. Investors in the round included Spark Capital and Founders Fund. Megan Quinn of Spark joined Niantic’s board.
Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery start-up, raised another $98 million, bringing its total capital raised to $482 million. As The Belfast Telegraph reported, investors included T. Rowe Price and Fidelity. Some of the funding is earmarked to support „delivery only“ kitchens.
Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures was among investors in a $65 million round for Divergent 3D, a company building experimental factories and aiming to make cars as efficiently as possible. Additional investors included O Luxe Holdings, Shanghai Investment Limited and Altran Technologies.
India’s Portea raised $26 million for an app that lets users book a range of health-care services to be delivered at home, from lab tests to physical therapy. As TechCrunch’s Catherine Shu has noted, in India the senior living industry has not yet taken off, so many families are using Portea to take care of aging family members.
Oviva raised $12 million to fight diabetes and obesity with an app. Currently used in the U. K., Switzerland and Germany, Oviva gives patients a way to message nutritionists directly, and to keep records of their own food consumption, weight and activity levels. The app then delivers them personalized recommendations. Investors included Albion Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital (a health-focused investment arm of Fidelity), Partech Ventures and Walking Ventures.
Nelumbo raised about $2 million for technology to make heating and cooling systems operate more efficiently. The Bay Area start-up’s primary innovation is a coating that can make it hard for frost to form on HVAC systems. The company is part of Cyclotron Road, an incubator affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley and its various research labs.
Seedcamp, a firm that invests in European start-ups, closed its fourth seed fund at around $49 million (€41 million). Investors in the fund included corporate venture arms such as Unilever Ventures and venture capital firms like Index Ventures and Atomico.
