Daily funding roundup - January 20, 2016

Khazanah Nasional invested $160M in WeLab; LendUp raised $150M; Maluuba secured $6.2M funding

• Maluuba, a machine learning company that offers a Siri-like experience for Android devices, today announced that it has secured $9 million CAD (about $6.2 million USD) in Series A funding from Montreal-based Emerillon Capital, San Francisco-based Nautilus Ventures, and other investors. The company previously raised $2 million in seed funding from Samsung Ventures in 2012. Maluuba says it will be using its new funding to expand into the automotive and IoT sectors.
  
  
• Online lender LoanHero, Inc. today announced it has secured an additional $2.5 million in Seed funding. Led by Alsop Louie Partners and Mucker Capital, this investment will allow LoanHero to offer financing to consumers nationwide. Since launching in April 2015, LoanHero has raised a total $4.2 million in equity funding and has achieved a lending capacity of $20 million.
  
  
• Jopwell, a NYC-based recruitment and hiring platform for building a more diverse workforce, raised $3.25 million in seed funding. Backers included Magic Johnson Enterprises, Andreessen Horowitz, Kapor Capital, Omidyar Network, and Valar Ventures and others. The company, which has now raised more than $4.22m including previous investments from Y Combinator and Rothenberg Ventures, intends to use the funds to scale operations, infrastructure, and product capabilities.
  
  
• Tech startup Winnow has closed a $3.3 million Series A funding round led by Mustard Seed and D-Ax. The London-based startup, known for its smart meter technology which helps chefs reduce food waste by 50%, also drew investment from a series of private investors. Having launched in May 2013, Winnow — which has raised $4.3 million in cumulative funding to date — claims to have saved its customers $3m per annum. The funds, a statement said, will be used to help the company scale domestically and build an international presence. Winnow is also planning to pour some of its newly procured funds back into its product.
  
  
• Health and wellness publisher Greatist raised $4.5 million in Series A funding Tuesday. The investors betting on Greatist include the Floodgate Fund, an early investor in Refinery29, as well as several names in the media business: Strauss Zelnick of ZelnickMedia, David Bach of FinishRich, Andy Russell of DailyCandy, Thrillist and PureWow, John Gardner of LearnVest and David Pecker of AMI. Greatist will use its funds to add to its staff of 26, including on the advertising side, to help design more custom programs such as original content and events, Flanzraich said.
  
  
• QASymphony, a company focused on transforming the way global enterprises create quality software, has raised $5 million in Series B funding to accelerate its software testing business. Lead investor Fulcrum Equity Partners was joined in the new round by existing QASymphony investor, BIP Capital. QASymphony has now raised $7.5 million in venture financing since January 2015. As part of the Series B, QAS has an option to take on an additional $3 million in capital if needed.
  
  
• EiQ Networks, a Boston, MA-based developer of hybrid SaaS security and continuous security intelligence services, raised $9.55 million in Series C financing. The round was led by Arrowroot Capital, with participation from both EiQ founders, Vijay Basani and Jay Reddy. In conjunction with the funding, Matthew Safaii, Founder and Managing Partner of Arrowroot Capital, is joining EiQ’s Board of Directors. The company, which has raised nearly $30 million to date, will use the funds to accelerate new customer acquisition through increased investment in sales and marketing initiatives as well as Hybrid SaaS security services delivery.
  
  
• Dublin-based travel tech startup Boxever has raised $12 million in a Series B funding round led by previous investors Polaris Partners and Frontline Ventures along with Silicon Valley Bank. The startup, which provides data science and customer intelligence services for the travel industry and whose clients include Emirates and Aer Lingus, said it will create 100 new jobs at its Dublin office. The roles will be mainly data scientists and software engineers.
  
  
• Cisco and Verizon Ventures led a $25 million investment for Kumu Networks, a wireless design startup announced today. Deutsche Telekom and Swisscom also participated in the series C round. Kumu Networks said it developed a telecommunications technology called Full Duplex, which “doubles the capacity of existing wireless spectrum” and enhances existing LTE by canceling “self-interference.”
  
  
• BlueVine, an online provider of working capital financing to small businesses, announced today it has closed $40 million in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $64 million to date. This Series C funding was led by an investment from Menlo Ventures, with additional participation from new investor Rakuten FinTech Fund, follow-on investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners, 83NORTH, Correlation Ventures and private investors, as well as a new debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.
  
  
• Application delivery platform Instart Logic today announced that it has raised a $45 million Series D round. The round was led by a new investor, the late-stage fund Geodesic Capital. Other participants in this round include existing investors Hermes Growth Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Four Rivers Group, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Tenaya Capital. Telstra Ventures, the venture arm of the Australian telecom firm, also today announced a strategic investment in the company. The company says it will use the new funds to expand its product capabilities and sales teams in the U.S. and globally. 
  
  
• San Francisco-based financial technology company, LendUp has raised $150 million in a combination of Series B round financing and an expanded credit facility. The round will allow for the expansion of LendUp's team and platform. Led by Susa Ventures and Data Collective, the round included participation from almost all of the company's major investors including Google Ventures, QED, Kapor Capital, Yuri Milner, SV Angel, Eagle Cliff, Bronze Investments and Victory Park Capital. In addition, Victory Park also provided a second credit facility to support new product growth.
  
  
• An investment group led by Malaysia's state fund Khazanah Nasional has invested $160 million in Hong Kong-based financial technology start-up WeLab. Other investors include ING Bank and Guangdong Financial Technology Group, the Malaysian sovereign fund said ina statement on Wednesday. The new investment will allow Khazanah to gain exposure toChina's growing consumer loan market where the rising demand iscurrently unmet by traditional banking services, the state fund said in the statement.

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Image source: entrepreneur.com