Daily funding roundup - December 2, 2015

ORIC Pharmaceuticals bagged $53M; Bluecore raised $21M; Osaro announced $3.3M funding

• Technology innovators Realsafe Technologies have secured £1 million (approximately $1.5 million) of investment to scale their business, bringing with it new board members. Following three years of research and development, Realsafe Technologies has secured a mixture of private investment, venture capital (VC) support and social enterprise loan in a new drive to help scale the business and push its core product REALRIDER out to market. Rivers Capital Partners have followed their original investment in the company with £500,000 VC funding through the Business North East Angel Fund.
  
  
• MDRejuvena, Inc., a San Diego, Ca.-based company focused on the licensing, development and commercialization of products for skin health for the professional physician-dispensed market in the U.S. and internationally, received a $3 million senior secured term loan. Oxford Finance LLC, a specialty finance firm that provides senior debt to life sciences and healthcare services companies, provided the financing. The company will use the funds to continue to build our business, expand sales force into new markets, and commercialize its Rejuvaphyl.
  
  
• Osaro, an early-stage artificial intelligence startup, is announcing today a new seed round totaling $3.3 million. The startup is boasting a few high-profile investors: Peter Thiel, Scott Banister, and AME Cloud Ventures. Osaro blends deep learning with reinforcement learning, a technique that generally entails teaching machines through trial and error.
  
  
• As data-driven marketing goes mainstream, BrightFunnel, developer of a revenue attribution and forecasting platform that helps B2B marketers turn campaigns into profits, today announced that it has raised a $6 million Series A investment led by Crosslink Capital. Salesforce Ventures has also joined the round along with earlier investors Bloomberg Beta, Karlin Ventures, and Resolute Ventures. With funding from this round, BrightFunnel will expand product development, sales, and marketing efforts. David Silverman, Partner, Crosslink Capital will join the BrightFunnel Board of Directors.
  
  
• Animoca Brands has raised $3.4 million in a private placement to expand its presence in branded mobile games such as Garfield. That shows there’s still interest in investing in mobile game companies in the crowded $30 billion mobile game business.  It said it will use the money to develop and publish more casual games from brands such as Garfield and Doraemon. It will also co-develop mobile entertainment products with toy maker Mattel — the home of Barbie and Hot Wheels — and launch subscription products such as ebooks.
  
  
• Baunat, an Antwerp, Belgium-based online diamond jewellery company, raised €3.3 million (apporoximately $3.5 million) in funding. Backers included private investors and staff. The company intends to use the resources to to further expand its BAUNAT DIAMONDS division. Founded in 2008 by Stefaan Mouradian and Steven Boelens, Baunat is an online jeweller focused on exclusive high quality.
  
  
• ThreatQuotient, a Sterling, Northern Virginia-based threat intelligence platform provider, secured $10.2 million in Series A funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from seed investors Blu Venture Investors and the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). In conjunction with the funding, Harry Weller, NEA, will join ThreatQuotient’s Board of Directors. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations by increasing their global sales force, and augmenting the engineering team.
  
  
• Ascletis, a China-based biotechnology company focused on innovative drug development, announced today that Goldman Sachs completed a $20 million investment in the company. So far, Ascletis has completed two rounds of financing within the past two months. The first round of $35 million investment was led by C-Bridge Capital, Tasly Pharmaceutical and Pavilion Capital. Proceeds from this round of financing will be used to strengthen Ascletis' R&D capacity, and broaden the scope of its R&D pipeline.
  
  
• Netsertive, a Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based digital marketing intelligence company, raised an additional $9 million to complete its $24 million Series C financing. The round was led by River Cities Capital Funds with participation from Babson Capital Management and existing investors. The company intends to use the funds to accelerated investments in its platform and extend its reach in the brand-to-local market.
  
  
• Automated marketing startup Bluecore, which helps retailers such as Blue Nile and BCBG instantly send shopping emails that seem to read customer’s minds but actually just tracked their behavior, today announced it raised $21 million in Series B funding to keep up it’s behind-the-scenes technology work. Toronto-based Georgian Partners led the funding with participation from previous investors including New York City-based FirstMark Capital and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Felicis Ventures, the company reported.
  
  
• Velicept Therapeutics, Inc. announced that it has closed on the first tranche of a $21 million Series B financing. The proceeds of the financing will be used to advance the Phase II development of solabegron, a highly selective beta 3-adrenoceptor agonist for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB). The Series B financing was led by CAM Capital and Longitude Capital. Velicept Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held, clinical development company focused on advancing best-in-class compounds with the potential to fill unmet medical needs. Its lead program, solabegron, is a highly differentiated novel compound being investigated for overactive bladder (OAB) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
  
  
• Neurona Therapeutics Inc., a South San Francisco, CA-based biotechnology company focused on the transplantation of selected neurons to treat intractable neurological diseases, launched with a $23.5 million Series A financing. The round was led by The Column Group. Led by Tim Kutzkey, interim Chief Executive Officer, and a Partner at The Column Group, Neurona is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company focused on regenerative cell-based therapeutics to treat intractable neurological disease. 
  
  
• JMI Equity, a specialized growth equity firm based in San Diego and Baltimore, has invested $49 million to establish a minority stake in Avecto, a U.K.-based network security firm that has established its U.S. headquarters in Somerville, MA. In a statement released today, Avecto co-CEO Paul Kenyon said the investment from JMI would enable the company to expand its global sales and marketing efforts and expedite its R&D plans.
  
  
• ORIC Pharmaceuticals, a cancer therapy company focused on the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs that target treatment-resistant cancers, announced a $53 million Series B financing. The funds will be used to support advancement of the company's first drug candidate into initial clinical trials and to further develop the company's pipeline.  The funding round included participation from leading biotechnology and other investors: The Column Group, Topspin Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, EcoR1 Capital, Foresite Capital and Kravis Investment Partners.
  
  
• Indoor cycling fitness company Peloton Interactive Inc. raised $75 million by selling a stake to Catterton, a private equity firm focused on consumer businesses. Peloton’s management plans to use the proceeds to accelerate the nationwide roll-out of its store showrooms, founder and Chief Executive Officer John Foley said in an interview. Unlike traditional cycling studios that provide exercise classes, Peloton customers buy a $1,995 bike equipped with a tablet computer and pay a monthly subscription fee to follow exercise classes streamed live from its studio.

If you are interested in being included in our funding roundup, submit your press release or blog post about your financing round to mitos@vator.tv. 

Image source: blog.credit.com