Daily funding roundup - September 9, 2015

Didi Kuaidi scored $1B; Chef bagged $40M; Primus Power raised $25M

• The battle for supremacy among e-hailing services in China is heating up, and fast. In the same week that Uber revealed that it has raised an additional $1.2 billion to expand its services in the country, now its biggest rival in China, Didi Kuaidi, has done one better. The homegrown service has raised a $1 billion round of funding, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, adding to the $2 billion round of funding it raised in July. That combined $3 billion round is now the largest single round ever for a venture-backed startup. Investors in the round include China Investment Corp., Capital International Private Equity Funds, and Ping An Ventures. They join Hillhouse Capital Management and Coatue Management who previously put money into the round.
  
  
• New York-based citizen journalist site Fresco News closed a $1.2 million seed round of funding and released an updated version of its app, which aims to enlist civilians to deliver user-generated content for media organizations. Investors include notable media professionals Reese Schonfeld (co-founder of CNN), Laurel Touby (founder of Media Bistro), Ross Levinsohn (ex-Yahoo of CEO) and Jonathan Miller (former executive with NewsCorp and AOL). Additional seed investors include Michael Jones (former CEO of Myspace), Fresco Capital, 1517 Fund, Social Starts, Wavemaker Partners and others.
  
  
• Canopy, formerly Pack Purchase, announces the closing of a $1.5M seed round led by IDEA Fund Partners and Cofounder's Capital, with participation from home improvement company Lowe's and New York City-based Great Oaks Venture Capital. Canopy is a rapidly growing startup focused on simplifying home maintenance services. In addition to the funding announcement, the company is announcing its rebranding from Pack Purchase to Canopy to better reflect its commitment to the consolidation and ease of its comprehensive home maintenance solution.
  
  
• Dronomy, a drone-technology startup, today announced it has received $1.5 million in funding led by investment firm Battery Ventures with participation from other venture-capital firms and angel investors. Dronomy's technology aims to revolutionize the commercial and consumer drone markets by making it easier and safer to fly drones autonomously, especially in cluttered outdoor environments. Dronomy plans to use the capital to refine its product and demonstrate it globally, as well as expand its team, and partner with companies in specific verticals.
  
  
• ShapeShift announced today that it had completed its fundraising of $1.6 million. ShapeShift is an exchange that allows users to transfer Bitcoin for dozens of other cryptocurrencies without any accounts or personal information being shared. Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group and Roger Ver were the lead investors in this round. Bitfinex, Bitcoin Capital led by Max Keiser and Simon Dixon, Mardal Investments, Bruce Fenton, Trevor Koverko, and Michael Terpin also invested in the funding round.
  
  
• FeeX, a free service that sniffs out hidden fees in retirement and savings accounts, announced that it has raised $2.75 million in new funding. The round was led by Collaborative Fund. The new capital brings FeeX’s total funding so far to $12.1 million. The company was founded in 2012 by Yoav Zurel, David Weisz, Eyal Halahmi, and Waze founder Uri Levine. Collaborative Fund announced in tandem with the funding that Vikram Pandit, the former chief executive officer of Citigroup, has joined the venture capital firm as an investor. 
  
  
• “Uber for vans” startup Lalamove today revealed that it has secured US$10 million as a bridge round of funding on top of the $10 million series A it secured back in January. Along with the latest investment, Lalamove is announcing expansion into 12 new cities in mainland China, on top of the four that it already covers. Of the new cities, Shanghai and Chongqing become operational this week, while the other places will come online within three months. The new US$10 million round was contributed by MindWorks Ventures, AppWorks, Crystal Stream, and individual investors. 
  
  
• Cognition Therapeutics Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative diseases, announced that it has completed a Series B preferred stock financing totaling $12 million. Golden Seeds led the investment syndicate, which included, Bios Memory SPV1, Cowtown Angels, Scale Investors, Dolby Family Ventures, Maine Angels, as well as additional life sciences investors.
  
  
• Apperian Inc., a mobile application management and security company, today announced it has completed a $12 million Series C funding round. New investor First Floor Capital joins Bessemer Venture Partners,Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, North Bridge Venture Partners, Intel Capital and CommonAngels Ventures in backing Apperian. The funding will be used to fuel growth and platform innovation as CIOs and line-of-business leaders increasingly need to secure and manage the proliferation of apps and data in the enterprise.
  
  
• Discern, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a financial decision-making platform for investment professionals, raised $20 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Palo Alto-based Artiman Ventures. The company will use the funding to expand its platform beyond the Energy industry to offer modules for Real Estate, Consumer Retail, Banking/Financial Services and other sectors.
  
  
• The Black Tux, a suit and tuxedo rental startup based in Santa Monica, has scooped up another $25 million in funding to make sure groomsmen no longer look like they’re wearing their dads’ old suits. Led by Stripes Group (also investors in eco-friendly fashion brand Reformation) with participation from prior investors First Round and Menlo Ventures, the Series B comes less than a year after The Black Tux wrapped up a $10 million Series A in January.
  
  
• Zift Solutions, a provider of channel marketing automation solutions, today announced that it has closed just over $14 million in Series B financing led by Arrowroot Capital and SSM Partners. In addition, several previous investors participated in the financing including Southern Capitol Ventures and Teakwood Capital. The funding will fuel continued growth and drive forward momentum for Zift.
  
  
• Freightos has landed $14 million in Series B funding for its service for companies that organize the shipments of goods around the world, known as freight forwarders, to allow them to quickly issue quotes to customers. New investors MSR Capital and Sadara Ventures participated in the Series B round of investment along with existing investors, Aleph VC, Israel Cleantech Ventures, OurCrowd, which is a crowdfunding platform, and Annox Capital. Freightos, which is incorporated as Tradeos Ltd., is one of several startups that are looking to modernize the shipping industry.
  
  
• Primus Power, a Hayward, CA-based provider of grid-scale energy-storage technology, raised $25 million in Series D funding round. The round was led by I2BF Global Ventures with participation from Russia-Kazakhstan Nanotechnology Fund (RKNF) and existing investors Anglo American Platinum, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and DBL Partners.
  
  
• N.Y.-based CommonBond has a simple goal: To reduce the headaches and fees associated with refinancing student loans.  The three-year-old company announced that it raised $35 million in a Series B funding round led by August Capital, with investment from Nyca Partners. Existing investors TriBeCa Venture Partners, Social Capital, and Tom Glocer also chipped in. CommonBond didn't disclose its current valuation or its total amount of funding. 
  
  
• Demand for Chef’s technology is increasing exponentially, and now the Seattle company is raising its largest funding round yet to help support the growth. The IT automation provider today announced a $40 million Series E round led by DFJ Growth, with participation from Millennium Technology Value Partners and existing investors like Battery Ventures, Citi Ventures, DFJ, Ignition Partners, and ScaleVP. Hewlett Packard Ventures also made a strategic investment in this round, which pushes total funding for the 7-year-old company to $103 million. Chef will use the fresh cash to expand globally, helping companies around the world automate their DevOps workflow.
  
  
• Novadip Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical spin-off company of Université catholique de Louvain announces the successful closing of a €28M Series A financing led by New Science Ventures, a US-based venture capital firm, and including Belgian investors VIVES Louvain Technology Fund, NivelInvest (Start-Up), Fund+, Integrale, SRIW, SFPI-FPIM, Epimède and several individual investors.The proceeds of the capital round (€28M) and repayable advance from Belgium’s Walloon Region (€2M) will be primarily used for clinical development and process industrialization of Novadip Biosciences’ lead compound Creost.
  
  
• AveXis, Inc., a Chicago, IL-based gene therapy company developing treatments for rare and life-threatening neurological genetic diseases, completed a $65 million Series D financing. The round was led by funds and accounts managed by new investor T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from existing investors Deerfield Management, Roche Venture Fund and Venrock and new backers Janus Capital Management, Adage Capital Management, RA Capital Management, QVT Financial, Rock Springs Capital Management, Foresite Capital Management, RTW Investments, and Boxer Capital of Tavistock Life Sciences.

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: biz30.timedoctor.com