Daily funding roundup - September 1, 2015

IDG nabbed $120M; Cequr raised $100M; Cloud Apps Capital Partners bagged $53.7M

• Cloud business software companies are currently in a strange position when it comes to venture capital. They require more capital and board support than the seed market can provide, while large venture firms look for strong market traction prior to investing. A new firm, called Cloud Apps Capital Partners believes that is has the solution, combining the right experience and stage to help cloud business apps succeed. The firm debuted on Tuesday, announcing an oversubscribed $53.7 million fund, raised from leading institutional investors, technology executives and investors.
  
  
• Cape Town-based end-to-end web-based transportation solutions startup, WhereIsMyTransport has completed a funding round worth $900,000. The funding round was oversubscribed and included funders from private and public institutions including Tom Boardman, former CEO of Nedbank and chairman of Athena Capital, as well as a Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta, an Uber technologies company. The startup has also opened a new office in London.
  
  
• Mumbai-based online fashion styling platform, StyleCracker which was founded in 2013 by Dhimaan Shah and Archana Walavalkar, raised $1 million in its first round of funding from four individuals. The investor names are still undisclosed. The company aims to utilise the raised funding on tech development and for taking the platform to global markets.StyleCracker is a styling platform for people who want to get styled by the designers in the fashion industry. 
  
  
• Victory Park Capital (VPC), an asset management firm focused on middle market debt and equity investments, announced today that it will invest up to €230 million ($204.2 million) in loans originated by Zencap over a three year period, under an exclusive agreement. The partners are teaming up to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany, Netherlands and Spain with efficient, fast and easy access to capital. Zencap is the fastest growing online lending marketplace in Continental Europe, allowing SMEs to apply for loans between €5.000 and €250.000.
  
  
• Privately held company CeQur, which is developing the three-day insulin infusion device for people with type 2 diabetes, has raised $100 million in a funding round that shows strong investor appetite for hot medical technology. The deal is the largest medical technology financing in Europe since 2006, according to its backers. The Swiss-headquartered group said it would use the cash from the so-called series C financing to pay for clinical and regulatory work, as well as to scale up manufacturing and commercial operations ahead of the expected launch of its second-generation PaQ device in 2016. The new funding round was led by Woodford Investment Management and Arthurian Life Sciences. Existing investors including Endeavour Vision, Schroder & Co Banque and VI Partners also participated in the round.
  
  
• Cary-based Medfusion announced Tuesday that it has landed $3 million in funding from two Durham venture capital firms. Bull City Venture Partners and Hatteras Venture Partners made the investment. David Jones, a general partner with Bull City, and John Crumpler, a general partner with Hatteras, have also joined Medfusion’s board. Medfusion’s patient portal technology enables patients to make appointments, pay their bills, request prescription refills, complete medical forms, review lab results and perform other tasks over the Internet.
  
  
• Eyeball, a Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based online community for coaches, fans and players of amateur sports, raised $1 million in seed funding. Clearwater Fine Foods (CFFI) made the investment. The company intends to use the funds for continued growth, as well as a relocation of its headquarters to a bigger space.
  
  
• Intellia Therapeutics, a leading gene-editing company focused on the development of curative medicines using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, has closed a Series B investment round with $70 million in additional financing led by OrbiMed HealthCare Fund Management. Additional investors included Fidelity Management and Research Company, Janus Capital Management, Foresite Capital, Sectoral Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital and other leading mutual fund and healthcare investors. Founding investor Atlas Venture and Novartis also participated in the financing. The company intends to use the proceeds to accelerate the development of its pipeline, expand its platforms for gene editing and delivery, as well as to continue to strengthen its leading intellectual property portfolio.
  
  
• China-based mobile advertising platform Appcoach announced $10 million in series A funding from a team of investors led by Yonghua Capital. The company has experienced great success in its home country and plans on leveraging its knowledge of the Chinese market to allow brands and agencies the ability to reach the Asian market in new ways. Appcoach already has an international reach – having launched 450 apps in 150 countries – but it will use the financial boost to expand its reach, with a focus on mobile video markets in the United States, Europe, India and Latin America.
  
  
• IDG Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that was among the first VC outfits to plant its flag in San Francisco instead of Silicon Valley, has nabbed $120 million for its third and newest fund, according to cofounders Phil Sanderson and Alex Rosen. The two longtime VCs came together with a third partner, Pat Kenealy, in 2008; their previous fund closed with $100 million.
  
  
• Shift Technologies, an online marketplace for used cars in San Francisco and Los Angeles, raised $50 million in new funding. Shift plans on using its new funding to expand to new cities. Goldman Sachs Investment Partners led this latest round in Shift, with DCM, DFJ, and Highland Capital also participating. This brings Shift’s total funding to $73.8 million.
  
  
• Recipe search engine Yummly announced today that it closed a $15 million series B investment from Bauer Venture Partners. The company allows users to browse for personalized recipes and says it wants to help answer the question “What’s for dinner?” Yummly has raised at least $24 million, and some of its previous investorsinclude Physic Ventures, Unilever Corporate Ventures, Harrison Metal Capital, First Round Capital, Intel Capital, and The Harvard Common Press. The latest round, the company said, will allow it to expand its technology. 
  
  
• WellAware, the oil and gas industry’s only full-stack solution for oilfield production monitoring and optimization, secured $16 million in a Series B1 financing. The round of funding was co-led by Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., the subsidiary company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of the world’s most diversified and comprehensive trading, investment and service enterprises, and Genscape, Inc., a global provider of real-time data and intelligence for commodity and energy markets. The capital will be used by WellAware to expand its operations and augment its oilfield analytics product development efforts.
  
  
• LotusFlare, a startup founded by former Facebookers which is working to make the mobile internet more accessible to everyone.The company announced a $6 million in Series A funding led by Social + Capital. Also participating in the round were seed investors Google Ventures and Metamorphic Ventures. The company previously raised $4 million in seed funding, bringing its total raise to date to $10 million. Now a team of 15 in Palo Alto, LotusFlare will use the funding to continue to scale its business and roll out to new markets.
  
  
• First, billionaire investor and Shark Tank television celebrity Mark Cuban invested in Unikrn. Now Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary are investing in the esports gaming startup through their Sound Ventures investment firm. Unikrn is also launching its global platform today. Following on a $7 million investment that included Cuban, the deal is another sign that esports is maturing, and that entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to make money from the tens of millions of people who regularly watch esports matches for fun. The previous investment round was led by Jonathan Teo and Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital.
  

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