Zenefits Fined $7 Million by California Insurance RegulatorCalifornia’s insurance regulator said Zenefits has agreed to pay as much as $7 million over licensing violations. The human resources startup will pay $3.5 million upfront and will be on the hook for the rest if additional violations are found or if it fails a follow-up compliance test in 2018, the insurance department said. The fine is the largest single penalty assessed against Zenefits, the regulator said. Fines from other states this year totaled about $1 million, Zenefits said. The company said it’s resolved issues in 17 states. [ Bloomberg ] A prominent Silicon Valley investment banker is suing Theranos, and seeking class-action statusTheranos, the 13-year-old, Palo Alto-based health technology startup, is being sued by two more investors who say they were lied to about Theranos’s health and its prospects by founder Elizabeth Holmes and former president and COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was reportedly long one of the Holmes’s closest confidants. [ Tech Crunch ] Slack Grows Up - and Just in Time to Take on MicrosoftSlack CEO Stewart Butterfield is a playful fellow, even when he's arming for war. When he left his job at Yahoo in 2008, Butterfield famously did so in one of the all-time weirdest resignation letters, a drawn-out riff on his passion for tin. In November 2016, Butterfield dusted off his stationery and composed another cheeky note. This one was addressed to Microsoft, "congratulating" the software giant on its launch of a new workplace-collaboration product called Teams--a product press reports had for months been foreshadowing as a would-be "Slack-killer." [ Inc. ] BMW’s venture arm grow fund fivefold, moving to Silicon ValleyBMW’s venture capital arm is quintupling the size of its venture fund and moving its offices to Silicon Valley from New York, to be closer to the startups it plans to invest in. BMW i Ventures, which launched in 2011, plans to raise $530 million in new capital and begin operating independently of its parent company, according to reports in Forbes and the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. [ Biz Journal ] The 26 most innovative venture capital firmsEvery new VC firm that launches touts to be a “new breed of venture capital firm”, but the reality is that most of the time it’s just a straight up old-school VC model. That being said, VC has seen some massive innovation in the past decade: the rise of the super angels, the subsequent explosion of seed funds, VC blogging, AngelList — today the fundraising environment is certainly different for founders. [ Medium ] LATEST FUNDING China: QuantGroup closes $73m Series C led by Sunshine InsuranceFintech startup QuantGroup has closed a RMB500 million $73 million) Series C financing round led by Sunshine Insurance Group Corporation, Fosun Capital, Guosen Hongsheng Investment Co., Ltd., and other undisclosed investors. In a development reported by China Money Network, Zhang Ling, an investment managing director at Sunshine Insurance, commented: “We will cooperate with QuantGroup on credit guarantees for insurance products.” [ bitcoinagile ] High-end audio maker Devialet nabs €100M from Foxconn, Jay Z, Rubin’s Playground and moreMake way for another startup that wants to shake up the world of music and audio technology. Devialet, the French developer of high-end speakers and the IP behind the sound systems that make them go boom, has raised €100 million ($107 million). This is a strategic growth round that is bringing in a number of high-profile new investors — and with them, a lot more audio opportunities for the
Paris-based startup. Galera Therapeutics Expands Series B to $57 MillionGalera Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing transformational new treatments for cancer patients, announced today it has received $15 million in funding from new investor Sofinnova Ventures, bringing its Series B financing total to $57 million. Sofinnova joins existing investors New Enterprise Associates, Novartis Venture Fund, Novo Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Enso Ventures and Galera Angels . [ Business Wire ] HawkEye 360 Raises $11M in Series A Financing HawkEye 360, Inc., a Boston, MA-based developer of a space-based radio frequency (RF) mapping and analytics system, raised $11.0m in Series A equity funding. The round was led by Razor’s Edge Ventures with participation from Allied Minds (LSE: ALM) and a defence market company. [ Finsmes ] Shockwave Medical Secures $45 Million Series C Funding For Lithoplasty DeviceShockwave Medical says it has raised $45 million in Series C financing to further development of its Lithoplasty ultrasound device, expanding into new therapeutic areas via additional clinical trials and commercializing the product in the United States and the European Union markets. [ Med device online ] Silexica Closes $8m Series A FundingSilexica, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of multicore software design automation addressing complex, multicore platforms, closed an $8m Series A round of financing. The round was led by Merus Capital with participation from new investor Paua Ventures as well as current investors Seed Fonds Aachen and DSA Invest. [ Finsmes ] Cybersecurity Firm Proficio Raises $12 Million in Funding Round, Targets Expansion AbroadProficio, a Carlsbad-based provider of managed cybersecurity detection and response services, has raised $12 million in an international funding round. The company said it plans to use the money to expand its presence in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, as well as introduce new cybersecurity platforms and services. [ sdbj ] LATEST EXITS CSC Financial’s Hong Kong IPO Seeks as Much as $1.06 BillionCSC Financial Co., the Beijing-based brokerage and investment bank, and an existing shareholder are seeking as much as $1.06 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering. The company, formerly known as China Securities Finance Co., and the National Social Security Fund are offering a combined 1.13 billion shares at HK$6.36 to HK$7.26 apiece, according to terms for the deal obtained by Bloomberg on Monday. [ Bloomberg ] Investors wary as high valuations may cloud Meitu’s Hong Kong IPOChina’s most popular selfie application maker Meitu’s plan to raise funds from an initial public offering in Hong Kong could face pricing hurdles as investors are still doubtful whether the Xiamen-based company can monetise its services to justify its high valuation. [ scmp ] Israeli Valtech Cardio acquired by Edwards Lifesciences in $1 billion deal It was announced today that California-headquartered Edwards Lifesciences had agreed to buy Valtech Cardio, an Israeli medical device company based in Or Yehuda, in a deal valued at $990 million. According to the terms of the deal, Valtech will receive an initial $340 million in cash and stocks after all the papers have been signed. However it is over the next ten years where the deal becomes far more lucrative, with Edwards agreeing to pay out up to $350 million as they reach a series of success milestones. [ geektime ] Q Holdings in talks to buy Degania SiliconeNegotiations are taking place for the acquisition of Degania Silicone for $250-300 million. The company manufactures silicon products for use in medical equipment, such as urological catheters and cardiology balloons. The prospective buyer for the company is US medical equipment company Q Holdings, owned by US-UK company 3i. The owners of Degania Silicone are Viola Private Equity, Kibbutz Degania Bet, and the IGI fund. [ globes ] FUND RAISED IK Investment Partners Fund VIII raises $1.96 blnIK Investment Partners said Nov. 28 that its eighth mid cap fund raised 1.85 billion euros ($1.96 billion). IK VIII Fund exceeded its €1.6bn target and will make majority investments in companies with enterprise values up to approximately €500 million in IK’s core markets: Benelux, DACH, France and the Nordics. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as the legal counsel to the Fund. [ PE Hub ] Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |