North America

Kleiner Perkins leads Series A round for Stord

Atlanta-based Stord, a provider of next-generation warehousing and distribution, has secured $12.3 million in Series A funding, according to a blog post on its site. Kleiner Perkins led the round with participation from other investors that included Susa Ventures and Dynamo.

VC-backed digital life insurance platform Covr opens Hartford corporate office

Covr Financial Technologies, a digital life insurance platform, has opened its corporate office in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Covr Technologies was founded in Boise, Idaho. Covr's backers include Nyca Partners, Commerce Ventures, Connectivity Capital Partners and Contour Venture Partners.

VC-backed CloudBees buys Electric Cloud

CloudBees has acquired Electric Cloud, a provider of continuous delivery and application release automation solutions. No financial terms were disclosed. CloudBees is backed by Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Verizon Ventures, Delta-v Capital, Golub Capital and Unusual Ventures.

Home security company Kangaroo raises $10.26 mln led by Greycroft

New York-based Kangaroo, which provides smarthome security, announced it has raised $10.26 million a Series A round led by Greycroft. Lerer Hippeau and angel investors also participated. As part of the funding, Ian Sigalow, a partner and co-founder of Greycroft, has joined the board.

Health tech investor iGan Partners closes first fund at $100 mln

Canadian healthcare technology venture capital firm iGan Partners has secured $100 million in the final close of its first fund, iGan Fund I. The fund was backed by family offices and high-net-worth investors. Fund I will focus on early-stage companies in digital health, medical devices, healthcare IT and artificial intelligence, and other sectors. Toronto-based iGan Partners is led by Managing Partner Sam Ifergan, who founded the firm in 2013, and Partner Joel Finlayson. Its recent deals include a $2 million seed financing of OrbCare, a Toronto-based unified health cloud platform, and a $5 million Series A financing of Rna Diagnostics, a Toronto-based cancer therapy guidance platform. Both rounds were led by iGan Partners.

VC-backed Onfido appoints CTO and CRO

Onfido, a identity verification provider, has named Kevin Goldsmith and Thomas Ammirati as chief technology officer and chief revenue officer, respectively. Also, Onfido has added Frank van Veenendaal, former chief sales officer and vice chairman of Salesforce, to its board. Onfido's backers include SBI Investment and Salesforce Ventures.

Canadian VC begins 2019 with heft as top Q1 deals raise $667 mln

After nine straight years of growth, Canada’s venture capital market showed no signs of slowing down in early 2019. The top 10 first-quarter VC financings drew $667 million from VC funds. While that’s down 28 percent from the $923 million raised by the top 10 deals a year earlier, it exceeds first-quarter results in other recent years. The estimate is based on PE Hub Canada’s list of the largest rounds announced from January through March, supplemented by preliminary data from Refinitiv. It suggests that despite increasing market uncertainty, trends in early 2019 reflect many of the same factors that drove soaring Canadian VC investment activity last year.

Hookipa Pharma debuts IPO

New York and Austria-based Hookipa Pharma, a developer of immunotherapeutics, has raised $84 million for its IPO after pricing its 6 million shares at $14 per share. The stock began trading April 18, 2019 on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “HOOK." BofA Merrill Lynch, SVB Leerink and RBC Capital Markets are the lead underwriters. Hookipa's pre-IPO backers included HBM Partners, Hillhouse Capital, Sirona Capital, Gilead, Sofinnova Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Takeda Ventures and BioMedPartners.

Idinvest Partners leads funding round for Alsid

Paris-based Alsid, an active directory protection solution provider, has secured 13 million euros in funding. Idinvest Partners led the round.

Biopharma startup Nocion nabs $27 mln Series A

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Nocion Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical startup, has raised $27 million in Series A funding. F-Prime Capital Partners and Canaan led the round with participation from Partners Innovation Fund and BioInnovation Capital.