North America

Israeli startup ProteanTecs reels in $35 mln Series B

ProteanTecs, an Israeli startup, has secured $35 million in Series B funding. The investors included Avigdor Willenz, Intel Capital, ITI Venture Capital Partners, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Redline Capital Management S.A., Viola Ventures, WRVI Capital and Zeev Ventures.

Movellus picks up $6 mln Series A

Movellus, a digital infrastructure startup, has secured $6 million in Series A funding. Stata Venture Partners led the round.

Agorize raises $20 mln in funding to speed Canadian growth

Agorize, a Paris-based online platform for hackathons and open innovation challenges, has raised $20 million from European investors Creadev, Sofiouest, Iris Capital and Capnamic Ventures. The funds raised will allow the company to accelerate its development in Canada, invest in local teams, and meet demand from client organizations. Agorize currently has locations in Montréal and Toronto led by Aurélie Wen, managing director, North America. Canada is the world's fifth most active adopter of innovation marathons, Agorize reports, holding 247 hackathons last year out of 5,636 organized globally.

Lightspeed's public debut drives IPO activity in Q1: PwC

Canada’s initial public offering (IPO) market had a "stable start" in Q1 2019, potentially opening a window for new issues later this year, according to a report by PwC Canada. In all, eight new issues on exchanges raised $327 million in the first quarter, up from $157 million raised by nine new issues at the same time in 2018. Activity between January and March was led by the public debut of venture capital-backed Lightspeed POS (TSX: LSPD), a Montréal-based retail and restaurant point-of-sale and e-commerce solution. Dean Braunsteiner, PwC national IPO leader, said Lightspeed's IPO is the first of several technology companies that have "long been expected to enter public markets."

Tech Pioneers Fund to raise $50 mln venture-capital fund

The Tech Pioneers Fund has set out to raise a $50 million venture-capital fund, according to a filing with the SEC.

Cannabis tech startup Seedo nets $4 mln

Cannabis tech startup Seedo has raised $4 million in funding. SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum led the round. In conjunction with the funding, Birnbaum will join Seedo's board of directors.

Venture-backed Calligo buys Connected Technologies

Calligo has acquired Connected Technologies Inc, a Brampton, Ontario-based outsourced information technology and cloud services company. No financial terms were disclosed. The acquisition follows Calligo's 2017-2018 purchases of Toronto-based 3 Peaks and Mico Systems. Calligo, a Jersey, U.K.-based optimization and privacy specialist, said the combined acquisitions have made it one of the largest providers of cloud and managed services serving the Toronto region. Founded in 2011, Calligo raised US$20 million in 2016 from Bahrain investor Investcorp. It has also secured financing from U.K. venture capital firm Ti23.

Arteaus Therapeutics sells royalty interest in Emgality for $260 mln

Arteaus Therapeutics, a biotech development company co-founded by Atlas Venture and OrbiMed, has sold its royalty interest in Eli Lilly and Company's Emgality to Royalty Pharma for $260 million. Morgan Stanley was sole structuring agent on the monetization. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP served as legal adviser to Arteaus while Jones Day and Maiwald served as legal advisers to Royalty Pharma.

German food logistics startup Fliit snags Series A funding

Fliit, a German food logistics startup, has raised 10 million euros in Series A funding, according to a blog post on its site. The investors included Maersk Growth and Berlin Technologie Holding.

BillionToOne fetches $15 mln Series A

Menlo Park, California-based BillionToOne, a precision diagnostics company, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Hummingbird Ventures and NeoTribe Ventures led the round with participation from Y Combinator, Civilization Ventures, Fifty Years, 500 Startups Istanbul and HOF Capital.