North America

Cognata picks up $18.5 mln

Israel-based Cognata Ltd, a simulation engine for autonomous vehicle developers, has secured $18.5 million in funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round with participation from Emerge, Maniv Mobility, Airbus Ventures and Global IoT Technology Ventures.

Gauss Surgical scores $20 mln Series C

Silicon Valley-based Gauss Surgical, an AI-driven healthcare technology company, raised $20 million in Series C funding. The investors included Northwell Health, SoftBank Ventures Korea and LS Polaris Innovation Fund.

Oakhouse leads $9 mln seed round for Austin-based 3D printing homebuilder ICON

Austin, Texas-based ICON, which builds affordable homes using 3D-printing technology, robotics and advanced materials, announced it has raised $9 million in seed-stage funding. Oakhouse Partners led the large seed funding, which also included national homebuilder D.R. Horton; Emaar, a large Middle East developer; Texas startup accelerator Capital Factory; CAZ Investments; Cielo Property Group; Engage Ventures; MicroVentures; Saturn Five; Shadow Ventures; Trust Ventures; Verbena Road Holdings; and Vulcan Capital, the multi-billion dollar investment arm of the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen.

Version One Ventures closes third early-stage fund at $57 mln

Canadian venture capital firm Version One Ventures has closed its third fund at about $57 million in committed capital. Version One Ventures III was backed by new and existing limited partners, including such institutions as Invesco, HarbourVest, Northleaf Capital Partners and Kensington Capital Partners. Commitments were also secured from entrepreneurs at Shopify, Slack, Hootsuite, Wattpad, Salesforce and other companies. Founding Partner Boris Wertz said Fund III will double down on the investment strategy followed by Vancouver-based Version One since its launch in 2012. It will lead or join pre-seed and seed rounds with cheque sizes of $500,000 to $750,000, backing North American startups and platforms that leverage network effects.

Corviglia Capital Fund launches with $500 mln target

Petr Šmída and Cezary Smorszczewski have launched Corviglia Capital Fund, a fintech growth pool that is seeking $500 million in capital commitments. The fund has secured $250 million in a first close. Šmída co-founded ENERN, an Eastern European/DACH venture capital firm which has invested in 20 tech companies. Smorszczewski co-founded and is the former deputy-CEO of Alior Bank. The fund will make minority investments in financial services and banking.

Crux Informatics raises $20 mln Series B

Crux Informatics, a data engineering and information supply chain operator, announced it raised $20 million in a Series B round of funding. The financing includes recent investor Two Sigma, as well as follow-on investments from Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investment Group and Citi, among others previous investors. Crux, which has teams in New York and San Francisco, raised a $10 million Series A round in late 2017.

ConveyIQ attracts $5.5 mln

New York City-based ConveyIQ, a provider of enterprise talent communication and recruiting automation software, has raised $5.5 million in funding. SC Ventures led the round with participation from other investors that included 3TS Capital Partners and StarVest Partners.

CapitalG funds Applied Systems

Applied Systems, a provider of cloud-based software for the insurance industry, has secured an investment from CapitalG, Alphabet's growth equity investment fund. No financial terms were disclosed. As a result of the transaction, Hellman & Friedman will retain majority ownership of Applied Systems while CapitalG joins JMI Equity and Stone Point Capital as a minority investor.

Women's health products company Flex rakes in $3.6 mln

Venice, California-based The Flex Company, a maker of women's health products, has raised $3.6 million in funding. The investors included BOW Capital, Quest Venture Partners, Halogen Ventures and Y Combinator. Also, Flex has acquired rival Keela LLC, a maker of a menstrual cup.

GGV Capital collects total of $1.88 bln for new funds

Menlo Park, California-based GGV Capital, a venture firm that invests in the U.S. and China, has closed its new funds at a total of $1.88 billion. The new funds include GGV Capital VII and VII Plus, which raised $1.36 billion; GGV Discovery II, which raised $460 million; and GGV Capital VII Entrepreneurs Fund, which raised $60 million.