North America

Perch snaps up $30 mln Series A

New York and Texas-based Perch, a marketplace for buying and selling homes, has raised $30 million in Series A financing. FirstMark Capital led the round with participation from Juxtapose and Accomplice. In addition to the funding, Rick Heitzmann, founder and managing director of FirstMark, will join the Perch board of directors.

Entrée Capital wraps up sophomore Israel-focused early-stage fund at $80 mln

Entrée Capital has closed its second Israeli-focused early-stage fund at $80 million. Also, the venture firm has hired Ran Achituv as a managing partner and promoted Eran Bielski to general partner. Entrée Capital has offices in London, San Francisco and Herzliya, Israel.

Mobile performance advertising startup Moloco scores $11 mln Series B

Moloco, a mobile performance advertising startup, has secured $11 million in Series B funding. Samsung Ventures and Draper Athena led the round with participation from Mirae Asset Management, Smilegate Investment and KTB Ventures.

Stem cell company Forever Labs attracts $2 mln

Forever Labs, a company that banks young adult stem cells, has secured $2 million in funding. The investors included Northwestern Mutual, Silicon Badia Ventures, Babel Ventures and DogVacay CEO and founder Aaron Hirschhorn.

Brightspark brings on Jacques Perreault as senior partner

Canadian early-stage venture capital firm Brightspark has hired Jacques Perreault as a senior partner. Operating from the firm's office in Montréal, Perreault will evaluate startups, create deal flow, and support new and existing investments. He joins Brightspark after working for 20 years in senior roles in the VC industry, most recently at Desjardins Capital, where he served as associate vice president of technology investments. Before joining Desjardins in 2008, Perreault served as a vice president at MMV Financial and as a partner at Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec's technology affiliate.

Motion Gestures raises $2.1 mln in CCAA-led seed financing

Motion Gestures, a provider of machine learning-based gesture recognition software, has raised about $2.1 million (US$1.65 million) in a seed-stage financing. The round was led by China Canada Angels Alliance (CCAA) and joined by Golden Triangle Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum and Propel(x). Founded in 2016, Motion Gestures' software can be used to create gesture recognition-based human-machine interfaces for products and services in a variety of business verticals. Led by CEO Kashif Kahn, the Waterloo-based company will use the funds raised to further develop its technology and launch global marketing.

Fifth Wall Ventures raises $60 mln toward its Fifth Wall Ventures Retail Fund

Fifth Wall Ventures has raised $60 million toward a $200 million Fifth Wall Ventures Retail Fund, according to a filing with the SEC.

Localize.city raises $8 mln Series A

Localize.city said it raised a Series A round of $8 million in a deal led by entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz and investor Zvi Limon.

BiomeRenewables secures $3 mln from LCIF, angels

Toronto-based biomimetic innovation platform BiomeRenewables has secured $3 million in funding from the Government of Ontario's Low Carbon Innovation Fund (LCIF) and unidentified private investors in the wind industry. Founded in 2015 by CEO Ryan Church, BiomeRenewables is an industrial design group developing solutions to address technical and productivity challenges faced by renewable energy technologies. It will use the funds raised to validate the company's aerodynamic PowerConeTM technology in a full-scale wind turbine pilot study.

Presidio View collects $2.6 mln for cannabis investments

Presidio View Capital Partners, a venture firm that invests in the cannabis industry, has raised $2.6 million for its inaugural fund, according to an SEC filing. The target is $15 million, according to Michael Clifton, co-founder of Presidio View Capital. The hard cap on Fund I is $25 million, the Form D said.