Series A
LiveSafe, which delivers mobile safety technology, has gained $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by IAC. The Arlington company provides a communication platform, which crowdsources personal safety and uses the ubiquity of smartphones to block and react to dangerous threats, according to a press release.
Series B
Digital currency startup Circle Internet Financial has raised $17 million in a funding round led by Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Accel Partners and fresh investor Oak Investment Partners. Pantera Capital, the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Leonard Schrank, Fenway Summer and M. Michelle Burns were also part of the Series B round. Total backing behind the Boston-based company comes to $26 million. Circle has also disclosed the launch of its flagship consumer product in a limited release.
San Francisco-based CircleUp has gained $14 million in a Series B investment round. Canaan Partners led the investment, while Google Ventures, Union Square Partners, Rose Park Advisors and Maveron contributed. The company leverages an online platform where private companies can secure investments. CircleUp deployed in April 2012, and since then the platform has enabled upwards of 30 companies to gain more than $30 million in growth capital, according to a press release.
Series D
Gas fermentation technology company LanzaTech has secured $60 million in a Series D funding round. Mitsui & Co. led the investment with $20 million; new backers Siemens (through SFS VC), CICC Growth Capital Fund I, L.P., and current investors Qiming Venture Partners, K1W1, Khosla Ventures and the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund. LanzaTech was founded out of New Zealand and leverages a United States headquarters in Chicago.
Cambridge, MA-based NeuroPhage Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has received $17 million in a Series D investment. The company’s lead candidate, NPT088, could treat myriad neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
M&A
Chinese Internet titan Tencent Holdings Limited has plans to purchase a 28 percent share of CJ Games Corp, the games business from Seoul’s CJ E&M, for $500 million, according to a press release. Following the deal’s realization, Tencent will hold the third-biggest stake in the company behind Bang JH and CJ E&M. “As part of the restructuring, CJ Games will acquire and merge Netmarble, a game distribution division of CJ E&M, to maximize the synergies among distribution platforms and development via the creation of a consolidated corporation tentatively named ‘CJ Netmarble.’”
Santa Clara-based Intel has acquired BASIS Science Inc., the San Francisco company behind the Basis band health monitor. “Intel is actively pursuing a range of products and initiatives with the goal of accelerating wearable device innovation,” according to a press release. Financial terms were not revealed.
Menlo Park-based Facebook has agreed to purchase Irvine virtual reality company Oculus VR for roughly $2 billion. The deal is made up of $400 million in cash as well as 23.1 million shares of the social titan’s common stock (with a value of $1.6 billion), according to a press release. The transaction could also deliver an extra $300 million cash-and-stock earn-out following the attainment of specific goals. Oculus VR has gotten upwards of 75,000 orders for development kits for its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, the release states.
Bethesda, Maryland enterprise mobile and big data company DMI has snapped up Burlington, MA-based KnowledgePath, which delivers mobile and omnichannel commerce services, according to a press release. DMI serves customers like Abercrombie & Fitch, ESPN and Unilever, while KnowledgePath counts Sur La Table and rue21 as among its clients.