Equity financing

Online survey platform SurveyMonkey has raised $250 million in equity financing from a number of new investors including T. Rowe Price Associates, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Baillie Gifford & Co. Previous backers Tiger Global Management, ICONIQ Capital, Google Capital, Social + Capital Partnership and Laurel Crown Partners were also among the participants in the round. SurveyMonkey will use the funds to pursue acquisitions. “As SurveyMonkey continues to grow and seek new opportunities, we are excited to add a range of institutional investors to our already sophisticated investor base. We plan to use some of the new capital to pursue potential acquisitions as well as provide meaningful liquidity to our employees and investors who have shared in our growth over the years,” said Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey CEO.

Series A

Online car buying platform carwow has secured £4.6 million in Series  A funding led by Balderton Capital. Previous backers Episode 1 Ventures and Samos Investments also participated in the round. The company previously raised a seed round in February worth $1.3 million. James Hind, CEO of carwow, said: “The seed round raised earlier this year allowed us to officially launch the website www.carwow.co.uk, expand the team rapidly, and grow to become the leading company in this space. This latest round will be used to expand the team further, roll out above-the-line advertising campaigns and start exploring new markets.”

iFit, a Taiwan-based fitness community, has raised $3 million in Series A funding led by Cherubic Ventures. Other participants included Yuan-jin Capital, Sino Strategy Group, Alan Chien, and Ming-zhe Ou, the former general manager of Lenovo Taiwan, TechCrunch reports. The company was launched as  Facebook page in 2012 and has grown rapidly since. iFit previously raised funds nine months ago when it secured a seed round worth $900,000. The company operates in Southeast Asia and China as well as native Taiwan.