Funding
The WSJ is reporting Souq.com, which claims to be the Arab world’s biggest e-commerce site, has secured a $75 million investment from Naspers, a South African media organization. The Dubai-based company, frequently labelled the Middle East’s Amazon, features more than 200,000 products on its site. Souq.com gets upwards of 8 million visits monthly.
Silent Herdsman, which produces wearables for cows, has received £3M ($4.9 million) in funding, according to reports. Silent Herdmans comes to the U.K. via NMR, which delivers packages of collars, “the base station and the PC with Silent Herdsman software,” according to the company’s website.
Waltham, MA-based Actifio, which provides copy data virtualization to customers, has gained $100 million in an oversubscribed investment round. Tiger Global Management, LLC, led the funding, which saw contributions from existing backers Greylock, IL, North Bridge, Andreessen Horowitz, Technology Crossover Ventures and Advanced Technology Ventures. The company has attained an annual growth rate at 182 percent, and Ash Ashutosh, Actifio’s founder and CEO, gauges the worldwide copy data problem at $46 billion, according to a press release.
Software defined storage company Amplidata has realized an $11 million investment led by Intel Capital. All current backers, such as Endeavor Vision, Hummingbird Ventures, Swisscom Ventures and Quantum, contributed to the round. Total capital funding behind the company comes to $33 million. Amplidata has its U.S. headquarters in Milpitas, California and a European headquarters in Lochristi, Belgium.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC has pumped about $63 million into U.K.-based energy tech company Intelligent Energy Holdings plc. GIC invests more than $100 billion in myriad and varied assets in upwards of 40 countries.
M&A
Advent International, Bain Capital and ATP have agreed to snap up Copenhagen-based Nets, which delivers payments, information and digital identity services to Northern Europe, at a price of 17 billion Danish kroner ($31.4 billion). Sellers include Danske Bank, Nordea and DnB, plus other Scandinavian banks, according to a press release. The deal is expected to be completed in Q2 2014 pending regulatory approvals/confirmations, according to another release.
U.K.-based communication services organization WPP has agreed to purchase a majority stake in London’s digital consultancy Cognifide, according to a press release. WPP Digital (WPP’s investment branch) and Wunderman are splitting stakes down the middle. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Santa Clara-based Palo Alto Networks has revealed an agreement to buy cybersecurity startup Cyvera. The total price comes to about $200 million. The deal is anticipated to be completed in the second half of this fiscal year and is contingent on customary closing conditions and regulatory reviews, according to a press release. Cyvera has a headquarters in San Francisco and a development center in Tel Aviv, according to the company.