Ant Financial, the Chinese fintech company that manages Alipay, is reportedly raising $3.1 billion in funding at a valuation as high as $60 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Ant Financial closed a Series A round last summer that valued the company at $45-50 billion, TechCrunch reports. Ant Financial was spun off from Alibaba in 2011, and the company is expected to IPO in China next year.
Lasergen, a biotech company with next-generation sequencing technology, has raised $80 million in investment from Agilent Technologies, which will acquire a 48% ownership stake. Agilent also has the option to acquire the remaining shares in the company for an additional $105 million. “Agilent is investing in a team and technology that hold great promise for the future of genetic sequencing,” said Jacob Thaysen, president of Agilent’s Diagnostics and Genomics Group. “Agilent has been clear about its strategic intent to grow in the diagnostics space and, to that end, build a complete routine clinical NGS workflow. Our investment and collaboration are designed to accelerate Lasergen’s work in commercializing their novel technology, focused on developing a sequencing workflow aimed at clinical applications.”
Crimson Hexagon, a social data analysis company, has raised $20 million in a financing round led by Sageview Capital. Crimson Hexagon will use the funding to expand its sales and marketing team and add capabilities to its solution. “Crimson Hexagon is a true market leader with a tremendous customer list and is now positioned to expand its core capabilities to accelerate growth,” said Dean Nelson, partner at Sageview Capital. “Sageview provides growth capital to leading companies with demonstrated success and large market opportunities. We look forward to working with Crimson Hexagon as the company continues to dominate a growing market and delivers a strong return on investment for its customers.”
Exo, a company that sells protein bars made from insects, has closed a $4 million Series A funding round. AccelFoods led the round, with participation from existing and new investors Collaborative Fund, Tim Ferriss, Start Garden, best-selling musician Nas, and endurance athlete Amelia Boone. The company previously raised $1.2 million in seed funding in October 2014. “We’ve spent the last two years perfecting our product and growing the community around Exo; we’re barely keeping up with demand,” says Greg Sewitz, co-founder of Exo. “This new capital will help us accelerate the edible insect movement and execute on our huge vision for insect protein in all its potential forms.”