Chinese car-hailing app Didi Chuxing has raised more than $600 million in funding from China Life Insurance. The investment comes at a time when Didi Chuxing is locked in a battle with Uber for the Chinese ride-hailing market. Uber raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia earlier this month. China Life Insurance’s investment in Didi Chuxing includes $300 million in equity and $305 million in long-term debt.
Augmented reality technology company Meta has closed a $50 million Series B funding round. Horizons Ventures Limited, Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures and GQY all participated in the round. Meron Gribetz, CEO of Meta, said, “It is incredibly gratifying to have the support of big thinkers and investors who understand the importance of creating a new human-computer interface, anchored in science. Our friends at Tencent, Lenovo, Horizons Ventures, Comcast Ventures and all the other investors really get what we’re doing and why Meta is different from the other players in AR. They understand that the combination of our advanced optical engines along with our neuroscience-based interface design approach are what will create a computing experience that is 100x easier to use and more powerful than traditional form factors.”
Alpine Immune Sciences, a biotechnology company developing an immune system modulation platform, has closed a Series A financing round worth $48 million. OrbiMed Advisors led the round, with participation from Frazier Healthcare Partners and Alpine BioVentures. “We are honored this experienced group of investors recognizes the tremendous potential existing at Alpine Immune Sciences. AIS is taking a unique approach to modulating the immune system through the directed evolution of naturally occurring ligands – creating the next generation of cancer and autoimmune therapeutics with our vIgD platform,” said Mitchell H, Gold, M.D., Alpine Immune Sciences’ Executive Chairman and acting CEO. “We believe this significant funding, along with our collective expertise, will enable us to discover and develop clinically meaningful and transformative therapies for patients.”