Series A
WeLab, a Hong Kong-based lending platform, has secured $20 million in Series A funding from TOM Group, Sequoia Capital, Yuri Milner, ICONIQ Capital and Ule.com, among others. The company will use the latest funds for its expansion into China. WeLab originally announced $14 million in funding last year, but has now confirmed an additional $6 million.
Series B
Machine learning platform GraphLab has changed its name to Dato and announced a Series B round of funding worth $18.5 million. Vulcan Capital led the round, with participation from Opus Capital and previous backers New Enterprise Associates and Madrona Venture Group. Dato, which has now raised more than $25 million in total, will use the new funds to expand its team and business development. “Our company was founded on a mission to create a more intelligent world. The investments made in Dato will help us empower many more data scientists, software developers and engineers to revolutionize industries and enhance our lives in ways we can’t imagine. We are delivering a complete environment that makes data science and its benefits accessible to every business,” said Carlos Guestrin, CEO, Dato.
Seismic, which aims to give salespeople the tools they need do their job more effectively, has closed a $20 million Series B funding round led by JMI Equity. Previous backer Sigma West also participated in the round, which will be used for product innovation and expansion. “Seismic is the only platform that allows companies to get an end-to-end view of how content is used by employees and consumed by customers,” said Seismic CEO Doug Winter. “Our technology gives customers a significant competitive advantage in the sales process. As such, we’ve experienced rapid expansion and customer growth, with revenues tripling in the past year. We are excited to be partnering with JMI and Sigma West to help continue our innovation and growth.”
Funding
CommonFloor, an Indian real estate platform, has attracted a fresh round of funding from Google Capital. The funding marks Google’s investment arm’s third investment in Asia. “This investment shows that Google Capital believes in CommonFloor and our vision to transform the real estate market in India. We look forward to drawing on the technical and operational expertise of Google Capital’s partners and advisers as we continue to scale our business,” Sumit Jain, Co- founder and CEO at CommonFloor.com said in a statement.
Online optician Mister Spex has closed a $40 million round of funding led by Goldman Sachs with participation from Scottish Equity Partners, XAnge and DN Capital. “The current round of financing is the best confirmation of our consistent and successful pioneering work in a highly attractive market” said Dirk Graber CEO and founder of Mister Spex in a press release. “With Goldman Sachs we have found a world class investor who shares our vision for the Company and is the ideal partner to further advance our domestic and international expansion.”