Category: Business
Japanese therapeutic application CureApp secures US$3.38 million from SBI, Keio and Beyond Next
Tokyo-based therapeutic application CureApp, on Monday, has announced that it has secured a fundraising round worth 380 million yen (about US$3.38 million) led by existing investor Beyond Next Ventures along with the participation of Keio Innovation Initiative and SBI Investment.
With the latest capital, the firm intends to enhance its research and development system in order to realise a personalised disease treatment mobile application, as well as to progress the utilisation of ICT and AI for medical care and nursing care in Japan. This financing round also follows the procurement of a 100 million yen (about US$8.9 million) from Beyond Next Ventures back in October 2015.
Founded in July 2014 by Dr. Satake Kota and Shin Suzuki, CureApp, Inc. is a MedTech venture that aims to leverage on the evolution of mobile technology to develop a medical app that exhibits therapeutic effects against diseases as a form of new medical treatment.
The company has launched a nicotine addiction treatment app jointly developed with the Division of Pulmonary Medicine from the Keio University’s School of Medicine. The smoking cessation app, launched in February 2015, is currently conducting clinical trials in many locations.
In addition, CureApp had also jointly developed a NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis remedy) treatment app with the Department of Gastroenterology at the University of Tokyo, which is currently under the clinical trial process as well. NASH is a form of hepatitis caused by obesity or diabetes and is one of the typical lifestyle diseases treatable by improving dietary habits.
Besides, a participant of the Hiyaku Next Enterprise program, an innovation encouragement program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, CureApp also plans a horizontal spread of medical apps for the treatment of other lifestyle diseases including diabetes, depression and lung cancer which has been difficult to intervene so far.
CureApp is also seeking a way to expand its business to the United States through cooperation with local medical institutions. As having the apps approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration after clinical trials would make global development possible.
The CureApp series of mobile apps can be downloaded from the iTunes AppStore and Google Play, but due to the nature of these applications, they are premised to be used under the guidance of an affiliated medical institution.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Standard Chartered Private Equity acquires Chinese beauty center operator Siyanli
Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE), Standard Charted Bank’s private equity arm, has led a consortium to acquire a majority stake in Chinese beauty care service provider Shanghai Siyanli Industrial Co., Ltd. in a leveraged buy-out transaction.
Following the deal which values Siyanli at US$224 million, Standard Charted Private Equity unit which was previously a minority shareholder in the spa and beauty operator will now acquire a controlling interest pro-acquisition.
“We are privileged to partner with Siyanli and its management team, who are determined to continue building a successful beauty care brand that caters to the future needs of China customers. We look forward to supporting the team to accelerate its growth and presence in China,” said Zhu Wei, the managing director of Standard Chartered Private Equity.
Founded in 1996, Siyanli is a high-end beauty care service provider in China, operating under the brand “Si Yan Li” which has been established as a recognisable beauty care brands and reports a strong brand funnel across the cities it operates in.
Siyanli operates 160 beauty centers in dozens of cities in China via self-owned and franchised stores, where consumers can receive skin care and anti-aging treatments, as well as massage and spa services. It claims to have over 100,000 paid members.
Post-acquisition, Zhu Wei will also take up the role of chairman at Siyanli following the buyout deal.
“As a partner to Siyanli, SCPE, with the joint effort from the investment consortium, we hope that we can add to the management expertise and avail the Standard Charted Bank global network – to support Siyanli’s growth plan and strategic expansion,” SCPE said.
SCPE manages about US$5 billion, including the Standard Charted’s own funds and money from external investors that include Goldman Sachs Group. As at November 2016, it owned stakes in about 80 companies across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These range from a Nigerian energy producer to a Jordanian chicken company.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Chinese biotech startup Ark Biosciences closes series A extension led by Bioventure Investment
Shanghai-based biotech startup Ark Biosciences has recently raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A+ funding round led by Bioventure Investment Management, a Chinese medical and pharmaceutical-focused venture capital.
The startup focusing on innovative drug discovery and development especially in the respiratory viruses, influenza, and Hepatitis B field for worldwide markets current financing round also received participation by existing investors Qiming Venture Partners, Morningside Venture Capital, and Oriza Capital.
“Bioventure is focusing on investments in innovative drugs which are driven by clinical requirements,” said Chen Jie, a partner at Bioventure. “Ark Biosciences is very experienced in the antiviral drugs field, and I believe the company will bring innovative products for respiratory syncytial virus.”
Founded in 2003 by Dr. Jim Wu, Ark Bioscience at present develops an AK0529 drug targeting respiratory viruses, an AK0612 drug targeting influenza, as well as an AK0701 drug and two other projects targeting the Hepatitis B virus.
Last week, the company announced that its AK0529 drug which targets respiratory viruses has gained approval from the China Food and Drug Administration, allowing the biotech startup to commence their clinical trials.
With the latest proceedings, the company will support the phase II study of AK0592, as well as clinical trials of other drugs in its pipeline. The AK0529 drug completed its phase I clinical trial in Australia in 2015 and is in the phase II trial of Viral Inhibition in Children for Treatment Of RSV.
Suzhou-based Bioventure Investment was founded in 2013 by Chen Jie, former managing director at CXC Capital. The company currently has RMB2 billion (about US$280 million) under management. It has made over 30 investments in companies in China and U.S. including Chiral Quest, BrightGene, Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceutical Inc. and PegBio Co. Ltd.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
TravelTriangle raises US$10 million in Series B round led by Singaporean RB Investments
Gurgaon-based Holiday Triangle Travel Pvt. Ltd, the operator of TravelTriangle.com, on Monday, has raised US$10 million in a Series B round led by RB Investments, along with the participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.
With this round of financing, the platform plans to enhance features in the product and increase the organic traffic on the platform, as it aims to work towards profitability in the next 18 months.
“We have grown faster than OTAs (Online Travel Agents) in the leisure segment and are now fast approaching their scale. With this new round of investment, we will be able to achieve our vision faster. Our success up till now has been the effort of our super-motivated team,” said Sankalp Agarwal, the Co-founder and CEO of TravelTriangle.
Additionally, TravelTriangle also plans to convert this investment into offers for both their suppliers (tour operators) and users – through building a software for their supplier’s walk-in clients and expanding the EMI payment feature for users.
Founded in 2011 by Sankalp Agarwal, Prabhat Gupta, and Sanchit Garg, TravelTriangle is a holiday marketplace that connects travelers to local travel agents, in addition to fetching quotations, customising personalised trips and facilitating online bookings.
With a team of more than 400 people, TravelTriangle operates from offices located in Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai and the United States. To date, the company has a network of over 640 travel agents, in which it expects to increase to over 1,500 agents in the next 18 months, according to Agrawal.
The company also aims to serve more than 100 holiday destinations across India and worldwide. At present, its content attracts around 2 million monthly visitiors on its website and has served travelers from more than 65 countries.
Previously, the travel platform had raised a US$1.7 million pre-series A funding from SAIF Partners in July 2014, followed by a series A round of US$8 million from Bessemer Venture in April 2015.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Mumbai-based mobile compression startup AdStringO to raise US$5 million funding
Mobile compression software startup AdStringO is reportedly in talks with multiple venture funds to raise US$5 million in its Series A financing round which is expected to close by April.
The proceeds from this round are intended to fund the company’s international expansion and to cash in on the cooperative banks’ need to facilitate digital transactions.
“We want to expand aggressively to other countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and some countries in Africa, and also cater to the cooperative banks sector which has been greatly impacted by the government’s demonetisation since they lack any sort of technology infrastructure to support digital transactions,” said Mohan Chandrasekaran, the CEO of AdStringO.
Co-founded in September 2014 by Chandrasekaran and Sankar Mahalingam, AdStringO uses a technology which compresses images, PDF, audio and videos up to 1/10th of the file size, that is up to 90 percent with the same visual quality.
The AdStringO’s compression software is especially helpful to field representatives or customers themselves to capture, documents, images, and videos using scanners, webcams and mobile phones, then to compress them without losing aspect ratio and metadata to initiate business processes at the transaction point itself.
Its portfolio includes customers including Tata Group, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Kotak, IDBI Federal, Pidilite, Johnson-Johnson, OEC, Videocon, ICICI Prudential, and Bria Sun Life Insurance among some.
Commenting on the fundraising, Chandrasekaran said that, “We are in the last stages of signing up a couple of large cooperative banks to enable them to provide services to customers such as opening loan accounts using mobile technology without incurring costs on opening new bank accounts.”
This fundraising follows AdStringO’s angel round in June 2015 whereby the Mumbai-based startup has raised US$350,000 from Indian Angel Network (IAN).
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media