- Chronic disease treatment: GV (GOOG, GOOGL), Shire (NASDAQ:SHPG), Novartis (NYSE:NVS), and AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) participated in a $53M round in Rani Therapeutics, which developed a pre-clinical stage pill to replace injectable drugs for chronic diseases. The round brought total funding up to $142M.
- Other round participants: GeneScience Pharmaceuticals, Bossa Ventures, Cathay Venture, Ping An Ventures, and Virtus Ventures.
- Rani plans to use the funds to invest in manufacturing to prepare for human clinical trials.
- On-site car maintenance: General Motors (NYSE:GM) Ventures and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) led a $13.7M Series A round in Yoshi, a subscription service for on-site car maintenance and gas delivery. Y Combinator also participated in the round, which brought total funding up to $15.9M.
- Yoshi delivers gas, oil changes, car washes and other vehicle maintenance services to where a car is parked. Yoshi currently operates in the San Francisco area, Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville, and Atlanta.
- VR broadcasting: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) was among the backers in a $11.7M Series A round for VR broadcasting platform startup Vreal. The round was led by Axioma Ventures joined by Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund and existing investors. Total funding in Vreal now totals $15M.
- Vreal lets users record or live stream a virtual reality experience. The recording includes the VR environment and player movements, interactions, and voices. Voice chat with live viewers will come at a later date. The service is currently in a closed testing phase with hopes of wider testing this summer.
- AI processing: Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) Venture and a consortium of U.S. semiconductor execs led a $10M seed round in AI processing tech company Lightelligence.
- Lightelligence speeds up AI processing through the use of photonics circuit technology, which offer better efficiency than electronic circuits. The photonic circuits use light to transmit signals for lower latency and higher throughput.
- Staffing change: Top venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz lost a general partner. Lars Dalgaard left to start his own fund after spearheading such investments as Imgur and Zenefits. Andreessen Horowitz had 10 general partners and Dalgaard was only the second departure in the fund’s nine-year history.
- Previously: Workday launches $250M venture fund, appoints co-presidents (Feb. 7)
- Now read: Stocks To Watch: Digging For Gems In The Shakeout
Original article