Here are the key startup fundraising rounds from this week:
v2food raises $72 million Series B round for expansion
v2food, an Australian plant-based protein startup, has announced the completion of a $72 million Series B Plus capital round led by Astanor Ventures — Europe’s largest impact investing fund.
Current investors Huaxing Growth Capital Fund, Main Sequence, and ABC World Asia have also joined the round.
v2food completed a Series B raise of $77 million in October 2020, bringing the company’s total funds raised to $185 million. This latest raise makes v2 the most funded alternative protein company in Australia.
Australia start-up Ofload raises additional $3.8 million
Logistics start-up based in Sydney Ofload has secured an additional $3.8 million from seed investors Maersk Growth and Global Founders Capital, as well as pre-seed investment Flash Ventures and new investor Foundamental.
The funding announcement comes on the heels of a strong start to 2021, in which Ofload consistently indexed double-digit growth.
The company said the funding will help the start-up expand its operations focused on tackling waste and empowering the long tail of small to medium-sized industry players.
Software startup Operata secures $2.2 million led by Tidal Ventures
Operata, a platform for performance monitoring and assurance, has raised $2.2 million in a seed round to help call centers to shift to remote working operations.
Tidal Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Sydney, led the seed round, which was funded by Black Nova, Flying Fox Ventures, and well-known angels.
The Melbourne software company, which was founded in 2018 and is currently profitable, has been bootstrapped thus far. Its clients include Telstra, Boral, and AMP, and it provides service monitoring and assurance for Amazon Connect, Salesforce, and Zendesk.
Foodbomb raises $4.5 million series A
Foodbomb, a food wholesale platform for the hotel industry, has raised $4.5 million in a Series A round of financing.
EVP, Athletic Ventures, Aura Ventures, Tony Gandel’s family investment vehicle, Tahmedia, and Platform Advisory Partners also contributed to the financing. This is EVP’s third investment in the company since 2019.
The funding will allow the four-year-old firm to expand beyond its present operations in New South Wales and Victoria to Brisbane next month, as well as more than double its personnel from 20 to 40.
Pendula secures additional $1.75 million
Customer communications startup Pendula has landed a $6.75 million round just three months after setting out to raise $5 million.
The raise was led by MA Financial Group – previously known as Moelis Australia – and supported by existing backer Equity Venture Partners, as the business eyes overseas expansion and will be used to improve the platform’s analysis and insight capabilities.
MGA Thermal raises $8 million led by Main Sequence
MGA Thermal has raised $8 million, bringing its total funding to $9 million. Main Sequence, a venture firm formed by Australia’s national science agency that recently launched a new $250 million fund, led the round.
Alberts Impact Capital, New Zealand’s Climate Venture Capital Fund, The Melt, and returning investor CP Ventures were among the participants, as were angel investors such as Chris Sang, Emlyn Scott, and Glenn Butcher.
India’s Pharmeasy in talks with Softbank to raise fund at a valuation of $5.6 billion
According to a report by financial daily ET, Pharmeasy, an Indian online pharmaceutical firm, is in talks with SoftBank for a money infusion of $150 million to $200 million at a valuation of $5.6 billion.
The healthtech unicorn also intends to go public within the next 12 to 18 months.
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