Logistics Outshines Blockchain In B2B Venture Capital This Week

The hot topics in B2B venture capital these days are often cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and data analytics. Indeed, these spaces secured significant funding in this week’s B2B venture capital roundup. But a lesser-discussed market grabbed the largest investment of the week: logistics. In total, companies landed more than $255.6 million, an impressive way to start the year for the B2B startup space. Check out the B2B payments, blockchain, logistics and data analytics firms that secured funding below.

 

B2B Payments

Razorpay

Following a shift in business model from offering a payment gateway to providing companies with a converged payments solution, India’s Razorpay announced $20 million in Series B funding from Tiger Global this week. Y Combinator and Matrix Partners also participated in the funding, which Razorpay will use to continue to scale, focus on expanding its product portfolio and enter new verticals. “The idea we are promoting with Razorpay is that there will be one comprehensive and innovative product that will manage the entire money movement for India’s huge underserved business community,” the company’s CEO and Co-Founder Harshil Mathur said in a statement.

 

Blockchain

Morpheus Labs

Morpheus Labs, which offers Blockchain-as-a-Service solutions, announced new funding from a China-based angel investor, although it did not disclose how much it secured. The company, which is based in Singapore, offers a subscription service for clients to use tokens to procure services from within its network; reports said Morpheus plans to add support for other cryptocurrencies in the future. In addition to the new funding, the company said it is now planning to raise up to $25 million from an initial coin offering (ICO) from the sale of its token, the Morpheus Infrastructure Token.

Trend Lab

Trend Lab, based in Hong Kong, wants to infuse the FinTech market with sophisticated technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI). The company announced this week it, too, raised angel funding to the tune of about $12.8 million. Its Founder and CEO, Tin Mok, said in the announcement of the funding that the company will focus on developing Big Data, AI and blockchain B2B solutions for FinTech industries across the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Big Data

Data Nerds

Canada’s Data Nerds, which develops data solutions for enterprise clients, announced $3 million in Series A funding this week led by Foundry Group, Next Big Ventures, V1.vc and Techstars Ventures. The new funds will be used to grow its team of software engineers, data scientists and digital marketers, the company said, and finalize an ongoing rebranding of its data API and products under its new name Estated. Estated Data is its new API that will enable programmers and developers to boost the applications they create across a range of industries, including energy, technology and real estate.

Nyansa

With $15 million in new funding, California-based Nyansa will focus on strategic growth initiatives for its services targeted at network administrators and IT professionals. The company enables this industry to monitor network traffic and provides performance metrics and other analytics, a press release said this week. Intel Capital led its latest funding, while existing backer Formation 8 also took part, bringing the total raised by the company  to $27 million.

 

Cybersecurity

Anomali

A $40 million Series D funding round makes California’s Anomali one of the VC leaders of the weak. The company provides enterprises with cyberthreat management solutions; Lumia Capital led the oversubscribed funding round, according to a press release, while Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, Telstra and Sozo Ventures also participated. A slew of existing backers boosted the investment as well. Anomali cited recent company growth that will be bolstered by the funding. Last year, the firm rolled out new capabilities to enhance threat forensics and sharing for corporate customers. According to CEO Hugh Njemanze, the company is also preparing for new strategic partnerships.

Baffle

Data protection company Baffle revealed $6 million in Series A funding this week led by Envision Ventures, while ServiceNow Ventures, Thomvest Ventures and Industry Ventures also participated, as did existing backers True Ventures and Engineering Capital. Baffle provides application data protection capabilities and data access monitoring with end-to-end encryption of data within cloud-based apps.

 

Logistics

Rivigo

Coming in at number one is India’s Rivigo, a logistics company that announced $50 million in Series D funding; according to reports, the investment has nearly pulled the company into unicorn territory. According to VCCircle reports, which cited an unnamed source, existing institutional investors SAIF Partners and Warburg Pincus provided the funding. The company could be looking for an additional investor to secure unicorn status, with the Series D funding landing the firm with a valuation of $945 million, according to reports. Rivigo focuses its B2B services on delivery and logistics for various verticals across India, including eCommerce and pharmaceutical firms.

Bringg

Delivery logistics platform Bringg also secured fresh funding to the tune of $12 million, TechCrunch said this week. Automotive investor Dr. Shmuel Harlap, shipping and real estate player Eyal Ofer and Salesforce Ventures participated in the investment round. Bringg provides last-mile delivery solutions to third-party logistics players across more than 50 countries. For consumers, the company enables greater transparency into the shipping process, and for other businesses, Bringg offers a set of APIs and software development kits for companies to integrate into their own websites and mobile apps.