SparkLabs launches $50M fund for promising early-stage startups in Korea 

SparkLabs Group started in 2012 with a Seoul-based accelerator dedicated to boosting South Korea’s then-nascent startup ecosystem. Now it’s going back to its roots with the launch of a $50 million fund for early-stage Korean startups that want to expand globally. The Korean fund’s anchor investors are SeAH and Korea Development Bank/Multi-Asset. Led by Brian Kang and […]

Venture fund works with corporate sponsors and Georgia Tech University to fund two startups

Engage Ventures, the largest strategic grouping of major corporations and brands in an independent venture fund, has made two investments in the trucking sector. One is in Sudu, an on-demand and scheduled trucking services that utilizes big data, predictive analytics and machine learning to connect companies that ship freight with a network of trucks and diverse […]

Orbityl, LevelJump named outstanding ventures at NEXT Canada Venture Day 

This morning, 12 of NEXT Canada‘s ventures pitched at the organization’s seventh annual venture day, which included an audience of over 250 investors, mentors, donors, and partners at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. Venture Day celebrates the end of NEXT Canada’s two spring and summer programs: Next 36, which supports young founders of early stage […]

IST Austria and Lansdowne partners launch Advanced Technology Seed fund 

While business angel activity has grown over recent years and a range of government grants are now available, institutional equity investors addressing the seed and early stage segments are still rare in Austria. Signing an agreement to form IST CUBE, a new investment platform to support the creation and development of tech startups, the Institute […]

Seed funding slows in Silicon Valley

The bloom is off seed funding, the business of providing money to brand-new startups, as investors take a more measured approach to financing emerging U.S. technology companies. Seed-stage financing has been sliding for the last two years, with the number of transactions down about 40 percent since the peak in mid-2015, data show. Dollar investments […]

Kleiner Perkins shuts seed venture fund as partners leave

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers shut its seed investing program, a two year-old effort to get the venture capital firm back into the potentially lucrative field of early-stage startup investing. All three partners who ran the $4 million KPCB Edge fund, Anjney Midha, Roneil Rumburg and Ruby Lee, departed in recent weeks, a spokeswoman for […]

UK fund’s A$200M investment commitment validates Powerhouse university investment model

London Stock Exchange-listed IP Group’s decision to invest A$200 million over 10 years in commercialising scientific innovations from universities Down Under validates the business model of ASX-listed tech incubator Powerhouse Ventures, says its new chairman Russell Yardley. Powerhouse has a portfolio of 19 companies developing intellectual property spun out of New Zealand research institutions with […]