This week’s family/private investment office deals

Our Deal of the Week is by a British billionaire backing a US biotech group. More details here.

Unspecified Rounds

Vulcan Capital,  the Seattle-based investment group owned by Jody Allen, has invested in AI.Reverie, a  provider of synthetic data to train machine learning algorithms. Vulcan led the round, worth $5.6 million; six others participated in the round for the New York City-based group. 

GingerBread Capital, an investment group owned by Linnea Conrad Roberts, who is married to George R. Roberts, a billionaire and one of the original partners of private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, together with private equity billionaire Marc Rowan, probably through his family office RWN Management, have invested in Frank, a New York City-based fintech platform for students. The two investment groups, along with two others, committed $5 million to the group. 

DIG Investment, a private investment group owned by the Swedish Persson family, together with Swedia Capital, which is owned by Swedish billionaire investor Staffan Persson (not related), and Inbox Capital,  which is owned by the Swedish Wattin family, have invested in Dirac, a sound platform for mobile, VR/AR, gaming and commercial AV. The three investors along with one other investor committed $6 million to the Swedish group. 

Vollin Holdings, the investment group controlled by Alexander Abramov, and Minden, and investment group owned by Roman Abramovich, have backed Truphone, which provides mobile network services. The two investment groups committed £30 million to the UK group, having backed Truphone earlier.

Seed

Vulcan Capital, the Seattle-based investment group owned by Jody Allen, has invested in Ferrum Health, which is developing an IT and AI patient safety platform for health systems. Vulcan joined three other investors, and an undisclosed family office, in the seed round worth $9 million for the San Francisco-based startup. 

Wi Ventures, an investment group owned by German entrepreneur Matthias Willenbacher, has invested in ecoworks, a clean energy group. Wi Ventures was one of nine investors committing €5 million to the German-based startup. 

Max Ventures, a New York City-based venture group backed by members of the Swedish Stenbeck family, has invested in ClimateView, a global climate platform based in Stockholm. Max Ventures was one of five investors committing €2.3 million to the startup. 

RZC Investments, an investment group owned by Walmart heirs Tom and Steuart Walton, has invested in AcreTrader, an agricultural real estate investing platform. RZC led the round worth $5 million; one other investor participated in the round for the Arkansas-based startup. 

Series B 

Bill Gates, probably through his venture group Gates Ventures, has invested in Cerevance, a biotech group. Gates joined five other investors with a total commitment of $45 million in the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group.  

Series C 

Squadron Capital, a Connecticut-based investment group owned by Jennifer Pritzker, has invested in Peak Nano Optics, a developer of nanotechnology products. Squadron committed $25 million to the Texas-based group. 

Koch Disruptive Technologies – the venture group owned by Chase Koch, the son of multi-billionaire Charles Koch – has backed New York City-based Beyond Identity, which provides passwordless identity management solutions. Koch committed $30 million with one other investor.