Reuters News

South African internet giant Naspers and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) have invested US$540 million in Indian educational technology startup Byju’s, Reuters reported. Bengaluru-based Byju’s launched a learning app in 2015 that offers tools for school students in India, a country with the world’s largest number of children in primary education. The latest investment values the company at around US$3.6 billion, Indian media reported. CPPIB, one of the world’s biggest investors, is expanding its interests in India due to the country’s young population and growing middle class, its chief executive said last week.

Chorus.ai, a U.S.-Israeli provider of analytics for sales teams, has raised US$33 million in a Series B funding round led by Canadian growth equity firm Georgian Partners, Reuters reported. Returning investors Redpoint Ventures and Emergence Capital also participated in the round, bringing the total raised to date to US$55 million. Georgian Managing Partner Simon Chong will join the board. The funds raised will be used to accelerate customer acquisition and continue product innovation. Chorus.ai CEO Roy Raanani said his company’s technology provides visibility into video conferencing platforms and phone calls to understand how top performers sell and coach the rest of the team.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) plans to continue deploying capital in China, despite political tensions between the two nations, CEO Mark Machin told Reuters. Following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s CFO on December 1, China warned Canada it would face consequences if it did not immediately release her. “If we cut aside all of the rhetoric, I think China will take a mature, cool-headed attitude toward pragmatic negotiations, so we won’t get too much wild action,” Machin said. CPPIB has 8 percent of its funds invested in China and has previously indicated it plans to increase that significantly in the next few years.

Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc beat bigger rival Uber Technologies Inc in filing for an initial public offering that will test investor appetite for high-profile but loss-making technology businesses, Reuters reported. The San Francisco-based company, which was last valued at about US$15 billion, did not specify the number of shares it was selling or the price range for the offering. The IPO is slated for the first half of 2019. Lyft's Canadian investors include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Public Sector Pension Investment Board. In March, Canadian automotive parts supplier Magna International Inc also agreed to invest to US$200 million in Lyft.

Canada's BlackBerry Ltd raised its bets on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity this week with the US$1.4 billion purchase of U.S. machine-learning specialist Cylance, Reuters reported. The Irvine, California-based Cylance uses machine learning to preempt security breaches before they occur. Its applications seek to block malware or infiltration attempts rather than react after a breach. Founded in 2012, Cylance secured more than US$280 million from venture capital funds, according to Refinitiv data. That includes the US$120 million raised earlier this year in a round led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities.

BlackBerry Ltd is in talks to buy cybersecurity company Cylance Inc for as much as US$1.5 billion, Reuters reported, citing a Business Insider story. Irvine, California-based Cylance develops artificial intelligence-based products to prevent cyber attacks on companies and recently considered filing for an initial public offering, according to the report. Earlier this year, Cylance raised US$120 million in a financing led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. The company's other investors include DFJ, Insight Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures.

Hootsuite Inc, a Canadian company that describes itself as the world’s most widely used platform for managing social media, is exploring a sale that could value it at more than US$750 million ($968 million), sources told Reuters. A sale would allow Hootsuite’s venture capital backers to cash out at a time when cyber security and privacy concerns make social media analytics companies more popular with corporate clients. Hootsuite’s investors include Accel Partners, CIBC Innovation Banking, Insight Venture Partners and OMERS Ventures. Vancouver-based Hootsuite, founded in 2008 by CEO Ryan Holmes, is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc on an auction process, the sources said.

Canadian mergers-and-acquisitions activity nearly doubled in the third quarter, fueled by deals in the mining, real estate and cannabis sectors, Reuters reported. Quarterly deal volume was up 91 percent to US$75.7 billion from US$39.6 billion in the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data released this week, bucking a global trend of declines in Europe and Asia. It was the strongest period for Canadian mining M&A since the second quarter of 2011. Mining deals slowed in recent years, due in part to commodity price pressures, balance sheet weakness and investor push back against miners seen as overpaying for assets.