Xenotransplantation firm eGenesis raises $100M

In a bid to make pig organs safe for human transplantation through gene editing, eGenesis has raised $100M in funding. The round was led by the venture capital arm of Fresenius Medical Care. The Series B round also saw participation from Wellington Partners, Bayer, and earlier backers Arch Venture Partners, Biomatics Capital, Alta Partners, and Khosla Ventures.

AI-powered real estate platform Reonomy raises $60M

New York-based startup, Reonomy uses the power of AI to provide market intelligence on commercial property to developers, investors and all those interested. It uses 100 sources of data, from the public domain to proprietary and crowdsourced mediums. With a 50 million-strong database and more than 100,000 users, Reonomy is one step closer to making a sizeable dent in the commercial real estate ecosystem.  

The round was led by Georgian Partners and saw participation from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and Citi Ventures. Previous investors Sapphire Ventures, Bain Capital and Primary Venture Partners also participated.

Tencent enters the Indian insurance market

Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings has acquired a 10% stake in in Policybazaar.com. Tencent’s $150 million investment pushed the valuation of the online insurance aggregator to $1.5 billion. Tencent now owns roughly half as much of Policybazaar as hedge fund turned venture investor Tiger Management.

This is not Tencent’s first venture into the Indian market, its Indian portfolio also includes Ola, Byju’s, and Swiggy.

WeWork continues layoffs

Thirteen WeWork employees were fired for violating company policies in SoftBank’s first major corporate action after providing a multi-million-dollar cash bailout to the struggling co-working giant. The employees were said to have mismanaged vendor selection processes. As a refresher, SoftBank acquired a majority stake in WeWork as the company’s IPO plans spiraled out of control.

WeWork plans to lay off thousands of employees in the coming weeks in a bid to cut costs and provide confidence in its ability to become profitable in the coming years.