Singapore state investor Temasek has participated in the funding rounds of US vertical farming company Bowery Farming and Swedish customer engagement giant Sinch, according to separate announcements.
Temasek joined SoftBank in the $1.1-billion funding in Sinch, a trusted software provider to mobile operators, whose platform powers business-critical communications for many of the world’s largest companies.
Sinch, founded in 2008 and traded on Nasdaq Stockholm, issued 7.2 million new shares at 1,300 Swedish krona ($157.4) each. The new share issue was significantly oversubscribed, with a large number of Swedish and international investors participating.
Temasek subscribed for shares equivalent to 2 billion Swedish Krona ($252 million) while SoftBank, through a fund managed by its subsidiary SB Management, invested about $110 million.
Sinch intends to use the proceeds from the directed new share issue to further strengthen its financial position after the announced acquisition of Inteliquent, and to finance new acquisitions.
The company is active in more than 40 markets and its communications APIs handled 40 billion mobile messages in the last quarter alone.
Meanwhile, in the US, the Singapore state investor has participated n the $300-million funding round in vertical farming firm Bowery Farming. The round was led by Fidelity Management and also backed by existing investors GV, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, and Groupe Artemis, among others.
Founded in 2015, Bowery build smart indoor farms near cities, growing fresher, pesticide-free produce in controlled environments. Each farm uses BoweryOS, which integrates software, hardware, sensors, AI, computer vision systems, and robotics to automate the entirety of farming operations.
The company said it will use the latest funds to continue to expand its network of smart indoor farms across the US, boost its technology, support ongoing research, and recruit more talent.
“This funding not only fuels our continued expansion but the ongoing development of our proprietary technology, which sits at the core of our business and our ability to rapidly and efficiently scale towards an increasingly important opportunity in front of us,” said Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Bowery Farming.
In 2019, Temasek led the $50-million Series B extension round for Bowery Farming.