VENTURE CAPITAL POST

British Columbia, Canadian vertical farming firm Vertical Designs Ltd acquired a 10% stake in marijuana industry-focused publicly traded firm Affinor Resources for an undisclosed amount.

Boston, US-based travel startup TripzonTravel.com allows travels to customize their own vacation packages by adding in the destinations, flights, hotels, transportation, and activities they want using a single platform.

Chennai, India-based non-banking finance firm IFMR Capital bagged $29 million in funding from specialist investor LeapFrog Investment's second investment fund for its product and service expansion.

Bizzby, a London, UK-based on-demand services marketplace for cleaners, plumbers, electricians, and other tradespeople, raised $10 million in funding from an undisclosed US-based hedge fund.

London, UK-based content marketplace ScreenHits pocketed $1.2 million in an angel round from Rory Fleming, Lord Reay, Flemming Lund, and other high net worth individuals to build its product and audience.

Indonesia-born and New York, US-based fashion startup Project Shoe lets women personally customize their shoes using its e-commerce platform and have the order shipped anywhere for free.

American e-commerce giant Amazon.com rumors that it was planning to launch a free and ad-supported TV and music streaming service, after rumors about the supposed free service spread ahead of a scheduled New York conference.

Berlin, Germany-based social reading app Readmill confirmed that San Francisco, US-based cloud storage giant Dropbox acqui-hired it for $8 million in combined stock and cash, with plans to shut it down later.

BlackBerry's new chief John Chen revealed that its messaging app BBM now has 85 million monthly active users and a steady growth in its user base after the app was released to the Android and iOS platform in October.

French cross-device tracking and advertising startup Tapvalue nabbed $2.2 million (€1.6 million) in a venture round led by an unnamed venture capitalist and some angels to support its international growth and product development.

Glendale, US-based real-money gambling platform Gamblit Gaming took home $12 million in a venture round from private equity firm American Capital to fuel its platform development and future launches.

Mumbai, India-based big data analytics startup Germin8 pocketed $3 million in its first funding round from Kalaari Capital to expand internationally and fuel sales, marketing, branding, and product development activities.

Toulouse, France-based Internet of things (IoT) cellular network operator SIGFOX landed €15 million in its Series B funding round led by IDInvest and BPIFrance to accelerate the international deployment of its network.

JWT, a New York, US-based operating company of advertising giant WPP, entered an agreement to pick up a majority stake in Mumbai, India-based social media agency Social Wavelenth for an undisclosed amount to expand its market reach.

Silicon Valley, US-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz closed its fourth fund at $1.5 billion to invest in a varied range of sectors including 3D printing, consumer mobile, and bitcoin.