VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Venture capital fund in the U.S. dropped by 9% in 2015, but a strong fundraising pace from 2014 continued. Investor become more selective to put the capital in startup companies.

Airbnb, the US home-sharing startup, has confirmed closing of $1.5 billion fund-raising round. The latest closure of fundraising puts the unicorn startup at staggering valuation.

Online home-rental marketplace Airbnb Inc is closing on a $1.5 billion fundraising that would boost the company's valuation to $24 billion, the Financial Times reported.

India's biggest online cab-hailing service Ola has raised about $314 million in a fresh funding round from investors led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global, a company filing showed.

Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, two of China's leading taxi-hailing apps, said on Saturday they would merge to create one of the world's largest smartphone-based transport services.

India-based LimeRoad, an online ecommerce company, lands a $15 million Series B funding round led by Tiger Global on Tuesday. Other participants include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India.

San Francisco, US-based food delivery startup Caviar bagged a total of $15 million in its seed and Series A funding led by Winklevoss Capital and Tiger Global to expand into new cities.

California-based Pure Storage, specialized in speedy flash-storage boxes for data centers, gobbles up $225 million in their series D round from Investors.

Boston, US-based enterprise data management startup Actifio scored $100 million in its Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management for its expansion with its valuation now reaching $1.1 billion.

Bangalore, India-based fashion portal Myntra confirmed that it raised $50 million in a new funding round led by Premji Invest, and decided not to pursue a merger with Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart.

Bangalore, India-based online fashion retailer Myntra raised $50 million in funding as it got approached by e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart as the round closed.

India-based e-commerce giant Flipkart is in talks to merge with online fashion retailer Myntra as part of a proposal being pushed by common investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners.

An increasing number of hedge funds like Coatue Management are looking for opportunities to invest in the private markets, pouring money in technology startups, TechCrunch reported.

Groupon stocks dropped by 4.2% to USD9.78 after Tiger Global Management LLC cut its stake in the company.

News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ending Aug. 24.