Rakuten Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company, Rakuten, has led and invested in a $3.5 m series round of funding that will accelerate R&D activities with strategic partner ViSenze, an online visual search technology company.

Media startup Watchup receives $1m backing from Microsoft Ventures and its incubator StartX.

Capital One bank opens its third and latest startup design laboratory in San Francisco.

The Japanese accelerator programme of France-based telecommunications company Orange has selected 8 startup entrants.

Academy for UK-based, early stage digital social ventures calls for applications to join its second class of startups.

Titanium Core, a spin-out of Ben Gurion University, receive $1m after winning competition to repel cyber-attacks.

Samsung, Intel, and Applied Materials all get behind latest round for Oregon State University semiconductor spin-out Inpria.

National University of Singapore fashion startup ViSenze raises $3.5m series A from online retailer Rakuten.