Boston Scientific is joined by venture firms including Glengary Ventures, RiverWest Venture Partners and Physician Investment Group.

The venture firm set up with the backing of technology company AOL is joined venture firms including BV Capital, the former corporate venturing unit of media company Bertelsmann, in the A round backing the online gift card business.

Caltech and Pennsylvania back on-line teaching company Coursera, which just won the praise of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

The Dell Ventures fund is targeting five to ten storage startups and plans to obtain equity positions with average investments of $3m to $5m per round.

Raptor Ventures led the series A round which was joined by talent agency The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency and various venture firms.

Crispin Leick, managing director of Innogy Venture Capital, says: "Enercast addresses a fundamental problem of renewable energies. Fluctuations in the feed in of wind and solar electricity lead to a burden on the grids and ultimately to a level of insecurity with regard to the supply of electricity. The more reliable forecast data is available, the better renewables can be integrated into existing grids and thus into the electricity market. "

The university's social venture fund backs the sustainable food company.