AMmantX was spun off last year from Expert System and has gained Intesa venture backing.

Inkef Capital, a quasi-corporate venturing joint venture between pension funds ABP and Omers, has led the $1.5m seed round for Wave Accounting, a Canada-based creator of free online accounting software for small businesses.

Alongside Citi Growth Ventures & Innovations in the A round for ReadyForZero were venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners and angel investors.

Alongside Google Ventures in the seed round for Smarterer, which launched in October, were angel investors.

Microsoft has fleshed out its ambitious seed programme announced last year.

French drugs company Sanofi has led the $7.5m round into cancer treatment company Esperance Pharmaceuticals.

Nvidia has made its first corporate venturing investment backing Israeli chip company Rocketick.

Accelerator said Oncofactor was its first investment based on internal intellectual property developed at the group.

James Posada, chief executive of Resolve, said: "We are very pleased to close this initial $2m of our series A financing and expect to complete the round with a third, corporate investor in the near future."

Quro is the third company to get backing from Novartis' Get Armed To Explore Global Market II (GATE II) Project, which was launched last year with Korean peers.