Asia

Sony's venture arm plans to look to Europe and beyond for backers when it launches its next fund, as it expands to Africa and seeks content as well as tech.

MSD Global Health Innovation Fund will partner with MSD Idea Studio in Singapore and Berlin to identify investment opportunities.

Co-managed by Innoh Associates, the CVC unit will operate for seven years and back strategic areas such as marketing, retail, energy and AI.

The $11.4m fund will be co-managed by M&A consultancy Paradigm Shift, and it is part of the funeral firm’s 70th anniversary business plan.

The IT conglomerate’s $64m CVC subsidiary has made its first impact investment in microfinance service Gojo & Company.

Taiho’s Japanese university spinout-focused CVC arm’s capital injection came five months after its US sister unit got an additional $100m.

After a promising start the Thai startup ecosystem has slowed. Some say too much corporate money may have been part of the problem.

Husk Power Systems has just raised $100m from investors including Shell to build 1,500 solar mini-grids in India and Nigeria in the next four to five years.

Turkey has the ingredients to be a top tech market, but it needs investors to take more risk if its startups are to get past early stage.

The corporates both committed further nine-figure sums to back startups in the rapidly growing Indian venture market.