Public-owned Saudi Aramco and Saudi Information Technology Company have started a vehicle to back growth-stage information and communication technology businesses.

Online and TV shopping outlet GS Shop will back a Vietnam-based accelerator run by 500 Startups providing participants with up to $200,000 in funding.

Banking firm CIB has launched a corporate venturing division targeting early-stage fintech businesses in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East.

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

In the second half of our guide to corporate venturing's biggest trends in 2018, we look at the growth of Chinese tech companies, genomics, advances in transport tech and the growth of the scooter rental space.

Immunotherapy spinout Annexon Biosciences collected funding from Novartis Venture Fund in a series C round that brought its total funding to $154m.

Grab has raised $2.85bn this year, most of which came from corporate investors, but could potentially receive up to $1.5bn more from SoftBank Vision Fund.

4Paradigm has now won backing from a host of corporates for its technology, which helps clients build AI apps for purposes including financial services.

Synspective has been backed by a University of Tokyo VC vehicle in its bid to launch a constellation of 25 small Earth observation satellites powered by synthetic aperture radar.

4Paradigm has now won backing from Tsinghua University Science Park for its technology, which helps clients build AI apps for purposes including financial services.