Genome engineering technology provider Synthego pulled in $200m through a SoftBank-backed series E round while payment technology producer Stronghold unveiled a $100m CVC fund.

Conversational automation software provider raised $400m while e-commerce and payment software provider Flutterwave secured $250m in a Salesforce-backed round valuing it at $3bn.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Estate, Koei Tecmo and several banks joined Sony for the fund's first close on its way to a $217m target.

Softbank Vision Fund 2 co-led academic support software producer Paper's $270m series D round and a $144m round for online lender Funding Societies.

Animoca Brands has joined multicorporate-backed MCP to provide $10m for its Japanese spinoff, announced alongside a $30m startup accelerator formed with startup studio Brinc.

Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Major challenges that foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) face when doing business in emerging markets, such as China, can be conceptualized in terms of the risks that host countries' institutions present to them.

This is a provisional study ahead of a full paper presented at the annual conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) in Cardiff, Wales, in 2021.

Entrepreneurial ventures are an important source of economic growth and technological advance. China is a vibrant entrepreneurial setting, second only to the US in total startup numbers and funding amounts.

Innovative region: China