The cryptocurrency exchange is leaning futher into venture investments, expanding its fund to $500m and hiring a new partner.

Corporate venturing in China has bounced back and helped the country reach record investment activity in 2021.

Car leasing service Dishangtie Car Rental completed a $200m series D round featuring Ingka while crypto-asset software producer Lukka raised cash in a corporate-backed round valuing it at $1.3bn.

Jiangsu Yuyue Medical Equipment & Supply and Sunny Optical Technology Group have postponed their investments in Ant Group’s consumer finance unit after state-sponsored Cinda was required to halt its participation.

SoftBank has provided $146m for Qraft and plans to collaborate with it on development of an smart portfolio management product.

UK-based sales software providers Highspot and Cognism both scored funding in late-stage rounds, with Salesforce Ventures, Axa Venture Partners and Swisscom Ventures among the investors.

GCV Emerging Leader William Zhao and Rising Star Will Wang have ascended to partner positions at BAI while legal and corporate communications director Christine Sun has been appointed COO.

SoftBank led 5G chip developer Eigencomm's $157m series C round while smart bank Seba Bank raised $120m in its own series C, which included Alameda Research.

The $43.7m ME Innovation Fund is part of a $100m corporate venturing initiative revealed by the electrical product provider in mid-2020 and will invest in digital and green energy companies.

Q&A with Stéphane Longuet, co-founder and managing partner, Convivialité Ventures