Japan's universities, corporates, and government all begin to sing from the same hymn sheet.

Japan-based education company Benesse Holdings has invested for a small minority stake an undisclosed amount of capital in India-based education content company InOpen Technologies through a series A round.

3D gaming company Extreme Reality raises $10m in a D round from Marker LLC and a unnamed, strategic partner.

Utech 3's investors for the 10-year fund included government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and financial services providers Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Seibu Shinkin Bank.

A large part of the planned increase in start-ups is expected to come from universities and government research laboratories, the authorities said.

Thailand telecommunications company, AIS, and Singapore telco Singtel are joining forces to create a regional start-up community. The goal of this community is to support start-ups in the region and help them to compete in the global market.

Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company, has led a SGD$1m ($800,000) seed round of funding for Carousell, a Singapore consumer-to-consumer app for iOS and Android.