Alibaba, Ant Financial and Berkshire Hathaway are among the anchor investors for a provision set to make up nearly half of the payment platform developer's $2.45bn target for its IPO.

SAIC Motor, General Motors, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and Tencent helped the autonomous driving technology provider take its total series C funding to over $1bn.

The group’s Joyo Capital Partners subsidiary will operate the newly formed $8.8m J-Raise Fund, which will back digitalisation and local economy revitalisation technology developers.

Ubicom Holdings Japan helped gynaecological imaging software developer Illumigyn take its total funding to $33m while Optum took part in a $30m round for health payment technology provider Medallion.

The Spark initiative in partnership with incubator Forge had 1,350 registrations with 23 accepted.

Cox Enterprises invested in digital media company Axios at a $430m valuation while Bristol Myers Squibb helped enzyme drug developer Nitrase Therapeutics boost its series A round to $45m.

The NFT-based metaverse platform developer's latest round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and included Animoca Brands, LG Technology Ventures, Polygon Studios and Samsung Next.

Lotte Ventures was among the participants in an $88.4m round which will help the mobility platform developer increase headcount and strengthen its technology.

Corporate-backed financial remittance network operator Lightnet netted over $48m while Callaway Golf Company invested $30m in indoor golfing chain Five Iron Golf.