Wanxiang will join the board of directors of GreatPoint, which won the Global Corporate Venturing award for investment of the year when Wanxiang made its original investment at the start of the year.

Venture capital firm Khosla Ventures led the B round, and was joined by software company Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and oil major Total.

The venture firm is reportedly "not really spending time" on green tech deals, and has become a broader energy fund.

Toshiba joins Taiwan Semiconductor as a backer of the US-based developer of light emitting diodes.

Soltecture, previously backed by corporates including Intel's corporate venturing unit, Vattenfall Europe and GDF Suez, said it had "extensively explored new financing options".

The South Africa-based development agency reportedly backs a joint venture between the University of Johannesburg's Photovoltaic Technology Intellectual Property company and listed Germany-based renewable energy company Singulus Technologies.

BASF Venture Capital joins other unnamed multinational corporations and Fortune 500 companies backing the China Environment fund managed by Tsing Capital.

UK micro-processing company Arm's vice president of corporate business development says the UK needs to develop a culture where people want to talk about entrepreneurship at a dinner party.