Sumitomo participated in Zebra Labs’ $5m round while investors including FTX Ventures and Aptos provided $3m in pre-seed funding for Martian.

Battery recycler Ascend Elements and Geely spinoff Farizon each raised $300m while Saudi Aramco launched a $1.5bn Sustainability Fund.

Wells Fargo, Greystar, Invitation Homes and Prosus were part of Blit Rewards’ $150m round while Mouro Capital co-led Vesttoo’s $80m series C.

Gradient Ventures participated in a $40m series A round for The Coterie’s while Legal & General led MoneyHub’s $39.5m series B.

The hiring comes after the firm's corporate parent, Jaguar Land Rover, altered its innovation strategy and developed a research hub, the National Automotive Innovation Centre

A range of corporates contributed to electric carmaker Aion’s $2.5bn series A round while Prosus took part in a $46m series E for farming services provider DeHaat.

The European industrial group has formed a unit which will invest in early-stage life sciences and biotech developers through a team headed by Paolo Di Giorgio.

AbbVie is acquiring Amgen-backed DJS Antibodies for $255m while Legend Holdings took part in a $56.6m series C round for VectorBuilder.

The corporate is set to split its investment staff into two regional teams under Alex Clavel and Greg Moon, following some 150 job losses.

Some 51 new corporate-backed energy funding initiatives were launched in 2021, up from 21 the year before. The trend has continued into 2022.