Intel Capital joins corporates Mastercard, Amex and Santander in backing the online payments company, which will now seek to expand.

The company has launched a $6m fund to provide public sector spin-outs with access to loans to invest in technology to improve health and social care services.

The spin-outs have raised a combined $111m in funding.

David Flanagan, Ramamurthy Sivakumar, Bryan Wolf and Marc Yi, all in the US, David Thomas, in Latin America, as well as Marcos Battisti and Marcin Hejka, in the Europe, Middle East and Africa team, and Sudheer Kuppam, in Asia-Pacific are all promoted.

Anokion, which is developing treatments for autoimmune diseases and allergies, is planning the first clinical trials of its treatments in 2017.

The former Durham University spin-out is acknowledged for its outstanding performance in growing international trade.

The payment services company will select up to eight companies for the 12-month programme.