The new programme is also supported by the Mayor of London [whose office is pictured], the City of London Corporation, and the Technology Strategy Board.

The company secures big series D, which had corporate backing from coffee shop Starbucks and US bank Citigroup's corporate venturing unit.

Atlanta based online loan provider Kabbage, has concluded a series C round totaling $30m in equity with Thomvest Ventures as lead investor, and backing from logistics company UPS's corporate venturing unit.

Moving into financial services opens up a very large business, which the wisdom of crowds and big data analytics can be applied to make more and hopefully better investment decisions at a lower cost.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce backs StoneCastle Partners, an investor in banks, which has $4bn in assets under management.

The Flextronics International-backed human resources and finance software company plans to list ,after having raised about $265m in its history.