The venture firm's debut fund has closed having secured capital from limited partners include CreditEase, Focus Media and Qihoo 360.

Bluefield Innovations, Johns Hopkins University, has been awarded Fundraising of the Year by Global University Venturing

The Austria-based bank has formed a $29.5m venture capital subsidiary called Elevator Ventures, adding to an existing accelerator initiative.

The telecoms network operator has launched a venture capital scheme in partnership with Iran's University of Tehran.

The blockchain-based money transfer platform will incubate, invest in and acquire projects or startups that use its XRP digital asset.

The corporate is one of three investors that have supplied $10m for the fund, which will focus on cardiovascular, stroke and diabetes care.

University of Tehran and telecoms provider MTN-Irancell are preparing to seed a VC fund of undisclosed size to help nurture IT startups.

Cisco, which has invested through its own unit for 25 years, will be the anchor investor in a fund with a nine-figure budget for enterprise software deals.