Utech 3's investors for the 10-year fund included government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and financial services providers Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Seibu Shinkin Bank.

A large part of the planned increase in start-ups is expected to come from universities and government research laboratories, the authorities said.

Telecoms company Orange is expanding its startup accelerator programme Orange Fab from the US to France, Japan and Poland.

Brazilian big data and operational intelligence company WebRadar raises new equity from Citrix and existing investor Intel Capital, to accelerate its international growth.

GE Ventures to coinvest with Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd in energy, healthcare, software and advanced manufacturing start-ups.

Two unnamed Texas universities have contributed $65m towards Silverton Partners $75m tech-focused VC firm.

Auditor KPMG launches KPMG Capital, a technology fund dedicated to bringing data and analytics solutions to its clients.