Purdue University-backed Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund has picked seven university-linked businesses to share a total of $200,000 in funding.

Synspective has been backed by a University of Tokyo VC vehicle in its bid to launch a constellation of 25 small Earth observation satellites powered by synthetic aperture radar.

In part one of our 2018 trends round up, we examine the ubiquity of SoftBank's Vision Fund, the increased willingness of unicorns to go public, and increased activity in the crypto and agriculture spaces.

The GV-backed spacecraft launcher is reportedly set to raise $500m from Baillie Gifford and its existing investors at a $30.5bn valuation.

The warehouse robot developer has raised cash in a series B round featuring new investor GV that boosted its total funding to $34m.

Shanghai Electric will invest $9.9m in the fund, which is targeting AI and smart manufacturing industries, while a Golden Concord subsidiary is putting up $10.2m.

Cambridge textile dyeing spinout Colorifix has been backed by Cambridge Enterprise and retailer H&M in its first disclosed equity round.

Ikove Venture Partners has launched a $10m venture capital vehicle to help spawn spinouts based on projects at Ohio universities.

Salesforce Ventures joined Aster Capital in a round that increased the construction communication platform's funding to $63m altogether.

Qualcomm Ventures, Syngenta Ventures and NeoPlux all contributed to a $34.7m round that took the farm-to-restaurant food sourcing platform's equity funding to more than $48m.