Global Corporate Venturing ranking of the most influential corporate venturing units at industrial companies.

The power of imagination is keeping old and new industrial groups developing through corporate venturing.

French engineering companies Alstom and Schneider Electric formed Aster in January last year out of Schneider Electric Ventures and has now added Rhodia as the third cornerstone limited partner in the latest fund.

The factory will cost RMB1bn, according to news provider Shanghai Securities News, citing a company filing between Jiangsu Aucksun Metal has linked up its RMB30m ($5m) Dingshun Venture Capital subsidiary.

SEB Ventures led the round for Mobile Tag alongside XAnge Private Equity, the corporate venturing unit of France's main post office, and investment firm Alven Capital.

French glass and construction materials company Saint-Gobain has invested $80m for a minority stake in Sage Electrochromics, a US-based maker of tinted windows.

Aria Systems has now raised $34m in its three rounds since 2003 after latest funding.

As part of a series of interviews with leading venture investors and developers, Andrew Gaule, left, founder of the H-I Network and Corporate Venture Senior Executive Forum, talks to Paul Morris (pictured), head of Europe for Dow Venture Capital.

EmiSense started in November 2009 after the merger of assets by Innovate! Technology and CoorsTek, which has just provided a further $3m.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of software company Microsoft, has also invested in Neos GeoSolutions as a new investor alongside Energy Capital Group (ECG), a UK and Bahrain-based venture capital firm backed by the Rawabi, Al-Ansari, AA Turki and Al Muhaidib industrial groups.