Globis Capital Partners, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based global corporate management education business, and GMO Venture Partners, the corporate venturing unit of Japan GMO Internet Group, both see a growth trend in crowdsourcing or outsourcing of designers, engineers and IT specialists in their local market of Japan. Their latest $2.9m seed investment in Japan-based Lancers illustrates that trend.

InSilico Genomics offers academics and industry the ability to compare their data on parts of the human genome with public datasets.

The target company is Smarteducation, a Japan start-up that develops bi-lingual mobile apps for childhood education including apps such as Oyako de Sumahon in Japanese and Kids'n Books in English.

US-based software maker Citrix Systems backs Indian software start-up Tuebora with $250,000.

Deutsche Telekom incubator funds Reputami.

Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing division of the eponymous US-based cable and telecommunications corporation, participates in seed round for ElectNext.