News provider TechCrunch said the round would be led by Mind Fund (based in Hong Kong), with participation from Aria Ventures, Detroit Ventures Partners.

Unigo.com is designed to provide information for people to find, get in and pay for college and had previously partnered with McGraw-Hill to create a US high school teaching programme on college and career readiness.

Salesforce's chief executive Marc Benioff [pictured] reportedly convinced Kenandy founder Sandra Kurtzig to end her retirement to launch her company, while they talked on a beach in Hawaii.

The corporate venturing divisions of the two pharmaceutical companies have invested in Mission Therapeutics, a company spun off from Cambridge University research.

Taptera gets off the ground with financing from Salesforce.com, with its first app to be released shortly.

Eye treatment company KalVista Pharmaceuticals won the backing of Novo and SV Life Sciences in its spin off from Vantia Therapeutics. The two venture firms also backed Vantia's founding in 2008.

Prior to founding Crowdtap in October 2009, Brandon Evans was chief strategy officer and managing partner of Mr Youth, where he created social marketing strategies for Pepsi, Microsoft and P&G.