Bertelsmann Asia Investments and TAL Education's Good Future Education Industry Fund combined in a $27.9m round for literary education platform Hexiaoxiang.

GV was among the investors for Stanford-backed online life insurance provider Ethos's latest round, which brought the its total funding to more than $106m.

Grid-scale energy storage developer Form Energy has closed a series B round led by Eni Next that will fund a prototype of its lithium-sulphur battery.

MIT grid battery spinout Form Energy has secured capital from investors including The Engine and Eni to bring its funding haul to nearly $50m.

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

Royal Bank of Canada was among the investors in a $44m series B round that brings the customer loyalty app developer's total funding to more than $71m.

Existing investors Celgene and Astellas returned to back the virus-based cancer therapy developer's $79.5m series B round to take its total funding to more than $140m.

Hearst Ventures and BMW iVentures were among the investors as driving analytics software provider Zendrive increased its overall funding to $52m.

Tencent has led a $28.4m round for financial planning advice provider Xiaobangguihua that included existing investor Reinsurance Group of America.

Online real estate platform 99.co raised $15.2m in a round that was co-led by Allianz X at a $75m post-money valuation, and plans to now expand in Southeast Asia.