The merger of Dianping and Meituan is emblematic of the consolidation in China's internet sector, where growth is essential to prevent being overtaken by businesses with bigger wallets.

The China-based local services and group buying companies had raised a combined $2.6bn from backers including Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, Fosun and Wanda Group.

The Philippines-based telecommunications firm expects to invest $50m in startups this year through its newly launched PLDT Capital unit.

The IT education provider took its total funding to about $120m with an Advance Publications-backed round that could represent its last external funding.

Google Capital returned to back a round that valued the local services listing platform at $1.3bn and took its overall funding to about $275m.

Publicis Machine hopes to identify local startups working on new technologies for the restaurant sector through its Drugstore accelerator programme.

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Publicly-listed SouFun was initially reported to have attracted a $1bn commitment from IDG Capital Partners and Carlyle Group.