Financial

The insurance company will partner with venture capital firms such as GGV Capital and Ribbit Capital as it looks to invest big in fintech innovation.

The meeting of minds between IT and healthcare is a strategic move that will help accelerate big data convergence in the wider healthcare and life sciences segments. New Entrant of the Year recipient DRX Capital has capitalised on this exciting investment segment with a fellow corporate venturing unit, potentially urging others to co-fund digital health investment opportunities.

As news emerged today that Arvind Sodhani was stepping down as head of Intel Capital in Autumn, we republish our write-up for the lifetime achievement award he received at our Global Corporate Venturing Symposium last month.

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the corporate venturing unit owned by pharmaceutical firm Merck, has quickly become one of the biggest corporate venturing players in the digital health segment and is dedicating a sizeable amount of its $500m fund to larger deals with private equity and other strategic partners. Given the significant impact it has made over a short period of time, there was a significant number of votes from our advisory board to make it unit of the year.

Foreign exchange service Kantox has secured new funding in a round co-led by corporate-backed firms IdInvest and Partech.

Naver, the parent company of messaging app Line, has contributed to the arts crowdfunding platform's series A round in conjunction with a partnership agreement.

The Salesforce-backed incentive comparison company has raised approximately $83m in venture funding since it was founded in 2005.

The payment processing company has now raised $75m altogether, after securing $40m in a Rakuten-backed round.

The alternative equity trading platform raised the series C cash in a round featuring insurance company MassMutual, lifting its total funding to more than $100m.

Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of Alibaba currently raising money at a valuation of up to $40bn, will look to fund internet finance companies through the unit.