Industrial

Joint development partner Panasonic joined investors including Daiwa and SBI for a round that will take the laundry folding robot through to the commercialisation stage.

Salesforce, PTC and General Electric's own GE Ventures unit exited the field service management software provider, which will be purchased by GE Digital after raising $205m.

Autonomous car and robotics technology producer ZMP plans to float in its home country of Japan having received equity funding from Intel and Komatsu.

The Corporate Venture in Brasil 2015 event in October last year was the launch of a program with a full suite of resources to support corporations doing business and matching partners, deals and technologies. Around 600 leaders and investors joined hosts Apex-Brasil and Global Corporate Venturing for this first industry meeting point in Sao Paulo. Last month was the second annual edition, with the third planned for the week of 23 October 23 next year.

Tom Whitehouse, contributing editor, and chairman of London Environmental Investment Forum, explores trends in cleantech

Sector focus: Financial Services