IT

A survey by Knowledge Transfer Ireland suggests there are now 119 active spinouts in Ireland, with Irish universities responsible for 76% of the country's patent filings last year.

Mahindra and Mahindra has led a $12.1m round for the AI-powered crop imaging software provider that will fund recruitment, IT improvements and local growth.

The artificial intelligence researcher is partnering Microsoft to enhnace the latter's Azure platform, and has netted $1bn from the corporate in return.

Cambridge-founded touchscreen sensor manufacturer CTT has added $10m from investors including chemicals firm Kureha to its coffers.

Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners invested in the Salesforce, WME and Netprice-backed customer data platform as part of a $55m series C round.

Starbucks has acquired an equity stake in the restaurant technology developer following a series B round that featured Starbucks franchisees Alshaya and Alsea.

The human resources management software provider, which counts Digital Garage, Nissen and Tokio Marine & Nichido as investors, has secured $57m.

While slightly less than the 16 generated by UC Davis past year, the university remains pleased with the performance of internal tech transfer operations.

Prosegur has backed the $73m first close of Adara Ventures III, which will focus on deep technology developers in the business-to-business space.

Blackstone will purchase the advertising platform Vungle in a deal giving exits to corporates Alphabet and Verizon.

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