Business Growth Fund, the UK-based corporate bank-backed growth investment firm, has backed a merger between two geoscience businesses, UK-based Task Geoscience and US-based Fronterra Integrated Geosciences, with £3.8m ($6.4m) of funding. The new entity, Task-Fronterra Group, will have 10 offices throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

IBM Watson, a cognitive computing subsidiary of conglomerate IBM, has invested an undisclosed sum in Fluid, a US-based web development company that specialises in digital shopping sites, as part…