VENTURE CAPITAL POST

BlackRock, the world's biggest fund manager, has joined the growing list of investors that have warned against the risks faced by the Great Barrier Reef, Bloomberg News reported.

Microsoft has big ambitions for Bing, including making a part of its entity engine available for third party sites allowing them to showcase the important features on the search engine, TechCrunch reported.

Britain-based AstraZeneca has formed a flagship deal with Medical Research Council or MRC to hopefully help the drugmaker revive research on new drugs, Reuters reported.

Specialty teas maker Capital Teas secured $5 million for its Series A funding round from Pear Tree Partners, a statement about the funding said.

Wellington Financial has provided debt financing to the tune of $10 million to SOA Software, a maker of API Management and SOA Governance products, a statement about the funding said.

US-based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has bought talent management-focused software-as-a-service provider PeopleAdmin Inc for an undisclosed amount, a statement about the acquisition said.

Canaan Partners led the $9 million Series A financing round for real estate-focused crowdfunding site Realty Mogul which pools together investors' money to allow them to invest in properties, a statement about the investment said.

Blackstone's energy-focused private equity business has collaborated with veterans of the water industry to create Global Water Development Partners, a water investment and development platform.

Mars One, the foundation whose mission is to create a human settlement on Mars, has rolled out its new project to construct a simulation outpost on Earth, VentureBeat reported.

TrueVault, a healthcare app data security startup which launched recently from the latest Y Combinator class, was able to obtain $2.5 million for its seed financing round, TechCrunch reported.

The startups on Y Combinator's Winter 2014 class held a vote as to who among their classmates would be most likely to succeed and their votes were different from that of TechCrunch's own picks.

Based on four reports from PwC, RMG, Fastlane Ventures and East-West Digital News, the rapid growth of the Russian venture capital market has stopped, East-West Digital News reported.

Less than 12 hours after Microsoft launched its Office for iPad, the apps ranked in the top three of the world's most popular free apps on the Apple App Store, VentureBeat reported.

The Tokyo District Court has extended the deadline of the investigation on the reason behind the failure of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox to May 9, Reuters reported.

Journalists and news organizations are being targeted by hackers who are working for or supporting a government, according to two Google security engineers, Reuters reported.