One of the biggest private equity firms in China is investing $400 million in early-stage US startups

AngelList, a platform that connects startups with potential investors, now has an extra $400 million (£260 million) to invest in young companies, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The funding comes from CSC Global, the US arm of China Science and Merchants Investment Management Group (CSC Group), which manages more than 80 million yuan (£7.8 billion, $12 billion).

We've previously described AngelList as a kind of Match.com that helps startups get funding - but everyone on the site has to be an accredited investor.

Startups are evaluated by 165 different angel investors, or "leads," who look after a group or syndicate of other investors. These "leads" can then decide whether to help fund the young company, and encourage other investors in their syndicate to do the same.

CSC will now be able to jump into any of AngelList's investment groups to invest in a startup, meaning that the angel investors evaluating the startups won't have to rely solely on the other investors in their group to close a deal. That means that AngelList itself will be able to back more startups more quickly.

AngelList cofounder Naval Ravikant is being careful not to skew the early-stage market with such a big injection of overseas funding. He told The Wall Street Journal that AngelList will release $20 million (£13 million) of CSC's funding to early-stage US startups this year, raising that amount to $50 million (£32 million) in each subsequent year.

AngelList and CSC are expected to announce the deal today, and we will update this article with any developments.