Japan-based real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan partnered venture capital firm Global Brain to form an ¥8.5bn ($81m) corporate venturing vehicle dubbed 31Ventures Global Innovation Fund II on Wednesday.
The second fund, abbreviated as CVC II, will invest in startups developing real estate services or digitisation and smart city technologies. The initiative will also seek out companies with innovative business models that can complement Mitsui Fudosan’s core business.
Mitsui Fudosan will receive Global Brain’s management support for 31Ventures in areas such as deal sourcing and portfolio company growth all the way to a hypothetical initial public offering.
Global Brain had already helped Mitsui Fudosan form a $44.6m first fund, 31Ventures Global Innovation Fund I, in 2015. CVC I has funded 40 early to late-stage companies based in Japan and elsewhere, focusing on areas such as property, internet-of-things, security and energy technologies.
The first vehicle’s investments included smart lock technology providers Photosynth and Bitkey, English conversation software developer Speak Buddy and Cluster, the owner of a virtual event streaming service.
Mitsui Fudosan exited artificial intelligence-equipped IT management system provider Loom Systems in an acquisition by enterprise software provider ServiceNow in January this year. CVC I had backed Loom’s $6m series A and $10m series B rounds in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
In addition to the 31Ventures funds, Global Brain co-runs corporate venturing units KDDI Open Innovation Fund, Kuroneko Innovation Fund and Sony Financial Ventures alongside their parent companies: telecommunications firm KDDI, logistics group Yamato Holdings and Sony Financial Holdings, consumer electronics provider Sony’s financial services subsidiary.
