Japan-headquartered healthcare device producer Arkray has announced a ¥10bn ($86.8m) Singapore-based corporate venture capital initiative launched in a bid to back early-stage medical technology developers.
Formed in November 2021, Arkray 4U will invest directly from its parent firm’s balance sheet as opposed to a dedicated fund, Arkray 4U senior investment associate Wei Cong Seah told DealStreetAsia. It expects to provide up to $2.6m per deal.
Seah said the team is involved in the due diligence process for multiple startups but has not yet completed a deal. He was quoted as saying: “We launched this CVC with the goal of investing in and supporting healthcare startups that can utilise our parent company’s resources to scale and grow.”
Arkray was founded in 1963 and its main businesses include the development and manufacturing of medical equipment such as self-monitoring blood glucose systems for diabetic patients, as well as diabetes diagnostic and testing products. It runs 46 offices across 18 countries, covering more than 80 markets globally.
The company is also developing functional food – a nutrition category coined in Japan in the 1980s, defined as foodstuffs that have various health implications on the human body – including herbs and fruits it claims have anti-glycaemic, anti-ageing and anti-metabolic syndrome effects.
The unit will focus on startups based in East and Southeast Asia, India and Israel, especially those working on internet-of-things and artificial intelligence-equipped medical equipment, healthcare digitalisation, life sciences, personal health, functional food and veterinary technology.
Other Japan-headquartered CVC units maintaining Singapore-based investment vehicles include Colopl Next, CyberAgent Capital, GMO VenturePartners, Gree Ventures, Rakuten Ventures, SBI Ven Capital and SoftBank Investment Advisers, on behalf of game publisher Colopl, internet companies CyberAgent and GMO, media group Gree, e-commerce firm Rakuten, financial services provider SBI and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank respectively.
Japan-listed shipping group Mitsui OSK Lines’ MOL Plus subsidiary is set to open a Singaporean branch in 2023. Other Japanese investors such as VC firm Global Brain – which helps manage several corporate VC programmes – and Spiral Ventures, formerly website designer IMJ Corporation’s IMJ Investment Partners unit, also have a strong presence in Singapore.
Image courtesy of Arkray Co, Ltd.
