GCV Powerlist member Thomas Birr is set to leave his role managing Innogy’s innovation activities to perform similar duties at Eon as the energy utilities prepare to merge.
Author: Edison Fu
Edison Fu is a reporter and Asia liaison at Global Corporate Venturing.
YPF rises to corporate venturing
Argentina-based YPF has set up a corporate venture capital subsidiary, YPF Ventures, and will conduct international and local deals respectively through Argentina Energy Bridge Fund and YPF Early Stage Fund.
Wovn weaves together $13m in funding
Kintetsu Group, Mynavi, NTT Finance and Opt Ventures are among the investors that provided $13m for translation services provider Wovn while Eight Roads Ventures Japan led the round.
Ueno waves goodbye to AGC
Masatoshi Ueno, who was part of GCV’s 2017 Powerlist, has departed from Asahi Glass where he had been a senior manager at its AGC Ventures unit for nearly eight years to join Komatsu.
Union Bank to unite fintech startups with $9m
Philippines-based Union Bank has allocated more than $9m annually to its UBX subsidiary to pursue financial technology opportunities.
Corporates pour more funding into Longwater
BASF Venture Capital and Xiamen C&D are among the limited partners in Longwater Investment’s advanced materials-focused fund, which was already backed by Solvay.
Reality Accelerator realises $6.7m for first fund
Asahi Media Lab Ventures, So-net Media Ventures, Eltes and Marui were among the LPs that helped venture capital vehicle Reality Accelerator raise almost $7m for its first fund.
Ahrens arrows to Deutsche Bank
Gil Ahrens, formerly head of venture capital and emerging growth coverage at Wells Fargo Securities, is set to reprise his role at Deutsche Bank.
Rohit Dave to run WeWork Creator Fund
Rohit Dave, previously senior director and head of M&A at WeWork, has ascended to vice-president and will continue heading M&A activities alongside running its Creator Fund.
Monstar Lab mounts $22m in funding
Monstar Lab took its overall funding to $35m in February, capturing $22m from investors including DG Incubation and SigmaXYZ, it emerged last week.
Marui tailors funding for Fabric Tokyo
Marui Group has invested an undisclosed amount in tailored clothing e-commerce platform Fabric Tokyo in connection with a strategic partnership.
Mars and JVP to explore R&D space
Mars has partnered Jerusalem Venture Partners in a venture that will involve them investing in Israel-based developers of food, agriculture and nutrition technologies.
Pixie Dust cleans up with series B funding
Pixie Dust Technologies, which promotes university-derived technologies from Japan, has received $34.7m in a round that included KDDI, Kansai Electric Power, NEC, Toppan, Dai-ichi Life and Dentsu.
GCV Symposium 2019: Commercialising startups from idea to scale-up in a complex technical area
GUV editor Thierry Heles spoke to professionals from three fusion energy technology companies to gauge the challenges involved in scaling a breakthrough technology.