Taiwan-based metal producer China Steel (CSC) has committed TWD$500m ($17.3m) to set up a venture capital (VC) company, provisionally called TaiAN Green Energy and BioTech Venture Capital.
The corporate venturing subsidiary is being launched to focus on sustainable energy investments, such as biotech and green energy, and will be managed by CSC subsidiary TaiAn Technologies.
CSC is looking to attract a further TWD$1bn from domestic businesses and the National Development Fund, a public fund intended to subsidise Taiwanese industrial development, leaving it with a 33% stake.
The venture is intended to have an initial lasting period of seven years, with the option of extending to 10, allowing for majority shareholder consent.
The setting up of TaiAN Green Energy follows a similar move from India-based steel firm AreclorMittal, which set up a VC fund in July 2008, in order to finance technological innovation in clean energy, while Korean peer Posco had formed a Bioventures unit.