Japan-based human resources firm Slogan has partnered with investment fund Coent Venture Partners to co-invest in seed-stage startups across Southeast Asia through a ¥160m ($1.3m) fund, The Bridge reported yesterday.
Dubbed Slogan Coent, the new fund will be jointly managed by the two partners and plans to invest up to $120,000 each in startups that focus on the human resources sector. It will also offer startups access to a team of freelance engineers to assist in launching products.
The partnership follows Slogan’s appointment of Shuhei Morofuji, who co-founded Coent in July 2014, to represent Viling Holdings, which manages edtech-focused accelerator programme Slogan Viling Ventures.
Slogan Coent has already made its first two investments, which include Bally’s, the Japan-based publisher of a travel magazine aimed at women, though the size of that investment has not been disclosed.
Yutaka Ito, CEO of Slogan, said: “Budding startups are typically short of resources, but we often hear that they especially lack engineers. Slogan Coent makes seed investments in these startups in conjunction with offering engineering resources, helping them design services in a launching phase.”