AAA Corporates help DNX deliver $315m Fund III

Corporates help DNX deliver $315m Fund III

US-headquartered venture capital firm DNX Ventures closed its third fund at $315m yesterday with backing from 29 limited partners (LPs) including multiple corporates.

The LPs include Eneos, the petroleum supplier formerly known as JXTG Holdings, as well as advertising agency CCC Marketing, payment services firm JCB, construction, mining and industrial equipment maker Komatsu, electronics producer Hitachi and its systems integrator subsidiary, Hitachi Solutions.

IT services provider Kyocera Communication Systems, engineering firm IHI Corporation and real estate developers Mitsui Fudosan and Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate were also among the LPs, as were cosmetics producer Pola Orbis Holdings and Sansan, the operator of a digital business card platform.

Retail group Seven & I Holdings, rail operator JR East, electronics importer and exporter Takachiho Koheki, security system provider Secom, insurance firm Tokio Marine Nichido and office machinery producer Toshiba Tec filled out the corporate LPs.

Financial services firms Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank and Mizuho Financial Group, real estate investment manager First Brothers and Japan’s Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation also chipped in, alongside a number of undisclosed institutional investors.

DNX Ventures was founded in 2011 as Draper Nexus Ventures and it has roughly $567m under management across three funds.

The firm operates out of offices in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, and targets early-stage business-to-business technology developers based in the United States and Japan, focusing on areas such as cybersecurity, cloud-based software-as-a-service, financial and retail technologies.

Some of the corporate LPs had disclosed their participation in the third fund’s earlier close, in July 2019. DNX has already made more than 60 investments through the vehicle, having added BeaTrust, Andpad and TechTouch to its portfolio in recent months.

By Edison Fu

Edison Fu is a reporter and Asia liaison at Global Corporate Venturing.

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