France-headquartered aerospace manufacturer Airbus’s corporate venturing unit, Airbus Ventures, has secured leasing services Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance and Fuyo General Lease as limited partners for its third fund.
The corporates are being joined by Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), which has provided finance to the country’s aviation and aerospace industries for more than 40 years.
Formed in 2016 with $150m of capital and based in Silicon Valley, Airbus Ventures invests in areas which can inform the future of the aerospace industry, including autonomous mobility and electrification, advanced materials and next-generation computing technology.
The unit’s portfolio companies include quantum computer developer IonQ, autonomous vehicle software developer AEye and employee communication software provider Parsable.
The contributions by Mitsubishi UFJ Lease, Fuyo General Lease and DBJ – all of which are based in Japan – follows Airbus Ventures’ opening of an Asia Pacific office in Tokyo.
Mitsubishi UFJ Lease is seeking to gain insights through its partnership that can support its aircraft leasing business, while aircraft also play a key role in Fujo General’s Frontier Expansion 2021 strategy.
Thomas d‘Halluin, managing partner at Airbus Ventures, said: “Airbus Ventures closely supports its portfolio companies to better understand, team and promote their founders’ businesses.
“And now, with new Japanese investors alongside, we are confident that we can add to global scale and system play for all our entrepreneurs’ growth worldwide, as we continue to add to Airbus Ventures Fund III throughout 2020, and embark on our joint mission to accelerate humanity’s ascent of the Z-axis, from the ground to deep space.”
