Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House Industry has set up a corporate venturing unit, Daiwa House Ventures.
Tetsuo Suzuki will lead Daiwa House Ventures as president and CEO. The fund will start its investment activities from January next year.
The fund has disclosed ¥50m ($340,000) in capital stock, which is part of Daiwa House’s ¥30bn ($202m) startup investment initiative starting March 2024, according to Nikkei. The corporate will also consider investing in external venture capital funds or establishing joint funds.
Daiwa House has previously made direct investments. It participated in rounds for Japanese startups such as wave power generation technology developer SoundPower, logistics data platform operator Hacobu and Ground, which provides logistics management software.
The corporate achieved an exit last year when portfolio company fashion accessory subscription service AirCloset listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It has also made a limited partnership commitment to robotics technology provider Cyberdyne’s $81.9m fund.
