Japan-based internet company DeNA announced today that it intends to set up an evergreen investment fund that is expected to be sized at about ¥10bn ($91.2m).
The decision was made at a board meeting today. The fund is set to begin operating in the summer, though its name and launch date are still to be determined.
DeNA plans to set up a subsidiary that will function as the general partner for the fund, which will have two or more team members independent of DeNA itself. Tomoko Namba, a former chief executive of DeNA, has been named the representative of the subsidiary.
The company owns several online platforms including social gaming platform Mobage, digital comics app MangaBox and MyAnimeList, which allows users to score their favourite anime productions, and it has already made a series of investments.
However, DeNA largely participates at seed and series A stage, and has not revealed a new investment for about 18 months. Its portfolio includes shared space platform Campfire, parking reservation service Akippa and dairy farming management software provider Connecterra. It exited news aggregation app developer Nuzzel in February this year.
The fund is intended to enhance the startup and innovation ecosystem in Japan, and to support intrapreneurship among employees of DeNA as well as external entrepreneurs. It will fund startups from pre-seed stage through follow-on rounds.
