DG Daiwa Ventures, the venture capital fund formed by internet company Digital Garage and investment bank Daiwa Securities, launched a ¥20bn ($188m) investment fund on Friday.
DG Lab Fund II will target companies across the world that are developing next-generation technologies and will work with DG Lab, the fund’s open innovation research and development unit, on selecting portfolio companies.
The fund’s main areas of interest are blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, security and health-based biotechnology. The capital allocation is expected to last 10 years.
Digital Garage and Daiwa are DG Lab Fund II’s general partners while 10 to 20 limited partners that already include telecommunications firm KDDI, e-commerce company Kakaku, insurer Sompo Japan Nipponkoa and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Trust will contribute approximately $4.7m to $19m each.
The fund reached a ¥10bn first close last month and is expected to reach its final close in March 2020. Should it meet its ¥20bn targeted close, DG Daiwa Ventures will have a total of ¥30bn under management through the DG Lab vehicles.
DG Daiwa currently has 27 companies in its portfolio according to its website including digital medicine technology developer Akili and blockchain security technology provider Blockstream.
