Japan-headquartered corporations Fujifilm and Tokyu Construction have recently launched dedicated corporate venturing vehicles that will target startups operating in their respective strategic areas.
Construction firm Tokyu Construction’s ¥5bn ($43.4m) Tokyu-Const GB Innovation Fund (TCIF) was formed in 2021, the corporate said last week. It is set to operate for a decade, focusing on decarbonisation, zero waste, disaster prevention and mitigation, human resources and digital technology.
Venture capital firm Global Brain is co-running TCIF, which represents the first such partnership in Japan’s construction industry according to Tokyu. The fund had already invested in a $4.6m series A round for solar energy-focused internet-of-things software developer Girasol Energy in June 2021 announced three months later.
Girasol’s series A round included another corporate VC vehicle managed by Global Brain, 31Ventures, which represents property developer Mitsui Fudosan, in addition to electric utility Kansai Electric Power Group’s K4 Ventures unit.
Optical technology and imaging equipment provider Fujifilm meanwhile revealed earlier this month that its newly formed $60.8m corporate venture capital (CVC) fund, dubbed Life Sciences Corporate Venture Capital (LS-CVC), will concentrate on the life sciences ecosystem and will run until 2026.
Fujifilm established its Life Sciences Strategy Division in April 2021 and the fund is part of that scheme. Other initiatives being promoted by the division include the contract development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products such as induced pluripotent stem cell cultures used for drug discovery.
In addition, Fujifilm has set up business development arms called Fujifilm Life Science Strategic Business Offices in the United States and Europe, forging strategic alliances with global biotechnology-driven academics and business players.
Fujifilm was already an experienced CVC investor with a diverse portfolio including oncology therapy developer Lunit, data-enhanced media service JX Press Corporation and 24M Technologies, which is working on an energy storage system.
In a related development, Japan-based human resources group Persol Holdings rebranded its corporate venturing arm, Persol Innovation Fund (PIF), to Persol Venture Partners last week, having also formed an Employment Creation Fund to back renewable energy, healthcare and mobility-related deals.
Labot, which operates an online programming education service called CodeGym, is among a PIF portfolio primarily concentrating on human resources technology, as are video recruitment platform developer Video Matching and digital senior care provider Meetscare.
Photo courtesy of Jun Rong Loo via Unsplash.
