Japan-based educational services and elderly care provider Gakken Holdings has formed an investment initiative dubbed Gakken Innovation-Tech Fund.
Also known as Gakken Capital, the fund will mainly invest in mid and late-stage developers of education and healthcare technologies based in Japan and elsewhere, though it will consider startups at seed and series A if there are synergistic potentials.
The fund plans to make up to ¥3bn ($28.9m) in direct investments by 2025. Gakken has formed an investment committee that includes internal strategy teams in charge of accounting and finance, management and digital areas who will identify prospective deals.
Founded in 1947 as an educational publisher, Gakken expanded its business in 2008 to cover elderly care through its Gakken Cocofump unit, which had conducted corporate venturing activities, having taken part in a $20m round for household robotics technology developer Aeolus in late 2019.
Gakken also ran a startup accelerator, Gakken Accelerator, between 2014 and 2016 in association with incubator operator 01Booster, producing two batches of graduates.
Gakken Educational ICT, Gakken’s subsidiary now called Gakken Plus, had invested in four alumni in 2015: youth-focused social media platform Thinkers, e-learning portal Taktopia, free Japanese language course provider LinksZip and Miray School, which runs a children’s edutainment service.
Gakken Plus backed three additional 2016 accelerator finalists: Aka Study, a company working on an artificial intelligence and deep learning technology-equipped communication robot dubbed Musio; Our Photo, which runs a matching service for photographers and potential customers; and GranSky, an animation and picture book app developer.
