China-based electronics manufacturer Lenovo announced a $500m strategic investment fund called Lenovo Capital yesterday as part of a company-wide reorganisation.
The unit will form part of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, a division being established to replace Lenovo’s Ecosystem and Cloud Services Group (ECS), and will combine the development of new technologies through corporate venturing investments and Lenovo spinouts with product-based personal cloud services.
He Zhiqiang, until recently president of ECS, will lead the group. Lenovo Capital will target startups developing technologies including cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics and ‘internet plus’, making between 10 and 20 investments each year.
The group will make those venture capital investments while looking to spin out up to 10 startups from internal incubation projects in 2016, according to China Daily.
Legend Holdings, the holding company that remains the largest shareholder in Lenovo, already operates a range of corporate venture capital subsidiaries, including Legend Capital, Legend Star and Yunfeng Capital, but Lenovo Capital will be solely funded by Lenovo itself.
The move comes as part of several organisational changes by Lenovo, including the expansion of its PC Group into the PC & Smart Device Business Group, taking in computers, tablets, gaming and smart home products, and its Enterprise Business Group refocusing to become the Data Center Group.
Lenovo is undertaking the changes a week after a report by research firm IDC stated that it, along with compatriot Xiaomi, had dropped out of the list of the top five global smartphone manufacturers by devices shipped.