Line Ventures and YJ Capital, the respective corporate venturing subsidiaries of messaging platform developer Line and internet company Yahoo Japan, officially merged today with ¥30bn ($271m) of capital.
Japan-headquartered Yahoo Japan and Line, the messaging platform formed by South Korea-headquartered internet group Naver, closed their merger earlier this month and will operate under Z Holdings, a publicly-listed holding company backed by Naver and telecommunications firm SoftBank.
The newly formed corporate venture capital vehicle, Z Venture Capital, will invest in developers of technology related to Z Holdings’ group businesses, such as consumer services, e-commerce, healthcare, cybersecurity, financial technology and enterprise software.
Z Venture Capital will target portfolio companies in Japan and South Korea as well as in the United States, China and Southeast Asia. It also intends to help US-based developers of edge technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchain to expand in East Asia.
YJ Capital was formed in 2012 and its portfolio has included metabolic disease drug developer Fractyl, digital transformation technology provider LayerX and no-code development platform Yappli. Its CEO, Shinichiro Hori, will be president of Z Venture Capital.
Line Ventures’ investments have included smart lock technology producer Photosynth, travel booking platform developer KKDay and business finance provider Funding Societies.
