Japan-headquartered insurer Tokio Marine Holdings formed a US-based ¥5bn ($42m) corporate venturing vehicle called Tokio Marine Future Fund on Tuesday.
Founded in 1879, Tokio Marine Group provides non-life property and casualty, financial, general and life insurance services through 245 subsidiaries and 32 affiliates spanning 483 cities across 38 markets.
Tokio Marine Future Fund will target early-stage companies developing technologies that use artificial intelligence in disaster prevention, in the insurance, financial, mobility, healthcare, cybersecurity, automation and climate sectors.
The fund will back startups based in the US or elsewhere, and each deal will be sized between $500,000 and $3m, at seed and series A stage. The corporate has teamed up with venture capital firm World Innovation Lab (WiL), which will help run the vehicle as general partner.
Yoshi Yoshida, who heads Tokio Marine’s corporate venture capital (CVC) initiative, told TechCrunch: “There are often cases where Tokio Marine sees very promising companies or product ideas that are too early to support Tokio Marine as a customer.
“We do not tie investments to an immediate strategic opportunity but want to help accelerate development either as an adviser or capacity provider with the hope that there is eventually an opportunity to partner strategically or become a customer as they progress.”
Yoshida added: “WiL will act as the CVC fund manager led by [WiL partner] Steve Pretre, who manages WiL’s investments across fintech and insurtech sectors.”
Tokio Marine already runs digital innovation laboratories across Silicon Valley, New York, London, Singapore, São Paulo, Taipei and Tokyo.
The company’s existing portfolio includes logistics insurance platform developer Nirvana Insurance, data protection software provider Titaniam and Carefull, the creator of a personal finance management app aimed at senior citizens.
