Rail operator Tokyu Corporation closed its first corporate venturing deal yesterday, participating in a ¥100m ($960,000) round for Japan-based crowdfunding service provider Japan Cloud Capital (JCC).
Unnamed angel investors filled out the round, which lifted JCC’s overall funding to roughly $16.8m. It most recently raised $8m in September this year, from investors including corporates IR Robotics, NLinks and Sanoh Industrial.
Founded in 2015, JCC runs an equity crowdfunding platform dubbed Fundinno. Users can invest amounts from ¥100,000 in unlisted companies across the world it has previously screened.
Tokyu’s so far unnamed corporate venture capital unit will target healthcare, lifestyle, mobility and social finance technology developers to promote its Tokyu 2050 Vision’s city-as-a-service concept.
The firm already runs a startup accelerator scheme, Tokyu Accelerate Program, which was launched in 2015 and which held a demo day for its latest cohort in March 2020.
Tokyu Fudosan, Tokyu’s real estate subsidiary also known as Tokyu Land, operates a separate investment arm formed in 2017, TFHD Open Innovation Program. It has made a limited partner commitment to investment firm Genesia Ventures’ second fund and backed companies including Trunk, Third and Counterworks.
