Japan-based electronics manufacturer Toshiba has set up a ¥10bn ($89m) corporate venture capital fund, according to chief technology officer Shiro Saito.
The vehicle is part of a plan by Toshiba that will involve it investing up to $8.3bn over the next five years, focusing on areas such as renewable energy technologies, power electronics, robotics and medical technologies covering treatment, screening and diagnostic testing.
Saito said: “In terms of creating new business, we will release the seeds of businesses created in the [research and development] department into the world at an early stage.
“In addition to a learning mechanism based on receiving feedback, a new corporate venture capital fund of ¥10bn has been set up to create new businesses not bound by our current portfolio.”
Part of the investment mandate will also go towards bolstering the company’s rechargeable battery technology, dubbed SCiB, which has been used for vehicle, industrial and infrastructure applications such as buses, railroad cars, elevators and power plants.
Toshiba is also collaborating with universities and research institutes worldwide such as Stanford University, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Indian Institute of Science.
Saito explained: “We are collaborating with Cambridge University on quantum cryptographic communication.
“This is a technology that enables safe transmission of extremely confidential information – personal information and financial transaction information and the like – using communications technology that is theoretically impossible to hack.”