Yet2.com, a US-based open innovation consultancy firm, has formed a fund to help large companies’ corporate venturing investments drive value in their portfolio companies.
The Yet2Ventures fund, which has more than $25m in investor commitments from its managers and family offices, will provide follow-on investment and liquidity to small companies.
Its first deal is in Avantis Medical Systems, a US-based maker of catheter-based endoscopic devices for detecting and treating cancer previously backed by Japan Asia Investment Company (JAIC), an independent venture capital company founded in 1981 by the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (called Keizai Doyukai).
The Yet2Ventures fund has brought JAIC’s whole US portfolio of 35 deals and Ben DuPont, founder of Yet2 and manager of the Ventures fund, said it was quickly following on in a further five deals after Avantis.
Yet2 had previously set up a $25m primary fund to back new deals and has made eight deals in the past two years, including three in the past 60 days.
DuPont said its most recent deal from the primary fund was Electro-Petroleum, which uses electricity to stimulate oil flow in wells.
DuPont said: "Yet2 has been doing two transactions per month but in 2009 we looked at why some deals were not closing and it came down to two reasons. First, a spin-out technology from a Fortune 500 company was unable to raise financing or, second, a small company was able to gain licenses but not finance off these contracts.
"Now, Yet2 can offer expertise and capital and we are really good at helping little companies grow and have jumped into the venture space with both feet. A quarter of the Fortune 500 companies round the world use our services from offices in Boston, Liverpool and Tokyo so we can help small companies find the right guy at Sony or Siemens as they are already our clients."
Yet2.com was founded in 1999 to promote open innovation, with original investments from industrial groups Siemens, Bayer, Honeywell, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, and NTT Leasing.