The Japanese financial services company has formed a joint venture with VC Global Brain to form the new startup investment funds.
Sony Financial Ventures, the VC investment arm of Japanese financial services company Sony Financial Group, has established a joint venture with Global Brain to manage new VC funds.
The pair have said that the newly formed company will establish a system of support for the startups it invests in, but it is not yet clear how big the funds will be or what exactly they will invest in, though they describe the new initiative as “next-generation” and “AI-native”.
Japanese VC firm Global Brain has managed two 10-year VC funds on behalf of Sony Financial Ventures – the ¥5bn SFV・GB and ¥6bn SFV・GB II funds, respectively – to invest in fintech startups with potential linkages to Sony Financial Group.
The first of them, which launched in 2018, backed 20 startups in Japan, Europe and North America in fintech, insurtech, healthcare, mobility and AI. It launched the second vintage last year. It is not clear if those will be folded into the new joint venture.
The news comes just a few days after Global Brain announced it was setting up VC funds totalling $130m for real estate company Mitsui Fudosan.
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
