The fund, which will have a budget of under $10m, will involve the messaging service making seed investments in partnership with venture firm Collaborative Fund.

Japan-based online messaging service Line has formed a venture capital fund with US-based venture capital firm Collaborative Fund, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The fund, which will invest from a base of less than $10m in capital, will seek to support seed-stage startups, according to Craig Shapiro, Collaborative Fund’s founder and CEO.

Shapiro told the NYT he was introduced to Line through Kim Jung-Ju, the founder of games company Nexon, which is one of Collaborative Fund’s limited partners.

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