The spinout-focused fund could invest up to $9.2m in companies, with a focus on automated driving, artificial intelligence and healthcare.
University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTec), a venture capital affiliate of University of Tokyo, has raised an initial ¥15.6bn ($143m) of a ¥25bn spinout-focused investment fund, Nikkei Asian Review reported today.
The capital has been provided by unnamed, domestic financial services firms. UTec expects to reach final close by April 2018 and hopes to attract contributions from foreign investors.
The fund will invest in early through to late-stage companies, providing up to $9.2m per portfolio company. It will focus on sectors including automated driving, artificial intelligence and healthcare.
The firm will team up with the National University of Singapore and unnamed US-based venture capital firms to offer investees the chance to expand overseas.
UTec has approximately ¥30bn under management across three existing vehicles, including a seed to early-stage fund that initially closed at $130m in 2013 with backers including public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.
UTec, which is currently funded primarily by the private sector, is reportedly also considering an alliance with University of Tokyo’s VC subsidiary, UTokyo Innovation Platform.
The Japanese government, in 2014, provided a total of $1.2bn to four universities – University of Tokyo, Osaka University, Kyoto University and Tohoku University in Sendai – to start their own VC firms in a bid to improve the country’s startup ecosystem.
