Shigeo Kagami, professor and head of office of collaborative research development at the division of university corporate relations at the University of Tokyo, said foreign corporations, such as search engine provider Google (now under the Alphabet holding company), had been acquirers of university startups, such as Tokyo’s Shaft and Phyzios.
Kagami also updated the roundtable on the country’s plan to invest more than $1bn through four of its universities’ venture funds. He said Tokyo, which receives the largest share of the four with Y50bn ($450m), had in February set up the UT Innovation Platform as a fund of funds able to commit to an expected five or six venture capital firms. Part of the money, Y8.3bn, was also expected to go to Kagami’s department to support the infrastructure translating research into innovation – often called gap funding.
This will complement existing venture capital firm UTEC, which manages more than $300m to invest in university spinouts after being set up be Tokyo university last decade.
Kagami said: “Tokyo University’s tech transfer office, which we call Technology Licensing Office, patents 600 inventions each year and can take equity in startups formed out of this research in lieu of license fees. However, two-thirds of patents are in conjunction with industry partners, 2,500 in total, but “few lead to tangible results”. So is this a good result, he asked rhetorically?
