KII’s second iteration more than doubled in size from its predecessor, which closed five years ago and invested in 19 companies.
Keio Innovation Initiative (KII), a venture capital unit of Keio University, closed its second fund at ¥10.3bn ($99.3m) today.
Limited partners included pharmaceutical firm Eisai, brokerage Kyokuto Securities and financial services group Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ, as well as the latter’s Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit.
Japanese government-linked Organisation for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation and private investor Kazuomi Kanetō have also backed the fund.
KII Fund II will operate for a decade on a sector-agnostic basis, mainly leading seed and early-stage rounds for 20 to 25 technology developers. It has already backed five companies.
KII was founded in 2015 as a joint venture between the university’s business management arm, Keio Academic Enterprise, and securities brokerage Nomura Holdings.
It closed its maiden fund at $43m in 2016, the firm confirmed in its latest announcement. The disclosure indicates that reported plans to expand that fund by around $100m did not come to fruition.
The first fund backed 19 companies including APB, CureApp, Synspective and Kringle Pharma – the last one enabled Keio University to exit when it listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers Market last month.
