UTEC hits first close for fifth fund

University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC), the deep tech-focused venture capital firm affiliated with University of Tokyo (UTokyo), raised an undisclosed amount for the first close of its fifth fund on Monday.
The firm is expecting to reach a ¥30bn ($275m) target for UTEC 5 by June 2021 to create what it claims is the largest Japan-based venture capital fund focused on science and technology to date.
Although the VC firm is independent, it is affiliated with a number of academic institutes located in Japan and abroad. It also has partnered UTokyo’s Technology Licensing Office to invest in its spinouts.
Founded in 2004, UTEC focuses on seed and early-stage companies from the science and technology sectors and approximately half of its portfolio companies are spinouts.
The firm tends to invest between $500,000 and $5m per deal with capacity for follow-on funding. It will also reinvest in later rounds pitching in up to $23m per company over the lifecycle of an investment.
Its investments include a $5m series A round for Japan-based prosthetics developer BionicM in August 2020, alongside UTokyo’s Innovation Platform and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.
UTEC has backed more than 110 companies, of which 13 held initial public offerings and 12 were exited through merger and acquisition deals.
The firm received around $226m of commitments for its previous fund, UTEC 4, in 2018.
It later joined venture capital fund Blume Ventures to launch Blume UTEC Deep-Tech Accelerator, an India-focused accelerator and seed fund, in March 2019.