UTokyo Innovation Fund has signed up to a new incubator that will form companies commercialising university-industry collaborations.

UTokyo Innovation Platform, the investment company for University of Tokyo, co-founded Japan-based incubator Bird Initiative yesterday to form startups with the help of industry and financial institutions. Bird’s co-founders also include IT company NEC, construction group Obayashi and Itochu Techno-Solutions, an IT maintenance and products subsidiary of trading conglomerate Itochu. Private equity firms Japan Industrial Partners and Japan Investment Adviser have also supported the formation of Bird. UTokyo will participate through AOI Fund 1, a $26.1m vehicle the university has raised to back carve-outs based on corporate intellectual properties. Bird Initiative is targeting the launch of six new businesses through its program by 2025. It will begin operations next month. The incubator will screen projects using an artificial intelligence-driven simulation, invented by research centres National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science (AIST) and Technology and Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken), together with NEC. Riken operates as a private-sector research firm while AIST is funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Bird Initiative will base its selections for funding on a set of research objectives and themes, and put in place a team of researchers to steer technologies toward the market. It will initially leverage research collaborations but will gradually widen its scope in conjunction with businesses, financial companies, academic investors and alliance partners.

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