Japan's SBI seeks $920m for technology fund
SBI Investment has launched a technology-focused VC fund, known as 4+5 Fund, with a target of JPY100 billion ($920 million).
It is said to be the biggest investment vehicle in Japan focused on start-ups. The investment focus will be industry 4.0, including internet-of-things (IoT), robotics, and "society 5.0" which involves data-driven technologies and services in areas such as healthcare, infrastructure, food and agriculture.
It follows the launch of a JPY50 billion fund in 2018, which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology. That fund was established as a follow-up to the SBI Fintech Business Innovation Fund, which closed at JPY30 billion in late 2015 with the Bank of Yokohama contributing $16.4 million.
According to a quarterly financial report, 20 of SBI's portfolio companies went public in the year ended March 2019, and another 28 IPOs are expected by March 2020. These may include Base, a Japanese e-commerce services platform, which filed for an IPO in Tokyo in September.
SBI also owns a 3.65% stake in Japanese venue rental platform SpaceMarket, which pursued a US IPO in November. This coincided with China's OneConnect Financial Technology, another portfolio company, filing to list in the US. SBI is the only external shareholder in OneConnect with a greater than 5% stake, owning 6.1%.
Recent investment activity includes participation in a $61 million Series C round for Vietnamese e-commerce company Sendo alongside SoftBank Ventures Asia.
Image: Japanexpertena, 2014 (CC BY-SA)
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