Singapore GP launches $500m Japan-Israel tech fund

Chartered Group and Israel's defense R&D unit, known as MAFAT, will contribute a combined $50 million to the fund, which will make private equity and quasi-equity investments in companies developing advanced technologies. 

Japan Israel High Tech Ventures 2 (JIHTV2) will primarily target Israeli companies but also facilitate cooperation, co-investment, and incubation of Japanese businesses. The plan is to connect Israel's advanced technology development sector with Japanese conglomerates that might otherwise have difficulty accessing cutting-edge R&D. This effort is expected to lead to larger government-to-government projects. 

JIHTV2 will focus on "dual-use" technologies. The joint venture describes this as including the enhancement of human capabilities via brain-machine interface, exoskeleton, or advanced sensor and human monitoring systems. Additional areas of interest include high-density batteries, remote charging, hybrid energy systems, high-power lasers, robotics, autonomous algorithms, and autonomous flight.  

"Innovations in Israeli defense and dual-use technologies will receive a significant boost by the capital invested by Chartered Group combined with strategic partnerships with blue-chip Japanese companies," Dov Oster, CTO of MAFAT, said in a statement. "The main technological areas of focus for this collaboration are viewed as being mission-critical, as well as possessing tremendous growth prospects both in the defense and civilian markets." 

Chartered Group is active across a range of strategies, including private equity, venture capital, distress acquisitions, private credit, securities, investment banking, real estate, and hospitality, via variously specialized divisions in Singapore, Israel, Japan, Germany, Thailand, and Luxembourg. It maintains a particular interest in disruptive technology, including biomedical, artificial intelligence, and the internet-of-things. 

The firm, which is chaired by Eyal Agmoni, an advisor at Tel Aviv University, focuses strongly on Japan-Israel technological cooperation. Previous activity in this theme includes investments in InnerEye, an Israeli start-up attempting to integrate human brainwaves into AI, and entities related to Tel Aviv University, including TAU Ventures. Chartered Group's JIHTV1 is an anchor investor in the Tel Aviv University Incubation Fund.

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