Japan's WiL raises USD 1bn

WiL Ventures III launched in June last year and received backing from the likes of Panasonic, Subaru, Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), Osaka Gas, Hakuhodo, and Brother Industries. The capital will also support funds under WiL’s strategic partners and corporate venture capital businesses. It brings capital commitments across all funds to more than USD 1.9bn.

WiL is a leading player in the US-Japan cross-border theme and is recognised as a key proponent of a groundswell of foreign investment into Japan’s start-up space. This phenomenon has come with a spike in valuations that is seen as having levelled off this year.

“We are one of the few [Japanese] firms that can multistage and put a lot of money into later stage, because we do have a sizeable fund and the valuations are much more rational. A lot of the deals that I ended up passing in the US or Japan will come back in a flat round or down round. Those are all good companies – it’s just the valuations were way too high for me to swallow,” Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO of WiL (pictured), told AVCJ last month.

“But the current market and the recession going into next year, is defiantly an opportunity for people like us who have a lot of dry powder. And we feel like we don’t have to go crazy taking these companies public. We can really focus on fundamentals, helping these companies get profitable and hire good people and grow good businesses.”

Fund II closed in mid-2018 with USD 521m in commitment, short of an initial target of USD 600m. Fund I closed on USD 353.5m in 2015 with a USD 100m contribution from government investor INCJ, now JIC. The LP base has consistently represented a mix of large Japanese corporate and government institutions.

The first two funds focused on digital transformation, with its US investments generally concentrated on Series B and later rounds in B2B software-as-a-service. Other target areas have included financial technology, automation and productivity, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and developer tools. Investments in Japan have historically been at earlier stages.

Fund III adds sustainability, climate tech, health tech, web3, and other emerging technologies as new areas of investment. The goal is to identify solutions that are most relevant to the business and societal challenges of the LP base. Collaborating with LPs and operating corporate VC funds will also be a new area of focus. Services for enterprise LPs currently include design-thinking workshops, hosting of expatriates in WiL’s Silicon Valley office, joint ventures, and spin-offs.

WiL claims to have invested in 15 unicorns to date. Notable portfolio companies include Mercari, a flea market app that raised USD 1.2bn in Japan’s first major tech IPO in 2018. Mercari is widely credited with substantially stoking interest in Japan’s start-up ecosystem both among local entrepreneurs and global investors.

The GP's recent investment activity features a JPY 15bn (USD 112m) Series C round for Japanese corporate credit card issuer Upsider as co-lead alongside DST Global. This was the first time DST had taken a lead role in a Japan deal.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• North Asia
• North America
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• Japan
• USA
• World Innovation Lab (WiL)
• Japan Investment Corporation (JIC)
• corporate venture capital