Japan's Global Brain, Meiji Yasuda launch $39m VC fund

The fund will focus on start-ups in healthcare, revitalizing local communities, and technology related to Meiji Yasuda’s products and services. The latter category will include expanding touchpoints with the public to attract new customers.

Global Brain has several corporate partnerships in this vein with the likes of electronics manufacturers Sony, Epson, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, as well as Mitsui Chemicals, Tokyu Construction, Yamato Transport, Kirin, and engineering conglomerate JGC Group. In each case, a JPY 5bn fund was set up.

Repeat partnerships such as those with telecom operator KDDI Corporation and property developer Mitsui Fudosan tend to scale up. A third vintage with KDDI came in 2018 with JPY 20bn. The second fund with Mitsui Fudosan, under the name 31 Ventures, was launched with JPY 8.5bn in 2020. The KDDI series has attracted third-party capital, including a commitment from Mitsui & Co.

Global Brain launched its eighth flagship fund with a target of JPY 40bn and a follow-on fund targeting JPY 10bn in 2021. These are expected to have a more internationally facing mandate. Corporations, including KDDI, have historically been prominent in the LP base.

Tracing its history back to 1880, Meiji Yasuda claims to be Japan’s oldest insurance company, as well as the first to provide services in which premiums are based on mortality rates and other actuarial factors. Its current incarnation is the result of a 2004 merger between Meiji Life Insurance and Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance.

Following the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, the insurer adopted a new corporate philosophy said to prioritize social well-being. As recently as last November, it signed up to an impact financing programme with the Social Innovation and Investment Foundation (SIIF). That programme now has 21 signatories, including Global Brain, and JPY 3.85bn of committed capital.

Meiji Yasuda’s social agenda has taken on a distinct digital transformation angle since the outbreak of COVID-19, with tech investment coming to the fore. The company said that it aimed to accelerate a phase change in terms of its social initiatives through the implementation of digital technologies across its operations.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Healthcare
• Financials
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• Venture
• Japan
• Global Brain Corporation
• insurance
• corporate venture capital