Japan's Globis closes Fund VII on $544m

The fund’s mandate is to invest in start-ups “looking to update large industries in Japan that can be expanded globally.” To this end, GCP has opened a new office in San Francisco – complementing its existing presence in Tokyo – that will help portfolio companies as they enter overseas markets.

The firm was established in 1996 as an extension of corporate training and higher education provider Globis, which now runs Japan’s largest MBA programme via Globis University. It claimed to be Japan’s first full-scale venture capital player, providing operational support as well as capital.

More than JPY 182bn has been raised to date, with nearly three-quarters of that held in the three most recent funds. GCP closed Fund V on JPY 20bn in 2016 and Fund VI on JPY 40bn in 2019. The bulk of its LPs are institutional investors, including Japanese banks and financial groups, foreign and domestic pension funds, and endowments.

GCP has invested in 200 companies and secured 36 IPOs and 18 trade sales. It follows a “first to last” investment policy, committing up to JPY 10bn per company across seed through pre-IPO rounds. Key operational units include G-Startup, an accelerator that has backed 173 companies, and GCP X, a specialist management support team that helps companies with recruitment.

The San Francisco office is shared with the US-focused subsidiary of parent company Globis, according to a statement. It is in the same building as SmartNews, a news app GCP backed from an early stage that has gone on to raise multiple follow-on rounds. It closed a USD 230m Series F in 2021 at a valuation of USD 2bn.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Fundraising
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• Japan
• Globis Capital Partners
• Fundraising
• Venture