Japan's Genesia closes Fund III on USD 110m
Japan’s Genesia Ventures, a seed-stage tech investor with a presence in Indonesia and Vietnam, has closed its third fund on USD 110m.
Fund III achieved a first close of JPY 10bn (USD 74m) in January last year on a target of JPY 15bn. The first two funds raised JPY 4bn in 2017 and USD 75m in 2020.
LPs include Canal Ventures, DBJ Capital, FFG Venture Business Partners, Gree Ventures, Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), Mizuho Capital, Mizuho Bank, JA Mitsui Leasing, Oriental Land Innovations, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Cygames, and Withus Corp.
Genesia is illustrative of how Japanese venture capital as an industry is deprovincializing as it scales. The firm, which has three investment professionals on the ground in Southeast Asia – versus 10 in Japan – is planning to open an India office by the end of the year.
The new fund will target India, in addition to Southeast Asia and Japan, deploying up to JPY 500m per company, including follow-on investments. Preferred themes include digital transformation, new economy, media and entertainment, and frontier technologies such as digital twinning.
There has been at least one investment from Fund III so far: ElevationSpace, a spinout from Tohoku University in Japan developing an orbiting research and manufacturing facility to replace the International Space Station. Genesia joined a JPY 310m seed round in March last year.
As of last month, Fund I had made 47 investments (35 in Japan and 12 in Southeast Asia), while Fund II had backed 59 start-ups (41 in Japan and 16 in Southeast Asia). Standouts include Japanese digital bank Nudge, which raised USD 16m last October, and Indonesian capsule hotel operator Bobobox, which raised USD 11.5m in 2020.
More on North Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.