INCJ invests $6m in copper paste business

Set up in 2013 by Professor Junichi Koike of Tohoku University in partnership with Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Material Concept focuses on the development and commercialization of copper paste - a substance used to improve heat conductivity in electronics.

The company intends for copper paste to be used as an effective and low-cost alternative to conventional thermal conductors such as silver paste. 

According to a release, the investment will be used for research and development to bring the product into mass production. INCJ will also help by leveraging its existing partnerships with Japanese manufacturers.

INCJ is a public-private partnership launched in 2009 with the remit of promoting business innovation in the Japan. The fund has JPY280 billion of capital with the Japanese government injecting JPY266 billion and the rest coming from a consortium of 26 private corporations. The government also guarantees up to JPY1.8 trillion of additional capital.

INCJ has made a number of investments in start-ups established on the back of R&D carried out in partnership with Japanese universities. In August, it invested JPY600 million in UniZeo, a company set up by Nippon Chemical Industrial through a joint research project with University of Tokyo to further develop and commercialize a patented low-cost method of producing synthetic zeolite - a substance used as a catalyst in the petro-chemical industry. 

Prior to that, INCJ invested JPY180 million in Exvision, a company that has developed a high-speed image processing technology in another partnership with the University of Tokyo.

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• Topics
• Technology
• Early-stage
• North Asia
• Technology
• Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ)
• Japan
• Venture