Under the management of Genesia Ventures, Inc. (Genesia), Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) has decided to invest JPY3.5 billion ($22.5 million) as a limited partner (LP) in Genesia Venture Fund IV Investment Limited Partnership (GV-4).
Last Friday, JIC announced that it will concentrate on pre-seed and seed stage investments through GV-4 in order to bolster Genesia’s investment activities and support the Japanese startup ecosystem’s ability to produce global unicorns.
The goal of JIC’s increased support for Japanese-local startup partnerships in Southeast Asia and India is to assist Japanese companies in starting new ventures and entering new markets.
Furthermore, JIC anticipates that it will be able to advance DX in the industry by assisting promising startups that leverage digital technology to offer services that tackle issues unique to domestic industries.
Additionally, by supporting Genesia’s fund management, JIC hopes to increase the amount of risk capital available from institutional investors through the company’s medium- to long-term funds.
By providing funds to help companies grow and strengthen their competitiveness through open innovation, promotion of private investment, and development of investment professionals, JIC also stated that its goal is to create a positive cycle of risk capital that supports the next generation of domestic industries.
The company uses LP investments in JIC-owned funds and private funds to make strategic business investments in policy-relevant areas in order to fulfill its mission.
With over 80% of its domestic investments in pre-seed and seed stage companies, Genesia primarily invests in digital businesses and some deep tech companies.
Even though it is a Japanese venture capital, it has made a name for itself as a unique organization that fosters economic and financial partnerships between Southeast Asian investee startups and Japanese businesses, as well as encouraging cooperation between Japanese and local startups. Additionally, it has spread to India.
The statement claims that in order to increase the number of promising startups, long-term, significant risk capital investment in the seed and pre-seed stages is necessary to create global unicorns, which are privately held businesses with an enterprise value of $1 billion or more.
Furthermore, Japanese companies are anticipated to use the state-of-the-art digital technologies and business models of startups in Southeast Asia and India, where digital transformation (DX) is progressing, to launch new ventures in industries where they can continue to be globally competitive and in fields where demand is anticipated to increase both domestically and internationally over the medium to long term.
