Japanese public investment fund Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) has committed to invest $30 million in Saisei Bioventures, a venture capital vehicle focused on the regenerative medicine industry.
Saisei Bioventures is the inaugural fund of Saisei Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies focused on improving health outcomes.
The fund will invest mainly in venture creation, seed, and early-stage startups in the life sciences sector, particularly in companies that operate in the cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicines sectors.
In a statement, JIC said it expects the investment in Saisei Bioventures to help promising Japanese startups in the life sciences sector, particularly those focusing on cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicines, to grow into global startups.
The startups, it added, can leverage the mature ecosystem in this sector in the US, which could lead to open innovation through collaboration between the investee startups, the academia, and Japanese companies.
JIC also intends to help strengthen the domestic startup ecosystem in the life sciences sector by supporting the first fund of Saisei Ventures.
“JIC promotes open innovation as a means for supporting growth and enhancing the international competitiveness of businesses,” the Japanese public investment fund said.
In January, JIC also committed a total of $100 million in funds managed by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a US-headquartered venture investor.
JIC committed $50 million in NEA 18 and $50 million in NEA 18 Venture Growth Equity. NEA 18 has a strategy of early-stage investment while NEA 18 Venture Growth invests in the later stages and beyond.
NEA aims to offer companies full-lifecycle support in the technology and healthcare areas through the two funds.
“JIC aims to create opportunities for collaboration between NEA and domestic VCs to learn from NEA’s investment experience and to introduce global standard practices to the domestic market,” JIC said.
JIC was established on September 25, 2018, under Japan’s Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act. Its focus areas are driving the creation of new businesses for what it called Society 5.0. One of its goals is to create unicorn startups.