Hitachi Ventures insured $ 400 million for a fourth fund, the company told Techcrunch exclusively.
The size of the new fund is a voice of trust in a series of deep technical verticalities. The vast portfolio of the Corporate VC mimics the limited partner, including energy, production, biotech and AI.
“We are open to other breakthrough options,” said Managing Director and CEO Stefan Gabriel. “There is a lot near Kwantum, nuclear, life science, space technology. Not too wide – we have a clear picture of what excites us in these areas. “
Hitachi Ventures Will continue to concentrate on series A investments. “That is still the sweet spot,” said partner Gayathri Radhakrishnan. The first investments in a company will on average around $ 5 million, and the fund reserves around 55% of its capital for follow -up opportunities, said partner and CFO Wolfgang Seibold.
Although it derives its name from the Japanese conglomerate, Hitachi Ventures is located in Munich a bit of a biter in the VC world. It is more structured as a typical venture fund, said Gabriel, where Hitachi served as the Solo -LP. The investment committee consists of the partners of the company and they do not have to carry out possible investments along its business branch, said Pete Bastien, partner and president of the American activities of the company.
But the fund still works closely with Hitachi, he added, partly to help portfolio companies understand what a potential future customer is looking. Just like other CVCs, Hitachi Ventures does not promise that it can close deals for portfolio companies, but it can do important introductions.
“We can place you for Hitachi, but your product must sell itself,” said Radhakrishnan.
And like other CVCs, Hitachi Ventures serves as an explorer, Radhakrishnan said by sanding pitches to find smaller companies and technologies that suit the companies of the company partner.
Hitachi Ventures Previous investments include a series of verticals. It has invested in the Energiezijde in Battery Recycler Ascend Elements, Fusion Startup Thea Energy and Wase, a waste water-to-energy company. The AI investments tend to deal with workplace applications, including EMA, which focus on Enterprise work flows; Strikeready, which includes cyber security; And maker site, which AI uses to improve the supply chains.