MUFG Innovation Partners’ first Corporate VC fund launched with JPY 20bn
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) established its 100% owned corporate venture capital (CVC) arm called Innovation Partners (MUIP) on January 4, 2019, with a capital of JPY 250m (USD 2.25m) and an equal capital reserve amount. MUIP is consolidating investment activities in FinTech related startups that might have been done independently by group companies before. MUFG expects that the larger, collaborative and more sophisticated framework managed by MUIP will enable it to adapt better to rapid marketplace changes and enhance open innovation.
The first fund, MUFG Innovation Partners №1 Investment Partnership, has been launched later in January with a commitment of JPY 20bn (USD 180m), funded by MUFG companies. It has been especially noted that, as a specialized investment subsidiary defined under the Banking Act, MUIP is allowed to acquire equity stakes exceeding 5% in startups that meet prescribed conditions.
On February 13, MUIP announced its first investment, into long-term partner Moneytree, one of the leading financial data aggregation platforms in Japan, for an undisclosed amount.
According to the press release, “MUIP’s investment in Moneytree is geared to strengthen their strategic relationship and foster future projects. Recently Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS Co., Ltd., a consolidated subsidiary of MUFG, released a credit card application based on “Moneytree Link”, a financial data platform developed by Moneytree.”
On the personnel side, President & Chief Executive Officer of MUFG Innovation Partners Nobutake Suzuki started his career with Sanwa Bank, one of the predecessor organizations to MUFG (see footnote), before spending more than 15 years as a Partner of venture capitalist firm Global Brains, where he led an early investment into Origami in 2013, for example. Suzuki-san re-joined MUFG in July 2018 as Head of the Corporate Planning and Digital Transformation Divisions, and was appointed President & CEO of MUIP with its formation in January 2019.
Suzuki-san and his team were very visible at the recent Financial Innovation Business Conference (FIBC) 2019, so we are curious to see if the grand prize winners like Scalar and CoverGo will be able to attract investment from MUIP.
Footnote: In the family tree of Japanese mega banks, Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Toyo Trust & Banking merged in 2002 to form UFJ Group, which in turn combined with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in 2005, resulting in Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, or MUFG.
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