Japan's KLab Ventures to launch new VC arm

KLab Venture Partners will invest primarily in Japan, but will also look toward the US and Southeast Asia, reports Tech in Asia

Japan-based venture capital firm KLab Ventures’ investment activity will be taken up by new company KLab Venture Partners, it announced today. The VC, jointly owned by social and mobile gaming company KLab and Japanese financial services company group SBI, will continue supporting portfolio activities. The new company, KLab Venture Partners, will be a fully-owned subsidiary of KLab, with no involvement from SBI.
 

There will be a new fund accompanying the launch, which the company hopes to raise by the end of the year. It’s currently reviewing candidates for limited partnership in the fund. With it, the VC will look to invest in “any growing domestic and overseas IT companies,” it says. It plans to invest primarily in Japan, but will also look toward the US and Southeast Asia.
 

 

According to CEO Hirokazu Nagano, there won’t be stark differences between KLab Venture Partners’ and KLab Ventures’ M.O. when it comes to selecting start-ups to invest in. KLab Ventures has previously invested in multimedia, social networking, and enterprise software start-ups. One notable difference is that the VC will now look more toward seed-stage businesses.
 

Hirokazu did not specify whether the new company will be primarily a lead investor or it will join other rounds, saying this will depend on each case. Likewise, the size of investment into each start-up and the equity in it will be determined by the stage of the start-up, Hirokazu explains.
 

KLab Venture Partners plans to open a branch in Manila, the Philippines, in 2016. That will help the firm go into more Southeast Asian markets, Hirokazu says. 

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This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.