India and Japan All Set to Come Together to Support Tech Start-ups
India and Japan are set to launch a fund-of-funds (FoF) of $187 million to invest in technology startups, $150 million of which will be raised by Japan and the rest of the $37 million will be raised by India
India is not new to Japanese investment and investors. Leading the pack is definitely SoftBank (with an investment around $10 billion in Indian start-ups) with Akatsuki Entertainment Technology (AET), Rebright Partners, Dentsu Ventures, BEENEXT too participating actively in the game.
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It is time for Indian start-ups to rejoice yet again because this time, the government has made another move to have Japanese pennies falling in the Indian start-up ecosystem.
India and Japan are set to launch a fund-of-funds (FoF) of $187 million to invest in technology startups, $150 million of which will be raised by Japan and the rest of the $37 million will be raised by India, according to reports.
Tapping More into the Indian Market
India has been taken over by technology with tech start-ups taking a big piece from investors. India, currently, has 25 unicorns, out of which, more than half of them are technology-based.
The Indo-Japanese fund is expected to invest in more than 200 unique Indian tech startups in emerging fields such as IoT, AI, ML, fintech, healthcare, consumer, education, robotics, automation, and B2B software.
Four investors from Japan – Mizuho Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Nippon Life and Suzuki – have already signed letters of intent to back the FoF, reports said. From India, Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd (RNAM), the Indian asset management arm of Nippon Life, will manage the fund.
Continuing the Trail of Commerce and Investment
Keiichi Onozawa, the South Asia Representative of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan, said in an interview, "Japan is strong in hardware and India is strong in software, so we wanted to collaborate and bring more innovation for both markets. The focus of the fund is on emerging technologies, software and hardware to solve manufacturing and enterprise problems, as well as deeptech and automation solutions in IoT and B2B software,"
India and Japan are heading a crucial juncture in terms of political and economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on several occasions and both have pledged to work together.
