Global powers India and Japan are set to launch a fund-of-funds (FoF) worth $187 million to invest in Indian tech startups. While, as per the reports, $150 million will be raised by Japan and $37 million by India in the FoF launchpad.
“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,” Keiichi Onozawa, south Asia representative of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan said.
The news comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the recently held G-20 Summit.
Importantly, 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.
Also, currently, India has 25 unicorns, out of which, more than half of them are technology-based startups.
The reports said that four investors from Japan; Mizuho Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Nippon Life and Suzuki, have already signed letter of intent to back the FoF.
Whereas, from India, Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Ltd (RNAM), the Indian asset management arm of Nippon Life, will manage the fund.
Furthermore, Japan had been actively participating in the Indian startup ecosystem through SoftBank with an investment around $10 billion in Indian start-up ecosystem.