Hitachi Ventures secured $400 million for a fourth fund, the agency completely advised TechCrunch.
The scale of the brand new fund is a vote of confidence in a variety of deep tech verticals. The company VC’s sprawling portfolio mimics that of its restricted companion’s, together with vitality, manufacturing, biotech, and AI.
“We’re open to different breakthrough alternatives,” stated managing director and CEO Stefan Gabriel. “There’s lots round quantum, nuclear, life science, area tech. Not too broad — we’ve got a transparent view on what excites us in these areas.”
Hitachi Ventures will proceed to deal with Sequence A investments. “That’s nonetheless the candy spot,” stated companion Gayathri Radhakrishnan. Its first investments in an organization will common round $5 million, and the fund is reserving round 55% of its capital for follow-on alternatives, companion and CFO Wolfgang Seibold stated.
Although it takes its identify from the Japanese conglomerate, Munich-based Hitachi Ventures is a little bit of an outlier within the company VC world. It’s structured extra like a typical enterprise fund, Gabriel stated, with Hitachi serving because the solo LP. The funding committee is made up of the agency’s companions, and they don’t have to run potential investments previous its company affiliate, stated Pete Bastien, companion and president of the agency’s U.S. operations.
However the fund nonetheless works intently with Hitachi, he added, partially to assist portfolio corporations perceive what a possible future buyer is on the lookout for. Like different CVCs, Hitachi Ventures doesn’t promise that it may land offers for portfolio corporations, however it may make key introductions.
“We will put you in entrance of Hitachi, however your product must promote itself,” Radhakrishnan stated.
And like different CVCs, Hitachi Ventures serves as a scout, Radhakrishnan stated, scouring by means of pitches to search out smaller corporations and applied sciences that matches its company companion’s companies.
Hitachi Ventures earlier investments span a variety of verticals. On the vitality facet, it has invested in battery recycler Ascend Parts, fusion startup Thea Vitality, and Wase, a wastewater-to-energy firm. Its AI investments have tended towards office purposes, together with Ema, which focuses on enterprise workflows; Strikeready, which covers cybersecurity; and Makersite, which makes use of AI to enhance provide chains.
