Nomura Securities

• 1) Boxed
• Nomura Securities, together with Gabriel Naouri, Daniel Schryer, CDIB Capital, Alpha Square Group, and lead investor AEON, invested and helped raise $111 million in a Series D round for Boxed in August 2018.
• The venture capital funding round helped raise Boxed's value to $600 million.

• 2) Omise
• Tokyo-headquartered Nomura Holdings, the parent company of Nomura Securities, has invested an undisclosed amount to Thailand-based fintech service provider Omise Holdings last July 2019.
• The fund will be used by Omise to scale their operations to multiple verticals such as blockchain technology, payments, and digital asset exchanges.

Asset Management One

• 1) MM Capital Partners
• In November 2018, Marubeni, Mizuho Bank and Asset Management One has joined up and invested for the formation of MM Capital Partners, where Marubeni will have 90% stake, and both Mizuho Bank and Asset Management One will have 5% stakes.
• MM Capital Partners will now manage the MM Capital Infrastructure Fund 1 L.P., which was formed in January 2019.

Mitsui & Co.

• 1) GOQii
• Mitsui & Co. was the lead investor for the Series B round of GOQii, where they raised $30 million last November 2018.
• Other investor participants were Denlow Investment Trust and Galaxy Digital.

• 2) SmartE
• Mitsui & Co. invested $14 Million in a Series B funding round for Treasure Vase Ventures Pvt. Ltd, the parent of SmartE, an electric mobility service firm from India.
• Delhi-based SmartE will use the funds to expand into new markets with their more than 1,000 electric rickshaws in Delhi NCR.

• 3) Minh Phu Seafood
• Mitsui & Co. invested $150 million to Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Company based in Vietnam last May 2019.
• Mitsui & Co. will have a 35% stake in the seafood company due to this deal.
• Minh Phu Seafood will use the fund for further growth and application of digital technology.

• 4) TriNetX
• TriNetX has raised $40 million for a Series D funding round from Mitsui & Co., Merck, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, MPM Capital, F2 Ventures, and Deerfield Management.
• The Series D funding round brings TriNetX to a total of $102 million in funding.

• 5) Fictiv
• Led by G2VP, and investors such as Mitsui & Co. Accel, Bill Gates, Intel Capital, Sinovation and Tandon Group, has raised $33 million in a Series C funding for Fictiv in March 2019.
• Fictiv will use the funds for the acceleration of its work to digitize and automate the manufacturing workflow.

• 6) Tonik Energy
• Mitsui & Co. was the lead investor of the Series A funding round by Tonik Energy for raising a £13 Million investment in February 2019.
• Tonik Energy will use this fund for the acceleration of their integrated strategy of combining renewable and energy-saving technologies with affordable energy supply.

• 7) Yellow Door Energy
• Mitsui & Co., together with other investors such as International Finance Corporation (IFC), Equinor Energy Ventures (Equinor), Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), and UAE-based Adenium Energy Capital (Adenium), helped raise $65 million in the Series A funding round of Yellow Door Energy, a UAE-based leading solar developer, in January 2019.
• Yellow Door Energy will use this fund to help them in scaling their solar energy and energy efficiency solutions investments in the Middle East and Africa.

• 8) NapaJen Pharma
• Lead investor INCJ, Ltd., together with other existing investors Mitsui & Co., and new participant investor P&E Directions Inc., helped raise $12.4 million Series C funding round for NapaJen Pharma Inc. in January 2019.
• NapaJen Pharma Inc. will use this fund for completing the Phase 1 clinical development of NJA-730 started in the autumn of 2018 in Australia, and for further development.

• 9) Ridecell
• San Francisco-based startup Ridecell was able to raise their $28 million Series B round, which was extended to over $60 million, with the help of investors such as Mitsui & Co., Activate Capital, ERGO Corporate Venture Fund, Cox Automotive, Initialized Capital, Denso, Penske, Deutsche Bahn, LG Technology Ventures, BNP Paribas, Ally Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and Khosla Ventures.
• Ridecell will use their funds for developing their current mobility and operations platform.

Research Strategy

JAPAN POST CAPITAL

•  CB Cloud — Is a technology company focused on transforming the logistics space through cutting-edge technology aimed at transforming carrying and delivering. Japan Post Capital invested $11.71 million series b funding into the company.
• Smart News — Japan Post Capital led the series E funding of Smart News of $28 million. Smart News is an AI-powered news aggregation app and reached a total funding of $116 million following Japan Post Capital investment.
• WealthPark — Is an investing app/platform for stock investors. Japan Post Capital led Series E funding of ¥540 million (approximately $4.99 million).
• Sansan — Japan Post Capital invested ¥3 billion, approximately $26.4 million in 2018 into Sansan. The company delivers cloud-based contact management solutions for enterprises.
• Creema — Is a Japanese marketplace where you can buy and sell handmade and craft items. Japan Post Capital invested $10.14 million series B funding into Creema.
• Abeja — managed to secure total funding of about $38.4 million in series C funding in 2018 from several investors. Notable investors include Japan Post Capital, SBI Investment, Daikin Industries, TBS Innovation Partners, and Musashi Seimitsu Industry.
• Palma — Is a domestic and international self-storage services provider. Japan Post Capital bought 160,000 shares of unit Palma Co Ltd for approximately 586.4 million yen (about $5.55 million) effective May 7, 2018.

• Edgematrix — Was launched in April 2019. Edgematrix is an artificial intelligence startup with a product, EdgeAI Box that performs AI processing in real-time on massive data such as 4k and 8K.
• Giftpad — Is a social gift service. It is currently estimated to handle over 60,000 items from famous manufacturers and top brands.
• PECO — Peco is a Japanese startup primarily focusing on the pet business. PECO has one of the biggest pet media in Japan.
• Pathee — Pathee is a startup creating a spatial engine to drive spatial information globally. It claims to deliver spatial information to your hands.
• Blue Innovation — A drone UAS system integrator and business consulting company. It is also dedicated to manufacturing coastal monitoring systems.
• Nousouken — Focuses primarily on the agriculture sector. It provides a platform for consigning and selling fresh agricultural products.
• Goma Books — An online marketplace for books. The platform features books that focus on different genres and fit all demographics.
• NetStars — Is a financial technology company promoting Japan's cashlessness. It offers Chinese people who visit Japan a broad array of inbound services.
• AI Inside — Specializes in software development and artificial intelligence business. It uses an algorithm to convert all information into digital data.
• Soundfun — Is a Japanese startup aiming to make the world happier through sound and fun. Its flagship product, Mirai speaker is designed for both individuals with and without hearing impairments.

• Akippa — Is a startup allowing users to register empty spaces as parking lots. It also helps users reserve parking spaces as available.
• JTower — Uses locally available resources to develop portable radio wave environment in commercial and office buildings. It combines the already installed facilities for antennas, wiring, relay devices, etc. to create the portable radio wave environment.
• Mercari — Is a community powered shopping app. It streamlines buying and selling anything online by simplifying the process.
• Welby — Plans, develops and operates digital personal health record (PHR) services for treatment support for patients. By cooperating with HCPs and patient’s family, the company enables patients to learn about their treatments by themselves.
• Hacobu — Is a Japanese open logistics platforms. It has built, MOVO, a cloud-based integrated logistics system, and operations management system.
• PhilCompany — Is disrupting the parking space with innovative solutions to create extra parking spaces. It has a solution dubbed, Phil Park, which seeks to use the spaces above parking lots.

SEIRYU ASSET MANAGEMENT

• Seiryu Asset Management is a new domestic equities investment management company and a fund operator of the Japanese GPIF since 2014. Currently, no investments are listed on its website, and press releases or business reports of other companies.
• According to the Global AgInvesting Asia 2018 summit, Seiryu Asset Management indicated that it had commenced working with a forestry investment fund abroad and sought to continue exploring farmland investment opportunities. Unluckily, no more details were shared by the report regarding the forestry investment fund.
• According to the company website, Seiryu Asset Management was established on July 7, 2009, and has an estimated capital of 150 million yen, approximately $1.422 million based on the current (August 12, 2019) XE.com exchange rate.
• It is a member of the Japan Investment Advisors Association and the second financial commodity industry association.
• Unfortunately, no information was uncovered specifically regarding the venture capital investments Seiryu Asset Management Company has made, probably because its core business line is investing Japan's government pension investment fund.
• Moreover, being a privately held company, it is unlikely that Seiryu Asset Management Company makes its publications publicly; hence, the scanty information on this fund manager. Again, the small capital amount is insufficient to facilitate any major investments beyond $1.5 million.

MIZUHO SECURITIES

• Mizuho Securities is a 125.1 billion yen Japanese financial instruments firm registered with the director of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau of the Ministry of Finance. The company has 7,554 employees, 262 networks in Japan, and 24 outside Japan.
• On November 26, 2018, Mizuho Securities invested $5 million at the 1st close of Cybernaut New Frontier Venture Fund, a China-focused VC fund. In totality, the maximum fund size is set at $300 million; however, Mizuho Securities aims at a total commitment of approximately $20 million by the final close of the fund.
• Cybernaut New Frontier Venture Fund will invest in several tech fields. It primarily targets tech segments such as AI, IoT, ICT, intelligent manufacturing, fintech, health-tech, and smart city technologies.
• According to Crunchbase, the most recent venture capital investment by Mizuho Securities was in 2017 at 1.5 billion yen invested into One Tap Buy, Japan's first securities trading app. The venture round investment into One Tap Buy was the only recent one included in Crunchbase while others date back to years — 2010, 2006, and 2005.
• Mizuho Securities also owns 30% stake in Mobile Internet Capital, a venture capital in the mobile internet space. Other partners and their ownership stake as a percentage include NTT Docomo, Inc. with 30%, Internet Research Institute, Inc. 30%, and MIC Executive/Employee Stock Ownership Plan 10%.
• Mobile Internet Capital fund size is estimated at over 23.6 billion yen. Likewise, since its founding in 1999, Mobile Internet Capital has a capital amount of 100 million yen and has made nine venture capital investments since August 2017.
• Mobile Internet Capital has invested in the following companies Best1.com Inc., Rakumo Inc., EastmeetEast Inc., Phone Appli Inc., Glad Cubed Inc., Agatha Inc., Weekday Inc., Hashilus, Inc., and QBIT Robotics, Inc.
• Overall, Mizuho Securities invests using several options, including private equity. On that note, the company has committed to several private equity investment funds. In 2018, the company signed an agreement to commit $30 million for the 1st close of Tata Capital Growth Fund II, L.P. which will invest in the Indian market.

RESEARCH STRATEGY