Press Release

WASEDA University Ventures (WUV) launched its first fund, WUV 1 L.P.

WASEDA University Ventures (WUV) launched its first fund, WUV 1 L.P.

- A venture capital firm specialising in founding investments in deep tech start-ups, creating new start-ups from research seeds at universities –

September 9, 202

WASEDA University Ventures, Inc. (WUV) was established in April 2022 with the main objective of creating businesses and industries that contribute to the evolution and well-being of human society and sustainability by implementing academic knowledge and research results into society through the creation and development of start-up companies that utilise academic knowledge and “the practical application of scholarship”, which is one of Waseda University's founding principles.


WUV works with researchers, entrepreneurs and business professionals to create new start-ups with the aim of building businesses with global impact from outstanding research results at universities and research institutions in Japan and abroad. The WUV 1 L.P. is launched with a size of JPY 5.66 billion, and the final total fund size is targeted to be up to 10 billion yen.

Universities are a source of innovation and researchers themselves have the power to open up new 'knowledge'. While it is very important to create business and industry from science and technology research seeds, we believe that it is most preferable if researchers themselves can concentrate on their research rather than on business and management WUV's partners have a love of academic study and learning themselves, a deep understanding of science and technology, and through dialogue with researchers, WUV’s partners are able to create and conceive projects with global impact that contribute to the evolution, well-being and sustainability of human society from breakthrough sciences. On this basis, WUV will provide support for the start-up of the company from the formulation of the business plan to the formation of the management team, even before the company is established, and will focus on founding investment to create a new start-up as a co-founder and provide initial funding for its activities. The aim is then to bring in other VC funding to lead the start-up to success, and to play a leading role in realising an innovation ecosystem at Waseda University.

With the WUV 1 L.P., WUV aims to bring around 15 new start-ups based on scientific breakthroughs that will shine on the world stage. As researchers are already competing on a global level in science and technology research, we expect the start-ups we create and also support to spread their wings on a global scale.

WUV will target science and technology seeds not only from Waseda University but also from other universities and overseas research institutions and will work in the fields of physical sciences, information sciences and life sciences, as well as the humanities and social sciences and sports sciences.

WUV 1 L.P. Profil

  • Name: WUV 1 Limited Partnership

  • Date of establishment: August 8, 2022.

  • Fund size: Up to JPY 10 billion

  • Duration. 10 years (can be extended for up to three years)

  • GP : WUV 1 GP LLP

  • General Partners.Ted Yamamoto & Hiroaki Ohta

  • Partner. Daisuke Niwa

WUV Profile

  • Name: WASEDA University Ventures, Inc.

  • Location: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

  • URL: https://www.wasedavc.com

  • Date of Incorporation: April 5, 2022.

  • Capital: JPY 10 million

  • Shareholders: WUV Partners LLP (80%)

Waseda University (20%)

  • Board of Directors: Chairman of the Board Yasuyuki Abe

Representative director: Ted Yamamoto

Representative Director: Hiroaki Ohta

  • Audit & Supervisory Board Member: Sekine Aiko

Founding Limited Partners

  • Daiwa Securities Group

  • Japan Investment Corporation (JIC)

  • Mizuho Bank, Ltd.

  • Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd.

  • Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

(in alphabetical order)


Contact:

WASEDA University Ventures, Inc.

E-MAIL: info@waseda.vc

URL: https://www.wasedavc.com


LINK: Establishment of the WASEDA University Ventures (WUV) first fund (Waseda University News Release)