Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has launched a JPY20bn ($185m) FinTech-focused venture capital fund targeting US and Asian startups.
The company said MUFG Innovation Partners will manage corporate venture capital funds to take advantage of a financial services industry being transformed by FinTech-related startups, which have scaled up rapidly and raised substantial amounts of capital from financial and non-financial institutions.
It said that while the MUFG Group entities have previously made separate strategic investments in FinTech related startups, a larger, collaborative and more sophisticated framework for strategic investments was needed in order to adapt itself to rapid marketplace changes and enhance open innovation.
MUIP will take advantage of ‘The Investment Specialized Subsidiary’ status under the Japanese Banking Act, which allows it to acquire more than five per cent ownerships of investees under certain conditions.
Previous FinTech investment by MUFG include accounting software business Freee.
MUFG, one of the world’s biggest banks by assets under management, is headquartered in Toyko with a network of over 1,800 locations in more than 50 countries.
Last year it revealed it was planning a blockchain-based payments service based on Akamai’s cloud delivery platform.
Copyright © 2019 FinTech Global
