Hitachi Ventures raises $400M fund to invest in everything from fusion to AI
Hitachi Ventures secured $400 million for a fourth fund, the firm exclusively told TechCrunch.
The size of the new fund is a vote of confidence in a range of deep tech verticals. The corporate VC’s sprawling portfolio mimics that of its limited partner’s, including energy, manufacturing, biotech, and AI.
“We are open to other breakthrough opportunities,” said managing director and CEO Stefan Gabriel. “There’s a lot around quantum, nuclear, life science, space tech. Not too broad — we have a clear view on what excites us in these areas.”
Hitachi Ventures will continue to focus on Series A investments. “That is still the sweet spot,” said partner Gayathri Radhakrishnan. Its first investments in a company will average around $5 million, and the fund is reserving around 55% of its capital for follow-on opportunities, partner and CFO Wolfgang Seibold said.
Though it takes its name from the Japanese conglomerate, Munich-based Hitachi Ventures is a bit of an outlier in the corporate VC world. It’s structured more like a typical venture fund, Gabriel said, with Hitachi serving as the solo LP. The investment committee is made up of the firm’s partners, and they do not have to run possible investments past its corporate affiliate, said Pete Bastien, partner and president of the firm’s U.S. operations.
But the fund still works closely with Hitachi, he added, in part to help portfolio companies understand what a potential future customer is looking for. Like other CVCs, Hitachi Ventures doesn’t promise that it can land deals for portfolio companies, but it can make key introductions.
“We can put you in front of Hitachi, but your product needs to sell itself,” Radhakrishnan said.
And like other CVCs, Hitachi Ventures serves as a scout, Radhakrishnan said, scouring through pitches to find smaller companies and technologies that fits its corporate partner’s businesses.
Hitachi Ventures previous investments span a range of verticals. On the energy side, it has invested in battery recycler Ascend Elements, fusion startup Thea Energy, and Wase, a wastewater-to-energy company. Its AI investments have tended toward workplace applications, including Ema, which focuses on enterprise workflows; Strikeready, which covers cybersecurity; and Makersite, which uses AI to improve supply chains.
Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.
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