Japan Venture Capital Association (JVCA) seeks to increase investments from institutional investors, such as the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), in funds operated by domestic venture capital firms to 200 billion yen in the medium-to-long term, JVCA Chairman Toru Akaura told Nikkei in an interview. He also noted that he will set guidelines, which will serve as a benchmark to compare funds’ investment performances, as early as the spring of 2020 to solicit funds.

“I’m looking forward to raising investments of 100 billion yen each from domestic and foreign institutional investors,” Akaura said. He wants to increase the percentage of investments [in venture capital firms] by domestic institutional investors, which is lower than that by foreign institutional investors, to expand the size of funds and help domestic startups to grow.  

Akaura also serves as general partner and co-founder of Incubate Fund.

“Japanese institutional investors have stakes in American venture capital firms,” he said. “They think the level of Japanese venture capital is low.” He will set guidelines to discuss with GPIF, Japan’s largest institutional investor, and others. (Abridged)