Dentsu to Establish "Dentsu Ventures" Corporate Venture Capital Fund


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 15, 2015

Dentsu to Establish "Dentsu Ventures" Corporate Venture Capital Fund

Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Tadashi Ishii; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today that it has established "Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I," a corporate venture capital fund with a total capital of five billion yen. With companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia as its main targets, the fund will not only provide businesses with capital but will also focus on providing entrepreneurs with extensive business support that leverages the problem-solving resources cultivated by the Dentsu Group to date in order to help them bring innovation to the world.
The changes in the business environment surrounding the Dentsu Group and the advertising industry itself are accelerating, and the importance of open innovation through business collaboration with promising external partners is increasing even more. Under such circumstances the Dentsu Group will, through this fund, promote investment in ambitious venture companies that will create an as yet unseen future as well as open up new areas of development through the provision of business development support to the investees.
The Dentsu Group has to date made proactive investments in venture companies and promoted business collaboration through the Dentsu Digital Fund, a fund managed by its subsidiary Dentsu Digital Holdings Inc. Through investments mainly in venture companies outside of Japan as well as seed and early stage investments in Japanese companies, coupled with the building of a complementary relationship with the Dentsu Digital Fund, Dentsu will accelerate open innovation across the Group as a whole.

Outline of the Fund

Name: Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I Total fund capital: Five billion yen
Date of establishment: April 2015
Period of operation: Seven-year period from April 2015 until March 2022
Investment regions: Global investments with a focus on the U.S., Europe and
Asia
1 / 2

Investment stages: Balanced, wide-ranging investments with the focus on seed and early stage investments, but also including mid-stage and later-stage investments
Investment areas: (1) Areas that can change the marketing and communication business in a broad sense
(2) New areas other than the above that have a high potential for innovation
#####

Contacts:

Media-related enquiries: Shusaku Kannan

Senior Manager

Corporate Communications Division

Telephone: (813) 6216-8042

E-mail: s.kannan@dentsu.co.jp

Fund-related enquiries: Dentsu Ventures

E-mail: info@dentsu-v.com

2 / 2

distributed by