Establishment of the UMI III Investment Limited Partnership

On October 7, 2022, Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (UMI) established the UMI III Investment Limited Partnership (UMI III Fund) with a promised investment scale of more than 6.5 billion yen, and implemented an initial cutoff. The promised investment scale is scheduled to be expanded to around 20 billion yen.

The material and chemical industries overwhelm other industries in terms of the ratio of shipment amounts and added value as part of the manufacturing industry overall. Up to now, Japanese companies have brought about many innovations in this field, supporting the growth and development of other industries as well. These industries have longer R&D cycles than other industries, however, and also require substantial capital to support these R&D operations, as well as human resources with specialized knowledge to undertake these activities. As such, these industries face challenges in terms of the difficulty in creating new business and matching promising technologies in the embryonic stage from large corporations, venture companies, and academia with optimum partners.

To resolve these issues, UMI started up the UMI I Investment Limited Partnership (UMI I Fund; the first managed fund) in January 2016, and established the UMI II Investment Limited Partnership (UMI II Fund) in April 2019. Up to now, it has investigated more than 900 projects, with the UMI I Fund investing in 12 and the UMI II Fund investing in 13. The greatest issue surrounding the creation of business in the material and chemical industries is the substantial capital required from product development through to the production engineering stage. In this context, UMI provides appropriate risk money and offers hands-on management support. Furthermore, in the volume production stage, it promotes active collaborations to ensure that venture companies can effectively utilize the resources of large corporations.

Following up on the UMI I and UMI II Funds, the goal of the UMI III Fund is to establish a platform for the creation of new business in the material and chemical industries, focusing on new businesses and outstanding technologies at major corporations, academia, and venture companies in the material and chemical industries, and actively supporting business creation by serving as a receptacle for those businesses and technologies. In the case of the UMI III Fund, we started up the UMI Decarbonization Fund as a sister fund, with the goal of strengthening investments in technologies and businesses in the decarbonization field, where many of the key solutions incorporate material and chemical technologies, and creating innovations that transcend the boundaries of industry by promoting participation by business companies outside of the material and chemical industries as well. In June 2021, UMI became a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), and in the case of the UMI III and UMI Decarbonization Funds, it promotes investment activities with attention to ESG issues. UMI strives to create new business on a global scale, with a particular focus on Japan and other parts of Asia.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the many parties who contributed to the establishment of the UMI 3 Investment Limited Partnership, and we look forward to your valued support of UMI in the future.