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Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc., the Tokyo-based multinational insurance holding company with $45 billion in global premiums across all major lines of property/casualty, life and health insurance, has launched the Tokio Marine Future Fund, a Silicon Valley-headquartered corporate venture capital fund. Tokio Marine reports that it has committed $42 million to the initial fund with plans to deploy more capital into subsequent fund cycles.
Yoshi Yoshida, Tokio Marine Future Fund.
Tokio Marine Future Fund will focus on early-stage investments in seed-stage through Series A companies in a broad range of markets—including InsurTech, fintech, mobility, health care, cybersecurity, AI/automation and climate risk—with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $3 million, according to a Tokio Marine statement. The new venture investments will extend Tokio Marine’s commitment to supporting startup innovation, the statement says.
The new fund supplements existing Innovation Labs operated by Tokio Marine in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Taipei and Tokyo, aimed at driving the adoption of new technologies in its operating companies across the globe.
Tokio Marine Future Fund has partnered with World Innovation Lab (WiL), a Silicon Valley and Japan-based venture firm with over $1.5 billion in assets under management, to drive what the company calls a focused and efficient investment process. Tokio Marine is a key LP in WiL’s growth funds, which focus on Series B and later startups across a broad range of sectors.
“The global investment opportunity for early-stage innovative startups in the United States and emerging markets is immense,” comments Yoshi Yoshida, Tokio Marine Future Fund. “Tokio Marine’s global presence gives us the ability to help accelerate the growth of startups tackling new opportunities across insurance, fintech and a range of adjacent sectors. We are excited to help empower a new generation of entrepreneurs.”
Tokio Marine Future Fund reports that it has made several early-stage investments to date, including:
Carefull, a financial caregiving platform providing smart financial account protections, credit, identity and bill monitoring, plus daily money organization.
Nirvana, rebuilding commercial insurance for fleets and transportation from the ground up.
Titaniam, a data protection platform delivering encryption-in-use to ensure that even if attackers get in, they cannot leave with valuable data.
TrustLayer, an insurtech company automating insurance verification with machine learning and AI.
Voxel, a real-time risk identification platform powered by computer vision that enables existing security cameras to automatically identify hazards and high-risk activities in real-time, keeping employees safe and driving operational efficiencies.
Driving Strategic Value for Portfolio Companies
Steve Pretre, World Innovation Lab.
The Tokio Marine Future Fund team focuses on driving fast investment decisions. After the initial investment, the team says it is positioned to drive strategic value for its portfolio companies, whether as a customer, a capacity provider or by driving the adoption of portfolio products within its customer base. Areas of investment will include InsurTech, fintech and related adjacencies, including mobility, health care, cyber risk, AI/ML, and climate risk and sustainability.
Tokio Marine reporst that World Innovation Lab will power the investment strategy. The firm will act as the CVC fund manager led by Steve Pretre, who manages World Innovation Lab’s investments across the fintech and InsurTech sectors. Pretre has decades of operating experience across a variety of startup sectors, with a focus on the InsurTech space as part of the early executive teams at Risk Management Solutions (RMS; Newark, Calif.), one of the first venture-backed InsurTech startups. Pretre also worked at Asurion before co-founding and serving as the early CEO at Metromile, after which he made his transition to venture investments.
The Tokio Marine Future Fund team includes more than 10 partners and members across the spectrum of investment strategy and business development, according to the Tokio Marine statement.
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