Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. has launched a Silicon Valley-headquartered corporate venture capital (CVC) fund. The company has committed $42 million to the initial fund with plans to deploy more capital into subsequent fund cycles.

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, healthcare, cybersecurity, AI/automation and climate risk—with amounts ranging from $500,000 to $3 million.

Tokio Marine already operates innovation labs 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, to drive a focused and efficient investment process. 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 brings decades of operating experience across a variety of startups, including Metromile, RMS and Asurion.

The Tokio Marine Future Fund team includes more than 10 partners and members across the spectrum of investment strategy and business development.

“The global investment opportunity for early-stage innovative startups in the United States and emerging markets is immense,” said Yoshi Yoshida at 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 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.

Source: Tokio Marine Holdings