Announcing the new
DAC Venture United Fund I
Taking the ongoing expertise and innovation of the Hakuhodo DY Group to the next level

Hakuhodo Incorporated and Hakuhodo DY Media Partners (HDYMP) are teaming up with two Hakuhodo DY Group companies—the Digital Advertising Consortium and its subsidiary United—to set up the DAC Venture United Fund I Investment Business Limited Partnership. United subsidiary Venture United Incorporated will serve as a general partner for the new Fund. Both Hakuhodo and HDYMP are headquartered in the Minato ward of Tokyo. Hakuhodo is headed by Hirokazu Toda, while HDYMP operates under president and CEO Hisao Omori. The Digital Advertising Consortium (DAC) is headquartered in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo and is headed by president and CEO Hirotake Yajima. United also operates out of Shibuya under the leadership of Tomonori Hayakawa.

 

Background

The Hakuhodo DY Group addresses changing corporate marketing activities as our world becomes increasingly digital. We aim to become the world’s premier marketing services group and the ideal marketing partner for our clients. As part of our effort to achieve this goal, we have formulated a five-year mid-range business plan ending in March 2019, which we announced publically in November 2013. The core of this policy is an aggressive investment strategy that defines the sustained integration of Hakuhodo DY Group expertise and innovation as one of the top three drivers of our corporate growth. We established the DAC Venture United Fund as a way to seek out promising new services and technologies at the earliest possible stage while expanding and creating new business projects that make the most of their future potential.

 

The fund represents the pooled resources not only of Hakuhodo and HDYMP, but of the entire Hakuhodo DY Group. We intend to use it to invest in internet-related startup companies expected to demonstrate robust and sustained growth in the future as a means of further promoting and expanding their business activities in this area. The Digital Advertising Consortium, which plays a central role in internet-related projects for the Hakuhodo DY Group, will leverage its technological prowess and extensive experience as an internet business expert to set up collaborative projects and new business models with the companies supported by the fund. United and Venture United, seasoned specialists in incubating Japanese businesses, will tap into their expert investment and development know-how to source an extensive array of potential startup deals and identify the ones with the strongest future potential. It will then help these rising stars to launch and expand their businesses.

 

The Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation (SME Support) and internet-related business and venture capital firms, such as Mizuho Capital Co., Ltd., Fusion Communications Corporation, and SBI Securities Co., Ltd. will also invest in the Fund as a way of promoting new business development among in Japan.

 

 

Basic information

General information on the fund follows.

 

1)  Full name: DAC Venture United Fund I Investment Business Limited Partnership

2)  Size: 1.2 billion yen (projected)

3)  Timeframe: Through December 2019*

4)  Managed by: Venture United Incorporated

5)  Key investors: Hakuhodo, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, DAC, United, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation

6)  Key beneficiaries: Japanese start-up companies working in internet-related fields

 

*Includes an option to extend for a maximum of two years.