Coral Capital closes third fund with US$128m

Coral Capital, a Tokyo-headquartered venture capital firm, has announced the closure of the third instalment of its fund, Coral Capital III. The firm raised US$128 million (14 billion yen), bringing its total assets under management (AUM) up to US$275 million.

Its limited partners Dai-ichi Life Insurance, Founders Fund, GREE, Mitsubishi Estate, Mizuho Bank, Pavilion Capital, Shinsei Bank. A few other anonymous domestic and foreign institutional investors alo took part in the funding effprt. 

Coral Capital was launched by co-founders James Riney and Yohei Sawayama to pursue one key goal: to provide the necessary backing to seed and early-stage Japan-based startups. The firm provides initial funding of between $500,000 to $5 million, and follow-on funding to firms considered worthy of it.

“We have made a few large follow-on investments – $20 million into SmartHR and $17 million into Graffer. we also allocated a significant portion of our latest fund for follow-on investment,” Riney said. 

Approximately 30% of Coral Capital’s third fund was raised from global backers spread across  the US, Asia and Europe, as the VC firm works to be the link between its Japan-based portfolio companies and the global venture capital community.

According to Riney, the third fund is different because of its extended fund life – it could reach 14 years. He added that this feature gives its founders the assurance that Coral Capital is not “a VC looking for a quick exit.”