Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. will establish a Corporate Venture Capital Department in January 2019. This new department will serve as the company’s center for flexible and swift investment in startups and venture capital to accelerate open innovations for practical application and commercialization of new technologies and products.

Toyoda Gosei formulated its medium and long-term business plan, the 2025 Business Plan, in May 2018 as a guide to acting flexibly and rapidly in a dramatically changing business environment. In a key area of activities in the Plan, “Venture into Innovation and New Mobility,” the company is developing e-Rubber, a next-generation artificial muscle for robots and other applications, modular automotive products with human-machine interface functionality that will serve as a bridge between humans and automobiles in autonomous driving, and other new technologies and products.

In order to commercialize them, the Corporate Venture Capital Department will invest quickly in startups that are promising for synergy with Toyoda Gosei’s core technologies. The department will have an operating budget of 3 billion yen, and will invest it for a period of two years starting in January 2019.