Yamaha sets aside $100M to explore new technology
Yamaha Motor Co., has announced the establishment of the U.S.-based Yamaha Motor Exploratory Fund, L.P. II, a company-financed 10-year fund with a total investment of $100 million (USD) for exploring technologies and opportunities aimed at new business domain expansion and securing competitive advantages.
According to a Visor Down report, this exploratory fund is the second in the past five years that Yamaha has set up to look for new tech to add to its core business.
The search for companies to invest in will be carried out by Yamaha Motor Ventures (YMV), which is the company’s corporate venture capital arm.
In its medium-term management plan (2022–2024) announced in February 2022, Yamaha designated several “New Businesses” and “Growth Businesses” as “Strategic Business Fields.” As part of managing its business portfolio, the plans to allocate management resources to these businesses in order to develop them into future core businesses.
Yamaha will promote these new business ventures through partnerships and with the technologies and expertise it has garnered to date.
As Visor Down points out, it may lead to some new AI-derived powersports products in the future (i.e., autonomous riding). In the meantime, Yamaha is looking for the next big startup to grow new business in the fields of transportation, robotics, data/AI, fintech/insurtech, and digital health and wellness.