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Kyocera, one of the world’s largest chip component makers, has unveiled two funds totalling $100 million for startups focused on technologies including artificial intelligence, renewable energy and mobility.
The Kyoto-based company has set aside $60 million to invest in early-stage startups in the U.S., the Middle East and Africa through its Kyocera Venture Fund-I over a 10-year period. It is pouring another $40 million in early to growth-stage startups in Asia via the Kyocera Venture Innovation Fund-I over the same period.
The two funds, both launched in April, target startups developing AI-related software and hardware, says Shouichi Nakagawa, senior general manager of corporate R&D group at Kyocera, in an interview in October. Its U.S.- and EMEA-focused Kyocera Venture Fund-I has since invested in Chipletz, a Texas-based chip packaging startup spun off from billionaire Lisa Su’s chip giant AMD, as well as Mixed-Signal Devices, a California-headquartered company that develops timing devices used in data centers and........