JBIC STORY
Established in 2023, ff Red & White venture capital (VC) fund aims to accelerate investment in Central and Eastern Europe’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem. Partner OHTA Masayuki, seconded from JBIC and involved since the fund’s launch, shares insights on the potential and promise of the region’s startups.
ff Red & White partner (seconded from JBIC) OHTA Masayuki Joined JBIC in 2003. After serving in roles such as the Energy and Natural Resources Finance Group (current), the Human Resources Management Office of the Corporate Planning Group, the Infrastructure and Environment Finance Group, and JBIC IG Partners (JBIC IG), assumed his current position in 2023. Graduated from Keio University, Faculty of Economics. Completed postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge.
Connecting promising startups in this tech hub and Japanese companies
After joining JBIC as a fresh graduate in 2003, OHTA built a career in financing for resource and infrastructure projects. “I was initially interested in macroanalysis, but through project finance, I became attracted to the dynamism of work on the ground.”
Joining JBIC IG Partners (JBIC IG)—an investment advisory firm established in 2017 by JBIC and consulting firm Industrial Growth Platform, Inc. (IGPI)—was a major turning point. Involved from the outset, his focus shifted to the frontlines of fund investment.
OHTA says that along with regularly gaining a diversity of knowledge ranging from healthcare to recycling technology, he is honing his ability to quickly make investment decisions.
In 2019, JBIC IG teamed with Baltic fund manager BaltCap to launch NordicNinja VC, a fund investing in the Nordic-Baltic region. Subsequently, ff Red & White was established in partnership with U.S.- and Poland-based ff Venture Capital in 2023 to focus on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
“The fund mainly covers Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania, and also includes Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This region has a wealth of engineering talent educated at national technical universities and other institutions, and is home to numerous R&D centers for major Western tech companies.” However, Japanese firms still tend to view the region as a ‘manufacturing base’ and overlook it as a source for collaboration candidates. “Our role is to bridge that gap.”
OHTA points to “resilience tech” as a distinctive feature of regional startups. “Against the backdrop of growing defense and security investments in Ukraine and NATO member countries, the broader security sector—infrastructure, energy efficiency, and election-interference protection—is thriving. While they may have plenty of engineers, many startups are in the dark when it comes to PR and marketing, and so tend to be strongly interested in partnering with large companies. Many of these startups may look unassuming but have a great deal of substance to them.”
for startup investment
in Central and Eastern Europe
A multinational team working side-by-side on joint decisions
An international team of partners—two Japanese (including OHTA), two Poles, and one American—selects the investment targets. “Like NordicNinja, we provide strategic support to Japanese companies and have a mixed team working with local experts. While supporting the startups’ expansion into the U.S. and UK markets, we are also mindful of connecting them to Japanese companies.”
But the diversity of backgrounds also creates challenges when it comes to decision-making: “Our sense of values and market perspectives may differ, but we strive to get on the same page and implement the PDCA cycle using opportunities such as quarterly offsite meetings. I find these meetings to be highly rewarding, with the quality of our consensus improving each time.”
ff Red & White is a multinational team. While their market perspectives may differ, decision-making is done by building consensus. (OHTA, far right)
There are also issues that become evident by being on-site. For example, OHTA often has to highlight local startups’ value proposition when introducing them to Japanese companies, as they sometimes lack those marketing skills themselves. “I believe I’ve honed my ability to work with startups to fully draw out their appeal.”
Reflecting back, OHTA says that the two years since ff Red & White’s establishment have passed by in a flash. “Aligning the views of a multinational team is difficult in a different way from handling international project financing, but also stimulating. Moreover, while learning every day about new fields, from healthcare to quantum computing and recycling technologies, I have been able to improve my ability to quickly identify common factors essential for investment decisions.”
There are three key themes for investment: enterprise software, industrial tech, and sustainable transformation. “We are becoming stricter about selections in enterprise software due to the rapid expansion of generative AI, but the industrial tech sector remains promising. For example, Poland’s Nomagic, which is advancing automation of warehouse sorting functions at logistics centers, has secured significant European public funding and is aggressively expanding. It has also expressed interest in collaborating with Japanese companies.”
Poland is gaining attention as a startup hub. Nomagic, providing AI-powered robotic arms for logistics operations, is one of ff Red & White’s portfolio companies.
Compatibility with the Japanese market is an important criterion
Fundamental investment decision criteria are “team strength, products that resonate with customers, and market size,” but compatibility with the Japanese market and Japanese companies is also crucial. Multiple negotiations on collaboration with Japanese companies are currently underway. “For example, a startup developing new communication technologies is working to strengthen partnerships in Japan. Public announcements on several projects are expected within the next year or two.”
OHTA is enthusiastic about collaborating with JBIC. “There is a complementary relationship here, with our fund focusing on early-stage startups and JBIC making larger investments at a later stage. With JBIC’s Equity Finance Group also strengthening startup investment, opportunities for collaboration are set to increase.”
“When I return to JBIC, I hope to leverage my VC fund experience to develop new collaborative models that transcend the traditional bank-client relationship.”
OHTA Masayuki, ff Red & White partner (seconded from JBIC)
JBIC IG Partners (JBIC IG), an investment advisory firm established by JBIC and the Industrial Growth Platform, Inc. (IGPI), has partnered with ff Venture Capital, which has a proven track record of fund formation in the U.S. and Poland, to establish the ff Red & White venture capital fund targeting Central and Eastern Europe in 2023.
