With a new US-headquartered CVC arm, Japan Airlines looks to invest further beyond the core.
Japan Airlines (JAL) has launched a second corporate venture capital vehicle, the $50m JAL Innovation Fund II, and is bringing the operation fully in house in the process.
The new fund will be managed by Japan Airlines Ventures (JALV), the airline’s new arm will be registered in Delaware and headquartered in Silicon Valley, making it JAL says makes it the first airline in Asia to run a wholly in-house CVC fund.
JAL’s first fund, launched in 2019, operated under a joint-venture structure with an unnamed external partner, and this new fully internal model is designed to give the airline greater strategic control and closer alignment between investment activity and business collaboration.
The airline describes JALV as its “exploration engine”, connecting the group’s corporate assets with disruptive startups globally. While JAL will continue investing in core areas linked to aviation, mileage programmes, customer experience and sustainability, the second fund signals a broader push into frontier technologies like quantum, robotics, urban air transport and space logistics.
The new unit will be led by Masato Kunezaki, and the second fund is expected to be formally established this month.
See all the recent Japan Airlines startup investments in the CVC Funding Round Database
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
