Additionally, the Hataraku Fund lacked a support system of issue experts, such as an advisory group. To address this gap, with their third impact investment fund, Huang and Takatsuka are partnering with Ritsumeikan University as anchor LP investor to access
expertise on several critical issues, including: 1. Lack of human resources and low productivity.
2. Traditional values and mindset (e.g., gender bias at home and in the workplace, fostering critical and creative thinking in education, socioeconomic status of caregivers, lack of diversity). 3. Systems that do not meet evolving needs (e.g., education, elderly care, childcare, healthcare, corporate/labor issues). Important to the learning of Hataraku Fund was increasing the intentionality of the staff and the investees to create social change through iterative and adaptive learning. SIIF is working on changes at the individual investment level and systems level through the SIIFIC Wellness Fund. SIIFIC Wellness Fund In September 2022, SIIF established SIIF Impact Capital (SIIFIC) together with serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Kazu Umeda, aiming to further popularize impact investing and explore the concept of systems change. SIIF’s Reiri Miura and Kazu Umeda are the two founding partners and have led SIIFIC since its inception. Miura previously held positions at companies such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Taiho Pharmaceutical, and SoftBank, while Umeda came from the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and the corporate venture capital arm of M3, Inc., Japan’s largest digital healthcare company. In the science investment field, there is often a barrier between scientists working on drugs or breakthroughs and finance professionals investing capital. Miura and Umeda have biotech backgrounds and understand the VC world. In June 2023, SIIFIC launched its inaugural SIIFIC Wellness Fund (WF)—which completed its first closing soon afterwards—as an impact investment fund (in which external investors also participate), intending to provide fundamental solutions to social issues in wellness. 32 The fund invests for impact through collaboration and co-creation with
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Ten Years in the Making
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