ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has invested in Tera Ventures II Usaldusfond, the second fund established by Tera Ventures (headquartered in Tallinn, Harju County, Estonia; Andrus Oks, Founder; hereinafter “Tera Ventures”), an Estonian venture capital firm.

Estonia is reputed to be one of the world's most advanced digital nations, with 99 percent of government services available online. It is a country that boasts many engineers in fields such as cybersecurity and encryption technology. Known as the “Silicon Valley” of Europe, Estonia welcomes foreign entrepreneurs and produces many groundbreaking firms such as Skype.

Tera Ventures was established in 2016 in the process of reorganization of SmartCap, a government run fund of funds, which was selected as "Top European VC" in Estonia.*¹ In addition to a strong local network in the surrounding region focused on the Baltic States, Tera Ventures also has bases in Finland and the United States, and invests in startups with close ties to the local region, whilst gathering information globally. The investee fund is the second fund to be established by Tera Ventures, and it invests in areas such as SaaS, retail tech and digital marketing.

ITOCHU has already invested in prominent venture capital funds in the United States, Israel and China and has collaborated with the investee startups of these funds, providing support for their overseas expansion. Most recently, ITOCHU invested in Via Transportation, Inc. (hereinafter "Via"), which provides a ride sharing service, and also made strategic business investment in Via Mobility Japan K.K., which provides the system used by Via in Japan.
Through this latest investment in Tera Ventures, ITOCHU aims to realize collaboration with promising startups in the Baltic States and Northern European countries, which are expected to be at the forefront of digital transformation (DX), and to help develop new services in Japan and overseas, improve the earning capacity of startups and give a boost to the economy as a whole.

■Tera Ventures URL：https://www.tera.vc/