German venture capital firm Redstone raising US$217m fund

[BERLIN] Redstone Digital, a Berlin-based venture capital firm, is raising a 200 million-euro fund (S$307.4 million), led by SBI Holdings, for a fund that will invest into startups focusing on the so-called fourth industrial revolution.

The Future Industry Ventures Fund will invest as much as 10 million euros per company in later growth phases, said Samuli Siren, managing partner at Redstone, in a telephone interview. The fund is still raising cash and could raise as much as 250 million euros, he added.

"We opted for a joint venture out of the conviction that Europe has some still unrivalled strength in innovation and technological expertise for sustainable industry solutions," said Yoshitaka Kitao, chief executive officer at SBI, Japan's largest online brokerage.

Industry 4.0's aim is to combine robotics, machine learning, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things to create smart factories capable of more efficient production.

Mr Siren said he aims to make the first investments from the pool of capital in the second quarter of 2020 and expects to make as many as six deals each year, targeting an internal rate of return of at least 20 per cent.

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