Support for Creating Our Future Society
Daiwa Securities Group begins the social problem solving businesses in various fields, such as FinTech, healthcare, energy infrastructure, and agriculture, utilizing the knowledge of various securities and financial businesses cultivated by the Group.
Business development starting from sustainability
Fintertech Co. Ltd.
Creation of Next Generation Financial Services
Established in April 2018, Fintertech Co. Ltd. aims to create next generation financial services through the use of state-of-the-art technologies and collaboration with external companies.
The company began offering digital asset-backed loans in March 2020, followed by real estate investment loans and crowd-tipping systems in April 2021, and loan-type crowdfunding in November 2021. Going forward, the company will continue to develop new financial services to satisfy the diverse needs of customers.
Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure Co. Ltd.
Promotion of Investment and Financing for Energy
Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure Co. Ltd. (DEI) was launched as the successor to the energy investment division of Daiwa PI Partners, and started operation on October 1, 2018. The company aims to provide new value as a member of an integrated securities group with a hybrid business model, and contribute to SDGs through investment and financing for renewable energy, infrastructure, and resource fields.
Renewable Energy Power Generation Projects
DEI has been actively working on development of and business investment in renewable energy generation projects, taking advantage of the Daiwa Securities Group's network.
In the solar power generation field, the 12 solar photovoltaic power plants which are owned and on which construction was completed as of May 2022 have all been operating stably. Also, the solar photovoltaic power plants under construction in Takayama, Gifu (30.8 MW) and Tochigi, Tochigi (51 MW) will be completed in 2022 and 2024, respectively.
In the biomass power generation field, DEI has been steadily promoting the development of wood biomass power generation plants that use tree trimmings in Japan as their primary source of fuel. The development is underway with Green Thermal Co. Ltd., with which DEI has formed a capital and business alliance. The commercial operation of a plant in Yonezawa, Yamagata began in January 2018 as the first alliance project, and a plant in Kamitonda, Wakayama as the second project also began in June 2020.
The plant in Kai, Yamanashi, which is under construction as the third project, is scheduled to be completed in 2023.
Stations developed/ invested in by DEI
| Photovoltaic power stations | Biomass power generation plant | |
|---|---|---|
| Output |
|
|
| Total | Approx. 342 MW | Approx. 20 MW |
| Projected amount of electricity generated annually: | Equivalent to the amount for approximately 114,000 households
|
Equivalent to the amount for approximately 25,000 households |
Initiatives for the Woody Biomass Power Generation Field
DEI has formed a capital and business alliance with Green Thermal, a leading company for the development and operation of woody biomass power generation plants, and Biomass Fuel Co., Ltd., a biomass fuel supplier. It has been actively promoting not only the construction of power plants but also the expansion of its value chain in the biomass field.
In collaboration with Biomass Fuel, DEI has been working to expand the procurement of palm kernel shell (PKS) - fuel for biomass power generation - and develop wood pellet manufacturing plants mainly in Southeast Asia. Preparations are currently underway for the construction of a new pellet plant in Vietnam.
Furthermore, in December 2018, DEI invested in Bioendev AB, a Sweden-based torrefaction technology company, aiming for technological evolution and global expansion of the biomass fuel-related business.
The woody biomass power generation business uses carbon-neutral power generation facilities that do not affect the amount of carbon dioxide. Moreover, since it adds new value as fuel to wood trimmings from forests and PKS that have been left and discarded, it is expected to generate new industries and employment and contribute to local economies in Japan as well as the promotion of industry in developing countries.
Daiwa ACA Business Succession
Contributing to the Sustainable Development of Society through Business Succession
About half of the small and medium-sized companies in which the owner is reaching the retirement age are said to not have enough successors. Business succession is thus an urgent social issue Japan needs to address even from the perspective of employment and GDP.
Daiwa ACA Business Succession Fund presents one solution to the business succession issue by becoming a new sponsor for companies on behalf of their owners.
As a new corporate partner, Daiwa ACA Business Succession Fund helps small- and medium-sized companies to pass on their excellent technologies and services to the next generations, while encouraging the innovation of technology and services with continuity by supporting business succession. Through these activities, Daiwa ACA Business Succession Fund will contribute to Japan's sustainable economic development.
Daiwa Food & Agriculture Co. Ltd
Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Production Business
Japan’s agricultural business faces various social issues, such as the aging of people engaged in farming, a decreasing number of new farmers, shortages of successors, and an increase in abandoned farmlands.
Daiwa Food & Agriculture Co. Ltd (DFA), which was established in November 2018, will contribute to solving various issues faced by Japan’s agriculture and food-related businesses, such as expansion of scale and increase in efficiency of the agricultural production business and new business initiatives, through the provision of risk money.
Agricultural Production Initiatives Using Large-scale Horticultural Facilities
Following on from the large-scale cultivation of tomatoes in Kusu, Oita, DFA entered the paprika production and sales business in October 2021 as a new agricultural production business. By farming in state-of-the-art environmentally controlled greenhouses, DFA has become one of Japan's leading centers of paprika production.
By taking advantage of cultivation using large-scale horticultural facilities and expertise in operating such facilities, DFA will continue to pursue expansion of scale and increase in efficiency of agricultural production, thereby engaging in business that contributes to the stable supply of food in Japan and overseas and to the revitalization of local economies.
Daiwa ACA HealthCare Inc.
Creation of a Sustainable Capital Cycle in the Healthcare Field
Social challenges are piling up in the healthcare field, including the rapid expansion of demand for medical and nursing care and the necessity of reducing medical costs. Through Daiwa ACA HealthCare Inc., which has investment and lending expertise in the medical and nursing care business, Daiwa Securities Group aims to solve social issues in the field by the provision of funds for hospital and nursing care businesses and support for succession and management of medical institutions, in Japan and overseas.
Good Time Living Co. Ltd.
Aging is an important social issue to be addressed in Japan's super-aging society. Amid the need to secure talented nursing care personnel, Good Time Living is developing an environment that allows staff to demonstrate their expertise thanks to labor-savings utilizing network communications.
Provision of High-Quality Nursing Care Services
Good Time Living is working to improve service quality with an emphasis on communication and reduce the amount of labor spent on indirect operations by using network communications to share information and knowledge. By switching from old paper records to mobile devices, records on the health and daily life of residents are being input in a timely manner. Coordinating information among multiple professions not only reduces labor, but also helps to provide services tailored to the individual, such as environmental improvements and reviews of nursing care details. The company is also currently introducing the LINE WORKS business chat tool to further strengthen staff communication.
In order to change the current state of nursing care services to address the progressive aging of the population, Good Time Living will further increase operational efficiency in nursing care frontlines and develop an environment that allows nursing care staff to demonstrate their expertise. The company will thereby contribute to the achievement of SDG Goal 3 "Good Health and Well-being" and Goal 8 "Decent Work and Economic Growth."
Specific Case of IT Use
Care-wing (institutional version) was developed jointly with the manufacturer. In addition to having the conventional function of recording home-visit nursing care, it digitalizes the staff operations list it helps to save time required for creating and revising lists compared to paper-based management, leading to enhancement of operational efficiency.
Feedback from staff
- Care-wing helps to reduce time for creating staff operations lists and creating and making changes to schedules.
- Care-wing enables each staff member to check the staff operations list using a tablet. This allows us to know who is working where, so the system has facilitated our operations.
Data on residents’ health and lives, which used to be handwritten by nursing care staff, is now entered into the nursing care record system CARE KARTE. The system automatically creates progress graphs using vital data such as temperature and blood pressure. It has also made it easier to retrieve recorded data, contributing to eliminating paper and saving labor in nursing care frontlines.
Feedback from staff
- We didn’t have enough opportunities to look at care given by other staff members, but we are now able to learn points for good care by looking at records.
- CARE KARTE has reduced the time required for recording data, enabling us to increase time for conversation with residents.
Daiwa Securities Group provided its accumulated expertise to the manufacturer and jointly developed a biometric monitor equipped with a highly precise monitoring function. The monitor helps to prevent and promptly detect accidents that have occurred in rooms, and also allows for visualization of living environments, while protecting privacy, due to its adoption of an infrared sensor. It thus helps to provide services, including environmental improvement and care, which are suited to each and every resident.
Feedback from staff
- Neos＋care® helps to identify causes for accidents, enabling us to come up with more effective measures.
- As the system allows us to understand residents’ behavior patterns, we can change our responses and environments.
- *As to use of the system, please see the video below. (in Japanese)
https://youtu.be/lsK0h8mU9vM
The instrument supporting in-room transfers helps reduce lower back pain and protect the safety and health of care staff. At the same time, the instrument has enabled staff to assist in-room transfers in a comfortable position while communicating with the resident, and this has contributed to reducing both the physical and mental burden on the resident.
Feedback from residents and staff
- I no longer need to have the staff member lift my body, and this has made me feel much easier. (resident)
- I feel that being able to see the staff member’s face has given the resident a sense of security. (nursing care staff)
- *As to use of the instrument, please see the video below. (in Japanese)
https://youtu.be/y23aX4RSLQE
When a person stands in front of the thermography camera, the system shows the person’s temperature and registered name. * The person can be identified even when wearing a mask
Good Time Living has set up a thermography camera equipped with face recognition AI in a windbreak chamber. When a person enters the building, the face recognition system conducts temperature measurement and identify whether or not the person is registered. The automated door is then opened and closed. Thermography cameras with the same specifications are also placed inside the rooms to prevent residents from go out alone if it is difficult for them to go out on their own due to their physical conditions.
Good Time Living established this portal site to facilitate the provision of information and enhance the convenience of users. The site has enabled the company to provide, in a timely manner, information on invoices and payment receipts, various notices, and crisis management information that used to be given by posting notices in the building or individually giving or mailing letters. The portal site is expected to help reduce monthly administrative work by 400 hours per facility (in the case of a facility with 80 rooms). It is also expected to help increase efficiency in nursing care frontlines, enabling staff to maintain high-quality nursing care services and further improve their services.
Daiwa Corporate Investment Co., Ltd.
Creation of Next Generation Industries and Services
Daiwa Corporate Investment Co., Ltd., a venture capital firm of Daiwa Securities Group, helps to solve social issues through investment in ventures, thereby contributing to the realization of a sustainable society.
Daiwa Corporate Investment manages multiple venture funds that invest in ventures. Some of these funds are strongly related to the SDGs, such as funds specializing in biotechnology and an environmental fund managed jointly with a Chinese environmental firm.
The firm incorporates an SDGs perspective into its investment activities for other funds as well, such as selection of investee companies and management support provided after investment. For recent years, Daiwa Corporate Investment has been especially strengthening efforts to relate its activities to the SDGs due in part to an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who have a strong awareness of solving social issues.
Investing in Ventures That Solve Social Issues
Daiwa Corporate Investment invests in many ventures. They include many companies related to the SDGs as shown below.
- GITAI Japan (investment by DVGF*1 in Feb. 2021): development of robots used in outer space
- Green Earth Institute (manufacturer in Tokyo; investment by F*2 in Sep. 2014): manufacturing license for bio fuel produced from non-edible biomass, green chemicals, etc.
- Craif (investment by DVGF in Jan. 2020): early detection of cancer using miRNA that exists in exosomes present in urine
- AI Medical Service (equity investment by DVGF in Sep. 2019): development of AI that assists analysis of endoscopic images
- Cardio Intelligence (equity investment by DVGF in Feb. 2021): development of an AI diagnostic support system for the early detection of atrial fibrillation based on electrocardiogram data (Japanese only)
- Plant form (equity investment by DVGF in Sep. 2018): operation of facilities for, and support to introduction of, aquaponics farming, which combines hydroponics and aquaculture (Japanese only)
- Kyoto Fusioneering (equity investment by DVGF in Aug. 2021): research and development, design, and manufacture of fusion reactor equipment, and export of equipment and components
- Aster (Reconstruction Fund*3 equity investment in Dec. 2017): development and manufacture of high-efficiency motors that contribute to a carbon-free society
- *1A venture fund that invests in startups creating new industries and contributing to generating a virtuous cycle of economic invigoration (being incorporated into investment)
- *2A venture fund aimed at helping the transformation of Japan's industrial structure that involves open innovations and the creation and invigoration of innovations at manufacturing industries (incorporation into investment completed)
- *3A venture fund targeting the Tohoku region, aimed at reconstruction and recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and the creation of new industries (incorporation into investment completed)
CECEP Environmental Fund
In October 2020, in collaboration with the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection (CECEP) Group, China's only state-owned company specializing in the environment, Daiwa Corporate Investment established a fund in Wuhan, Hubei Province, to invest in environment-related companies in China. The fund aims to contribute to the SDGs, and is engaged in investment business based on the principles of the Chinese government's policy to protect the Yangtze River. With an investment from the Hubei Provincial government in 2021, total investment funds currently stand at approximately ¥4.86 billion (as of the end of May 2022). The fund mainly invests in unlisted Chinese blue chips in the fields of energy conservation, the environment, circular economy, new energy, new materials, and equipment manufacturing. Previous investments include a company that inspects and repairs underground drainage pipes (Wuhan, Hubei Province) and a company that processes waste acid such as from steel rolling and recycles iron resources (Huizhou, Guangdong Province). Through investment activities in these companies, among the 17 SDGs, Daiwa Corporate Investment aims to make concrete contributions to Goal 6 "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" and Goal 9 "Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation."
Investment in Drug Development Ventures and Other Businesses by DCI Partners
DCI Partners is a venture capital firm that has been investing in the biotech field for more than 20 years, including the period of NIF Ventures (now Daiwa Corporate Investment). The firm currently manages two of Japan's largest bio-venture funds, making investments in Japan and Taiwan. In addition to existing bio-venture investments, the firm may expand the scope of investment to the many promising drug candidates that exist in pharmaceutical companies and academia, establish companies under the direction of the fund, and promote the drug development business. Leveraging its human resources, expertise, and financial strength of the fund to provide managerial resources through the fund, DCI Partners is committed to advancing development beyond hands-on support, from strategy planning to implementation. The majority of new drugs in recent years have been developed by biotech startups, and it was a biotech startup that first succeeded in developing a vaccine during the current pandemic. Given their development speed and innovative technological capability, biotech startups are attracting more attention than ever before, and their social significance and role are expected to increase. DCI Partners will support these companies through its investment activities and strive to build a foundation for industry and technological innovation and contribute to the health of all people and society.
Taiwan-Japan Bio Venture Fund
DCI Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in biotech startups in Japan and Taiwan, with a focus on drug development. It manages one of Japan's largest bio-venture investment funds. Following Fund I, established in January 2015 with a total capital of ¥11.6 billion, the successor Fund II was established in December 2020 with a capital commitment of ¥14 billion, which was later increased to ¥14.5 billion.
DCI Partners’ Investees
- Renascience (listed on Mothers (now Growth Market) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Sep. 2021): Development of drugs treating diseases associated with aging and mental health
- StemRim (listed on TSE Mothers (now Growth Market) in Aug. 2019): development of regeneration-inducing medicine
- EirGenix (listed on the Taipei Exchange in Jun. 2019): development of biosimilars and biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing operations (CDMO)
* Involved in the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines made in Taiwan
The Great East Japan Earthquake SME Reconstruction Support Fund
Daiwa Corporate Investment Co., Ltd. operates the Great East Japan Earthquake SME Reconstruction Support Fund, receiving investment from the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN (SME Support, Japan), The Aomori Bank, Ltd., The Bank of Iwate, Ltd., The 77 Bank, Ltd., The Toho Bank, Ltd., and other institutions. Targeting unlisted private companies in the disaster-affected areas, the fund aims to expeditiously provide risk finance. The goal is to actively support companies in their efforts to secure renewed growth and development by supplying finance for a variety of purposes. These include restoration and reconstruction following the 2011 earthquake disaster, new business development, the shift to a new industry or line of business, business reorganization and succession, and business incubation. The fund thereby aims to contribute to the early restoration and sustainable development of the disaster-affected areas.