CJ Corporation announced that the company established CJ Investment, a corporate venture capital (CVC), after acquiring 100% of the share capital of Timewise Investment for 22.1 billion won ($16.9 million) from C&I Leisure Industry.
Timewise Investment was established in 2000 under the name Dream Discovery. The company changed its name to CJ Venture Investment in 2003 and then Timewise Investment in 2014. It has broadened its investment in promising startups in food, biotechnology, IT, and other diverse industries.
Over the next five years, CJ Investment plans to invest 400 billion won ($306 million) in startups aimed at developing new growth engines focused on four major growth engines: culture, platform, wellness and sustainability.
CJ is actively expanding its equity investment and collaborating with startups after announcing the company’s future innovative growth strategy through its mid-term vision in November 2021. Recently, it has been seeking new businesses and synergies by conducting strategic investments including a business collaboration with ‘bemyfriends,’ a global fandom startup, and investing in healthcare funds.
It is also expanding its accelerating functions that identify promising new startups and provide proactive investments to support their growth. In line with this, the company is currently operating O!VentUs, an open innovation program that helps strengthen business capacity and promotes joint commercialization by recognizing startups with potential. The company plans to further enhance the program by combining it with CJ Investment’s exceptional startup discovery capabilities.
