Misumi Americas has launched Misumi Ventures, a $50 million early-stage investment fund targeting robotics, automation, advanced hardware, physical AI and industrial software companies.
The San Francisco Bay Area-based fund plans to build a portfolio of 20 to 30 seed and early-stage companies, typically investing between $500,000 and $1.5 million initially and reserving capital for follow-on rounds.
Misumi Ventures expects to invest alongside established Silicon Valley venture firms rather than lead funding rounds during its early years. Its main focus will be frontier hardware and automation, as well as AI and industrial software.
Arata Shimizu, representative director and president of Misumi Group, says: “Our Global Investment Vision is a commitment to be where industrial innovation actually happens, and today that is increasingly in North America.
“MISUMI Ventures lets us support the companies defining the next era of manufacturing early in their growth, and to learn from them. It is a long-term investment in our customers, our technology and our relevance.”
Misumi says the fund is intended to provide more than capital, giving portfolio companies access to its manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure. The company offers more than 30 million standard parts and operates 22 factories, supported by around 4,000 sourcing partners across the US, China, Asia, Europe and Japan.
Dave Evans, president and CEO of Misumi Americas, says: “We have watched a generation of talented hardware teams get stuck at the transition to production. That is a supply chain problem, and it is the one problem we are unusually good at solving.
“MISUMI Ventures is not a passive check. When we invest, a founder gets an engineering and supply chain team that can quote in minutes, deliver parts in a day, and scale them to thousands of units without changing vendors. That is the most valuable thing we can put on a cap table.”
The fund will target robotics, factory automation and advanced manufacturing systems, alongside technologies including supply chain intelligence, autonomous manufacturing and generative design.
Misumi Ventures may also make investments in adjacent sectors including aerospace, eVTOL, satellites, climate technology and medical devices.
The fund has been established as an independent investment structure rather than operating directly from Misumi’s corporate balance sheet. Misumi Group is its sole limited partner.
Its founding partners are Eddie Chen, Dave Evans and Nate Evans, who leads Misumi AI.
