Astellas Venture Management LLC (AVM) is the corporate venture capital organization dedicated to helping Astellas Pharma Inc. to achieve its strategic goals. The venture capital activity of AVM can be traced back to the year 1999. AVM is currently managing the following four funds:

Astellas Venture Fund I (AVF I) since 2005
Fujisawa Investments for Entrepreneurship II (FITE II) since 2001
Astellas Venture Capital (AVC) since 2000
Fujisawa Investments for Entrepreneurship (FITE) since 1999

Through its strategic investments in private early-stage companies, the funds aim to forge relationships with Astellas Pharma which may lead to larger collaborations in the future. AVM is able to provide portfolio companies with invaluable advice and assistance.

Astellas Pharma Inc., the ultimate parent company of AVM, headquartered in Tokyo, was created on April 1, 2005 through the merger of two Japanese pharmaceutical companies. Astellas is actively engaged in business as an R&D-driven global pharmaceutical company with the business philosophy to “Contribute toward improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products.” With this philosophy, Astellas focuses on highly specialized therapeutic areas (categories) where there is a high degree of unmet medical needs.