Mizuho Bank Ltd. plans to provide more than 2 trillion yen in new investments and loans to startups over the five years through fiscal 2030, President and CEO Masahiko Kato said Tuesday.

"There can be no growth in the Japanese economy without the growth of startups. Mizuho's mission is to take on challenges alongside startups," said Kato at a startup-related event in Tokyo. "As a market leader, we will provide the capital needed to sustain growth by executing new investments and loans totaling more than 2 trillion yen."

He also outlined plans to provide support for initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions, which contribute to startup growth, to more than 500 companies, as well as plans to train over 100 experts in supporting startups.

The bank established a department dedicated to supporting emerging companies in 2016, and it created a dedicated startup review office in 2022. From fiscal 2023 to 2025, the bank disbursed about 1 trillion yen in loans, and it plans to further increase its funding over the five-year period through fiscal 2030.

"Over the past 10 years, we have built a unique framework for fostering startups. We have established a system to provide end-to-end support, accompanying them from the founding stage through to the growth phase following their listing," Kato said.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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