Today at CES 2017, Samsung announced the Samsung NEXT Fund — a $150 million venture fund targeted at early-stage startups working in emerging tech.
Specifically, they will be looking for companies focused on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and “other new frontier technologies.”
The fund will invest as early as pre-seed and as late as a Series B investment.
So far the fund has invested in 10 startups: Converge Industries, Dashbot, Entry Point VR, Filament, Intezer, LiquidSky, Otto Radio, 2Sens, SafeDK and Virtru. These companies range from a VR animation studio to water monitoring sensors for your appliances — signaling that NEXT will stay pretty broad with its investments.
Samsung NEXT, the division leading the fund, used to be called the Samsung Global Innovation Center. The division within Samsung is responsible for identifying promising new technologies and startups that could benefit Samsung.
NEXT also today announced a new office in Tel Aviv — they currently have locations in Mountain View, New York, San Francisco and Korea.