Cybersecurity solutions provider Trend Micro has announced the launch of a corporate venture fund to explore emerging technology markets.

With an initial investment of US$100 million, this venture fund will allow Trend Micro to nurture a portfolio of startups that are incubating ideas and living at the epicenter of hyper growth markets, such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

According to Gartner estimates, 26 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020.

Trend Micro founder and chief executive officer Eva Chen notes, “Trend Micro's vision has always been to make the world safe for exchanging digital information.

“The explosion of devices is transforming how the world works, thinks and acts.

“It is clear that the ecosystem is still evolving and there is work to do to ensure organisations and individuals can operate and live safely in this new reality.

Trend Micro's venture will offer companies financial backing, access to its world-class global threat intelligence, strategic alliances, as well as its channel of more than 28,000 partners.

In return, working with these investments will uncover insights into emerging ecosystem opportunities, disruptive business models, market gaps and skillset shortages.

These learnings will influence Trend Micro's cybersecurity solution planning across the company.

“We have a 29-year history of successfully anticipating technology trends to secure all types of environments,” says Chen.

“The first mega wave we caught was the growth of the PC marketplace; we committed early on to endpoint protection and remain a Leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms today.

“The second mega wave was all about the cloud; we made a bet early on to securing the cloud and so far we have secured over two billion workload hours on Amazon Web Services (AWS) alone,” she adds.

“Now, we believe the next wave has arrived with IoT; our fund will help us harness this opportunity.

With a strong financial position and 72 quarters of consecutive profitability, Trend Micro is well positioned to invest funds in doing research and making advancements consistent with its corporate strategy.

The formation of this venture arm allows additional freedom to dive into new areas without disrupting core business resources.