Thomson Reuters will use a US$100 million venture capital fund to become a ‘content-driven technology business’.

The news agency and information provider announced it will invest in early stage companies that serve professional audiences in the legal, tax and accounting and news media business under the ‘Thomson Reuters Ventures’ brand.

The launch is part of a transformation plan by chief executive Steve Hasker, with the fund focussing on companies in their Series A and Series B investment rounds.

Chief strategy officer Pat Wilburn – who will be executive director – said Thomson Reuters wanted to identify companies than can help its customers "deliver more value" to their customers – whether that be machine learning for better prediction, or automating for better efficiency.

Reporting its announcement, Thomson Reuters said that in August, $700 million remained from a $2 billion mergers and acquisitions budget, and had a "robust" pipeline of targets in areas such as automation and small-to-medium cloud-based and software-as-services businesses.