American Express has launched a $100 million initiative to identify and fund early-stage start-up companies that are developing new digital technologies.

The New York-based credit card company said in a release that it plans to invest $100 million in companies in the digital commerce market. The initiative will look to make such investments in companies focused on serving critical parts of the digital commerce experience, including loyalty and rewards, mobile and online payment management, fee-based services, security and fraud detection and data analysis.

American Express’ move is the latest example of large corporations, among them Visa, Google and Microsoft Corp., jumping into the venture capital space, said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, said in a Portfolio.com article.

“Many corporations are sitting on large amounts of money,” Heesen said. “At the same time, they haven’t been doing internal R&D. What they are seeing is they have to buy venture-backed companies to bring in the R&D, and if they start the process earlier, maybe get into the venture capital process earlier, there is a wider array of possible companies to invest in.”

American Express’ digital commerce initiative will be managed out of the company’s newly established office in Silicon Valley.