Samsung Electronics chief strategy officer Young Sohn said that the fund would be focused on Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass., and Israel, but could also fund initiatives elsewhere in the world.
He said, "We're going to support early stage entrepreneurs and academia. We want to make sure we're part of the disruptive forces sweeping the technology industry."
Sohn added that the Catalyst Fund will hand out smaller sums of money than the company's venture arm - perhaps a couple million dollars - and will hone in on projects related to cloud infrastructure, mobile, human interface and mobile health.
The Korean manufacturer also said it plans to increase its corporate venture investing this year to back the fundamental breakthroughs in digital science that venture capitalists have recently shied away from funding.
To begin the fund, Samsung launched a contest that will award $10 million in seed investments later this year to entrepreneurs, engineers and artists hoping to use technology to improve people's lives.