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Top 25 Art Startup Investors in Japan

Last updated: Aug 2024 A list of 25 angel investors and VC funds that invest in Art startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Art companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 25 Art Startup Investors in Japan

Investor	Art Japan investments
Globe Advisors	2
Fuji Startup Ventures	2
DK Gate	2
UTEC - The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners	2
Ryosuke Matsumoto	2
YJ Capital	1
Mai Fujimoto	1
Monex Ventures	1
Shunsuke Oyu	1
Taiga Matsuyama	1
Nippon Venture Capital	1
Kunihiro Tanaka	1
Kazuma Yamauchi	1
SX Capital Japan	1
Darwin Venture Management	1
Akatsuki Games Inc.	1
Sotaro Karasawa	1
Sachiko Kuno	1
Gakken Plus Japan	1
Ryutaro Katayama	1
Future Venture Capital	1
East Ventures	1
Shota Horii	1
Kenji Yabuno	1
B Dash Ventures	1

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Investor list

Globe Advisors is an independent investor that finds companies that are expected to grow significantly in the future. A growing company is one that a good manager and his team can put in a good product in a good market. Such companies are properly valued, funds for growth are raised and a better future is created. Globe Advisors wants to be acompany that can contribute to the creation of such a society.

Investment focus

SNS, Artificial Intelligence, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Switzerland

Portfolio highlights

Hutzper — Hutzper is a computing solution for the manufacturing industry specialized in image recognition and AI development.
initialpoint — initialpoint develops an authentication systems for the telecommunications industry, social infrastructure, and security solution companies.
Galapagos — Galapagos is a manufacturing company that focuses on results.They trying to create an application that produces results in the application market where only good things are evaluated.

Fuji Startup Ventures, the venture capital arm of Fuji Media Holdings, specializes in startup to early stage investments.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Product Design, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Suvaco — Suvaco is a Tokyo based home design marketplace startup.
TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
PeaceTecLab — PeaceTecLab is a CtoCsharing service, as its main business.

DK Gate is a joint venture company of Digital Garage and Kodansha.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Social Media
Series A, Seed, Series B
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Jiraffe — jiraffe focusses on Internet service planning, development, and management.
TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
Psychic VR Lab — Psychic VR Lab is a startup company that handles fashion VR and MR shopping service STYLY. They are creating a future where they will live in space.

UTEC-The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd.. UTEC is a seed/early stage technology focused venture capital firm associated with The University of Tokyo.

Investment focus

Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

SWAT Mobility — SWAT Mobility is a smart mobility company that provides demand-responsive, ride-sharing technology in high capacity vehicles. We work with corporates, transport operators and government agencies to improve transport services. Learn more about how we can help you leverage technology for your transport.
Celaid Therapeutics — Celaid Therapeutics specializes in manufacturing and sales of regenerative medicine products utilizing human hematopoietic stem cells.
Red Arrow Therapeutics — Red Arrow Therapeutics is a biotech firm that provides systemic cytokine delivery, targeted intratumoral activation, and biological potency.

Ryosuke Matsumoto is the founder and CEO of Community Factory Inc.Ryosuke is born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1981. He joined launching of the publication venture company, and ran a cafe while he was attending Chuo University in Tokyo. Since he joined launching the social media venture company in 2004, he has been in social media business. In2006, Ryosuke founded Community Factory Inc. which specialized in planning and operating social media and blog services.Community Factory started to specialize in social application for mobile from 2009, and Community Factory draw investments of around 4.5 million US dollars from venture capitals and mixi inc. then the biggest social media in Japan. DECOPIC, Community Factory's one of the apps for smartphone, has been downloaded 6 million times in the 6 months since its release, and it is rapidly gaining users mainly in Asian countries.In Sep 2012, Ryosuke and other stock holders sold Community Factory to Yahoo Japan Corp., and he remains as CEO of Community Factory.

Investment focus

Art, Reservations, Software
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

6curry — 6curry is a brand that creates a new community around “curry”, one of the world's best Japanese foods. The concept is to mix many people and ideas like curry made by mixing various ingredients and spices. Original menu development, weekly events are held in the central kitchen, open only to members. We design and produce communication bornfrom food, such as event catering for over 500 people and communication proposals within the company.
TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
vivid garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.

YJ Capital is a Corporate Venture Capital of Yahoo Japan. Our value is to help global minded entrepreneurs build successful and lasting internet companies. We invest in all stages, all sectors in Asia, US and Israel.YJ Capital has a unique access to Yahoo Japan's operational experience and unparalleled Japan market entry support. Oursole LP allows us to focus only on our portfolio companies and make fast decision making.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, United States, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
LEAN BODY — Lean Body is an online platform for fitness videos.
Stacked — Watch videos with your people on Stacked.com

Mai Fujimoto is known domestically and internationally as Miss Bitcoin. She has been promoting the spread of Bitcoin around the world since 2011.

Investment focus

Blockchain, Marketplace, Art
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Canada, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

RSS3 — RSS3 structures open information for the next Twitter, Google, and OpenAI.
GCR DAO — Global Coin Research is a Community-led DAO for Web3 Research & Investing. We source, vet & fund Pre-Seed to Series A opportunities. Join to Invest Together!
Brand New Vision — Brand New Vision uses smart contracts to help creators sell digital fashion and other accessories.

Monex Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan that finances seed and early stage investments in startup companies.

Investment focus

Software, Financial Services, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Degas — Degas develops solutions to improve the productivity of small-scale farmers in Africa.
pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
MoneyDuck — MoneyDuck - Making Smart Financial Decision

Shunsuke Oyu is the co-founder of Connehito Inc. Started an online Q&A platform “mamari” which is the largest platform for moms in Japan. Connehito was acquired by one of the telecom giant KDDI in 2016. Selected as a “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” at consumer technology department. Angel-investing 50+ companies globally.

Investment focus

Content, Internet, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
SPORTS CROWN — SPORTS CROWN engages in the development and operation of fantasy sports.
Neighbor — The creative universe of Fortnite is infinite. To give an example , building fantasy and science fiction worlds, creating simple games and full-scale battle games can all be completed with Fortnite. Is the world of Fortnite, played by 350 million users worldwide, is it real or unreal? We will try to combining the vast world of Fortnite with the real world.

Taiga Matsuyama graduated form Waseda University, Matsuyama has been engaged in venture company support for more than ten years in Tokyo, after experience as a consultant at Accenture.Matsuyama became one of the board member of NetAge, Inc (IPO 2006), start-up incubator known by having invested in MIXI – Japanese top SNS and support severalstart-up companies.He also has contributed to the activity for create the start-up eco-system in Tokyo through the NPO Organization BVA (Bit Valley Association). Currently he has established Kronos Fund with angel investors, venture capital fund for investment in emerging early-stage companies.Kronos Fund has invested in more than 20 companies.

Investment focus

Software, Artificial Intelligence, Telecommunications
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Shippo — Shippo is the best multi-carrier shipping software for e-commerce businesses. Find the best shipping rates, integrate with e-commerce platforms, print shipping labels, track package delivery, and verify addresses with either our shipping API or web app.
CAMPFIRE — Campfire engages in the planning, development, and operation of a crowd funding platform.They operate the largest cloud funding platform in Japan [CAMPFIRE (campfire)], which supports "whoever wants to start something."The fee is 5% of the domestic level, and about 15,000 projects have collected about $70million in total from over700,000 people.
Spectra Japan — Spectra is a Provision of services for artists and fans company.

Nippon Venture Capital ("NVCC"), established in 1996 as one of the few largest Japanese independent venture capital firms, is destined to undertake the unprecedented task of providing full-range venture capital services in cooperation with major Japanese business leaders and leading companies, which have supported and nurtured various newbusinesses on their own, as well as proactively developing new venture enterprises.

Investment focus

Software, Health Care, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

A10 Lab — A10 Lab is a company that aims to makes people happy with technology that is independent of Sony's new business creation program. It provides Google Play an app that allows users to do things that they have never been able to do with the custom app 'Min Chale' selected for two consecutive years. It is a company that brings profits tocompanies by improving lifetime value (sales) through the habitation of users that companies have.
YADOKARI — Yadokari provides various types of Construction & Real Estate related other services.
Renalys Pharma — Renalys Pharma is a private, late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical firm in Japan dedicated on developing new therapies that address unmet needs in the management of renal illness in Japanese and Asian patients.

Kunihiro Tanaka is a President/CEO of Sakura Internet Inc.

Investment focus

Art, Baby, Gaming
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

RATEL — Since its establishment in 2018, the company has been operating and broadcasting esports tournaments with the mission of making esports the best entertainment in the universe. We mainly run official tournaments and large-scale tournaments for various titles such as CoD Mobile, CoDBOCW, ApexLegends, VALORANT, and Knives out. We are also developing avoice chat application called “VOLBOX” to solve the issues raised by many esports players.
Stayway — Stayway is operating the world's largest hotel and vacation facility search and comparison site.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.

Kazuma Yamauchi

Investment focus

Content, Art, Social Media
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Sozi — The core members of Sozi are information technology experts. I have been involved in communication and web service development in the information society. On the other hand, each is familiar with many contents such as manga, anime, and illustrations .
Anique — Anique is a service that utilizes blockchain technology to make artworks.
Misaky.Tokyo — Marine plant-based, handmade Japanese sweets. These crystal treats are individually handcrafted, the perfect gift idea! Vegan, gluten-free, and additive-free confectionery, with stunning flavors such as Yuzu, Matcha, and Rose. Supporting artisans in their craft. Japanese luxury sweets with a surprise inside.

SX Capital is an asset management firm targeting private IT-related venture companies. It aims to provide all kinds of support for growth, not just investment. The firm was founded in 2000 and is based in Toranomon, Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Art, Content
Series A, Series B, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

WELMO — WELMO has currently been working on R&D to launch Japan's largest welfare AI service platform called "CPA(Care Plan Assistant)" which supports care coordinator (caregiver), who helps a daily activities of the elderly people, to create a care plan for them, with using ICT and advanced technology, especially NLP(Natural LanguageProcessing), in terms of knowledge support. It has mainly two fundamental technologies; data warehouse includes all fast date and big date about care, explainable AI that describes a reason why the care is provided for the users. It also reduces time and cost to create the care plan, which enables anyone to be able to use easily and get enough information that the users want to know and use.
Housmart — Housmart is a real estate media company
Startbahn — Startbahn aims to realize a richer society by providing the technology needed by artists and people involved with art all over the world. We are developing Startbahn Cert., a service that issues blockchain certificates for artworks, and promoting the development of Startrail, a blockchain infrastructure that is the basis for Startbahn Cert. We alsorun joint projects with other companies.

Darwin Venture Management is a venture capital firm headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, with offices in Hsinchu and the United States. Since our founding in 2009, we have managed eight funds, investing primarily in Series A/B, late-stage, and secondary funds. In 2022, we also launched an evergreen angel fund to enable more nimble bets onpromising early-stage teams, and especially those coming from Taiwan’s superb academic and research institutions. This exposure across stages and borders, coupled with the strong technical background of our team, is the source of Darwin’s differentiation. We recently launched our 8th fund Darjune.

Investment focus

Software, Manufacturing, Information Technology
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Taiwan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

PopChill — PopChill generates an online marketplace for second-hand trade, enabling users to share their fashion styles and sell idle items.
Zehitomo — Zehitomo is an Japanese online platform that enables user to hire local service professionals, from photographers to personal trainers.
Camlann — We're Camlann GamesAn Indie Game Publisher That Performs We back passionate developers, vibrant worlds and the most unforgettable stories ever told in indie PC games Our Games Wishlist on Steam Wishlist on Steam Featured on PCGamer We're New. So Why Should You Work With Us? Learn more 0 + Years Independent Game Publishing Experience 0

Akatsuki offers MobileSocialGame services. They utilize cutting edge technology and ideas to realize and deliver their ambitions to their users. They provide new value to society through the services we manage daily. Providing services throughout the world that brighten up everyone's daily lives.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Gaming, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Corporate Round
Japan, India, United States

Portfolio highlights

Hitcard — Hitcard is a trendy card culture brand that uses technology to upgrade card-like consumer products.
Stems Labs — community and platform for collaborative creativity
MetaverseGo — MetaverseGo is a web 3.0 app that offers easy access to Play-and-Earn Games, Guilds, NFTs, and Decentralized Applications allowing users to own assets, connect with industry players, and use their earnings across multiple payment platforms.

Sotaro Karasawa - Chief Technology Officer @ STAR FESTIVAL

Investment focus

Software, Blockchain, Art
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Taian — Taian, which specializes in bridal industry services and software. They also provide ''Concept Marry,'' which allows couples to design invites and seating charts that match their wedding theme, as well as display guest information on Oiwaii.
Atmoph — A smart digital window that opens to beautiful scenery from around the world. By simply putting it on your desk or hanging it on the wall, Atmoph Window will open up a whole new world before you.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.

Sachiko Kuno - Co-Founder, President & CEO @ Halcyon Incubator

Investment focus

Art, Social Media, Museums and Historical Sites
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ARTLOGUE — ARTLOGUE is an arts tech company that innovates in the art industry through technology. It is also a social art media that works to solve social problems that make use of art. It was established on July 7, 2017.

Gakken Plus is a publishing business offering a catalog of books and magazines.

Investment focus

Art, EdTech, Robotics
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

OurPhoto — OurPhoto is a service that matches clients and photographers. Professional and semi-professional shooting is surprisingly high quality and reasonable.
MiRaY School — MiRaY School is an Education based company that service Gifte (! Kifte) is a service that offers a learning experience for the future of children and children.
GranSky Studios — GranSky Studios makes good stories as well as animations which all ages can enjoy. GranSky Studios brings light of dream and hope to people worldwide through our production.

He holds a BA in Economics and a Master of Sociology from Keio University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. After regenerating many companies as president, he served as a representative of Giuliani Partners Japan and the president of Japan's oldest and largest art auction company Christie's Japan. He has also served as a number ofprominent corporate outside directors and director of art groups. Participated in the creation of Whiz Partners, a leading venture capital firm, and is still a managing partner of international venture capital.

Investment focus

Art, Blockchain, Information Technology
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Startbahn — Startbahn aims to realize a richer society by providing the technology needed by artists and people involved with art all over the world. We are developing Startbahn Cert., a service that issues blockchain certificates for artworks, and promoting the development of Startrail, a blockchain infrastructure that is the basis for Startbahn Cert. We alsorun joint projects with other companies.

Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. is a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investment. The firm invests in diversified investment in a broad range of industrial sectors. It seeks to invest in Japan. The firm prefers to be the lead investor in its portfolio companies. Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and is based inKyoto, Japan with offices in Tokyo, Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, Kanazawa, Mie, Sakai, Kobe, and Ehime.

Investment focus

Health Care, Information Technology, Manufacturing
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Myanmar

Portfolio highlights

Soxai — Soxai manufactures rings for healthcare purposes using IoT.
Dioseve — Dioseve is providing novel possibilities for all life.
YeLL Japan — YeLL is a company that help transform the organization by making the real sound of employees visible.

East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Indonesia, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

SoLeLands — SoLeLands provides children with future-ready skills, virtues, and applied competences and inspires children to love learning.
Maka Motors — MAKA is dedicated to building the best electric motorcycles for Indonesian riders.
Zenith Learning Group — Zenith Learning Group's mission is to deliver a holistic, world-class education to learners across South East Asia through technology.

Shota Horii

Investment focus

Information Technology, Internet, Art
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Flatt Security — Flatt Security is a cyber security company for all developers.
Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
UNDEFINED Japan — UNDEFINED is a very young team with an average age of about 20 years.We develop products for teenagers who make the most of their youth by working closely with users.

Kenji Yabuno is a Founder & CEO at Cookbiz Co.,Ltd.

Investment focus

Art, Social Media, Product Design
Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ARTLOGUE — ARTLOGUE is an arts tech company that innovates in the art industry through technology. It is also a social art media that works to solve social problems that make use of art. It was established on July 7, 2017.
Replace — Replace operates " STAND3.0" that matches the opening of stalls and idle spaces.

B Dash Ventures does seed to late stage tech investments in Japan, Asia Pacific, and the U.S. LPs include Japan's largest technology companies and financial institutions including NTT Docomo, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, GREE, NEC BIGLOBE, Fuji Television, and the Japanese government. B Dash Ventures also operates an incubation space inpartnership with Mori Building Co. and holds the invitation-based B Dash Camp conference.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Internet, E-Commerce
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Taiwan, India

Portfolio highlights

G.U. Group — G.U. Labs provides cloud tools and solutions, security technologies, and R&D capabilities to respond to the various social changes caused by blockchain. G.U.Labs provides cloud tools and solutions, security technologies, and research and development capabilities to respond to the various social changes caused by blockchain.
Thirdverse — Thirdverse (formerly known as Yomuneco Inc) is engaged in Virtual Reality content and services planning, development, sales and management.
Ascend — Ascend is a logistics company.

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