Top 50 Artificial intelligence Angel Investors in Japan in February 2025
A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Artificial intelligence startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Artificial intelligence companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 50 Artificial intelligence Angel Investors in Japan in February 2025
Investor | Artificial intelligence Japan investments |
---|---|
Kotaro Chiba | 4 |
Kotaro Chiba | 4 |
Masao Ito | 3 |
Hirofumi Miki | 3 |
Hidetoshi Takano | 3 |
Yutaka Matsuo | 2 |
Matsuo Koichiro | 2 |
Kiyoshi Nishikawa | 2 |
Koki Yabu | 2 |
Shuichi Takenaga | 2 |
Takaya Shinozuka | 2 |
Shigeru Urushibara | 2 |
Kazuhiro Ishikura | 2 |
Mamoru Taniya | 2 |
Kazuomi Kaneto | 2 |
Ayataro Nakagawa | 2 |
Hiroki Nakamura | 1 |
Yuki Naito | 1 |
Yoichi Aso | 1 |
Kazuhiro Aoyagi | 1 |
Yusaku Maezawa | 1 |
Nobuhiro Ariyasu | 1 |
Yoshikazu Azuma | 1 |
Kazuhiro Fukuda | 1 |
Takeshi Hirano | 1 |
Masanori Sugiyama | 1 |
Allen Miner | 1 |
Cheng Tao | 1 |
Toru Shimada | 1 |
Yuto Nagashima | 1 |
Shuhei Yamashita | 1 |
Shinji Kimura | 1 |
Justin Waldron | 1 |
Yusuke Sato | 1 |
Jo Hirao | 1 |
Shoji Okamoto | 1 |
Uenoyama Katsuya | 1 |
Abdo Achkar | 1 |
Shoji Miyata | 1 |
Bart Joseph Broadman | 1 |
Kensuke Murashima | 1 |
Atsushi Fukuda | 1 |
Masaru Tange | 1 |
Shogo Kawada | 1 |
Kensuke Furukawa | 1 |
Tomohito Ebine | 1 |
Paul Rosenberg | 1 |
Kamata Tomihisa | 1 |
Hiroki Kamatsu | 1 |
Masaru Sunagawa | 1 |
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Drones, Software
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- MI-6 — MI-6 is a research, development, consulting, and project management for material development using IT. We will promote materials informatics in the field of material development with our technological capabilities and a wealth of project knowledge that challenge the world's most advanced technologies .
- ELESTYLE — ELESTYLE are promoting mobile payments and providing high value-added services for users to realize a cashless society.
- Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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Investment focus
- Travel, Internet, Software
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- MI-6 — MI-6 is a research, development, consulting, and project management for material development using IT. We will promote materials informatics in the field of material development with our technological capabilities and a wealth of project knowledge that challenge the world's most advanced technologies .
- ELESTYLE — ELESTYLE are promoting mobile payments and providing high value-added services for users to realize a cashless society.
- Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.
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Investment focus
- Content, Social Media, Information Technology
- Seed, Series A, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Illusil — Illusil is a service that makes it easier for anyone to generate slide materials and reduces the amount of time needed to do it. Additionally, presentations can be automatically generated from text input by AI, and over 1,000 design templates can be used to build original slides.
- Aruya Umu — Aryaum supports "regional revitalization through NFT" by offering local governments all around the nation hometown tax and tourism NFT solutions.
- Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.
After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.
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Investment focus
- Content, Marketing, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Epicbase — Epicbase is an AI-based automatic voice transcription service based on voice recognition technology.
- Go Visions — Go Visions engages in the edutainment tech for children and human resources services.
- Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.
Joined Intelligence in 1999. Established Key Players Inc. in 2005. Consultation with more than 3,000 managers and career counseling for more than 10,000 individuals. In addition, we have invested in more than 55 outside directors, advisors and angels in Silicon Valley and Bangladesh in Japan. Over 100 lectures on careers, entrepreneurship andstartups.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Information Technology, Human Resources
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
- D-Chain — D-Chain offers services related to IT development and production in the Web3 and Web2 fields.
- Rayout — Rayout is a business consulting company that provides creative content development, recruitment videos, and web production services.
1997 Graduated from Tokyo University, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering. In 2002, he completed the doctoral program at the same graduate school. Ph.D. (Engineering) He was a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Science and Technology since the same year. After working as a visiting researcher at Stanford University in August2005, Associate Professor of Technology Management Strategy, Institute of Research, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 2007. Co-Representative, Associate Professor, Global Consumption Intelligence Donation Course, Department of Technology Management Strategy, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University. Professor from 2019, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Engineering, Department of Technology Management Strategy. He specializes in artificial intelligence, web mining, big data analytics. The Society of Artificial Intelligence received the Paper Award (2002), the 20th Anniversary Project Award (2006), the Field Innovation Award (2011), and the Merit Award (2013). At the Society of Artificial Intelligence, he has been a student editorial committee and an editorial committee, and vice chair/director since 2010. Chairman of Ethics from 2014 to 2018. Chairman of Japan Deep Learning Association since 2017.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Machine Learning
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- DeepX — DeepX is an AI startup company based in Tokyo that was founded in 2016 by graduates from the University of Tokyo, Japan’s leading institution of higher education. After three strong years of establishing ourselves, we continue to grow and are ready to make an impact on society through our work. Our core mission is to ‘automate any machinery’ andsupported by our successful projects, we believe that Deep Learning and its real-world implementations will bring an unprecedented breakthrough to solve current and future societal problems. A key challenge that Japan is currently facing is a super-aging society and a shrinking labor population leading to shortages. We develop software to automate machines ranging from small industrial robots to big heavy equipment. Our control models can achieve flexible operation for various environments and conditions using cutting-edge technology such as Deep Reinforcement Learning.
- MinD in a Device — MinD in a Device Co., Ltd. is a university-launched venture that aims to port human consciousness to devices (machines and computers) in the medium to long term based on long-term research results on consciousness. As the first step toward realization, we will evolve and deepen the "generation model" considered to be the source ofconsciousness, and promote the development of next-generation AI and social implementation.
Matsuo Koichiro - Director @ Kokopelli
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Investment focus
- Robotics, Software, Information Technology
- Seed, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Kokopelli — Kokopelli is a Fintech start-up company that develops the management support platform "SHARES" for small and medium-sized businesses and the AI loan screening engine "FAI" (* 2) that enhances credit for financial institutions.
After working at KDD Corporation (Currently known as KDDI Corporation), Kiyoshi Nishikawa next went to work at Arthur D. Little Inc. in the United States, where he became inspired to start his own company. After returning to Japan, he established a Japanese corporation of the world’s largest Internet company, America On Line, LLC. Later andbased on this experience and the relationships he developed, he founded the first Internet business incubator, NETAGE, Inc. After serving as the President and CEO of NETAGE Group, he later became and still serves as the Chairman of ngi group, inc. Kiyoshi was one of the main entrepreneurs responsible for proposing and realization of “Shibuya Bit Valley Concept†and is well known for his various speeches and writings. He is a graduate of the Department of Education at Tokyo University.
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Investment focus
- News, Social Media, Big Data
- Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- PoliPoli — PoliPoli is a next-generation politics co-creation platform where you can participate like a game. Politicians from all over Japan post their policies in an easy-to-understand manner, and those who sympathize can enjoy working on the "missions" necessary to realize the policies.
- Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
- TECHFUND — TechFund is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed stage investments. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Koki Yabu is Founder, President & CEO at Mobcast inc.
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Investment focus
- Content, Finance, Data Mining
- Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Mobcast group — mobcast is a sports entertainment company that operates a mobile entertainment platform for smartphones and feature phones. It supports customers with social game and social media services. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, it operates as a subsidiary of mobcast Inc.
- SmartApp Japan — Smart Apps is a developer of a blockchain services application designed for smartphones. The company's application uses cryptocurrency technology to offer token issuance, initial coin offering and dApps design support, providing a launchpad for start-up blockchain-related businesses.
Takenaga Shuuichi is an individual investor.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Management Consulting, Marketing
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
- Tagpic — Tagpic offers influencer marketing targeting services such as influencer casting, SNS branding, and talent production.
- H&H Group Japan — H&H Holdingsis a Professional Services company.
Takaya Shinozuka is the President, CEO, and Founder at Reiwa Travel.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Local, Advertising
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Shigeru Urushibara - President & CEO @ UL Systems
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Task Management, Social Media
- Series A, Seed, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- EmbodyMe — Making the unimaginable, imaginable with AI
- Space Walker — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.
- SingulaNet — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.
Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.
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Investment focus
- Beauty, Content, Fashion
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
- WARC Japan — WARC provides hands-on support for business management departments as well as mergers and acquisition advisory services.
- Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.
After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he joined Solomon Brothers, where he became the youngest managing director in Asia, where he was in charge of Asian investment. After that, he created one of the largest independent Asuka assets. He also launched Japan's first independent online life insurance company,LifeNet Life Insurance, and inspired Japan's first International.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Content, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, Singapore, Spain
Portfolio highlights
- Revorf — Revorf analyzes data and develops AI-related to infectious diseases and healthcare.
- abillion — Find tips for plant-based food & products near you. Join the community to share reviews of restaurants & brands. Raise funds & drive sustainability!
- RIMM Sustainability — RIMM Sustainability provides a SaaS platform that enables companies of all sizes to optimise their sustainability management effort. It builds tools for sustainability management, reporting and optimisation.
Kazuomi Kaneto is the Founder & CEO of Dream Project Incubators. He previously worked at Pacifico Energy as a Founder, President & CEO. Kazuomi Kaneto attended Tsinghua University.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Music, Energy
- Funding Round, Seed, Series B
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Sustainable Lab — SusLab is a data bank that uses AI technology to support SDG and ESG development goals and investments.
- SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
- Persistent Energy Partners — Africa's Climate Venture Builder - We believe in the power of climate-positive economic development in Africa. For the last decade, we have been working hand in hand with exceptional entrepreneurs, investing both financial and human capital to build successful climate ventures on the continent. Our companies offer competitive financial returns required to drive lasting impact.
2011 At university, participated in the founding period as a director of Atcole Co., Ltd., and started the web service experience.2012 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd.,
which operates a curation platform for women "MERY" .2014 Founded Peroli
Co., Ltd. Sold to DeNA
2015 Jointly established Tokyo Founders Fund as an angel investor and startedinvesting in startups in Japan and overseas
2019 Appointed outside director of FIREBUG Co., Ltd.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Software, Content
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Hong Kong, United States
Portfolio highlights
- For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
- Meetscare — Meetscare provides correct information and supports the self-awareness of all people involved in care. The company provides a wealth of information to ensure optimal care and create a mechanism for the realization. Users can make a telephone consultation and web diagnosis and search for free information using the system.Meetscare was founded on2016 and is headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo.
- SPORTS CROWN — SPORTS CROWN engages in the development and operation of fantasy sports.
After joining DENTSU, I initially produced only banner advertising, but it is expected to be active, and I will be able to work on a number of digital campaigns. In 2011, he became independent and founded PARTY with four members. Cannes Lions Young Competition, Japan's Cyber Division, 2nd place in the world. He has received more than 250advertising awards in Japan and abroad. Recent masterpieces include Lady Gaga's life-size hearing aids “GAGADOLL”, “UNIQLO / UT Picks”, “Suntory / Intensive Regain”, “TOYOTA / TOWN”, such as “Shizukita-” all digital campaigns. TOKYO FM Radio “Sawamoto Gonpachi will end soon.” Guest Personality.
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Investment focus
- Web Design, Software, Content
- Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Edoga — Edoga is a VR production and education company. Edoga offer services such as "VR training" and "off-site VR".
- Collectest — Collectest specializes in integrating AI into trading card appraisal procedures that show current market pricing and verify authenticity.
- STUDIO Japan — STUDIO is a development and operation of the next-generation design tool.
Yuki Naito - CEO,President @ Drecom
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Investment focus
- Manufacturing, Internet, SNS
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- 1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
- Fools — Fools is a footwear manufacturing company.
- Interstellar Technologies Japan — Interstellar Technologies is a rocket development, manufacturing and launch service.
Yoichi Aso is the President and CEO at Alpha Drive.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Apparel, Digital Media
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Kamado — Kamado is a publisher of magazines. They offer products that include artist articles, colomn article series, and web magazines.
- Yondemy — Yondemy is an online platform for children reading books.
- Log build — Log build offers a new form of on-site management that enables productivity improvement and real-time visualization and sharing of on-site information through on-site management robots and VR software. The company provides AI development, VR development, construction site construction management robot, cloud site management, and construction siteplatform.
Kazuhiro Aoyagi is the Representative Director, CEO, and Founder of Ignition Point Japan. he is also an Outside Director of Synapse Japan.
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Investment focus
- Marketing, Task Management, Machine Learning
- Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Synapse Japan — Synapse is a working with academic partners to improve efficiency through AI.
Yusaku Maezawa is a Founder of Zozotown.
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Investment focus
- Gaming, Developer Tools, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed, Series C
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- JOYCLE — JOYCLE is a waste management company that specializes in trash recycling, disposal, and environmental consulting services.
- WEB3DEV — The biggest web3 developers community in Latin America is based on 3 pillars: Community, Education and Building. Community: We created mechanisms with incentives to engage a community of software developers to create exclusive and high quality content about web3 technologies. The community members help each other to enter the web3 space. Our community is organized in pods, each pod for a different theme or blockchain. Each pod has a leader, which helps that pod to evolve, promoting growth to the ecosystem and the whole web3dev community. We already have leaders for Ethereum, Cardano, Algorand and Solana. We incentivize those pods, creating bounties and paying individual contributors when they create new content and deliver value. Education: The education platform, created by the community, is the place where everybody effectively learns about blockchain technologies. The courses are didactic self-paced project based learning. We give NFT reward as certificates for students who finish the projects. Building: We find companies that need developers and match our talent community members with maker demands. We build developers team for web3 companies and help these teams to succeed.
- space data — Space Data is based on an algorithm that allows the AI to recognize geospatial data from the Earth and easily assign another Earth in VR. The company is developing an algorithm to automatically generate another "Earth" in virtual space using 3DCG technology by making the AI understand the geospatial information of the Earth by learningthe vast amount of ground observation data available from satellites. They want to create an AI that can reconstruct the "world" in virtual space by learning all kinds of data from this world, such as traffic volume, pedestrian traffic, day and night, four seasons, temperature, plant distribution, and nighttime light intensity. Its goal is to build a future in which everyone has the ability to create their own world (universe) and shape their own destiny without regard for race, gender, appearance, or environment.
Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Internet, Content
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- PeopleX — PeopleX encourages and assists employees in their professional development.
- PICK — PICK is a startup that provides a digital transformation platform for the real estate and construction industries.
- Conoris Technologies — Conoris Technologies is a staffing agency that offers security check support services for companies.
Yoshikazu Azuma - Representative Director and CEO @ TWO
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Investment focus
- Retail, Security, Marketing
- Series A, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- AWL — AWL is a company that provides the leading edge AI camera solutions company .
- W Tokyo — W TOKYO is a content production company that offers the latest and highest quality solutions by multiplying its own original content and solutions, centered on women, using the know-how cultivated in the Tokyo Girls Collection as a weapon .
Kazuhiro Fukuda is an entrepreneur supporter/angel investor.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Illusil — Illusil is a service that makes it easier for anyone to generate slide materials and reduces the amount of time needed to do it. Additionally, presentations can be automatically generated from text input by AI, and over 1,000 design templates can be used to build original slides.
Takeshi Hirano - Auditor (External) @ Morpho
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Investment focus
- Big Data, Aerospace, Machine Learning
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- space data — Space Data is based on an algorithm that allows the AI to recognize geospatial data from the Earth and easily assign another Earth in VR. The company is developing an algorithm to automatically generate another "Earth" in virtual space using 3DCG technology by making the AI understand the geospatial information of the Earth by learningthe vast amount of ground observation data available from satellites. They want to create an AI that can reconstruct the "world" in virtual space by learning all kinds of data from this world, such as traffic volume, pedestrian traffic, day and night, four seasons, temperature, plant distribution, and nighttime light intensity. Its goal is to build a future in which everyone has the ability to create their own world (universe) and shape their own destiny without regard for race, gender, appearance, or environment.
He graduated from Kansai University in 1988. He was enrolled in Ljoma while he was in college. 2002 Vice President of Practice (now index lights). In 2004, he became president of zappallas. Listed on the TSE Mothers in the second year of his appointment, and in 2010 he was listed in part of the TSE. In 2011 he became the CEO of enish. Listed on apart of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Thereafter, he served as outside directors such as Nikkatsu and JibannetHD.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- MI-6 — MI-6 is a research, development, consulting, and project management for material development using IT. We will promote materials informatics in the field of material development with our technological capabilities and a wealth of project knowledge that challenge the world's most advanced technologies .
- STUDIO — The easiest and quickest tool to turn any idea into a website. No code. All creative freedom.
- STUDIO Japan — STUDIO is a development and operation of the next-generation design tool.
Allen Miner is a founder/General Partner of SunBridge Partners and the founder/CEO of SunBridge Corporation. Allen has significant experience in Internet, enterprise and open-source software, entrepreneurship, and international technology transfer. Allen has been actively involved in each of the firm’s investments resulting in numeroussuccessful IPOs, including salesforce.com, MacroMill, ITMedia and G-Mode, among others. Allen is currently a member of the Board of Directors of salesforce Japan.Allen graduated from Brigham Young University with degrees in Computer Science and Asian Studies. He joined Oracle Corporation in 1986 and was dispatched to Japan, where he founded and helped lead Oracle Japan to a successful IPO on the Japan stock market. Allen returned from Japan in 1996 to serve as Oracle’s Vice President in charge of Linux/Open Source.Allen created SunBridge Corporation in 1999. Allen currently serves on the Boards of several SunBridge portfolio companies and as an advisor to government-affiliated organizations focused on innovation and entrepreneurship. He was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Japan Venture Capital Association upon its founding in 2002.
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Investment focus
- Software, Career Planning, Cloud Security
- Seed, Funding Round, Series B
- United States, Japan, Canada
Portfolio highlights
- Foodcode — Foodcode is a food company revolutionizing the dining experience with innovative restaurant concept to enhance the dining experience.
- Splice Machine — Our machine learning solutions predict outcomes in real time, enabling better decisions in the moment for companies.
- Motion Gestures — Motion Gestures is a Canadian machine learning startup specializing in gesture recognition software. Motion Gestures specializes in machine learning-based gesture recognition software and was founded in Waterloo, Canada in 2016. The company aims to enable the rapid development and deployment of gesture-enabled interfaces for systems, devices, andapps. Its software supports advanced 2D and 3D gestures using motion, touch, and vision sensors and can be deployed on the cloud, gateway/hub, and embedded platforms. Developers are offered free licenses to the cloud SDK and can quickly create and test any gesture using their smartphones.
Tao Cheng currently works as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of popIn.
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Investment focus
- Telecommunications, Content, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Tokyo — Tokyo provides consistently-designed signage and projector installation, as well as maintenance company support. All customers need is “product selection” considering installation. This is a service that does not take time and effort!
- Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.
- Girasol Energy — Girasol Energy is an IoT Platform provides innovative PLC technologies that enable wiser PV Plants.
Toru Shimada is a Senior Executive Officer and Director of Rakuten. Mr. Shimada is a Director of Rakuten Baseball, Inc., and Head of Asia Regional Headquarters Office of the Company.Mr. Shimada joined Rakuten in 2004. Prior to joining Rakuten, Mr. Shimada was founder and Director of INTELLIGENCE, LTD from 1989 to 2004. Prior to INTELLIGENCE, LTD.Mr. Shimada worked at RECRUIT CO., LTD. from 1987 to 1989.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Task Management, Marketing
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
Yuto Nagashima, is a Representative Director/Angel Investor of SIROIRO Co., Ltd.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Illusil — Illusil is a service that makes it easier for anyone to generate slide materials and reduces the amount of time needed to do it. Additionally, presentations can be automatically generated from text input by AI, and over 1,000 design templates can be used to build original slides.
Shuhei Yamashita - Representative Director @ CRE
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Investment focus
- Music, Content Creators, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Shinji Kimura - Chairman/Founder @ AnyPay
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Investment focus
- FinTech, Financial Services, E-Commerce
- Funding Round, Seed, Series B
- United States, India, Japan
Portfolio highlights
- POKKT — POKKT is an Alternate Mobile Payment Platform that helps owners of Paid Digital Goods and Services to monetise thier users through an advertiser-funded Model. Develpoers and Publishers of Digital content can significantly increase monetization and convert non-paying users into paying users.
- Alpaca — Alpaca API allows developers and businesses to build apps, embed investing, and trade algorithms
- AlpacaJapan — Alpaca is a technology company developing financial system platforms powered by the collaboration of AI and people.
Justin Waldron is Co-Founder & President of Playco, and previously Co-Founder / EVP of Product of Zynga, the world's largest mobile game company. Zynga IPO'd in 2011 with a $10 billion valuation and over $1b in annual revenue. Justin is an angel investor in Lambda School, Substack, and 60+ other companies. He mentors youngentrepreneurs at The Thiel Foundation's Thiel Fellowship program.
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Investment focus
- Software, E-Commerce, Mobile
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
- United States, Japan, Chile
Portfolio highlights
- Tippsy — Largest selection of sake delivered to you. Tippsy makes finding good sake easy and fun! Free shipping 6+ bottles. Sake club subscription offers special perks such as member-exclusive discounts, virtual sake tasting as well as a beginner's guide.
- Breakr — Unleash the power of music with Breakr. Explore a dynamic platform connecting artists, brands, and creators. Join us in reshaping the landscape of music discovery.
- Proof of Play — We are a team of veteran game developers and entrepreneurs creating onchain games and open source technology. Our vision is simple: to create generation-defining games that fundamentally grant power and ownership to the players who play them.
Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder at Pulit.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Content, Food and Beverage
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, Indonesia, United States
Portfolio highlights
- AirX — AirX is a management service company specializing in air transportation agency business and travel arrangement business. The company leverages technology to transform the notion of mobility into an unprecedented experience. It also provides services such as CodeShare, AIROS Skyview, and AIROS Air Loss. AirX will create the movement of the futuresociety, sightseeing and the way of life of helicopter, Empty MaaS, Flying taxi, eVTOL, and Next-generation traffic.AirX was established on February 23, 2015, and is based in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
- Paytner — yup is providing services to support freelance people's funding.The freelance population in Japan has been shown to continue to increase in many Chosa. While working styles are diversified, they are not able to respond to the development of the working environment, and they will develop their business to change the situation where problemssuch as funding, credit, sexual harassment, and power harassment are accumulated.
- Meetscare — Meetscare provides correct information and supports the self-awareness of all people involved in care. The company provides a wealth of information to ensure optimal care and create a mechanism for the realization. Users can make a telephone consultation and web diagnosis and search for free information using the system.Meetscare was founded on2016 and is headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo.
Jo Hirao
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Investment focus
- Retail, E-Commerce, College Recruiting
- Series B, Seed, Series C
- Japan, Indonesia, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Ralali — Ralali.com, Pusat toko grosir online pertama di Indonesia, sebagai b2b wholesale marketplace platform yang menghubungkan supplier, distributor dengan retail.
- Docquity — Exchange ideas with the best doctors in the region. Receive educational resources designed by well known and respected leaders. Attend virtual discussions
- space data — Space Data is based on an algorithm that allows the AI to recognize geospatial data from the Earth and easily assign another Earth in VR. The company is developing an algorithm to automatically generate another "Earth" in virtual space using 3DCG technology by making the AI understand the geospatial information of the Earth by learningthe vast amount of ground observation data available from satellites. They want to create an AI that can reconstruct the "world" in virtual space by learning all kinds of data from this world, such as traffic volume, pedestrian traffic, day and night, four seasons, temperature, plant distribution, and nighttime light intensity. Its goal is to build a future in which everyone has the ability to create their own world (universe) and shape their own destiny without regard for race, gender, appearance, or environment.
Shoji Okamoto is the President of Mirai Works.
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Investment focus
- Lifestyle, Life Science, Service Industry
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Mono.un — Mono.un provides users with opportunities to meet authors and collaborate on tales and specializes in bringing exciting experiences full of stories of Japanese culture to the world.
- Memory Lab — Memory Lab is a research laboratory that offers AI paper analysis and development solutions.
Uenoyama Katsuya - CEO @ PKSHA Technology
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Investment focus
- Fashion, Software, Advertising
- Seed, Angel, Corporate Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Babel — Babel is creating meaningful media for users and expanding globally.
- AppBrew — AppBrew develops LIPS, a mobile application for users to share and read real reviews on cosmetics, nail care, personal care, hair care, and other related products of different brands. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
- Neural Pocket — Neural Pocket provides Smart City related services for commercial buildings and urban spaces utilizing AI enabled image recognition technology. The company focuses on business development and co-creation serve its clients. Other applications include solutions for digitalization of factories, warehouses, parking lots and retail stores.
Abdo Achkar is the Founder & CEO at Sowlutions.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Marketplace, Software
- Pre-Seed, Seed, Series B
- United States, Lebanon, Japan
Portfolio highlights
- GoBEBA — GoBEBA is an on-demand e-commerce logistics platform operating in emerging Africa markets. We bring together local merchants, consumers and logistics service providers to enable efficient discovery and ordering of frequently purchased products and services in one platform. This combination delivers an asset-light convenient, multi-categoryon-demand ordering service for everyday essentials. We do this by aggregating demand for merchants through a curated digital marketplace which connects merchants directly to consumers and logistics service providers in an on-demand basis . GoBeba is an ‘everything’ app’ for a wide range of services including grocery shopping, food delivery, cargo, and many other on-demand services.
- uPaint — Discover uPaint, premium paint by numbers kits for all ages. We craft all components in-house, ensuring top quality. Customize any image to create your own masterpiece. It's the perfect, thoughtful gift idea that's stress-free and easy for everyone. Experience a relaxing and joyful activity with stunning results.
- Ur My Type — Ur My Type is an app that uses personality types to make dating and finding friends online more meaningful.
Shoji Miyata is the CEO of SmartHR.
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Investment focus
- Travel, Software, Transportation
- Seed, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- sunblaze — sunblaze is a android-based smartphone users begin to experience stability issues after one to two years of use. For example, their device may get slower or they encounter unexpected app crashes. These stability issues also lead to security vulnerabilities.SUNBLAZE OS features essential functions only, meaning it does not have any unnecessaryfunctions. This allows the system to be more stable and secure, and users are able to use it for a longer period of time.
- Epicbase — Epicbase is an AI-based automatic voice transcription service based on voice recognition technology.
- Somewhere — Somewhere is engaged in the travel and transportation business.
Bart Joseph Broadman
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Investment focus
- Robotics, Machine Learning, Autonomous Vehicles
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Ascent Robotics — Ascent is a Tokyo-based AI and robotics company developing cutting-edge software with the goal of helping create a more autonomous future.
Kensuke Murashima
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Investment focus
- Energy, Logistics, Marketing
- Series B, Seed, Series C
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- miibo — miibo is an AI construction platform that allows businesses to develop conversational AI bots for their products and websites.
- X Mile — Corporate Site:https://www.xmile.co.jp/ Service Site:https://x-work.jp/
- Enechain — enechain provides liquidity in Japan’s energy market by brokering OTC transactions of energy.
Atsushi Fukuda is the president of Speedy.
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Investment focus
- Music, Content Creators, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Masaru Tange graduated from Kyoto University and joined Incs Inc. in 2000 where he started their IT business and strategy consulting group with only 2 members and developed it into the company's main business with a team of 140 consultants with annual revenue of $50M in 5 years. He then founded SHIFT Inc in 2005 in his studio apartment. He wasthe only employee. The business world wasn't very kind to him - he made no revenue for a while but he kept experimenting with the business model listening to the needs of customers. In 2009, he finally found traction in the "software testing industry." In 2014, Masaru successfully IPO'ed the company. Shift now has 500 employees.
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Investment focus
- Internet, E-Commerce, SaaS
- Seed, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Timee — Timee is a Planning, development and management of Internet media company.
- S-Mat — Smartmat is an eco-friendly IoT purchase system for on-demand, no-hassle grocery with cost-effective shipping.
- Launchable — Shorter test runs, smarter test triaging, test health insights, and test failure analysis. Remove friction from the dev-test loop to iterate & ship faster.
Shogo Kawada is Co-founder and Adviser of DeNA, a global Internet company focused on a social games platform, social games, e-commerce and other Web services for mobile devices and PCs.
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Investment focus
- Software, SaaS, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Voicy — Voicy is a mobile platform that recruits both media personalities and news organizations; the entertainers read the news so users can get the latest info from their favorite voices.
- Sunblaze — sunblaze is a android-based smartphone users begin to experience stability issues after one to two years of use. For example, their device may get slower or they encounter unexpected app crashes. These stability issues also lead to security vulnerabilities.SUNBLAZE OS features essential functions only, meaning it does not have any unnecessaryfunctions. This allows the system to be more stable and secure, and users are able to use it for a longer period of time.
- Spider Labs — Spider Labs offers solutions to help fight ad fraud and ensure data security.
Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi (formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".
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Investment focus
- Content, Media and Entertainment, Social Media
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Plott — Plott producing youtube animation platform under Vision “Become a Content holder from YouTube”. In August 2019, the company name was changed from Fabo to Plott. Plott, the new company name, is derived from the plot that you make before writing novels, etc., and the idea that “I want to make content all the time” is put in the company name.
- Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
- Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.
Tomohito Ebine is non-executive Director at Owls Co., Ltd.
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Investment focus
- Home Services, Information Technology, Consulting
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- HOMMA — Inspired Modern Living. Homes to elevate healthy urban lifestyles. Design. Build. Technology.
- Smartround — Smartround is a specialized finance management platform for startups and their investors. For start-ups, for entrepreneurs who are not familiar with finance, simply enter the necessary information according to the guide, prepare appropriate financing round, and prepare a function that can simulate and execute a capital increase. Support informationsharing and communication with shareholders even after the capital increase.
- CAREER BIJIN — Career bijin is a total support company.
Paul Rosenberg is currently the CEO of Def Jam Recordings.
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Investment focus
- Music, Apps, Logistics
- Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Cargo — Ara Screens is a digital out of home network solution provider, DOOH smart signage operator, and the world's leading car-top and in-car advertising placement provider for Rideshare & Taxi.
- SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
- Sound — Sound connects artists and listeners to take ownership over the culture they create together.
Dr. Kamada earned his Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo. In 1984, he pursued his journey to establish his own business that focused on information appliances and mobile software, namely ACCESS Co., Ltd.. With great success, the company entered the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market in 2001. He left ACCESS Co., Ltd. in 2011, and founded TomyK Ltd.in 2012 where he supports startups possessing revolutionary business ideas that revitalize the Japanese economy.
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Investment focus
- Fitness, Medical, Genetics
- Seed, Angel
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Activaid — Activaid owns and operates a social data platform for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. It allows patients to support and exchange information within the patient community with the same disease; provide information necessary for new drug development and matching to clinical trials that suits them; and improve medical treatment. YasuakiHasebe founded Activaid in 2018. It has its headquarters in Tokyo in Japan.
- Genomelink — Genomelink is a platform where people discover more with their DNA data and help businesses build, market and do research with it. The best founders in consumer genomics with real experience in the industry for many years, including M3, Inc. ($13B valued Meditech in Japan), a founding member of the Japanese version of 23andMe, and leadbioinformatician and software engineer at a joint-venture between Illumina and Sony. Raised $4M for Seed Round from Berkeley SkyDeck, SONY, and top-tier Japanese VCs. Supported by Illumina Accelerator, Carlos Bustamante Lab at Stanford University among others.
- MinD in a Device — MinD in a Device Co., Ltd. is a university-launched venture that aims to port human consciousness to devices (machines and computers) in the medium to long term based on long-term research results on consciousness. As the first step toward realization, we will evolve and deepen the "generation model" considered to be the source ofconsciousness, and promote the development of next-generation AI and social implementation.
Hiroki Kamatsu
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Investment focus
- Sales, Analytics, Data Management
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Data Viz Lab — Data Viz Lab is a platform that offers data analysis, visualization consulting, and data human resource development support.
- Infobox — Infobox is a sales data platform that includes every detail from market research to creating a list of companies and contacting decision-makers.
After joining Mitsubishi Corporation, he studied at Harvard Business School. After graduating, he joined Globespan Capital Partners, an independent United States VC, and worked as a director of investment. He started LocationValue after the company's representative in Japan. Joined Google after selling the company to NTT DOCOMO. He served asDirector of Product Development for Google Maps and General Manager for Android. He left Google in February 2018 and started Smartround Co., Ltd. in May.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, SNS, Music
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Flyle — Flyle provides a cloud based platform for product management helping customers to improve productivity & creativity in product development.
- Sustainable Lab — SusLab is a data bank that uses AI technology to support SDG and ESG development goals and investments.
- Paytner — yup is providing services to support freelance people's funding.The freelance population in Japan has been shown to continue to increase in many Chosa. While working styles are diversified, they are not able to respond to the development of the working environment, and they will develop their business to change the situation where problemssuch as funding, credit, sexual harassment, and power harassment are accumulated.
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