Top 50 Automotive Startup Investors in Japan (June 2026)

Portfolio highlights

• Metro Weather — Metroweather is a venture from Kyoto University that develops a high-performance Doppler lidar that measures the direction and speed of wind several tens of kilometers away from minute movements of fine particles in the atmosphere. We aim to contribute to the safety of the sky by completing a three-dimensional wind map, which has never beenrealized,based on years of research at the Kyoto University Research Institute for Sustainable Areas.
• SORA Technology — SORA Technology builds and operates health care and public health infrastructure utilizing drones and their operational management systems.
• Japan Wind Tunnel Manufacturing — JAPAN FUDO is a company that develops and manufactures new products related to wind, such as the world's most compact wind tunnel "Aero Optim" series and double propeller wind turbines.

Portfolio highlights

• Mechano Cross — Mechano Cross is a mechanical company that offers mechanochemical organic synthesis technology for solution reactions.
• Rendez-Vous — RENDEZ-VOUS offers a co-ownership option for vintage cars.
• RICOS — RICOS is a tech company that optimizes manufacturing processes using AI, simulation, and high-performance computing technologies.

Portfolio highlights

• DennoKotsu — Denno Kotsu is a Taxi dispatch system development and provision, taxi company contract dispatch service

Portfolio highlights

• DennoKotsu — Denno Kotsu is a Taxi dispatch system development and provision, taxi company contract dispatch service

Portfolio highlights

• Kinish — Kinish is a company leading a revolution in dairy products. To achieve environmentally friendly and delicious dairy products, we are developing a special rice variety that produces milk proteins.
• Kwahuu Ocean — Kwahuu Ocean develops sustainable squid farming systems.
• Spine Chronicle — Spine chronicle is a medical device manufacturing firm that specializes in developing orthopedic medical equipment.

Portfolio highlights

• Carstay — Carstay Comfortable Overnight in car or tentdo itCar tripWith guests who want to enjoy.
• Redcliff — Redcliff is a drone management company that organizes aerial shows and events for private and public organizations.
• AROUSAL Tech. — AROUSAL Tech is a consulting company that offers a wide range of AI consulting services. It provides digital training, AI reskilling, AI consulting, and AI integration services.

Portfolio highlights

• Carstay — Carstay Comfortable Overnight in car or tentdo itCar tripWith guests who want to enjoy.

Portfolio highlights

• Swivel — Swivel's mission is to create the fishing brand.
• Think Nature — Think Nature is a researcher startup that specializes in the solutions related to the sustainability of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• HelloWorld — EdTech, International Exchange between Schools

Portfolio highlights

• Seibii — Transforming traditional car maintenance, repair, after-parts installation, road service industry of Japan by leveraging Technology.
• Leading Mark — Leading Mark, a rising human resources startup in Japan. Leading Mark is branching out into mid-career and international hiring. It currently has a one-man team in China working to bring the top Japanese-speaking Chinese students to domestic companies. He also touts his startup’s focus on the average job seeker. “We want to make sure that the usersget the info that he or she needs the most,” he says. Large scale, legacy players can sometimes prioritize the needs of the hiring company, and their commission, over the needs of applicants themselves. This leads to frustration and short-circuited careers.

Portfolio highlights

• Plus — Plus.ai develops self-driving trucks to enable large-scale commercialization of autonomous transport. Based in Silicon Valley, Plus.ai was founded in 2016 by a group of Stanford PhD classmates who saw the strong potential of artificial intelligence to make a big impact on business and society. With trucking being the primary means of shipping inAmerica, the founders decided to focus on self-driving technology to transform the trillion-dollar commercial trucking industry. Plus.ai specializes in developing full-stack self-driving technology to enable large scale autonomous commercial fleets. We are one of the most advanced autonomous trucking companies today in terms of technological progress and were the first to obtain California’s Autonomous Testing License. The company has since been working on improving the robustness and safety of its fully functional Level-4 autonomous trucks. Plus.ai closely collaborates with the largest OEMs to build self-driving trucks that are safer than human-operated vehicles. The company operates a fleet of autonomous trucks in pilot programs with the top freight shipping companies.
• QT Medical — QT Medical’s technology empowers the patients to take an active role in managing their heart disease. Heart disease is responsible for 1 out of every 4 deaths in the U.S. and is the number 1 killer world-wide. No longer do patients with heart disease have to make long trips to their cardiologists, hospitals, or emergency rooms to get diagnostic,hospital-grade ECG scans. They can now perform these tests from the comfort of their homes or anywhere with an internet connection, allowing peace of mind, saving time, reducing stress, and improving outcomes.
• CesiumAstro — CesiumAstro builds high-throughput, software-defined phased array communication payloads for airborne and in-orbit platforms.

Portfolio highlights

• WOTA — Human history is the history of our relationship with water. Water gave rise to our civilizations. Water has nourished people's livelihoods. This means that humans need water supplies, such as rivers and lakes, to survive. At WOTA, we desire to remove every limitation we have in relation to water. By integrating small water systems into the“big water infrastructure” of the past, we can achieve a more creative and sustainable way of life. That is our belief. In cities and deserts, remote islands, and outer space. We imagine a future where water is freely available to all people. Our work will always continue.
• Gaxi — Gaxie is an IT firm that provides a cloud management system and manages scholarship sites for business.
• Crisp — CRISP SALAD WORKS offers a focused menu of signature salads and grains made from fresh, high-quality raw ingredients, prepared using classic cooking methods on-site.

Portfolio highlights

• Surv Biopharma — Surv Biopharma develops a drug discovery platform that facilitates research and development of veterinary drugs and pharmaceutical products.
• Metagen Therapeutics — Metagen Therapeutics is a Drug discovery and medical business company which utilizes microbiome science.
• Restore Vision — Restore Vision is a startup based in Japan aiming to develop a visual restoration gene therapy.

Portfolio highlights

• ASUENE — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
• YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
• Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!

Portfolio highlights

• Letara — Letara operates a space technology platform with the intention to serve a logistics network covering the solar system. The company produces hybrid propulsion engines for small spacecraft, promoting groundbreaking advances in space propulsion with high thrust, safe, and inexpensive propulsion system technology.
• Akari Hosho — Akari Hosho provides a group of trusted professionals, including lawyers and judicial scriveners. Akari Hosho provides a guarantee service.
• Black Cat Carnival — Black Cat Carnival Inc. is a communication service development company.

Portfolio highlights

• Tradoor — Tradoor protects traders, LPs, and the protocol against unforeseen market fluctuations by using clever math and safety measures to enable traders to trade with confidence.
• Fireverse — Fireverse is an AI-powered musical and Web-3 platform.
• Mango Network — Mango Network is a multi-virtual machine, full-chain foundational network designed for comprehensive blockchain solutions.

Portfolio highlights

• Pyrenee — Pyrenee is a hardware startup that creates devices that protect people's lives.
• Antescofo — Antescofo is the mariage of world-class R&D and Business endeavours. Their technology is the result of 7+ years of R&D in the world’s largest laboratory dedicated to Music and Technology, IRCAM in Paris, and public experience with the most important musicians and orchestras around the world. The principle? Through Intelligent MachineListening, they recognize how humans perform music in real-time and use that information to synchronize content and provide an immersive experience! Antescofo was incorporated in July 2016 and based in Paris, France.
• Stake Technologies — Stake Technologies is a technology company that provides blockchain solutions to enterprises.

Portfolio highlights

• Cocoach — Cocoach provides online education service.
• Data Viz Lab — Data Viz Lab is a platform that offers data analysis, visualization consulting, and data human resource development support.
• ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

Portfolio highlights

• Nealle — Nealle offers business development, business planning and consulting services.
• QibiTech — QibiTech created HATS, a service in which a human operator remotely supplements the operation of a robot. Add-on edge calculator or software for various robots to increase robot flexibility. It also serves as a platform for connecting operation data to the business improvement system.
• SPACECOOL — Spacecool offers zero-energy cooling materials that radiate heat to space, reducing temperatures and mitigating global warming.

Portfolio highlights

• Seibii — Transforming traditional car maintenance, repair, after-parts installation, road service industry of Japan by leveraging Technology.

Portfolio highlights

• Aplaca.Lab — Aplaca.Lab is a driver substitution platform that provides an unprecedented new driving experience. They released a driving agency application for providing comfortable driving experiences. It enables driving agencies to optimize their resources and clients' safety, prevent accidents, and receive assistance in areas with limited transportationoptions.

Portfolio highlights

• Sukedachi — Sukedachi had focused on the unique business habit in the Japanese construction industry that construction workers are order receivers as workmen themselves and are also orderers as small enterprises, and the firm started this service. Sukedachi allows workpeople specialized in construction works receive to notification of recruitment ofconstruction jobs which meet their pre-registered conditions including residence and occupation. With this service, construction workers who are seeking jobs can contact directly to each desired construction site, and constructors suffering from chronic manpower shortage can recruit workers on almost ideal on-demand conditions.
• Mantra — MANTRA is a developer of machine translation technology.

Portfolio highlights

• DennoKotsu — Denno Kotsu is a Taxi dispatch system development and provision, taxi company contract dispatch service

Portfolio highlights

• Fondi — fondi is a completely new English conversation communication service that allows you to live a virtual communal life with the world.
• 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.
• Knowledge Work — Knowledge Work specializes in the development and sales of software for companies.

Portfolio highlights

• Yuime — Yuime is an HR consulting firm that offers agricultural staffing, contract farming, and recruitment services.
• RLWRLD — RLWRLD specializes in "Physical AI" by creating robotics foundation models (RFMs) designed to enable robots to function autonomously in real-world environments.
• Lebo Robotics — Lebo Robotics is an inspection robot for the maintenance of wind power generation blades.

Portfolio highlights

• Onepair — Onepair is a job consulting and recruiting company. Onepair is to co-creating careers by talking about real-world ace with active ace.
• Strainer Co., Ltd. — Strainer Co., Ltd. is an information distribution platform that conveys corporate information centered on financial data. Although there are not a few media to deliver financial information, the company's strengths are strong to be easily viewed, including financial information of overseas companies.
• LAMILA — LAMILA develops system that improves the creation of retail stores.

Portfolio highlights

• Seibii — Transforming traditional car maintenance, repair, after-parts installation, road service industry of Japan by leveraging Technology.

Portfolio highlights

• JPYC — JPYC is a financial institution that issues the community stablecoin JPYC, which is pegged to the yen of Japanese. They want to create a society where everyone can develop by fusing the real world with the world of cryptocurrencies and increasing the liquidity of capital to achieve their goal of overcoming the social conundrum. It will promotecapital's liquidity and create an environment that helps in development for all.
• Torihada — Torihada is a creative firm specializing in influencer marketing, creating content, and digital marketing.
• Experisus — Experisus provides Website production, development and management, and software.

Portfolio highlights

• APTJ — Automotive Platform Technology Japan (APTJ) primarily engages in the development, sale, and licensing of automotive software and hardware products. It was founded on September 16, 2015.

Portfolio highlights

• ThinkCyte — ThinkCyte provides single-cell analysis for research, diagnostics, and therapeutics with an integrated multidisciplinary approach.
• NodeX — We build open-source embedded software and cloud tools to help developers build secure IoT products, simply. By leveraging decentralized identity and h/w root of trust technology, IoT security platform "UNiD" enables developers to automate device management and easily build secure data pipeline between every devices and the cloud.
• CMerTV — CMer TV is a platform that connects advertisers with newspapers, magazines, and specialized media by video

Portfolio highlights

• CBcloud — CBCLOUD is offers outsourcing services. The Company provides light cargo crowdsourcing and other services.
• Re:Build — Re:Build is to create the world where we can help each other. Re:Build company was born from the desire to help those who challenge.Our mission is to create a world where help and support circulate throughout the business .
• Aplaca.Lab — Aplaca.Lab is a driver substitution platform that provides an unprecedented new driving experience. They released a driving agency application for providing comfortable driving experiences. It enables driving agencies to optimize their resources and clients' safety, prevent accidents, and receive assistance in areas with limited transportationoptions.

Portfolio highlights

• PeakAI — PeakAI is an AI-based cryptocurrency distribution operating system.
• Zypher Network — Zypher Network, Portal for Revolutionary Fully-on-Chain Games using ZKP & AI
• Superpower — Superpower is a revenue-sharing protocol for AI agents.

Portfolio highlights

• Teplo — Its 1st product Teplo Tea Maker allows tea lovers to brew the perfect cup of tea, each and every time of the day,
• Mantra — MANTRA is a developer of machine translation technology.

Portfolio highlights

• RIOS — We are helping enterprises automate their entire factories, warehouses or supply chain operations by deploying AI-powered end-to-end robotic workcells.
• Joyride — Make mobility instantly connected, rentable and trackable on the world's smartest software platform for lightweight vehicles. Say farewell to fragmented fleets.
• eve autonomy — eve autonomy is an autonomous transportation service that offers logistics solutions utilizing the latest technology for society.

Portfolio highlights

• Fager — Fager is an agriculture firm specializing in promoting decarbonization projects, agricultural carbon production, and sales.
• Shippio — Shippio is a service that enables a wide range of collective international logistics arrangements and management solutions via web.The platform features full-service export and import solutions for various international transportation needs; a special dashboard designated for import and export business, shipment, cost analysis, and invoicemanagement; and documentation support.
• Power Wave — Power Wave seeks a carbon-neutral world using wave technology for wireless power, tackling global warming and fuel depletion.

Portfolio highlights

• Light — Light is a software development company that allows streamers and viewers to connect in real time through an application.
• Yosemite — Yosemite is a wellness company that provides health and wellness products, supplements, skincare, and personal care items.
• Innovative Space Carrier — Innovative Space Carrier is a aerospace company that offers space transportation systems, planning, drafting and technology strategies.

Portfolio highlights

• IDOM CaaS Technology — IDOM CaaS Technology provides a free car life that is not limited to buying and selling cars.

Portfolio highlights

• Ripplr — Ripplr is a full-stack tech distribution and logistics player that offers data-driven analytics and plugs and play system.
• Tacta Systems — Tacta Systems develops robotics with human-like tactile abilities with Dextrous Intelligence, the nervous system for robots.
• IOC GPS Renewables — IOC GPS Renewables specialises in sustainable energy solutions and uses cutting-edge biogas technologies to produce compressed biogas (CBG) from organic waste. This partnership seeks to increase energy security and lower greenhouse gas emissions across the country.

Portfolio highlights

• Gunosy — Gunosy is a news curation application that covers a wide range of news from entertainment news to political news. The application finds its news from multiple web sources and presents them according to how hot the topic is. Gunosy’s features include categorized tabs; the ability to customize the categories that users need to follow and create theirown personal magazine; instant access to a wide variety of news; and push notifications to remind users of news updates.The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Japan.
• MySherpa — MySherpa fosters a culture in which people can openly discuss mental health issues.
• Telescope Japan — Telescope Japan Internet Company

Portfolio highlights

• RABO — RABO is a Cat-Tech Company that "watches cat life with technology.
• MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
• Asoview — ASOVIEW Inc. is an online booking website that provides booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving and rafting. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Shibuya, Kanagawa.

Portfolio highlights

• NanoVita — NanoVita A decentralized science platform combining Nanotech, AI Bio-Intelligence, and Real World Assets to revolutionize health research.
• Voran — Voran is a decentralized computing platform that develops an AI compute and intelligence ecosystem.
• Fortune Protocol — Fortune Protocol brings the age- old tradition of fortune cookies to the modern prediction market.

Portfolio highlights

• APTJ — Automotive Platform Technology Japan (APTJ) primarily engages in the development, sale, and licensing of automotive software and hardware products. It was founded on September 16, 2015.

Portfolio highlights

• APTJ — Automotive Platform Technology Japan (APTJ) primarily engages in the development, sale, and licensing of automotive software and hardware products. It was founded on September 16, 2015.

Portfolio highlights

• APTJ — Automotive Platform Technology Japan (APTJ) primarily engages in the development, sale, and licensing of automotive software and hardware products. It was founded on September 16, 2015.

Portfolio highlights

• Elephantech — Elephantech is a startup company that aims to drastically innovate the technology for manufacturing electronic circuits, with the vision of achieving faster manufacturing at lower cost by leveraging printing technology.Electronic circuits are literally part of social infrastructures and are embedded everywhere in the world that we live in today.While the number and types of electronic devices being used by humans have been increasing dramatically, driven by advances in semiconductor and telecommunication technology, the technology for manufacturing electronic circuits has not seen any major innovation over the past 50 years.Conventional electronic circuits are manufactured through a process called photolithography, which involves applying metal all over the surface of a substrate and melting the metal off any unrequired areas. However, photolithography has the disadvantage of wasting large amounts of the materials used and driving up the production cost, in addition to being harmful to the environment.Elephantech’s suggested manufacturing method, which is a totally opposite approach to photolithography, involves printing metal only onto the required areas using inkjet printing and enlarging the printed metal by applying plating technology.This approach has enabled Elephantech to manufacture PWBs at significantly lower cost as the amounts of materials required and the number of processes have been reduced. In addition, as this is an on-demand manufacturing solution that does not require any initial cost, it is cost-effective especially for producing prototypes in small quantities, the cost of which can be reduced by at least 80%.We currently possess the best technology in the world for manufacturing PWBs using inkjet printers, the business of which is slated to expand rapidly going forward. Elephantech is committed to accelerating global manufacturing activities by leveraging such technology.
• Sakana AI — We are creating a new kind of foundation model based on nature-inspired intelligence.
• LuMing Robotics — LuMing Robotics is a developer of intelligent robots. LuMing Robotics focuses on the field of embodied intelligent robots, and its business covers intelligent robot R&D and sales, artificial intelligence algorithm development, etc.

Portfolio highlights

• PinGo Lab — PinGo is an innovative platform that integrates artificial intelligence, decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and advanced GPU technology. Its mission is to democratize access to computational resources, making them available to a broader audience. By leveraging user-contributed resources, PinGo enables the decentralization of AImodel training, fostering collaboration and innovation in the AI field. This approach not only enhances accessibility but also empowers individuals and organizations to contribute to and benefit from cutting-edge AI advancements.
• LSP Finance — LSP is a full-featured digital asset management platform that is transforming DeFi by enabling Proof of Stake (PoS) networks to provide liquidity. The goal of the asset issuance protocol LSP.Finance is to develop tradable and interest-bearing solutions for assets such as beta tokens, Alpha project shares, and POS node shares.
• Fortune Protocol — Fortune Protocol brings the age- old tradition of fortune cookies to the modern prediction market.

Portfolio highlights

• Lean Mobility — Lean Mobility is a motor vehicle manufacturing company that manufactures and supplies electric motorcycles and motorcycle parts.

Portfolio highlights

• SkyDrive — SkyDrive is a start-up for development,manufacturing,sales of the “Flying cars” established by CARTIVATOR members.

Portfolio highlights

• Torana — Torana provides "Toysub!" well known as educational toy subscription service in Japan market. We plan to go global and will be more bigger market share holder in East Asia. We collect month-age base toy feedback data and children's development status information. We plan best combination of toys and deliver. Customer returns and getsnew toys which fit children's growth and it is eco friendly service. We plan to build our own brand toys based on massive customer feedback and growth data and enter D2C market.
• Omnis — OMNIS
• Blackbox — Blackbox is an entertainment firm that is involved in businesses, including VTuber production, media mix, and live music events.

Portfolio highlights

• CoA Nexus — CoA Nexus develops and operates a skillshare matching platform for human resource research and development.
• bestat — bestat is a developer of platforms for 3D data creation, management, and utilization using AI and offers digital twins services.
• Drone Show Japan — Drone Show Japan company specializes in drone shows for events, aerial photography, and workshops.

Portfolio highlights

• Boings.AI — Boings.AI is a Web3 value collaboration network designed for the AI era.
• OptiView — Optiview is a Web3-native Intelligent Asset OS that transforms fragmented multi-chain reality into sovereign intelligence using a four-layered architecture.
• Fortune Protocol — Fortune Protocol brings the age- old tradition of fortune cookies to the modern prediction market.