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Top 25 Automotive VC Funds in Japan

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

Top 25 Automotive VC Funds in Japan

Investor	Automotive Japan investments
Lifetime Ventures	2
BroadBand Tower	2
Mobility Technologies	2
Drone Fund	2
XTech Ventures	1
B Dash Ventures	1
Okinawa Development Finance Corporation	1
Legend Partners	1
Innovation Engine	1
Z Corporation	1
Quanta Computer	1
JapanTaxi	1
Nippon Venture Capital	1
STRIVE	1
ITOCHU Technology Ventures	1
JR West Innovations	1
Sojitz	1
Mirai Creation Fund	1
KDDI	1
Ryugin research Institute	1
SUKOYAKA HOLDINGS	1
DMM.com	1
Energy & Environment Investment	1
Yamaha Motor	1
Incubate Fund	1

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Investor list

Lifetime Ventures is a VC firm that specializes in pre-seed and seed investments.

Investment focus

Software, Health Care, Marketing
Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

ekei labs — Made with Framer
EF Polymer — EF Polymer Private Limited providing 100% Organic and fully Biodegradable Super Absorbent Polymer cum Fertilizer to reduce Water and Fertilizer requirement for your plant. Let's grow organically.
MORPHEUS — Development of Nose To Brain Drug Delivery System (DDS)

BroadBand Tower supports IoT (internet of things) through its advanced technological capabilities.

Investment focus

Software, Automotive, Taxi Service
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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

Mobility Technologies provides vehicle allocation systems for taxi operators.

Investment focus

Software, Automotive, Taxi Service
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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

Drone Fund is a venture capital firm that provides supports in IP strategy, innovative planning, and drone policy. It offers capital investment and financing and aims to create a Drone Ecosystem where LPs and startups can benefit from membership within the Drone Fund.

Investment focus

Drones, Robotics, Aerospace
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Canada

Portfolio highlights

Wingcopter — Wingcopter is an award-winning German developer, manufacturer, and operator of unmanned eVTOL fixed-wing aircraft dedicated to improving the lives of people worldwide through meaningful commercial and humanitarian applications. The start-up focuses on the delivery of goods such as medicines to remote health facilities, packages, and food to privatehouseholds. With their unique, patented tilt-rotor mechanism, the electrically powered Wingcopters far exceed the range and payload capabilities of commercial multicopter drones. Taking off and landing vertically like multicopters, Wingcopters fly long distances as efficiently and quickly as fixed-wing aircraft, reaching ranges of up to 75 miles (120 kilometers) and a Guinness world record speed of 150 mph (240 km/h). Even in strong winds of up to 44 mph (71 km/h) or inclement weather, Wingcopters fly autonomously and reliably.Wingcopters are also used for the efficient inspection of public infrastructure and for long-range mapping applications.In 2020, Wingcopter was named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
Sunflower Labs — Sunflower Labs makes an autonomous outdoor security system that senses and deters unwanted visitors before they’re at your door. Our elegant sensors detect motion and vibration, differentiating between people, animals, and cars. When they detect something unusual, they’ll notify you and deploy a fully autonomous drone. The drone flies directly tothe scene and streams live video of what’s happening. Guided by our sensors, it follows the activity, performs a security “sweep,” and lands itself safely in its weatherproof docking station.
RICOS Co. Ltd. — RICOS is a tech company that optimizes manufacturing processes using AI, simulation, and high-performance computing technologies.

XTech Ventures aims to achieve dramatic growth for investee companies by supporting entrepreneurship, multifaceted management support, and IPO support for the excellent middle class who are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Italy, United Arab Emirates

Portfolio highlights

Nexta — Nexta manufactures site, issues such as analog management, personalization of operations & labor shortages are becoming more serious.
Collectest — Collectest specializes in integrating AI into trading card appraisal procedures that show current market pricing and verify authenticity.
Infobox — Infobox is a sales data platform that includes every detail from market research to creating a list of companies and contacting decision-makers.

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

Internet, Information Technology, 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.
Fixx — Fixx is an automobile company that provides on-site car maintenance and other mechanic services.
Ascend — Ascend is a logistics company.

Okinawa Development Finance Corporation provides policy-based financial services.

Investment focus

Apps, Content, Medical
Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

LiLz — LiLz is an IT technology network for businesses looking to use AI and IoT to offer new services and value.
Payke — Payke Multicomponent is an application that allows to view all the information of products in their mother tongue.The application "Payke" makes it possible to connect products around the world to the Internet by utilizing the bar codes that are scattered throughout the world. the company's goal is to build an enormous database basedon barcodes. It is to reorganize and organize products around the world into a single database and allow anyone to freely access there. Anytime, anywhere, anyone will be able to touch the information of products around the world.
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.

Legend Partners mainly engages in venture investment development and business creation development. It focuses on the field of real estate, state-of-the-art technology, and medical.

Investment focus

Marketing, Automotive, Enterprise
Seed, Series A
Japan

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.

Innovation Engine has been is promoting investment to create and grow promising business areas created from technology. Established in 2001 and it is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Robotics, Information Technology, Medical
Funding Round, Series A, Series C
Japan

Portfolio highlights

LisB — LisB provides cloud service development, smartphone, tuplet, PC application development web system.
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.
Ispace Technologies — ispace is a private lunar robotic exploration company that is developing micro-robotic technology to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space.

3D Systems has the largest portfolio of 3D Printers. We offer 3D Printing solutions for manufacturing, prototyping, casting, dental and more.

Investment focus

Drones, Robotics, Automotive
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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

Quanta Computer is a provider of design and manufacturing services in hi-tech markets.

Investment focus

Consumer Electronics, Software, Semiconductor
Series B, Series C, Series A
United States, Japan, Israel

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.
aetherAI — aetherAI is dedicated to developing web-based digital pathology workflow system and AI-powered diagnostic support. Its mission to use state-of-the-art information technology to improve the quality of healthcare.
QT Medical — World's leading medical ECG/EKG machine company that aims to make hospital-grade 12-lead ecg machines available for everyone. Best portable ecg device during the pandemic. Focusing on innovations in the field of telemedicine and home care, we continue to invest in research and development of products that will bring better cardiac care to patients.

JapanTaxi is a Provider of taxi booking services designed to cater the needs of people in Japan. The company's services offer a fare calculator application if users took a taxi offline, enabling users to easily travel from one place to another.

Investment focus

Software, Automotive, Taxi Service
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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

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

Issues — Issues provides development and management of web service issues that solve the problems.
Trustart — Trustart engages in real estate research business and real estate big data provision. The company offers real estate big data and big data subscriptions.
LIFESCAPES — LIFESCAPES is a research and manufacturer of brain-computer interface equipment.

STRIVE focuses on investing in early-stage (Seed to Series A) internet and mobile companies. It seeks out companies in Japan, Southeast Asia, and India with top-notch management teams and strong market potential. It is not tied to strategic investments for GREE Inc. and leverages its pan-Asia expertise for guiding its portfolio in an engaged,hands-on role.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, India, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Showroom B2B — SHOWROOM B2B is building the largest B2B “Phygital” platform for India’s $108 Bn fashion industry by connecting Tier 2+ clothing retailers directly with small to mid-scale apparel manufacturers and providing all parties with solutions for distribution, credit, logistics, and marketing.Showroom works on “Touch & Feel” mode of selling where itsunique distribution model ensures that there is almost NO RETURN of products sold. It creates Experience Centres for its retailers which gives them the confidence to buy without any iota of doubt about product quality.Showroom's offerings = Better Margins for Clothing Retailers + Aggressive Growth for Clothing Manufacturers
Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!
Mercado Único — Mercado Único is a B2B platform for the distribution and management of opportunistic sales of Consumer Goods that are close to expiration and slow-moving, connecting suppliers (manufacturers/distributors) to buyers (retailers/distributors) with items that have predictable and immediate use at discounted prices.

ITOCHU Technology Ventures (ITV), based in Tokyo, is the venture capital arm of ITOCHU Corporation. ITOCHU is one of the world's largest corporations with offices in over 80 countries and operations that cover a broad spectrum of industries. ITV's mission is to invest and help build leading information technology companies by leveraging avast array of resources both domestically and internationally throughout ITOCHU and its group companies. The ITOCHU group has a long history of funding information technology companies with successes including Siebel Systems, NVIDIA, Openwave and Aruba Networks. Current portfolio includes, Box, Fab, Ooyala, WHILL, Tokyo Otaku Mode, etc.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Software, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Belgium

Portfolio highlights

Funds — Funds is an online marketplace for lending funds.
KAICO — KAICO is a pharmaceuticals, diagnostic drugs production company.
Yoii Fuel — Yoii Fuel is a software company which analyzes a company's KPIs and enables them to obtain a means of financing based on this data.

JR West Japan Group, they will utilize innovation based on external technologies and know-how to realize sustainable operation of the railway and expansion of business creation, contributing to the revitalization of areas including the West Japan area.

Investment focus

Software, Product Design, CRM
Funding Round, Seed, Series C
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DennoKotsu — Denno Kotsu is a Taxi dispatch system development and provision, taxi company contract dispatch service
SPACER Japan — SPACER is a 24-hour handover IoT locker that can open and close doors with a smartphone.
Man-Machine Synergy Effectors — The man-machine synergy effector (Human-Machine Synergy Effector) is a device that we propose as an "effector that realizes functions that cannot be realized only by humans or machines only by synergy between humans and machines (man-machine synergy)". Is a general term for concepts and categories.We believe that we can extend humancapabilities more.Our robotics is robotics as mechanical engineering, and we are not aiming to develop autonomous robots and artificial intelligence that make people unnecessary. By intuitively manipulating robots as a physical tool, we aim to increase the value of human labor, enrich society, and contribute to human well-being.

Sojitz is operates as a general trading company. The company exports built-up vehicles; assembles, manufactures, and sells local vehicles; and sells automobiles and motorcycle components, commercial aircraft, defense and related equipment, business jets, tires, surface-mounting machines, bearings, oil, natural gas, LNG, petroleum products, nuclearfuels, and nuclear power-related equipment and machinery.

Investment focus

Health Care, Medical, Manufacturing
Funding Round, Corporate Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Ripplr — Ripplr is a full-stack tech distribution and logistics player that offers data-driven analytics and plugs and play system.
VLP Therapeutics — VLP Therapeutics, LLC (VLP) was established in 2012 by seasoned biopharmaceutical veterans with mission to develop innovative medical treatment which transforms traditional vaccine and targeted antibody therapies to address global unmet medical needs. Its vision is to combat the 21st century global public health problems through revolutionary nextgeneration i-αVLP (inserted alpha VLP) Technology. The company is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Hycamite TCD Technologies — Hycamite is decarbonising industry using its proprietary methane pyrolysis technology. It provides its industrial clients with low-carbon hydrogen and sustainable carbon products for demanding applications.

The Mirai Creation Fund invests in companies and projects that use the latest technologies and business models, supporting the growth of value in these companies and projects, wherever they are found around the world.

Investment focus

Robotics, Information Technology, Software
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Israel

Portfolio highlights

Nealle — Nealle offers business development, business planning and consulting services.
DeltaX — DeltaX provides valuable information and different services related to education.
May Mobility — May Mobility is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology development and deployment. With more than 275,000 autonomous rides to date, May Mobility is committed to delivering safe, efficient and sustainable shuttle solutions designed to complement today's public transportation options. The company's ultimate goal is to realize a worldwhere self-driving systems make transportation more accessible and reliable, the roads safer, and encourage better land use in order to foster more green, vibrant, and livable spaces.

KDDI Corporation is a Japanese telecommunications operator. It was created in 2000 through a merger of DDI, KDD and IDO and now employs over 15,000 people.The company provides a broad range of services, including fixed-line phone communication, mobile phone and web services, and Internet services. It also has a ownership stake in two Japanesecable television companies, Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) and Japan Cablenet (JCN). KDDI's mobile phone and web arm is branded as "au". The company is the current No. 2 in Japan's mobile communications market, trailing NTT DoCoMo and ahead of SoftBank.

Investment focus

Mobile, Software, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Allganize — Allganize provides Alli, an AI document understanding platform that revolutionizes enterprise productivity. If you want a proper AI chatbot, enterprise chatGPT, or AI OCR, Allganize is the answer.
Yogo Robot — Yogo Robot is a robotics company dedicated to developing automated delivery solutions. Yogo Robot offers an open, extensive, and versatile multi-robot ecological system that consists of smart delivery stations, robotic couriers, and Internet of Things devices. The system boosts efficiency in last-mile delivery and provides a more seamless userexperience than ever before. Yogo Robot is transforming how goods are transported and reimagining how humans and robots will coexist in the future by enabling the delivery industry with cutting-edge robotic technology at the terminal end.
Telexistence — TELEXISTENCE Inc. aims to be the systematic innovator of scale in robotics. Innovator means new stuff. And scale means big, systematic ways of looking things done in a way that’s reproducible.

Ryugin Research Institute Co., Ltd., took over its business from the Economic Research Office of the Corporate Support Department, which is the economic research division of the Bank of the Ryukyus, and became independent on June 28, 2006 in a form that further strengthened its functions.The Ryukyu Bank Research Department was the predecessor ofthe Economic Research Office, but since the foundation of the Ryukyu Bank in 1948, it has conducted various economic and industrial surveys and made proposals and proposals, etc. We have been committed to development.

Investment focus

Automotive, Mobile Apps, Restaurants
Seed
Japan

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.

SUKOYAKA HOLDINGS is a mental and physical health care service provider.

Investment focus

Automotive, Mobile Apps, Restaurants
Seed
Japan

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.

DMM.com Group provides digital content distribution, online rental, internet connection, manufacturing support, and solar power generation services. The company was established in November 1999 and is based in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Automotive, E-Commerce, Machine Learning
Seed
Japan, United States

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.

Energy & Environment Investment, Inc. (EEI) is Japan’s first venture capital specialized in the clean technology sector. With core members who have rich hands on experience in founding and managing venture companies, we aim to provide risk money and various strategic values to promising venture companies and businesses.

Investment focus

Internet of Things, Software, Energy
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, Germany

Portfolio highlights

Fager — Fager is an agriculture firm specializing in promoting decarbonization projects, agricultural carbon production, and sales.
Nature — Nature offers a product that enables its users to save money by controlling the use of their air conditioners.The product that the company offers is an air conditioner controller that transforms any window-mounted or through-wall AC into a smart one, equipped with infrared, power control, and sensors that, along with a mobile app for voicesensors, enabling users to operate household appliances with just one smartphone to control their ACs. It transforms the operation of room air conditioners (ACs) to improve comfort and efficiency for consumers while reducing energy demand peaks for utilities with simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-install device.The Boston, Massachusetts-based company was incorporated by Mash Ohtsuka and Haruumi Shiode in 2014.
Synspective — Synspective provides one-stop-solutions by satellite gathered geospatial data. The core technology was developed by the ImPACT program led by The Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, building small SAR satellites and constellations, allowing frequent observation of areas of interest (AOI). Synspective uses its satellites to produce SAR data which can be provided to both government and commercial clients as-is, as well as transform that data through AI solutions to produce insights and user-friendly information across industries.

Corporate profile and facts about Yamaha Motor.

Investment focus

Transportation, Robotics, Logistics
Series A, Corporate Round, Series B
India, Japan, United States

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 shareable, connected, keyless and trackable on the world's leading software platform.
River — Empowering people, improving lives.

Incubate Fund is an independent early-stage venture capital that specializes in providing capital to technology startups at the seed stage. The firm built a portfolio of over 300 companies in Asia, taking 12 companies to public and 20 companies to M&A exit since 2010.

Investment focus

Software, E-Commerce, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

SoftRoid — SoftRoid provides a software robot that patrols and collects data for analyzing the construction site.
M-INT — M-INT is a life science company that offers medical infrastructure and medical IT system.
Blossom Energy — Developed advanced nuclear reactors that are able to produce clean energy, Blossom Energy manufactures nuclear reactors for the nuclear energy industry. The focus of the company is on providing affordable, stable, and sustainable energy for the world. The company utilizes HTGR, which is a fourth-generation nuclear reactor.

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