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Top 50 EdTech Angel Investors in Japan

Last updated: Apr 2024 A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Edtech startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Edtech companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 EdTech Angel Investors in Japan

Investor	EdTech Japan investments
Robert Huang	3
Kotaro Chiba	3
Kotaro Chiba	3
Tatsuo Sakamoto	2
Kiyoshi Ayabe	2
Shintaro Yamada	2
Hidetoshi Takano	2
Narita Shuzo	2
Mamoru Taniya	2
Dai Tamesue	1
Seiya Koide	1
Hiroaki Kitano	1
Masahiro Kotosaka	1
Yamamoto Kento	1
Keisuke Honda	1
Etsuji Otsuka	1
Nishiki Takashi	1
Kitamura Yota	1
Yuichi Tanaka	1
Yuzuru Honda	1
Shuuichi Wada	1
Mark Goines	1
Taki Toshio	1
Fumiaki Koizumi	1
Gaku Nakamura	1
Hikaru Kashida	1
Shuichi Takenaga	1
Sagehashi Yuki	1
Junshin Kawasaki	1
Suzuki Yuto	1
Yoshitsune Ido	1
Ryuji Terada	1
Toru Shimada	1
Ayataro Nakagawa	1
Noguchi Keito	1
Yusuke Ando	1
Sumiya Einosuke	1
Kato Yorihiko	1
Takato Hiroshi	1
Masao Ito	1
Daisuke Takanashi	1
Kenji Takada	1
Ryosuke Matsumoto	1
Kenji Niwa	1
Jun Ogawa	1
Naruhisa Nakagawa	1
Hideto Fujino	1
Alex Zubillaga	1
Naoki Yamada	1
Makoto Takano	1

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Investor list

Mr. Huang founded SYNNEX in 1980 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Prior to this, Mr. Huang was the International Sales Manager at Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Huang holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kyushyu University, Japan, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an M.S. inManagement Science from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Investment focus

Education, E-Learning, Language Learning
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Polyglots — POLYGLOTS designs and develops English news-reader mobile applications. It helps its application users learn English while reading news updates.POLYGLOTS is a development and operation of the English learning application "POLYGLOTS", the Japanese learning application "MONDO", and the finance / accounting specializedlearning application "Bigo", and the development and provision of an adaptive learning platform.

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Travel, 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.

Tatsuo Sakamoto is a Head of Sales, Japan at MOLOCO. He Attended The University of Tokyo.

Investment focus

Recruiting, Information Technology, Task Management
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.
ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

Kiyoshi Ayabe is the President and Founder of KIYO Learning.

Investment focus

Content, Education, E-Learning
Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

KIYO Learning — KIYO Learning offers a commuting course, an online course to acquire qualifications for business people.

During his years at Waseda University, Shintaro worked at Japan’s biggest e-commerce mall, Rakuten, Inc. On August 1st 2001, Shintaro established “Unoh Inc.” after graduating university. At Unoh he was responsible for designing and developing several web services, one of which was the online magazine subscription . Services provided by Unohinclude planning, development and management of the film enthusiast community site “Movie Life” (acquired by PIA Corporation) as well as “Sugu.CC” , “NeoAd” (both acquired by GMOAP) and the photo sharing site “Photozou” (acquired by Digital Garage).In 2009 Unoh entered into social gaming, creating multiple successful social games. Among these games, “Machitsuku!” has been its biggest hit with over 5 million users. On August 3rd 2010, Unoh joined Zynga and Shintaro became General Manager of Zynga Japan. He resigned on January 2012. After traveling around the world, He established the new company “Mercari, Inc.” on February 2013 and released the resale shopping app “Mercari” on July 2013 in Japan.He is a true Internet geek, spending a lot of time on the Internet and boasts around 180,000 followers on Twitter.

Investment focus

Internet, Finance, Information Technology
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Autify — Autify - Revolutionizing Software Testing with the most advanced AI-powered Software Testing Tool
Peach Cars — Peach Cars building a solution for those looking to buy and sell vehicles whole information on vehicles and hassle-free transactions.
AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States

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 .

Narita Shuzo is a Executive Vice President/COO, CrowdWorks Inc.

Investment focus

Task Management, Media and Entertainment, Content
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
MiL Inc — Emerging products for healthcare food brands Producing food retailing and wholesale recipe development Restaurant management Catering media operation.

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.

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.

Dai Tamesue is the Chief Marketing Officer of Miekuru.

Investment focus

Apps, Sports, Health Care
Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
vivid garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.
SAMURAI Security —

After experiencing CG designer, freelance, image director etc, joined KLab Corporation as an art director in May 2012. Business promotion and management skills are appreciated, and he joined the creative department manager in 1 year of joining the company and as the youngest executive officer in April 2014. In March 2015 he served concurrently asmarketing director and organized management of several divisions, he was active in a wide range of scenes. We are also focusing on developing creative events for new graduates and planning creative events for regular graduates and giving lectures for students. FiNC led the overall branding and service design while operating the organization as CCO Creative Director.

Investment focus

E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.

Hiroaki Kitano is the SVP at Softbank Mobile. He attended Waseda University.

Investment focus

Health Care, Information Technology, Fitness
Seed, Angel, Debt Financing
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

GPx — GPx is a biotech company that revolutionizes remote chronic disease management with bloodless blood tests. It is dedicated to transforming the standard of care of cardiorenal diseases and enabling patients to better understand their condition, much like the continuous glucose monitor has transformed diabetes care.The company was founded in 2020and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Epistra — Epistra accelerates research and development in life sciences.
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.

Masahiro Kotosaka is an Associate Professor at Keio University and an Associate Fellow of The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. He is an expert in Internationalization strategy and early stage business development, and advisor to several global start-up companies. Before moving to Keio, he was an associate professor ofmultinational management at Ritsumeikan University, a teaching & research associate at the University of Oxford, and a consultant at McKinsey & Company based in Frankfurt and Tokyo. As a practitioner, he worked for strategy/marketing projects with sixteen client organizations across nine industries and nine countries and spent four years running three profitable IT/Retail businesses before joining McKinsey. He graduated from the University of Oxford with D.Phil. (Ph.D) in Management Studies and MSc in Management Research with Distinction.

Investment focus

Education, EdTech, Fashion
Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kakedas — Kakedas specializes in the development and operation of web services.
ONE NOVA — One Nova (ワンノバ) is a lifestyle brand and online platform that offers a range of innerwear products, such as men's boxers.
noFRAME schools — noFRAME schools is an EdTech startup is a mission to reinvent a textbook.

Yamamoto Kento - Directors CDO @ COUNTERWORKS

Investment focus

E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.

Keisuke Honda is the Founder & CEO of Now Do.

Investment focus

Education, E-Learning, E-Commerce
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Krave Mart — Krave Mart is a quick-commerce startup offering the delivery of groceries and other products in 10 minutes.
AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.
Bending Spoons — Bending Spoons is a fast-growing tech company focused on building and marketing mobile applications. Despite being such a young company, we've already achieved notable results, with tens of millions of downloads of our apps, and millions of users active every month. Our goal? Becoming the #1 app developer and publisher in the world. And ourambitions don't end there!We invest immensely in our team, and we couldn't be more proud of each other. We are a group of extremely young, talented, and ambitious software engineers, data scientists, and graphic designers, with among our ranks entrepreneurs that raised money from prestigious VCs, ex-CERN, ex-Google, and ex-McKinsey. We work from our amazing headquarters in Milan, but also support remote work.We're always on the lookout for people that want to be part of our über-challenging journey to build one of the greatest tech companies in the world. If that sounds exciting to you, don't hesitate to apply at http://bendingspoons.com/careers.html.

Etsuji Otsuka - Co-founder and CIO @ TRUIM Partners

Investment focus

Apps, Software, Training
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Coursebase — Coursebase is a developer of a learning management system used in providing training through an enterprise web application. It delivers and manages all types of training that help to automate course registration, grading of assignments, email reminders, surveys, and reports for online and in-person training courses that enable clients to createcourses and assign tests for their employees.

Nishiki Takashi - Outside Director @ aucfan Co.,Ltd.

Investment focus

Content, Education, Social Media
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kepple Accounting Office — Kepple Accounting is a start-up accounting and tax services.

Kitamura Yota

Investment focus

Education, E-Learning
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Cocoach — Cocoach provides online education service.

Yuichi Tanaka - CDO @ Visional

Investment focus

E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.

Yuzuru Honda is a Founder & Global CEO of FreakOut.

Investment focus

SNS, Internet, Software
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, Nigeria, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

NodeFlair — NodeFlair aims to help tech talents make better career decisions through jobs, salaries, reviews, company insights, and more
AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
Rensource Energy — Rensource develops, finances, and manages critical energy infrastructure for African enterprises with the objective of powering Africa's economy

Shuuichi Wada - CTO @ alu Japan

Investment focus

Reservations, Content, Social Media
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Craftie — Craftie is an lesson reservation service.
hackjpn — HACK JPN is a company that transforms imagination into creativity and builds a natural tomorrow.
rocketa — Rocketa is a news curation and social media platform.

Based in Menlo Park, Mark is a Partner focused on the areas of financial technology, mobile, consumer and small business Internet services. He has an extensive track record of working with high growth companies as an entrepreneur, executive and angel investor. Exits from his angel investments include Mint, Baby Center, PayCycle and Nolo.com.Prior to joining Morgenthaler, Mark was a successful angel investor. His investments included two Morgenthaler portfolio companies, Pageonce and Practice Fusion. He currently represents Morgenthaler on the Practice Fusion board.Previously, Mark helped build and ran Intuit’s Consumer Tax business (TurboTax). He also served as Senior Vice President of Intuit’s International Division, managing businesses on every continent, creating new products, acquiring companies and building partnerships. He then served as General Manager of Intuit’s Consumer Division and helped generate over $200 million in annual revenues, serving 15 million customers across a broad range of software and e-commerce services by 2000.Prior to Intuit, Mark held executive positions at Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab, where he developed and marketed early-stage banking, software and electronic services that formed the foundation of today’s online trading industry.Mark became an active investor and entrepreneur in 2000. He was an investor and board member at Mint, a consumer online financial management company that was sold to Intuit in 2009. He was also an investor and board member in Nolo.com, a self-help law service that was sold to Internet Brands in 2011. Goines co-founded and became chief marketing officer at PassMark Security, which was sold to RSA in 2006. He also invested in WePay (payments), BillFloat (lending) and Cozi (family organization).Mark holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. He served as president of the Los Altos Educational Foundation and has been elected as a trustee of the Los Altos School Board.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Software, FinTech
Seed, Series A, Angel
United States, Japan, Brazil

Portfolio highlights

Autumn — Autumn modernizes the way Americans manage loss with the world’s first deathcare marketplace. With free guides and tools, and over 500,000 providers for hire, Autumn is on a mission to transform the American deathcare landscape for the better.
Credit Mountain — Provide your users with a full-suite of tools designed to help improve credit scores. Offer your members a PATH TO YES!
Trustworthy. — Trustworthy offers state of the art operating system for families that need help organizing family documents. Find out how we can help make your life easier.

Taki Toshio is the Founder at Money Forward .

Investment focus

Legal, Finance, Education
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Issues — Issues provides development and management of web service issues that solve the problems.
Cocoach — Cocoach provides online education service.
Crediation — Crediation is a digital finance provider that provides small and medium-sized businesses with complete access to financial services to build their enterprises by providing seamless mobile lending experiences. is a stock finance facility focused on helping business owners receive the capital they need to refill their enterprises through convenient,inexpensive, and sustainable loans.

Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Osiro — Osiro is a community management firm.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
FABRIC TOKYO — FABRIC TOKYO is a Japanese startup provides a direct-to-consumer custom-made apparel brand. (former-company name Lifestyle Design Co., Ltd.). It enables customers to save their sizes, idea fabrics, and favorite designs, allowing them to make their original clothing later.FABRIC TOKYO was founded in 2012 by Yuichiro Mori and is based in Tokyo,Japan.

Gaku Nakamura - Co-Founder and CEO @ RareJob

Investment focus

Sports, Education, Information Technology
Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

SPORNIA — SPORNIA is an editor of sports knowledge technology.We provide support for athletes using content and monetization using emerging media such as SNS and YouTube.

Hikaru Kashida is a data scientist and is currently working at Mercari Inc., Japan.

Investment focus

Consulting, E-Learning, Communities
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

rocketa — Rocketa is a news curation and social media platform.
alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.

Takenaga Shuuichi is an individual investor.

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.

Sagehashi Yuki

Investment focus

Content, FinTech, Finance
Angel, Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DariaMe — DariaMe is a web media planning, development and operation, planning and production of various contents, online consultation service.
BrainCat — BrainCat is a Japanese company that specializes in developing FinTech platforms. It has developed a social fund service “Gojo”. BrainCat was established on June 29, 2016.
Kepple Accounting Office — Kepple Accounting is a start-up accounting and tax services.

Junshin Kawasaki - Director @ LEVIAS

Investment focus

Education, EdTech, Infrastructure
Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kakedas — Kakedas specializes in the development and operation of web services.
noFRAME schools — noFRAME schools is an EdTech startup is a mission to reinvent a textbook.

Suzuki Yuto - Representative Director and CEO @ JapanWork

Investment focus

SaaS, Content, Internet
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.
Bizibl Technologies — Bizibl Technologies provides SaaS services for recruitment events.

Yoshitsune Ido

Investment focus

Information Technology, Robotics, Software
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
BionicM — BionicM develops high-performance robot prostheses that enhance mobility for people with disabilities.BionicM has been conducting research on innovative technologies since 2015 at the University of Tokyo's Information Systems Engineering Laboratory (JSK) under the guidance of Professor Inaba and utilizing the world's most advancedrobotics research. In 2016, we were adopted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency as part of "Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology" (START), and in 2018, the company was established as a joint-stock company.
Dots for — Dots for is a technology that aims to improve the lives of rural residents by providing them with digital services.

Ryuji Terada

Investment focus

Education, Consulting, Human Resources
Angel, Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Funova — Funova is a consulting company.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.
noFRAME schools — noFRAME schools is an EdTech startup is a mission to reinvent a textbook.

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.

Investment focus

Task Management, Manufacturing, Content
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.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
Abentry — Abentry is engaged in the SNS business and media advertising business.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Information Technology
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.

Noguchi Keito - Founder @ Vapes

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Financial Services
Seed, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

DOFA — Dofa aims to develop services that enrich the way of life and work of human resources that are active mainly in sales.
Alliance Cloud — Alliance Cloud primarily engages in the Sales Tech and BtoB Sales Outsourcing Business.
Cloud Franchise — Cloud Franchise is a cloud kitchen model that aims to maximize the kitchen occupancy rate of restaurants.

YUSUKE ANDO is a Outside Director at hachidori.

Investment focus

Content, Education, Social Media
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

FLIGHTS — FLIGHTS is a multidisciplinary drone services from EC, media, pilot training, consulting, insurance and localization of foreign softwares.
Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.

Sumiya Einosuke

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Education, Logistics
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TRUNK — TRUNK is an Information site for internship and business training company
TRUNK Japan — TRUNK is a provider of Information service industry,advertising agency business and design business.

Kato Yorihiko is a Founder and Director at Bitbank.

Investment focus

Internet, Education, Agriculture
Seed
Japan, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

Langrich — Langrich is a start-up that aspires to be the best online ESL school, connecting Filipino teachers with Japanese students.
Agribuddy — Management of agricultural support application "AGRIBUDDY".

Takato Hiroshi - CEO @ M0mentum

Investment focus

Health Care, Legal, Beauty
Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

JAPAN HEALTHCARE — Japan Healthcare is a healthcare start-up that works on the prevention of musculoskeletal diseases with environmentally-friendly preventive medicine . Japan Healthcare Build a preventive system for musculoskeletal diseases with environmentally-improving preventive medicine.
Japan Healthcare Info — Japan Healthcase Info locates english-speaking doctors for you and makes appointments
Legal Technology Japan — Legal Technology is into development of cloud-based research tool called 'Legal Library' using legal books.

Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.

Investment focus

Content, Information Technology, Social Media
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.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.
Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.

Daisuke Takanashi is an angel investor.

Investment focus

SNS, Content, Finance
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

VCook —
Abentry — Abentry is engaged in the SNS business and media advertising business.
alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.

Kenji Takada - CEO @ Konomichi

Investment focus

EdTech, Education, E-Learning
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Viling — Viling is a provider of education services for children, including STEMON, a science-math programming school that utilizes building blocks and robot tools; BOKEN, an exploration-based learning school; and Afterschool LeaLea, a primary school that provides lessons for swimming, English, gymnastics and ballet, and more.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

Founder CEO at Firstcard. Entrepreneur and Investor.

Investment focus

Marketplace, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
United States, Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Cloosiv — Cloosiv is an ordering platform that allows users to order in advance from their favorite coffee shop, skip the queue, and get rewards from the platform to save time and money.
Firstcard — All-in-One Student Credit Builder. Build credit. Earn cashback. Grow your deposit.
Oxygen — Oxygen is a digital banking platform. It is the first and only challenger in the US that offers both personal and business banking. The bank of the 21st-century economy, serving consumers, small businesses, and freelancers.Available on iOS and Android, Oxygen users enjoy no monthly fees, no paperwork, early direct deposit, simple transfers,cashback rewards, savings accounts, as well as retail and travel benefits. Businesses can easily control their finances with solutions that are elegant, simple, and secure.

Jun Ogawa is the Managing Director at Pixie Dust Technologies. He was a former Country Manager at Kaizen Platform.

Investment focus

Software, Education, Information Technology
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Qurate Inc. (Japan) — Plan, create and manage all your content, across all your channels with all your teams. Try for free now.
Kakedas — Kakedas specializes in the development and operation of web services.
noFRAME schools — noFRAME schools is an EdTech startup is a mission to reinvent a textbook.

Naruhisa Nakagawa is a Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Caygan Capital.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Beauty, Environmental Consulting
Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Zeigo — Zeigo by Schneider Electric provides sustainability software that is built to simplify and accelerate carbon reduction, lighting the path toward a carbon-free future.
Ecolectro — Ecolectro is solving the biggest challenges in making Green Hydrogen. Our alkaline ion-exchange membranes and polymers make clean fuel and decarbonize industry.
Sniffer Robotics — Comprehensive methane emissions detection and quantification, advanced imagery and analytics; Sniffer Robotics provides advanced solutions that benefit the environment.

Hideto Fujino - President, Cheif Investment Officer @ Rheos

Investment focus

Reservations, Travel, Real Estate
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

HOMMA — Inspired Modern Living. Homes to elevate healthy urban lifestyles. Design. Build. Technology.
Address Japan — ADDress is a provider of co-living spaces in both urban and rural areas, enabling people to live in a range of luxurious residences at fixed prices.
Unito — Unito offers people a friction-free lifestyle by pursuing optimization of living.

Alex Zubillaga is the founder of 14W, a New York-based, venture capital firm focused on consumer Mobile, Web, E-commerce, CPG, and Media.Previously, Alex was Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development at Warner Music Group (WMG). Prior to WMG, Alex founded Net Uno, a leading Venezuelan cable television and broadbandoperator where he served as CEO and Chairman.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Apps, Music
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, United Kingdom, Israel

Portfolio highlights

Reby — Reby is a European multinational company involved in the design, construction, financing, operation (DBFO) and maintenance of public sharing transport infrastructure. Today, Reby is the Southern Europe leader in the micromobility field, with over 15 agreements with public administrations. The company was founded by four entrepreneurs (Pep Gómez,Kiran Thomas, Cristina Castillo, and Guillem Pagès) in 2018 as a micromobility operator, winning the first public tender in Europe for kickscooters, in the city of Zaragoza (Spain). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company increased its R&D efforts, expanding into the MaaS (mobility-as-a-service) economy and the investment banking/franchising business for public administrations (through PPPs), public utility companies, as well as SMEs.
Qapital — Qapital is an award-winning app designed to let you save, invest, and spend with any goal in mind.
Opal — Protect your focus time. Schedule your days, block distracting apps and focus fully, on your iPhone, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browser. Try Opal for Free!

Naoki Yamada

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Sports
Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

SPORNIA — SPORNIA is an editor of sports knowledge technology.We provide support for athletes using content and monetization using emerging media such as SNS and YouTube.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.
THE APP BASE Inc — THE APP BASE Inc is a design firm that provides its clients with web and mobile services. Founded in 2012, the firm also operates co-working spaces.

Makoto Takano is CEO of atomixmedia, inc., publisher and editor-in-chief of Forbes Japan and Rolling Stone Japan since June, 2014. Prior to joining Atomixmedia, Inc., he was Managing Director and President of PIMCO Japan Ltd. Before joining PIMCO in 2001, he was head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Makoto's prior experiencealso includes work at Daiwa Securities where he was head of the strategists team at Daiwa Institute of Research. He has published extensively on the capital markets. In 1992, he was awarded Securities Analysts Journal Prize by the Securities Analyst Association of Japan. He has also given lectures on asset management at Waseda University and Kyoto University. He holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in engineering from Waseda University. Makoto serves as Director of Nippon Finance Association and Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation.

Investment focus