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Top 50 Education Startup Investors in Japan in November 2024

Last updated: Nov 2024 A list of 50 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Education startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Education companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 Education Startup Investors in Japan in November 2024

Investor	Education Japan investments
SMBC Venture Capital	8
ANOBAKA	7
ANRI	6
Genesia Ventures	5
Incubate Fund	5
Nissay Capital	5
W ventures	5
PE&HR	5
Mobile Internet Capital	4
UntroD Capital	4
East Ventures	4
MITSUI SUMITOMO INSURANCE Venture Capital (MSIVC)	4
Real Tech Japan	4
Mizuho Capital	4
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital	3
UTEC - The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners	3
ITOCHU Technology Ventures	3
BEENEXT	3
Kotaro Chiba	3
Hidetoshi Takano	3
F Ventures	3
STRIVE	3
Kotaro Chiba	3
QB Capital	3
Robert Huang	3
MIRAISE	2
Future Venture Capital	2
VOYAGE VENTURES	2
Tatsuo Sakamoto	2
DNX Ventures	2
Mistletoe	2
K&P Partners	2
Leave a Nest	2
XTech Ventures	2
Japan Finance Corporation	2
Shintaro Yamada	2
Mamoru Taniya	2
Venture Labo Investment	2
DOGAN beta	2
SPARX Group	2
Chiba Dojo	2
Daiwa Corporate Investment	2
Narita Shuzo	2
Cool Japan Fund	2
Oita Venture Capital	2
en-Japan	2
Vector	2
D4V	2
500 Startups Japan	2
AgFunder	2

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Investor list

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and its group companies offer a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in the leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital and other credit related businesses. The following lists the activities of SMBC, its subsidiaries andaffiliates in the various business segments.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Quanmatic — Quanmatic is an information and technology company that provides algorithms development and solutions to bridge quantum technologies.
Good News — Good News is a staffing agency that provides recruitment, public relations, and human resource management services.
Okuma Diamond Device — Okuma Diamond Device supplies cutting-edge technologies that make diamond semiconductors vital.

ANOBAKA is a Tokyo-based venture capital firm with rich group resources to add value to seed-stage startups. ANOBAKA actively invests in and supports startups aiming to be a global leader in the innovative Internet business and promising to greatly grow up in the future. ANOBAKA's investment focuses on fledgling seed-stage startups. Inaddition to investment financing, ANOBAKA provides founders with a variety of business support such as development consulting by our engineers, sales support, and international marketing support.

Investment focus

Software, Content, Food and Beverage
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

JOYCLE — JOYCLE is a waste management company that specializes in trash recycling, disposal, and environmental consulting services.
Livetoon — Livetoon creates intellectual property characters to access various content artificial intelligence.
Nekonome — Nekonome creates a game platform with global character designs, in-game updates, and regular events, providing a personalized gaming experience based on data.

ANRI is a Japanese venture capital firm that mainly invests in seed and early-stage startups.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Sukidayo — Sukidayo is a startup company that offers social services related to family and workshops for individuals, companies, and governments.
Crowd Chem — Crowd Chem is an IT company that specializes in software development, data services, and consulting services.
Tanp — Gracia is an EC business and media business that provides coloring precious moments and enriching human connections.

Genesia Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on seed/early stage startups in Japan and Southeast Asia. Since it's inception in Dec 2016, Genesia Ventures has invested in over 90 companies in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the US. Genesia Ventures invests in various sectors: SaaS, marketplace, Media, Finance, Insurance,RealEstate, Healthcare, Medical, Travel, Education, Manufacturing, Construction, HR, Agriculture, Sports, Retail, Entertainment, etc.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Flucle — Flucle provides company rule building and risk mitigation, cloud advisor, human resource development, training & labor management services.
Haul — Haul is a human resources company that provides recruitment consulting and marketing SaaS development services.
Logipeace — Logipeace is a SaaS communication platform that offers semi-automation of logistics operations and communication using generative AI.

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

Portfolio highlights

Vieu — Learn about us, our team, our backers and the story behind Vieu.
KOMPEITO — Office de Yasai is an online platform that enables users to order and get vegetables delivered to their offices. The platform’s operations are based in Tokyo, Japan.
Phi — Phi is a social gaming platform that focuses on 'on-chain Identity' using ENS and wallet activity. It allows users to build their web3 cities based on their wallet activities. The platform also offers a variety of features such as Silver Gas Saver, Supersonic Bat, Gold Gas Saver, Hypersonic Bat, Iron Gas Guzzler, and Ethereum Wallpaper.Phi also provides a user guide for its users to understand how to play and access Phi Land, and how to create their Phi Land. The platform is designed to be immersive and interactive, providing a unique gaming experience for its users.

Nissay Capital is a venture capital Company specializing in seed, start-up, growth capital, middle stage, and later stage investment.

Investment focus

Health Care, Internet, Medical
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Ethiopia

Portfolio highlights

Tribeau — Tribute is a word-of-mouth app for aesthetic medicine for cosmetic surgeries, cosmetic dermatologists, and orthodontists who are not covered by health insurance.
Space One — Space One specializes in the production and development of rockets and offers innovative solutions for space transportation services.
Qlay — Qlay is an AI-automated global engineer hiring platform

W ventures is a Japan-based venture capital firm investing in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A rounds. They have been conducting investment to 25 companies in a total of about a year from the start of investment activities in April 2019. The company works not only with investment business but also with companies that provide services related to HR, PR,infrastructure, legal and accounting, etc., as incubation support after investment. It is also characteristic to provide support for the investor companies. In addition, in cooperation with other venture capital companies, Ar Rase TAGE startups regularly hold office hours that allow financing and business consultations to two companies at the same time and actively support startups are doing.

Investment focus

Information Technology, E-Commerce, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Indonesia, United States

Portfolio highlights

Uniam — Uniam is a manufacturing company that produces and sells pet food and other pet-related products.
Edukita — Belajar Bahasa Inggris jadi menyenangkan, interaktif, dan memberi hasil yang nyata. Diajar oleh guru asing berpengalaman.
Fogg Japan — Fogg is a platform that makes life styles more convenient without being affected by trends and deprecation like media and content

PE&HR is a private equity and venture capital firm that seeks to invest in incubation, start-up, and early-stage companies. PE&HR primarily invests in the human resources, internet, healthcare, IT, mobile, and social commerce-related industries.

Investment focus

Software, Fashion, Education
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MEME — MEME is a money app for parents and children to make money more familiar and simplifies the flow of money.
VIE STYLE — VIE STYLE offers wearable music device and AI technology services.
BEAM Technologies — BEAM Technologies, focuses on developing optical semiconductor devices using special light to offer clean solutions to ecosystem-related problems.

Mobile Internet Capital (MIC) keeps up on the latest developments of Mobile Internet technologies and services at a high level, and continues to be a venture capital with both technical expertise and execution capability.

Investment focus

Software, Mobile, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

KAKEAI — KAKEAI, an AIcloud system that improves the status of member management in the middle management layer as its main business.
Katagrma — KatagrMa is the first organization that optimizes the organization and human resources development.
Recustomer — Recustomer is an IT company that develops software for digital payment and provides support for web development.

UntroD Capital is an R&D-based innovative technology that specializes in social implementation.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Biotechnology, Robotics
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, Singapore, India

Portfolio highlights

Revorf — Revorf analyzes data and develops AI-related to infectious diseases and healthcare.
MaterialGate — MaterialGate focuses on single-molecule dielectrics, developing technologies for devices with better electronic characteristics.
Emulsion Flow Technologies — Emulsion Flow Technologies offers rare metal recycling, utilizing emulsion flow technology, emulsion.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

MSIVC is a venture capital firm that invests in Japanese and global startups scaling to IPO. It focuses on startups in verticals of Fintech, SaaS, Healthcare, AI, E-Commerce, Foodtech, and Environment etc.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Food and Beverage
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

AssetHub — AssetHub is an AI-powered 3D modeling tool that enables game developers to create and edit 3D assets 100 times faster, enabling mass production of content and combining AI with manual work, enabling faster prototyping and editing.
Drone Show Japan — Drone Show Japan company specializes in drone shows for events, aerial photography, and workshops.
Okuma Diamond Device — Okuma Diamond Device supplies cutting-edge technologies that make diamond semiconductors vital.

Real Tech Japan is a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in innovative R&D technology companies. Realtech Fund is a joint venture between the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). The firm was founded in 2014 and based in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Biotechnology, Medical
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, Singapore, Austria

Portfolio highlights

Ashirase — Ashirase is a developer of a walking navigation system for the visually challenged. The company assists visually impaired people in walking independently. This also allows the user to have more attention to spare for audible warnings in their environment. It includes voice input and guidance via a smartphone app. A vibration interface is attachedto their shoes.
Ken Robotec — Ken Robotec is a construction company that provides labor-saving solutions.
MaterialGate — MaterialGate focuses on single-molecule dielectrics, developing technologies for devices with better electronic characteristics.

Mizuho is the venture capital firm affiliated to Mizuho Bank, the second-largest Japanese bank in terms of assets. The firm has headquarters in Tokyo.The firm has ¥49.6 billion JPY under management, focusing on information technology and biotechnology investments. Over 600 Mizuho companies have gone public. According to Nikkei, Mizuho is thefifth-largest venture capital firm in Japan.Mizuho Capital was formed in 2002 by the merger of Fujigin Capital, Tokyo Venture Capital and IBJ Investment. Three firms were subsidiaries of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan respectively.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

THE PHAGE — The phage is a medical device company that focuses on developing AI technology to predict postprandial blood glucose levels.
elleThermo — elleThermo aims to implement Semiconductor-Sensitised Thermal Cells (STCs), an energy conversion technology that can generate electricity from unused waste heat above room temperature.
Good News — Good News is a staffing agency that provides recruitment, public relations, and human resource management services.

Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

A-Wave — A-Wave is a manufacturing company that develops and markets medical devices, pharmaceuticals, computer software, and hardware.
Tribeau — Tribute is a word-of-mouth app for aesthetic medicine for cosmetic surgeries, cosmetic dermatologists, and orthodontists who are not covered by health insurance.
AI model — AI model specializes in the development and transformation of real-like virtual models for modeling on E-commerce platforms.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Estie — Estie is a Development of AI / machine learning algorithm and new business in real estate company.
Liminal — Advanced battery inspection and metrology with ultrasound and machine learning
SUN METALON — Next Generation Sustainable Metal Manufacturing

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 A, Series B
Japan, United States, Belgium

Portfolio highlights

KAICO — KAICO is a pharmaceuticals, diagnostic drugs production company.
Aeterlink — Aeterlink is a wireless device maker and developer. They applied their technology to fields such as FA, robots, smart houses, and medicine and developed practical level technologies such as elemental technology that can wirelessly supply power.
Quollio Technologies — Quollio Technologies is an IT company that specializes in corporate data governance, SaaS, metadata management, and software solutions.

BEENEXT is a Venture Capital fund managed by serial entrepreneurs that focuses on assisting founders with its operational experience, network, trust, unique perspectives, and the capital. The team invests in early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building the new digital platforms driven by the data network. BEENEXT aims to establish aplatform of founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe, primarily in South East Asia, India and Japan. Since its establishment in 2015, the team has invested in over 180 companies globally.

Investment focus

Software, E-Commerce, Financial Services
Seed, Series A, Series B
India, Japan, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Budy — Budy is your AI Powered Sidekick for SaaS Professional Services
NAYAN — NAYAN visual AI monitors and identifies real-time road events. NAYAN AI supports businesses and authorities by offering actionable insights on visual events, to make the world a safer place.
Truely Travel eSIM — Redefining global connectivity one travel eSIM at a time!Truely eSIM aims to be the lightest thing you pack for your travels. Our Travel eSIM gives you access to the best local data rates from wherever you are in the world. No need to SIM switch nor worry about spending on roaming charges ever again. Available in 200+ destinations, we partnerwith the top network providers to ensure smooth and seamless connectivity throughout your trip. Whether you’re a digital nomad in Bali or a honeymooner in Italy—we’ll have a data plan customisable for your type of journey.

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

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.

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, Human Resources
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaymak — 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.

F Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Service Industry
Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
Japan, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

Bgrass — bgrass is a consultation support platform for women working in the IT industry.
Blankr — Blankr inc has developed an application called Raidli. Using the app, Vtubers can hold a virtual handshake event.
Tripi — Tripi provides travel media and digital marketing services, as well as the accommodation gift service.

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

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!

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.

QB Capital is make equity investments in venture companies.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Medical, Biotechnology
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Rege Nephro — Rege Nephro is a biotech company that specialized in R&D, production and marketing of renal disease therapeutics.
Mechano Cross — Mechano Cross is a mechanical company that offers mechanochemical organic synthesis technology for solution reactions.
Japan Carbon Cycle Lab — Japan Carbon Cycle Lab is a technology company that focuses on the research and development of CO2 capture and recycling techniques.

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.

We are engineers investing in engineers. With experienced mentors, MIRAISE supports you hands-if basis, for business model, financial planning and presentation. All founders of our potfolio automatically join MIRAISE online community that gives you the peer-learning opportunities with other founders. Join us updating the normal!

Investment focus

Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Consulting
Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States, Estonia

Portfolio highlights

CuboRex — CuboRex realizes creative mobility using its crawler technology.
Zenmetry — Zenmetry primarily engages in the development of web services and business consulting.
SUSHI TOP MARKETING — SUSHI TOP MARKETING is an IT company that offers marketing, NFT utilization, and consulting services.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Flucle — Flucle provides company rule building and risk mitigation, cloud advisor, human resource development, training & labor management services.
Dioseve — Dioseve is providing novel possibilities for all life.
Second Heart — Second Heart is a medical center that offers preventive diabetic care and awareness programs to avoid foot amputations.

Voyage Ventures is the venture capital arm of Voyage Group specializing in seed and early-stage investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the internet and mobile internet industry. It invests from JPY1 million ($.01million) to JPY to 10 million ($.12 million) in its portfolio companies. The firm typically invests in Japan, China, and othergrowing Asian markets. Voyage Ventures, Inc., formerly known as EC Navi Ventures Company, was founded on March 25, 2011, and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Content
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, China, Germany

Portfolio highlights

pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
bravesoft — bravesoft is a software company that operates events and in-house product for contract development and events. The company offering services such as UI / UX design, application consignment development service, appvisor push, and technical research service.
ventus Japan — ventus is an Media and Entertainment based company.ventus aiming to be an entertainment company that provides technology that all fans can enjoy.

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

Investment focus

Information Technology, Education, Recruiting
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Bgrass — bgrass is a consultation support platform for women working in the IT industry.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.
Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.

DNX Ventues is an early stage VC firm focusing on B2B Startups that are shaping industries and transforming the way we live and work.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, SaaS
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, Canada

Portfolio highlights

Butlr — Butlr protects people's health and well-being during the coronavirus pandemic with a low-cost thermal imaging system that captures people’s behavior in indoor and outdoor environments. Butlr’s proprietary hardware pairs with advanced AI to gain insight into people’s movements in physical space, providing actionable intelligence to assistedliving, homes, and public spaces, all while safeguarding privacy. Butlr is a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab. Butlr’s sensor network captures human dynamics through state-of-art sensory monitoring and AI, understanding users’ needs to achieve a seamless automation experience, preventing risk, and monitoring health. Responsive architecture is a vision of a future where the built environment is as customizable as a streaming music podcast, based on simple, intelligent architectural objects. The natural world is in a constant state of flux; combinations of moisture, breeze and temperature change continuously. When we are inside our buildings, however, our environment loses its dynamism, and we’re forced to constantly tweak the conditions to achieve optimal comfort. Responsive architecture uses intelligent objects to mirror the processes of the natural world, creating environments and “microclimates” that are suited to individuals or small groups based on the heat signature of their bodies. Today the team at Butlr uses small, low-cost sensors to track the motions and body heat of Each person has a biometric heat signature as unique as a fingerprint. The Butlr sensors recognize an individual’s heat signature, and can modify room temperature and lighting for ideal comfort. Unlike cameras that track and record faces, the Butlr system relies on a heat signature, which is unique, but cannot be used to trace your identity. Starting from home applications, the future vision for responsive architecture is to empower cities with networks of heat sensors that can make cities responsive, predicting and responding to vehicle flows, pedestrian density, and weather conditions on the fly. Using thermal data provides many news layers of interaction not possible with cameras.
Crisp — Crisp connects data between retailers, distributors, and brands to power real-time insights across the supply chain.
Planetary Technologies — info@planetarytech.com

Mistletoe is a hub for startups and the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. It specifically provides learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, facilitates startup communities, invests in and supports startup companies and venture capitals.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Education
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

ULUU — ULUU is an ocean material that replaces plastic and actively benefits the world.
Funderbeam — Funderbeam is a funding and trading platform that connects companies and investors to buy and sell equity stakes. The platform allows the founders to gain exposure, legal support, a funding manager, or an investor network. It also allows the investors to take control of their investments and trade anytime they want.The company was founded in 2013as a global data platform for startup companies.
Craft Health — Craft Health aims to combine all your daily medicines and supplements into a single daily pill, through 3D printing of personalized medicines and supplements. Our technology allows controlled release of each active ingredient as selected by the user.

K&P Partners is an independent venture capital firm investing in digital technology and media companies. Kamio Hideaki and Shinya Matsumura co-founded the Tokyo, Tokyo-based firm in 2013.

Investment focus

Content, CRM, Software
Funding Round, Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Manabi-aid — Manabi-aid is an internet based company.The aim of the learning aid master is really simple and clear.This is a challenge to "improve the student's academic ability".Not to mention the limitations of group lessons. This is because the polarization of so-called "children who can" and "children who do not" isprogressing.
Robot Start — RobotStart is a company specializing in robot related business with the main target of communication robot. The company was established in 2014 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Good News — Good News is a staffing agency that provides recruitment, public relations, and human resource management services.

Leave a Nest thrives to achieve global happiness by enhancing everyday life through science and education for future generation.

Investment focus

Health Care, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
Seed, Corporate Round, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, Malaysia

Portfolio highlights

ARK — ARK is a manufacturer of special wards that designs and delivers a sustainable aquaculture solution.
Robopreneur — Robopreneur brings the future by empowering robotics capabilities for use in human's environment to become human's partner and enhance sustainable lifestyles.
Crown Digital — Crown Digital harnesses the future-ready power of robotics and Artificial Intelligence to open doors with cutting-edge solutions for the not-so-distant future.

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

Logo Labo — Logo Labo provides branding and marketing services, including brand development, formulation, IT-based branding and marketing support.
Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.
OpenMoney — OpenMoney is a company that offers information related to financial services.

Japan Finance provides a diversified portfolio of financial services to the small and medium enterprise sector.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Internet
Debt Financing, Funding Round, Seed
Japan, India, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

Meleap — HADO is a new sport utilizing the leading AR technology with players wearing a head mounted display and an armband sensor to compete against each other by using the ‘energy ball’ or ‘shield’ and earn points in a three-on-three, eighty-minutes game between two teams.
Tanaakk — TANAAKK provides “HITSERIES”, Growth-as-a-Service especially for Fortune Global 500 in-house startups to migrate R&D fruits into cloud-native scalable SaaS. HITSERIES delivers reference architecture, platform and related DevOps, RevOps, EquityOps services. There is annually US$190 R&D expenditure solely in Japan. TANAAKK find growth optionin R&D, selecting right cloud business scheme and enabling liquidity for discounted intellectual assets. Usually supporting conglomerate to achieve new $100M SaaS revenue in 5 years.
Shiftmation — Axiverse creates an environment where employees shift automatic creation service using artificial intelligence to create a better society.

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 — AI software testing company aimed at solving the challenges associated with automation testing. We are passionate about making software testing faster and easier, empowering companies to release faster and keep their applications stable.
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.

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.

Venture Labo Investment is venture capital firm that provides financial supports to invested companies at each growth stage.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Internet
Funding Round, Series B, Seed
Japan, Indonesia, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

SImount — SImount is a database management system platform that connects all data such as Excel, CSV, PDF. Moreover, It can utilize all the data related to business, leading to higher business efficiency and higher sales.
Uniforce — Uniforce helps businesses expand sustainably by providing cloud-based and consulting services.
Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.

They believe that the fundamental challenge facing the local economy is the lack of employment diversity. Although it is a simple example, it is easier to understand if you compare the Tokyo metropolitan area with Kyushu and list the companies that can achieve annual income of 10 million yen at the age of 30 (probably with a head office in KyushuMost companies with the highest annual income will be infrastructure company

Investment focus

Internet, Task Management, Artificial Intelligence
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

GEOFLA — Geofra develops Planning and creation of items that rejuvenate the movement of people in physical areas, regional revitalization initiatives
Digireha — Digireha is an IT company that provides a tool for rehabilitation by combining digital art and sensors.
TheStory — TheStory is an IT firm that develops a direct recruiting application that helps nurses switch to relevant jobs.

SPARX Group Co., Ltd. is an independent Asia-based equity and credit asset management services and Asian fund financial specialist with offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul for global institutional and individual investors, including financial advisors and financial planners, with alternative strategies (including activist, short-enabled, private equity and quantitative and fund-of-funds) and mutual funds (through SPARX Asia Funds such as SPARX Asia Pacific Opportunities Fund, SPARX Asia Pacific Equity Income Fund, SPARX Japan Smaller Companies Fund and SPARX Japan Fund) managed or sub-advised by SPARX Asset Management Co. Ltd., SPARX Asia Investment Advisors Limited and Cosmo Asset Management Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Blue Skies Space — Blue Skies Space provides access to space science data from low-cost space missions.
Blue Laser Fusion — Blue Laser Fusion is a commercial fusion company. Blue Laser Fusion is a laser startup to commercialize laser fusion by inventing its own laser and fusion reactor.
Nanofiber Quantum Technologies — Powering a globally connected quantum future with pioneering nanofiber cavity QED.

Chiba Dojo is an entrepreneurial community that supports startup companies in various stages from seed to pre-IPO.

Investment focus

Information Technology, E-Commerce, Content
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Nstock — Nstock is specialized in developing SAAS based applications for ecosystem.
Oyraa Inc. — Oyraa provides online meetings and conference apps. Their interpreters will help you communicate not only in business but also in personal situations, such as in hospitals and real estate agencies.
Domuz — Domuz is a firm that wants to utilize technology and design to create a lifestyle that makes potted plants and flowers more comfortable.

Daiwa Corporate Investment is a private investment firm of Daiwa Securities Group that has been engaged in overseas VC investments by taking advantage of an extensive business network in Japan and foreign countries, long experience and professional knowledge, and by supporting the growth of a number of overseas portfolio companies and their stockexchange listings.

Investment focus

Software, Task Management, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, France, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

GITAI — GITAI is a robotics startup for space development. The company aims to replace astronauts with robots that can work for a long time while being remotely controlled from earth while in low earth orbit space stations to decrease the burden on astronauts, shorten the time it takes to perform work in space, and reduce costs.
COUNTERWORKS — Counter works is an Information technology company.
Nippon Hydropowtech — Nippon Hydropowtech uses proprietary technology and experience in hydrolysate production to investigate new food applications.

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

Investment focus

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

Cool Japan Fund was founded in November 2013 as a public-private fund with the aim of supporting and promoting the development of demand overseas for excellent Japanese products and services.Cool Japan Fund aims to commercialize the “Cool Japan” and increase overseas demand by providing risk capital for businesses across a variety of areas,including media & content, food & services, and fashion & lifestyle.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Food and Beverage, Education
Funding Round, Series C, Series B
Japan, United States, Taiwan

Portfolio highlights

DAIZ — DAIZ produces and sells plant-based meat, 'Miracle Meat' which uses germinated soybeans by the proprietary 'Ochiai Germination Method.' Also, DAIZ engages in research & development of raw materials and drug discovery from germinated soybeans.
Pizza 4P's — Pizza 4P's is Vietnam-based Japanese Italian pizza restaurant. Always the best with our mission of "Delivering Wow, Sharing Happiness"
JumpStart Coffee — JUMPSTART COFFEE is Indonesia first fully automated self serve coffee shop, serving freshly brewed coffee anywhere you are, anytime you want, in just under 1 minute. Equipped with the newest technology and beautiful wood design, we seek to give you the ultimate convenience of drinking coffee.

Oita Venture Capital Co. Ltd. is the investment arm of Oita Bank Ltd. It is a venture capital and private equity firm which specializes in growth capital, buyouts, and turnaround investments. It primarily invests in companies in the Oita region. Oita Venture Capital Co. Ltd. was founded in 1999 and is based in Oita, Japan.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Task Management, Biotechnology
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

F.MED — F.MED is a manufacturing company that designs and develops robotic microsurgical devices for the healthcare industry.
GEXVal — GEXVal is to help patients and families fighting against orphan and intractable diseases
Better Place — Better place vision is to create a world in which kind people can continue to be kind, as well as a society in which people can work in their own way without worrying about money.

En-Japan provides solutions for the improvement of employees and organizations. The company works within the recruitment field and manages six recruiting websites and a briefing site for management and HR professionals. En-Japan was founded in January 2000 and is based in Shinjuku, Yamanashi, Japan.

Investment focus

Task Management, Recruiting, Marketing
Series A, Funding Round, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

RevComm — RevComm is the startup company developing Voice x AI-enabled cloud services .
ONLY STORY — ONLY STORY is a manager matching platform.
Baseconnect Japan — Baseconnect Co., Ltd. connects people from all over the world and spends one-tenth the time it takes for people to “know”.

Vector is a Japan-based PR agency that provides PR planning and implementation services for its clients. The agency also offers other services covering areas such as management, finance, accounting, human resources, administration, internal controls, and audits. Vector was founded in 1993.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Software, Marketing
Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Nailie — Nailie is an app that lets you connect to a nail specialists just for you.
xxxxnese — xxxxnese is a logistics company that focuses on import, export, domestic sales, influencer marketing, and software development businesses.
AstroX — AstroX is a private space startup company that develops satellite launch vehicles for space development. It utilizes the rockoon method for developing launch vehicles and small rockets to help clients easily use space.

D4V (Design for Ventures) is a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in disruptive, consumer and enterprise technology startups.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Software, Apps
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Pragtech — Pragtech develops and operates parking lot service software that helps to eliminate payment congestion and reduce operating costs.
Genba Hub — Genba Hub specializes in providing business management systems for construction and maintenance enterprises.
SUN METALON — Next Generation Sustainable Metal Manufacturing

500 Startups is the most active seed VC in the world. 500 Startups Japan is a $35M regional fund focusing on Japan.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Human Resources
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Noin — Noin specializes in cosmetics and delivers content that accurately captures trends like videos that solve girls worries.
Trustdock — Trustdock is a platform for identity confirmation API service in Japan. You can outsource KYC / identity confirmation via online API, complying with various laws including criminal profit transfer prevention law, antique sales law, cell phone fraud prevention use law etc. It can be used with any ID service regardless of business type, such asmatching to FinTech, shared eco, etc.
Connected Robotics — Connected Robotics is an information technology company that designs and manufactures robotic arms for enterprises. The company's product, OctoChef, provides cooking services. It caters to individual restaurants, shopping malls, stations, service areas, amusement centers, and large-scale events. The company was founded in 2014 and is basedin Koganei-shi, Japan.

AgFunder invests in impactful companies that can positively transform the world's food system. Founded in 2013, AgFunder manages a portfolio of over 50 companies across four funds from offices in Silicon Valley and Singapore. Through its media platform AFN, it has built a global ecosystem of over 90,000 subscribers.

Investment focus

Agriculture, AgTech, Food and Beverage
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
United States, United Kingdom, India

Portfolio highlights

Eion — Eion removes atmospheric CO2, permanently and verifiably, with enhanced rock weathering on soil
Wittaya Aqua — A better approach to aquaculture management
Cargill Hong Kong — Cargill Hong Kong is an agricultural technology service provider dedicated to optimizing food production and supply chain management with sophisticated agricultural technologies, resulting in increased sustainability and efficiency in agricultural production.

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