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Top 50 Gaming Angel Investors in Japan in February 2025

Last updated: Feb 2025 A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Gaming startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Gaming companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 Gaming Angel Investors in Japan in February 2025

Investor	Gaming Japan investments
Yu Akasaka	6
Yusuke Sato	5
Kotaro Chiba	5
Kotaro Chiba	5
Ryosuke Matsumoto	4
Hironao Kunimitsu	4
Nobuhiro Ariyasu	4
Hidetoshi Takano	3
Naruhisa Nakagawa	3
Kensuke Furukawa	3
Shunsuke Oyu	3
Ayataro Nakagawa	3
Jun Nishikawa	3
Hiroaki Kitano	2
Soga Takeshi	2
Tatsuo Sakamoto	2
Goshi Yamaguchi	2
Ken Soga	2
Komura Fujio	2
Hirofumi Miki	2
Kazuma Ieiri	2
Koki Yabu	2
Chikako Morimoto	2
Yusuke Tanaka	2
Dai Tamesue	2
Akinori Harada	1
Yosuke Iwai	1
Shuuichi Wada	1
Shota Horii	1
Takashi Nagao	1
Hiromi Okuda	1
Nobuyuki Nakagawa	1
Tomohito Ebine	1
Daisuke Takanashi	1
Sota Horiuchi	1
Masaru Tange	1
Mamoru Taniya	1
Yo Shibata	1
Hayama Takashi	1
Chiba Hisayoshi	1
Yuri Ueda	1
Yusuke Inagaki	1
Koji Yamada	1
Hiroaki Watatani	1
Masayuki SHOBAYASHI	1
Noboru Hachimine	1
Yoshiki Ishikawa	1
Josh Buckley	1
Naoki Yamada	1
Aso Kaname	1

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Investor list

During Hosei University student, and intern at Hakuhodo C & D. After joining the Image-net, I do media monetization of EC site as a media planner. Then, new business, engaged in Alliance. Launched a crowdsourcing site "MILLION DESIGNS" of design in the individual, sold to Ransazu Corporation. Established the Eureka Co., Ltd., wasappointed Representative Director CEO.

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Content, Internet
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Australia, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
RE — RE specializes in smartphone application design and development.
Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.

Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder of Pulit.

Investment focus

Internet, Content, Food and Beverage
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, Indonesia, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
Paytner — yup is providing services to support freelance people's funding.The freelance population in Japan has been shown to continue to increase in many Chosa. While working styles are diversified, they are not able to respond to the development of the working environment, and they will develop their business to change the situation where problemssuch as funding, credit, sexual harassment, and power harassment are accumulated.
Meetscare — Meetscare provides correct information and supports the self-awareness of all people involved in care. The company provides a wealth of information to ensure optimal care and create a mechanism for the realization. Users can make a telephone consultation and web diagnosis and search for free information using the system.Meetscare was founded on2016 and is headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo.

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.

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.

Ryosuke Matsumoto is the Founder / CEO at Kankak. Ryosuke Matsumoto attended Chuo University.

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.

Hironao Kunimitsu was born in Hyogo, Japan. After graduating from Okayama High School, he spent several years traveling around the world. He visited over 30 countries including the US, China, India, Canada, and others in Central and South America.In 1996 he entered Fudan University in China, and then later went on to study at Santa MonicaCollege in the US. In 2004 he entered Atmovie Inc. where he produced movies and televised dramas, and was appointed company director in the same year. In 2007 he founded gumi Inc., and it started listing on first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December, 2014.

Investment focus

Virtual Reality, Content, Media and Entertainment
Funding Round, Seed, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
Gatari — Gatari is developing an AR audio platform, including the AR camera app Vismuth, which can call avatars in reality.
Thirdverse — Thirdverse (formerly known as Yomuneco Inc) is engaged in Virtual Reality content and services planning, development, sales and management.

Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.

Investment focus

Finance, Internet, Content
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

PeopleX — PeopleX encourages and assists employees in their professional development.
PICK — PICK is a startup that provides a digital transformation platform for the real estate and construction industries.
Conoris Technologies — Conoris Technologies is a staffing agency that offers security check support services for companies.

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

Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
D-Chain — D-Chain offers services related to IT development and production in the Web3 and Web2 fields.
Rayout — Rayout is a business consulting company that provides creative content development, recruitment videos, and web production services.

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 for efficient carbon reduction and supply chain decarbonization, aiming for 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.

Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi （formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".

Investment focus

Content, Media and Entertainment, Social Media
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Plott — Plott producing youtube animation platform under Vision “Become a Content holder from YouTube”. In August 2019, the company name was changed from Fabo to Plott. Plott, the new company name, is derived from the plot that you make before writing novels, etc., and the idea that “I want to make content all the time” is put in the company name.
Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

Shunsuke Oyu is the co-founder of Connehito Inc. Started an online Q&A platform “mamari” which is the largest platform for moms in Japan. Connehito was acquired by one of the telecom giant KDDI in 2016. Selected as a “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” at consumer technology department. Angel-investing 50+ companies globally.

Investment focus

Content, Internet, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

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, Content
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Hong Kong, United States

Portfolio highlights

For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
Meetscare — Meetscare provides correct information and supports the self-awareness of all people involved in care. The company provides a wealth of information to ensure optimal care and create a mechanism for the realization. Users can make a telephone consultation and web diagnosis and search for free information using the system.Meetscare was founded on2016 and is headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo.
SPORTS CROWN — SPORTS CROWN engages in the development and operation of fantasy sports.

Jun Nishikawa - Co-founder, Executive Vice President, COO @ Eureka

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Media and Entertainment, Mobile
Seed, Series A, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
Misaky Tokyo — Marine plant-based, handmade Japanese sweets. These crystal treats are individually handcrafted, the perfect gift idea! Vegan, gluten-free, and additive-free confectionery, with stunning flavors such as Yuzu, Matcha, and Rose. Supporting artisans in their craft. Japanese luxury sweets with a surprise inside.
Reiwa Travel — Reiwa Trave is a digital travel agency intended that optimizes overseas travel. The company's platform uses online travel booking tools that provide digitalized contracts along with trip management, thereby enabling its customers' vacation and leisure experiences.

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.

Soga Takeshi

Investment focus

Music, Mobile, Content
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

UNIVRS — UNIVRS is a popular market and entertainment platform.
SAKELOGY — SAKELOGY is a platform enables restaurants and retailers to easily create cloud-based sake menus.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.

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.

Goshi Yamaguchi

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Digital Media, Apps
Seed, Pre-Seed, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ReadHub — ReadHub is a Information technology , Planning, development and management of Internet media and applications company.
Pan For You — Pan For You is a Food & Beverage Company. We deliver delicious bread from all over the world with our unique freezing technology and propose a lifestyle where you can enjoy freshly baked bread anytime.
ZAZA — ZAZA is focus to make the world where people can respect each other even thought they have a different culture and belief.

Ken Soga is an individual investor.

Investment focus

Content, Service Industry, SNS
Seed, Series D
Japan

Portfolio highlights

UNIVRS — UNIVRS is a popular market and entertainment platform.
Jiraffe — jiraffe focusses on Internet service planning, development, and management.
Mono.un — Mono.un provides users with opportunities to meet authors and collaborate on tales and specializes in bringing exciting experiences full of stories of Japanese culture to the world.

Komura Fujio

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.

After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.

Investment focus

Content, Marketing, Internet
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Epicbase — Epicbase is an AI-based automatic voice transcription service based on voice recognition technology.
Go Visions — Go Visions engages in the edutainment tech for children and human resources services.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.

Born in 1978 and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, Kazuma founded paperboy&co. inc. (currently GMO Pepabo) and went on to become the youngest CEO ever (at the time) to take a company public in Japan by taking paperboy&co. public on the JASDAQ Japanese stock exchange. After leaving paperboy&co, he continued his startup trail by foundingBASE, CAMPFIRE, and XIMERA. Kazuma also dabbled in the food services industry via the founding of On The Corner (a cafe) and is active in the startup investment scene. He also started the Liverty-house project which attempts to create shared housing for young people in need.

Investment focus

Content, Fashion, Recruiting
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Taliki — Taliki is a Coworking Space Operates Social Entrepreneurs Development Support for Intrepreneur Development.
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.
Vivid Garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.

Koki Yabu is Founder, President & CEO at Mobcast inc.

Investment focus

Content, Finance, Data Mining
Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Mobcast group — mobcast is a sports entertainment company that operates a mobile entertainment platform for smartphones and feature phones. It supports customers with social game and social media services. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, it operates as a subsidiary of mobcast Inc.
SmartApp Japan — Smart Apps is a developer of a blockchain services application designed for smartphones. The company's application uses cryptocurrency technology to offer token issuance, initial coin offering and dApps design support, providing a launchpad for start-up blockchain-related businesses.

Chikako Morimoto - External Counsel @ Traimmu

Investment focus

Human Resources, Employment, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

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.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.
Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.

"Shin"ichiro joined Yahoo Japan in April 2013. From July 2013, he joined YJ Capital. He has served as COO of YJ Capital since January 2015. Prior to Yahoo! Japan, Shin was General Director of Dream Incubator Vietnam from 2007 to 2012, managing US$50 million private equity funds in Vietnam. He was formerly a Project Manager at DreamIncubator Japan. He started his career at Future Architect as a system engineer.Shin received his bachelor's degree in Policy Management from Keio University.

Investment focus

Tourism, Consulting, E-Commerce
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TakeMe Co., Ltd. — TakeMe aims to provide an “One-stop Inbound destination service” by enabling tourist to easily find, communicate with, and pay with smartphones via QR code at In-Travel destinations. TakeMe, is the country’s largest inbound service platform in Japan, which lets tourists find, communicate with, and pay with QR code at our affiliated shops,restaurants and tourist attractions. Since our launch in 2015 as JapanFoodie, we have expanded our merchant base to tens of thousands beyond food and restaurants, to include travel, lodging, shopping and events, providing every tourist with the best experience as your best local guide and friend.

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 —

He is the vice president of mixi, Inc which is social media network in Japan since June 2009. He’s managed “mixi application” and “mixi new year card”. He’s also directed “mixi alum” and “mixi voice” to make it to be more social but community based. He joined mixi, Inc in 2007. He managed mobile development, “mixi mobile” which became a mixi’sdevelopment driver.Before he started his career at mixi, he was managing mainly portal sites such as searching engine section of “i-mode” at NTT Docomo Inc.

Investment focus

Gaming, Metaverse, Video Games
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ONE — One is a Japanese startup. It primarily creates and operates consumer apps, some of which have been sold to publicly traded Japanese corporations.This runs the BeReal exchange application "BeMatch."
Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.

Yosuke Iwai is Founder & CEO at repica.

Investment focus

Cooking
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

VCook — VCook is a website for posting recipes that offer vegan food. They give users the ability to search for and save vegan recipes on VCook. They post and share vegan recipes with everyone.

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.

Shota Horii

Investment focus

Information Technology, Internet, Art
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Flatt Security — Flatt Security is a cyber security company for all developers.
Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
UNDEFINED Japan — UNDEFINED is a very young team with an average age of about 20 years.We develop products for teenagers who make the most of their youth by working closely with users.

Takashi Nagao

Investment focus

SNS, Video, Brewing
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

FromTo — FromTo offers construction services.
Wakaze — Wakaze is a Japanese sake brewing startup.
FLATBOYS — FLATBOYS specializes in planning, development and operation of internet business.

Hiromi Okuda is the CEO of WizGroup Inc.

Investment focus

Gaming, Metaverse, Video Games
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.

Nobuyuki Nakagawa - President and CEO @ Mynavi

Investment focus

Apps, Mobile, Mobile Apps
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

SakeWiz — SakeWiz is an App to enjoy, buy and record sake located in Tokyo

Tomohito Ebine is non-executive Director at Owls Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

Home Services, Information Technology, Consulting
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

HOMMA — Inspired Modern Living. Homes to elevate healthy urban lifestyles. Design. Build. Technology.
Smartround — Smartround is a specialized finance management platform for startups and their investors. For start-ups, for entrepreneurs who are not familiar with finance, simply enter the necessary information according to the guide, prepare appropriate financing round, and prepare a function that can simulate and execute a capital increase. Support informationsharing and communication with shareholders even after the capital increase.
CAREER BIJIN — Career bijin is a total support company.

Daisuke Takanashi is an angel investor.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

VCook — VCook is a website for posting recipes that offer vegan food. They give users the ability to search for and save vegan recipes on VCook. They post and share vegan recipes with everyone.
Abentry — Abentry is engaged in the SNS business and media advertising business.
alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.

Sota Horiuchi (Tokyo) joined KKR in 2008. He has been involved with the investments in Intelligence, Panasonic Healthcare and Pioneer DJ. Prior to joining KKR, he was an associate at McKinsey & Company, based in Germany and Japan. He was involved in supporting a number of companies in developing their business strategy, including new marketentry and management improvement projects. He holds a B.A. with High Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Law from the University of Tokyo.

Investment focus

Content, Food and Beverage
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

10x Japan — 10x provides One-stop service from meal planning to grocery shopping.

Masaru Tange graduated from Kyoto University and joined Incs Inc. in 2000 where he started their IT business and strategy consulting group with only 2 members and developed it into the company's main business with a team of 140 consultants with annual revenue of $50M in 5 years. He then founded SHIFT Inc in 2005 in his studio apartment. He wasthe only employee. The business world wasn't very kind to him - he made no revenue for a while but he kept experimenting with the business model listening to the needs of customers. In 2009, he finally found traction in the "software testing industry." In 2014, Masaru successfully IPO'ed the company. Shift now has 500 employees.

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, SaaS
Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Timee — Timee is a Planning, development and management of Internet media company.
S-Mat — Smartmat is an eco-friendly IoT purchase system for on-demand, no-hassle grocery with cost-effective shipping.
Launchable — Shorter test runs, smarter test triaging, test health insights, and test failure analysis. Remove friction from the dev-test loop to iterate & ship faster.

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.

Yo Shibata is a Co-Founder of Funds Inc.

Investment focus

Apps, Gaming, Content
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Regain — Regain provides remote on-demand physical rehabilitation treatment solutions and video tutorials through the internet. It was launched by Hiroki Watanabe.
ENDROLL — ENDROLL is a startup that develops and provides entertainment content using XR. Company Profile
Autify — Autify - Revolutionizing Software Testing with the most advanced AI-powered Software Testing Tool

Hayama Takashi - Outside Director @ Eco Style

Investment focus

SNS, Beauty, Medical
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MedPeer — MedPeer operates as a community site for doctors. MedPeer is a recruitment agency collective registration service.MedPeer operation of "MedPeer," a collective intelligence service/ community website for physicians.

Chiba Hisayoshi is the Director and COO at Noin.

Investment focus

Food and Beverage
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Pan For You — Pan For You is a Food & Beverage Company. We deliver delicious bread from all over the world with our unique freezing technology and propose a lifestyle where you can enjoy freshly baked bread anytime.

Yuri Ueda

Investment focus

Nutrition, Health Care, Food Processing
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

LacuS — LacuS is a food technology company, develops and sells complete nutrition ice cream, provides nutritious food option for people of all ages.

Prior to establishing UZABASE, Yusuke Inagaki was the project manager of the Technology Integration Division at ABeam Consulting, where he actively developed and constructed the entire company's system strategies. Inagaki was also involved in the design and construction of large-scale databases for financial institutions. With his richexperience and knowledge in systems technology, Inagaki co-founded UZABASE with Yusuke Umeda and Ryosuke Niino in 2008, and assumed the role of Co-CEO for UZABASE and CEO for NewsPicks in 2017.

Investment focus

Marketing, Advertising, Cloud Computing
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Canly — Canly is a cloud based system to reduce management & operating costs in a retail store along with being in the media & advertising business.

Participated in the management of a student venture company while attending Keio University's Faculty of Policy Management. After graduation, he worked at Accenture Co., Ltd. for consulting services for companies in different industries such as media, apparel, finance and entertainment. In 2012, founded boundary spanner Co., Ltd. He alsoserved as a project manager for JAPAN CON-TECH FUND and a director of the Japan Home Party Association.

Investment focus

Software, Logistics, Food Delivery
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.

Hiroaki Watatani is the president of ASAKASHINKAN GROUP.

Investment focus

Content, Software, Logistics
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TunaGate — TunaGate is a circle community site that boasts the largest number of registrations in Japan.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.

Masayuki SHOBAYASHI

Investment focus

Fitness, Software, Mobile Apps
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Nupp1 — Nupp1 is a mobile application to find a fitness center.
Pan For You — Pan For You is a Food & Beverage Company. We deliver delicious bread from all over the world with our unique freezing technology and propose a lifestyle where you can enjoy freshly baked bread anytime.

Noboru Hachimine - President & Founder @ OPT

Investment focus

Sales, Wholesale, Consulting
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

For Crafts — A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It's the all-in-one workspace for you and your team

Preventive medicine researcher, doctor (medicine). While specializing in behavioral science and data science, he has also worked as a director at several operating companies, in charge of founding and managing. In January 2019, he became an outside director of Sansan Corporation. In addition to knowledge in the field of data analysis andutilization, make recommendations based on the perspective of management.

Investment focus

Marketing, Health Care, Video Editing
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.
MiL Inc — Emerging products for healthcare food brands Producing food retailing and wholesale recipe development Restaurant management Catering media operation.

Josh Buckley is the CEO of Product Hunt.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Artificial Intelligence
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, United Kingdom, Ghana

Portfolio highlights

Vial — Vial is a hyper scalable biotech - advancing programs into the clinic powered by dramatically cheaper trials and computationally designed therapeutics.
Speak — People spend $90 billion a year on human english teachers that are expensive and ineffective. Speak offers a mobile app where you can have english conversations with your phone about real world scenarios like interviewing for a job or asking for directions. It uses speech recognition to identify english words through thick accents and teach peopleto speak more clearly. Meanwhile, it’s building a massive database of accented-english speech, which can be used to improve its system and other speech recognition systems. Speak’s team formerly built accent detection systems and sold Flashcards+ to Chegg. Though AI translation might reduce the need for people to know other languages, speaking English remains a valuable skill people are willing to pay for.
Pomelo — Send money cross border with zero transfer fees. Use and build credit with Pomelo.

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.