Top 50 Internet Angel Investors in Japan in July 2025
A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Internet startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Internet companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 50 Internet Angel Investors in Japan in July 2025
Investor | Internet Japan investments |
---|---|
Ayataro Nakagawa | 12 |
Kensuke Furukawa | 11 |
Hidetoshi Takano | 11 |
Kotaro Chiba | 10 |
Kotaro Chiba | 10 |
Yusuke Sato | 8 |
Yu Akasaka | 7 |
Nobuhiro Ariyasu | 7 |
Masao Ito | 6 |
Fumiaki Koizumi | 6 |
Yoshinori Fukushima | 5 |
Shintaro Yamada | 5 |
Yusuke Mitsumoto | 4 |
Hirofumi Miki | 4 |
Takaya Shinozuka | 4 |
Masanori Sugiyama | 4 |
Shogo Kawada | 4 |
Jun Nishikawa | 4 |
Hironao Kunimitsu | 4 |
Tatsuo Sakamoto | 4 |
Naoki Aoyagi | 3 |
Suzuki Tatsuya | 3 |
Yasuyuki Kin | 3 |
Yuto Nagatomo | 3 |
Mamoru Taniya | 3 |
Shunsuke Oyu | 3 |
Toru Shimada | 3 |
Seiji Kurokoshi | 2 |
Kazuhiro Ishikura | 2 |
Narimatsu Jun | 2 |
Yasumasa Manabe | 2 |
Yuzuru Honda | 2 |
Satoshi Nakajima | 2 |
Kevin Lin | 2 |
Masaru Tange | 2 |
Ryota Matsuzaki | 2 |
Takuya Noguchi | 2 |
Cheng Tao | 2 |
Kazuma Ieiri | 2 |
Daisuke Kajiwara | 2 |
Kevin Chou | 2 |
Christine Herron | 2 |
Shunsuke Sasaki | 2 |
Soichiro Kawai | 2 |
Narita Shuzo | 2 |
Yuki Naito | 2 |
Taiga Matsuyama | 2 |
Makoto Takano | 2 |
Richard Chen | 2 |
Kiyoshi Nishikawa | 2 |
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.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Software, Content
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Hong Kong, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Mepple — Mepple is planning, developing, and operating internet services.
- For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
- SPORTS CROWN — SPORTS CROWN engages in the development and operation of fantasy sports.
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".
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Investment focus
- Content, Social Media, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- iiba — Iiba is a geospatial platform that specializes in providing location information related to child-rearing.
- 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.
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.
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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.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Content, Internet
- 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.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, 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.
Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder of Pulit.
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Investment focus
- Content, Internet, 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.
- 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.
- Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.
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.
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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.
Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Content, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Mign — Mign offers a generative AI-related SaaS solutions for the construction and real estate fields.
- Finovo — Finovo specializes in the research, development, operation, and maintenance of cutting-edge accounting and financial software solutions.
- Tsunagari AI — Tsunagari specializes in developing and providing AI-powered consultation services tailored for local governments, aiming to enhance administrative efficiency, support citizen engagement, and streamline public service delivery.
Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.
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Investment focus
- Content, Social Media, Information Technology
- 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.
- Alyaum — Aryaum supports "regional revitalization through NFT" by offering local governments all around the nation hometown tax and tourism NFT solutions.
- Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.
Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari
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Investment focus
- Internet, E-Commerce, Content
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
- Aoyama Arts — Aoyama Arts is an architecture and consulting company that develops design offices and supports land search and financing plans.
- 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.
Yoshinori Fukushima - CEO @ LayerX
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Investment focus
- Internet, Marketing, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
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.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Finance, Information Technology
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- Zypsy — A design collective building for web3. We invest creative expertise in exchange for equity/token.
- Peach Cars — Buy or sell your car in Nairobi-Kenya with ease. Browse a wide range of vehicles, connect with trusted sellers, and find the perfect car today. Simple, fast, and secure transactions.
- AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.
Yusuke Mitsumoto is the founder of Cash.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Financial Services, Consulting
- Seed, Angel, Series C
- Japan
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.
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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.
Takaya Shinozuka is the President, CEO, and Founder at Reiwa Travel.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Local, Advertising
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
He graduated from Kansai University in 1988. He was enrolled in Ljoma while he was in college. 2002 Vice President of Practice (now index lights). In 2004, he became president of zappallas. Listed on the TSE Mothers in the second year of his appointment, and in 2010 he was listed in part of the TSE. In 2011 he became the CEO of enish. Listed on apart of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Thereafter, he served as outside directors such as Nikkatsu and JibannetHD.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
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 .
- STUDIO — The easiest and quickest way to build your beautiful portfolio website, landing page or anything. No code. All creative freedom.
- STUDIO Japan — STUDIO is a development and operation of the next-generation design tool.
Shogo Kawada is Co-founder and Adviser of DeNA, a global Internet company focused on a social games platform, social games, e-commerce and other Web services for mobile devices and PCs.
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Investment focus
- Software, SaaS, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Voicy — Voicy is a mobile platform that recruits both media personalities and news organizations; the entertainers read the news so users can get the latest info from their favorite voices.
- Sunblaze — sunblaze is a android-based smartphone users begin to experience stability issues after one to two years of use. For example, their device may get slower or they encounter unexpected app crashes. These stability issues also lead to security vulnerabilities.SUNBLAZE OS features essential functions only, meaning it does not have any unnecessaryfunctions. This allows the system to be more stable and secure, and users are able to use it for a longer period of time.
- Spider Labs — Spider Labs offers solutions to help fight ad fraud and ensure data security.
Jun Nishikawa - Co-founder, Executive Vice President, COO @ Eureka
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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.
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.
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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.
Tatsuo Sakamoto is a Head of Sales, Japan at MOLOCO. He Attended The University of Tokyo.
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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.
Naoki Aoyagi is a Senior Vice President at GREE, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of GREE International, Inc. He joined GREE, Inc. in March 2006 from Deutsche Bank, where he had specialized in tech and media sector IPOs and M&A advisory work. At GREE, Aoyagi oversaw the Company's partnership with KDDI and its IPO before leading thedevelopment of GREE’s global operations, a role he continues today. Aoyagi earned a bachelor's degree in policy management from Keio University in 2002.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Fashion, Software
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Enechain — enechain provides liquidity in Japan’s energy market by brokering OTC transactions of energy.
- Parallel — Parallel is the hangout app where you can enjoy games, videos, music, and more with friends.
- Holmes — Holmesis a cloud contract system to consistently carry out the creation, conclusion and management of contracts in the cloud.
1985. Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Hitotsubashi University. In 2008, he engaged in new business support and venture support for large companies at Inspire Co., Ltd. In 2011, he was appointed director of UXConsulting company wacul. In 2012, he was appointed director of giftee.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Agriculture, Information Technology
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Pleap — Pleap is a medical engineering company specializing in the development of AI and IoT-based technology solutions tailored for medical institutions. The company's product offerings include "medimo" which is an AI tool that automatically creates medical record manuscripts from medical audio.
- AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
- Conoris Technologies — Conoris Technologies is a staffing agency that offers security check support services for companies.
Yasuyuki Kin
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Investment focus
- Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Career Planning
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Onepair — Onepair is a job consulting and recruiting company. Onepair is to co-creating careers by talking about real-world ace with active ace.
- Strainer Co., Ltd. — Strainer Co., Ltd. is an information distribution platform that conveys corporate information centered on financial data. Although there are not a few media to deliver financial information, the company's strengths are strong to be easily viewed, including financial information of overseas companies.
- LAMILA — LAMILA develops system that improves the creation of retail stores.
Yuto Nagatomo - President, CEO, and Founder @ Cuore Co., Ltd.
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Investment focus
- SNS, Video, Beauty
- Funding Round, 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.
- Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
- SAURUS JAPAN —
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Task Management, Marketing
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
Seiji Kurokoshi (黒越誠治) is an angel investor.
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Investment focus
- Sports, Travel, Fashion
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Myanmar
Portfolio highlights
- Ezay — Ezay provides a mobile platform that connects rural 'mom-and-pop' shops with B2B market place and provide financial and logistics services.
- CURBON — CURBON is a Japan's largest photo learning site for C2C,Provides learning content such as video lectures and photography classes, Lightroom presets, etc.
- Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.
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Investment focus
- Beauty, Content, Fashion
- 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.
- WARC — WARC provides hands-on support for business management departments as well as mergers and acquisition advisory services.
- Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.
Narimatsu Jun - Outside Director @ FiNC Technologies
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Investment focus
- Content, Media and Entertainment, SEO
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Pulit — Pulit innovates the brand new Content Distribution Infra.
- Play Life — PlayLife is an experience sharing site where you can search, share, and post play information, where users can actually experience and plan a fun experience as know-how of play. It is a service that provides highly reliable information under the real name system, provides know-how that only experienced users can know, and information thatcoordinates the way of spending a day, making play more fun and convenient.
- State of Mind — State of Mind is the development and operation of the cloud sourcing.
Yasumasa Manabe
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Drones, Big Data
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
- MoonJapan — MoonJapan is an educational impact startup that offers a variety of programs and thorough assistance.
- Metro Weather — Metroweather is a venture from Kyoto University that develops a high-performance Doppler lidar that measures the direction and speed of wind several tens of kilometers away from minute movements of fine particles in the atmosphere. We aim to contribute to the safety of the sky by completing a three-dimensional wind map, which has never beenrealized,based on years of research at the Kyoto University Research Institute for Sustainable Areas.
Yuzuru Honda is a Founder & Global CEO of FreakOut.
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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
Satoshi Nakajima - Investor and software engineer @ mmhmm
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Investment focus
- Apps, Internet, Security
- Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- mmhmm — Look your best on video. Present with impact. Virtual backgrounds, screen recorder, present with a friend. Works with Zoom, Meet, Teams, and Webex.
- Spider Labs — Spider Labs offers solutions to help fight ad fraud and ensure data security.
- Wellness — Wellness is a provider of personal doctor service.
Kevin Lin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Metatheory. He previously worked at Everyday Ventures as an Owner and Manager. Kevin Lin attended Yale University.
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Investment focus
- Gaming, Information Technology, Video Games
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- United States, India, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Catena Labs — Catena is a product studio where we transform complex computing advancements into accessible, practical tools for users and developers. Leveraging AI and web3 technology our aim is to turn innovative ideas into real-world applications that are easy to use.
- Asterix — Asterix offers digital ownership and unlocks new possibilities.
- Cosmology — Cosmology is building a unified developer experience for interchain dApps
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.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Food Delivery, Internet
- 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.
Ryota Matsuzaki - CEO and Founder @ Kibidango, Inc.
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Investment focus
- Marketing, Financial Services, Finance
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, France, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Skimlinks — Skimlinks is the leading commerce content monetization platform. Its technology automatically monetizes product links in commerce-related content.
- HCVC — HCVC is an early-stage Venture Capital firm backing hardtech companies worldwide. Beyond its fund, HCVC supports hardtech founders through Hardware Club, a selective global community of 500+ startups with dedicated resources, partnerships and events.
- Tokyo Otaku Mode — The ultimate online destination for fans of Japanese pop culture.
Takuya Noguchi
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Investment focus
- Food and Beverage, Internet, Pet
- Seed, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Tricot — Tricot is a food and beverage company.
- FLATBOYS — FLATBOYS specializes in planning, development and operation of internet business.
- Biophilia — Biophilia is a company specializing in pet-related, consulting business, internet service business, and consignment development business. The company was established in August 2017 and is based in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Tao Cheng currently works as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of popIn.
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Investment focus
- Telecommunications, Content, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Tokyo — Tokyo provides consistently-designed signage and projector installation, as well as maintenance company support. All customers need is “product selection” considering installation. This is a service that does not take time and effort!
- Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.
- GIRASOL ENERGY — Girasol Energy is an IoT Platform provides innovative PLC technologies that enable wiser PV Plants.
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.
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Investment focus
- Content, Fashion, Logistics
- 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.
Daisuke Kajiwara - Director, CTO and Director of CHECK Company @ Every Japan
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Investment focus
- Social Media, Content, CRM
- Seed, Series B
- Japan
Kevin Chou is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SuperLayer. He previously worked at Kabam as a Co-Founder and CEO. Kevin Chou attended UC Berkeley, Haas Business School.
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Investment focus
- Gaming, Video Games, eSports
- Seed, Series A, Angel
- United States, Japan, Israel
Portfolio highlights
- Forge — Forge is fast, automatic, always-on game capture. Users can download Forge for free. It costs nothing and there are zero ads, just gaming entertainment.
- Key — Unlock new networking and career opportunities with Key, the leading AI-powered professional networking platform. Build and manage communities, host and join exclusive events, and create meaningful connections to supercharge your growth all in one place.
- YieldClub — YieldClub is a mobile app that helps you grow your savings with higher returns than a traditional bank.
Christine Herron is an early-stage investor and diversity advocate, and co-leads the Intel Capital Diversity Fund while leading investments in early-stage companies. She is responsible for diversity investing across Intel Capital sectors, to support technology companies founded or run by women, underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ, or veterans. AtIntel, Christine's direct portfolio includes 500 Friends (ACQ: Merkle), betaworks, Brit Media, E la Carte, Funders Club, Goldbely, Jelli, Movable Ink, SmartZip, Storenvy (ACQ: OpenSky), Two Bit Circus, and Yummly (ACQ: WHR), and Intel Education Accelerator companies Comprendio, Immersed Games, Sutori, and Vidcode.Previously, Christine was an investor with seed stage venture fund First Round Capital, working with Better Finance, Double Verify, Get Satisfaction (ACQ: Sprinklr), Mint (ACQ: INTU), and Xobni (ACQ: YHOO). At Omidyar Network, she developed the Media and Web 2.0 practice strategy and led deals such as Common Sense Media and Socialtext.At Geocapital Partners, Christine focused on early Internet and network technology, leading Series A funding for AXON Networks (ACQ: 3COM), D-Vision (ACQ: ADSK), FocusVision (MBO), Netcom (IPO: NETC), and ViaGrafix (IPO: VIAX). Christine was also a founder or early employee at GiftWorks (ACQ: FrontStream), Mercury2, and NetObjects (IPO: NETC).Christine earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Columbia University. She is a founding advisor or mentor to 500 Startups, Bullpen Capital, and StartX, and serves on Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Board of Directors. She is active on @christine and a frequent speaker.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Personalization, Social Media
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- United States, Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Roominate — Playing with the W77 online game site can certainly produce crazy jackpots to riches
- Soldsie — Soldsie (formerly Centrally) is a payment system enabling merchants to monetize their Facebook page by allowing customers to purchase through comments.Customers register their payment information with Soldsie, and then comment on stores’ pages, channels and feeds to activate a charge to their account, and initiate the shipping process.Merchants use the Soldsie administrative dashboard track and manage inventory and shipping, and experience increased user comments, views and viral shares.
- Tokyo Otaku Mode — The ultimate online destination for fans of Japanese pop culture.
Shunsuke Sasaki - Executive officer @ Jiraffe
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Investment focus
- Social Media, Content, SNS
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan, Myanmar
Portfolio highlights
- Hackazouk — Hackazouk is an HR Tech company that operates Official-Alumni.com, an alumni relationship management system in Japan and the Philippines to help companies stay connected with their alumni.
- bond Japan — Bond Co., Ltd. is a video learning platform specializing in Japanese language studies.
- Linklusion — Linklusion is a system development and management support for microfinance institutions in developing countries
Soichiro Kawai - CEO @ ReBoost
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Investment focus
- Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Internet
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Villio — Villio provides talent experience SaaS which helps companies with human resource development and recruitment of talented engineers.
- HarvestX — HarvestX manufactures fully automatic robots which contributes to the shortage of agricultural human resources and stable food production
- SPeak Corporation — SPeak Corporation operates JPort Match that is involved in direct recruiting service. It is a global career platform for budding new talents.
Narita Shuzo is a Executive Vice President/COO, CrowdWorks Inc.
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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.
Yuki Naito - CEO,President @ Drecom
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Investment focus
- Manufacturing, Internet, SNS
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Japan
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.
- Fools — Fools is a footwear manufacturing company.
- Interstellar Technologies — Interstellar Technologies is a rocket development, manufacturing and launch service.
Taiga Matsuyama graduated form Waseda University, Matsuyama has been engaged in venture company support for more than ten years in Tokyo, after experience as a consultant at Accenture.Matsuyama became one of the board member of NetAge, Inc (IPO 2006), start-up incubator known by having invested in MIXI – Japanese top SNS and support severalstart-up companies.He also has contributed to the activity for create the start-up eco-system in Tokyo through the NPO Organization BVA (Bit Valley Association). Currently he has established Kronos Fund with angel investors, venture capital fund for investment in emerging early-stage companies.Kronos Fund has invested in more than 20 companies.
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Investment focus
- Software, Artificial Intelligence, Telecommunications
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Shippo — Shippo is the best multi-carrier shipping software for e-commerce businesses. Find the best shipping rates, integrate with e-commerce platforms, print shipping labels, track package delivery, and verify addresses with either our shipping API or web app.
- CAMPFIRE — Campfire engages in the planning, development, and operation of a crowd funding platform.They operate the largest cloud funding platform in Japan [CAMPFIRE (campfire)], which supports "whoever wants to start something."The fee is 5% of the domestic level, and about 15,000 projects have collected about $70million in total from over700,000 people.
- Spectra Japan — Spectra is a Provision of services for artists and fans company.
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.
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Investment focus
- Content, Sports, Apps
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- Japan, Philippines
Richard Chen
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Investment focus
- Mobile, Software, Advertising
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- United States, Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Farel — Say farewell to piecing together different vendors, integrations, and clunky software. Farel delivers one seamless, all-in-one, software platform engineered for growing airlines.
- Maslo — We make companions that care about people.
- Kinnek — Potential customers are looking for reasons to trust your company, and they want third-party sources to vouch for you. Kinnek helps suppliers like you build a world-class online reputation and easily share it. Because when you win more trust, more prospects become loyal customers.
After working at KDD Corporation (Currently known as KDDI Corporation), Kiyoshi Nishikawa next went to work at Arthur D. Little Inc. in the United States, where he became inspired to start his own company. After returning to Japan, he established a Japanese corporation of the world’s largest Internet company, America On Line, LLC. Later andbased on this experience and the relationships he developed, he founded the first Internet business incubator, NETAGE, Inc. After serving as the President and CEO of NETAGE Group, he later became and still serves as the Chairman of ngi group, inc. Kiyoshi was one of the main entrepreneurs responsible for proposing and realization of “Shibuya Bit Valley Concept†and is well known for his various speeches and writings. He is a graduate of the Department of Education at Tokyo University.
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Investment focus
- News, Social Media, Big Data
- Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- PoliPoli — PoliPoli is a next-generation politics co-creation platform where you can participate like a game. Politicians from all over Japan post their policies in an easy-to-understand manner, and those who sympathize can enjoy working on the "missions" necessary to realize the policies.
- Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
- TECHFUND — TechFund is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed stage investments. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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