Top 15 Local Startup Investors in Japan in December 2024
A list of 15 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Local startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Local companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 15 Local Startup Investors in Japan in December 2024
Investor | Local Japan investments |
---|---|
Global Brain Corporation | 4 |
Incubate Fund | 3 |
Chiba Dojo | 3 |
ANRI | 3 |
SBI Investment | 2 |
Takaya Shinozuka | 1 |
Mizuho Capital | 1 |
OPT Ventures | 1 |
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group | 1 |
Energy & Environment Investment | 1 |
STRIVE | 1 |
NetAge | 1 |
GMO VenturePartners | 1 |
ORIX Ventures | 1 |
Recruit Strategic Partners | 1 |
Global Brain Corporation is a venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed or early to pre-IPO startups. Global Brain has invested in 300+ startups from seed/early to pre-IPO startups and achieved 25 IPOs and 61 M&As as a result of providing hands-on support services and resources to its portfolio startups. Global Brain hasmanaged a pure investment fund as well as multiple corporate venture capital funds partnered together with tier 1 public companies of telecom, real estate development, financial service, beverages, agriculture food, logistics, and electronic devices.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
- Series A, Series B, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
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.
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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 — Build your web3 cities from your wallet activities
Chiba Dojo is an entrepreneurial community that supports startup companies in various stages from seed to pre-IPO.
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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.
ANRI is a Japanese venture capital firm that mainly invests in seed and early-stage startups.
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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.
- ARCH — ARCH provides research, development, operation, and support systems for gynecology and fertility treatment solutions
- Tanp — Gracia is an EC business and media business that provides coloring precious moments and enriching human connections.
SBI Investment supports the business development and growth of private venture companies through fund investment. It manages and manages venture capital funds under the management philosophy of becoming a leading company responsible for the creation and development of core industries in the 21st century as a "new industry creator".SBIInvestment has invested in a total of 986 companies in the past, of which 169 (17.1% of investment companies) have exited through IPO or M & A.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Financial Services
- Series B, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- BasiGo — BasiGo is an early-stage e-mobility start-up looking to revolutionize the public transportation sector by providing matatu owners with a cost-effective electric alternative to diesel buses.
- AI model — AI model specializes in the development and transformation of real-like virtual models for modeling on E-commerce platforms.
- Ultra Social — Ultra Social offers marketing support, management creator production, and tiktok live production services.
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
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.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Internet
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, China
Portfolio highlights
- Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
- 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.
- Upsider — - Vue - Nuxt.js - TypeScript - SCSS
OPT Ventures is an investment and incubation firm that offers startups with venture capital, investments, IPO advice, management information services, and more. The company was established on February 27, 2015, and operates as an investment subsidiary of Opt Holding Corporation, an e-marketing company based in Tokyo, Japan.
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Investment focus
- Software, Content, Task Management
- Funding Round, Series A, Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- CirclePe — Backed by India's Top Investors, connect us with your new Landlord & get a Zero Deposit move-in for the 1st time ever.
- wakuwaku — WAKUWAKU is a Japanese real estate tech company that focuses on developing a platform that helps users to search for and renovate used housing. In addition, the company offers platforms for building materials e-commerce and marketing automation for the real estate and construction industries.
- Receptionist — Delighted develops an application for reception services. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, is a Japanese bank holding / financial services company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. MUFG manages the affairs of its subsidiaries within the group and the business of the group as a whole along with all relevant ancillary business.The MUFG Group turned its eye toward the expected operatingenvironment changes over the next decade, and launched the new medium-term business plan, which outlines the strategies that will be implemented over the first three years of this period. The new plan is designed to guide us as they strive to realize their corporate vision—“Be the world's most trusted financial group.” By accelerating initiatives that span across business entities, regions, and business groups, they will work to live up to the expectations of their customers, shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders.The MUFG Group aims to achieve stable and sustainable income growth through seeking diversified revenue bases especially in customer segment both domestically and abroad, and capital efficiency by improving productivity. In addition, they will enhance shareholder value by conducting capital management flexibly taking the balance of (1) enhancement of further shareholder returns, (2) maintenance of a solid capital base and (3) strategic investments for sustainable growth, into consideration.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Finance
- Debt Financing, Funding Round, Series A
- United States, Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Global Screening Services — From the industry, for the industry.A unique approach to deliver better sanctions screening.
- Home Credit — Home Credit is a financial services provider based out of Kansas.
- SB Energy — We make renewable energy more reliable, cost-effective, and accessible through cutting-edge innovations in order to build a more renewable future.
Energy & Environment Investment, Inc. (EEI) is Japan’s first venture capital specialized in the clean technology sector. With core members who have rich hands on experience in founding and managing venture companies, we aim to provide risk money and various strategic values to promising venture companies and businesses.
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Investment focus
- Software, Energy, Internet of Things
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- OOYOO — OOYOO Co., Ltd. is a DeepTech venture that combines international entrepreneurial spirit, and a 'Made In Japan' excellence, to bring the latest innovations in clean technology to society for a smarter, cleaner, and more mobile world.
- Advance Composite — Advance Composite is a manufacturing company that develops composite materials and molten metal forging-based products.
- Impact Circle — Impact Circle social investment platform that focuses on providing impact finance and visualization services by creating job opportunities.
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.
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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!
netage, inc. is a venture capital firm specializing in startup and incubation investments. They invests in internet business. netage is located in Tokyo, Japan.
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Investment focus
- News, Local, Big Data
- Pre-Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- JX Press — The JX PRESS Corporation is Japan’s“virtual news agency.”JX PRESS’s “FASTALERT” service provides breaking news bulletins for urgent information on accidents, natural disasters, and other incidents detected by AI to all six of the major television broadcast stations in Japan, including NHK, and the majority of the 100+ local broadcast stations.FASTALERT works with more companies than any other service that utilizes information gathered from social networking sites for news reporting in Japan.The version offered to ordinary consumers, an app called “NewsDigest,” is the biggest news bulletin app in Japan, boasting over 1 million downloads. It is gaining popularity because of its ability to use AI to automatically detect and deliver news bulletins on information worth reporting. Alongside FASTALERT, it is also gaining more widespread use by news reporters as a standardized service for information.Stakeholders in the JX PRESS Corporation include KYODO NEWS, the leading news agency in Japan, two of the leading commercial broadcast stations (TV Asahi and Fuji TV), and the Nikkei Group. We are a new kind of news agency that provides computerized news reporting to all of the major media groups in Japan.Bloomberg - This Media Startup Is Beating the Competition With a Newsroom Run by Robots https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-27/the-airline-geek-trying-to-build-a-media-giant-with-no-reporters
- Oceans — Oceans Inc. was incorporated on September 16th, 2010 as an internet service company with the expressed goal of making the Internet more useful, more local, more here and now. Specialists from the fields of user interface, user experience, creative, programming and monetization gathered to make this possible. Currently, these development and serviceoperations professionals operate Eyeland(http://eyeland.in), a popular local communications platform.
An investment that restructures the value and quality.Supplying big capital is not an essential value of our firm.We have a strong attitude to input and drive critical thinking behind a new startup.After the problem is clarified and solution become established in the world,people could not imagine the society without that solution.An investment that innovates this world.We will become a real partner to execute the strategy together.INVENTION OF THE ESSENCE ----we will keep on doing it.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Information Technology
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, India
Portfolio highlights
- Tacoms — CAMEL is a service that allows you to easily manage orders from multiple food delivery / takeout services on a single tablet.
- Habitto — Habitto by SJ Mobile Labs is a new financial services venture focused on the Japanese market. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.
- Smart Bank — Smart Bank is a softawre firm that has developed an application for money spending management.
Growth Capital and Venture Debt team providing highly customized equity and debt solutions to help take leading technology companies to the next level.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, Analytics
- Funding Round, Series A, Series C
- United States, Japan
Portfolio highlights
- NetBase Solutions — Empower your business with Quid's Generative AI platform to gain a holistic view of customer context. See data through the lens of the future. AI-powered consumer and market intelligence.
- Invincea — Invincea is the leader in advanced endpoint threat protection, protecting more than 25,000 customers and 3 million active users.The company provides the most comprehensive solution to contain, identify, and control the advanced attacks that evade legacy security controls. Invincea protects enterprises against targeted threats, includingspear-phishing and Web drive-by attacks that exploit Java, Flash, and other applications. Combining the visibility and control of an endpoint solution with the intelligence of cloud analysis, Invincea offers the only market-deployed solution that defends against 0-day exploits, file-less malware, and previously unknown malware.The company has been in market with its award-winning technology since 2009. In 2011, Invincea was recognized as "Most Innovative Company of the Year" at RSA Conference, and since then the company has won numerous awards for its technology and business.Invincea maintains an OEM agreement with Dell to ship a customized version of Invincea's award-winning endpoint security solution, under the Dell Data Protection | Protected Workspace brand. This offering ships on Dell's entire line of commercial PCs and tablets, comprising 20 million devices per year.The company, which was founded by Dr. Anup Ghosh to address the rapidly increasing security threat from nation states, cyber criminals, and rogue actors, has commercialized technology originally built under DARPA funding. The company is venture capital-backed and based in Fairfax, VA. For more information, visit https://www.invincea.com.
- Space Market — Space Market is a service that can easily lend and borrow from conference rooms to uninhabited islands.
Recruit Strategic Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative startups from all around the world. It is a corporate venture capital arm of Recruit Holdings that seeks to invest in education and financial technology, digital healthcare, and infrastructure sectors.
It was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services
- Series A, Seed, Series B
- United States, Japan, India
Portfolio highlights
- Blacklane — Blacklane is the global chauffeur service that offers safety, sustainability, and stress-free travel. Since 2017, the company has been carbon-neutral, combining a five-star guest experience with care for the planet. The customers can book their travels using Blacklane’s mobile app or website.Blacklane was co-founded by Jens Wohltorf and FrankSteuer and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
- Steady — Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income
- ZenBusiness — Start a new business today for $0 or grow your existing business with the ZenBusiness platform. Get to your first dollar faster without the stress.
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