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Top 15 Local Startup Investors in Japan in January 2025

Last updated: Jan 2025 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 January 2025

Investor	Local Japan investments
Global Brain Corporation	4
Incubate Fund	3
Chiba Dojo	3
ANRI	3
SBI Investment	2
OPT Ventures	1
STRIVE	1
NetAge	1
GMO VenturePartners	1
ORIX Ventures	1
Recruit Strategic Partners	1
Adways	1
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group	1
Energy & Environment Investment	1
Takaya Shinozuka	1

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Investor list

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.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Lazuli — Lazuli is a SaaS platform that enables companies to utilize data for analysis, search, recommendation, marketing & supply chain management.
HQ — HQ offers next-generation employee benefits platform.
Smart Education — Smart Education, Ltd. (located in Tokyo, Japan, President Daigo Ikeya) launched it’s kid’s music app “Rhythm Book” for smartphones and tablets. It’s in the App Store as an universal app for iPhone, iPad and iTouch. With Rhythm book, kids can learn and feel the rhythm by tapping instruments along with their favorite songs. There are more than 100kid’s songs from TV, cartoons, to choose from and nursery rhymes in English and in Japanese. Stimulate the young mind with genuine and real studio recorded music and sounds. This app is designed to co-play between parents and child. You can purchase more songs via internet and the songs you’ve purchased can be co-owned by the same Apple ID through iCloud.

Incubate Fund is an independent early-stage venture capital that specializes in providing capital to technology startups at the seed stage. The firm built a portfolio of over 300 companies in Asia, taking 12 companies to public and 20 companies to M&A exit since 2010.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Letara — Letara operates a space technology platform with the intention to serve a logistics network covering the solar system. The company produces hybrid propulsion engines for small spacecraft, promoting groundbreaking advances in space propulsion with high thrust, safe, and inexpensive propulsion system technology.
Kaguoku — Kaguoku develops and provides the AI-based home staging services. It offers a service that uses AI to process interior photos of real estate properties to increase the property's ability to attract customers.
Time Prediction — Time Prediction focuses on development of diagnostic pharmaceuticals, drugs and medical devices for the treatment of neurological diseases.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Taian — Taian, which specializes in bridal industry services and software. They also provide ''Concept Marry,'' which allows couples to design invites and seating charts that match their wedding theme, as well as display guest information on Oiwaii.
ARCH — ARCH provides research, development, operation, and support systems for gynecology and fertility treatment solutions
Upsider — - Vue - Nuxt.js - TypeScript - SCSS

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.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Financial Services
Series B, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

Newmo — newmo delivers sustainable local public transportation create a user experience (UX) that people may utilize with peace of mind and comfort.
Lazuli — Lazuli is a SaaS platform that enables companies to utilize data for analysis, search, recommendation, marketing & supply chain management.
AI model — AI model specializes in the development and transformation of real-like virtual models for modeling on E-commerce platforms.

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.

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.

STRIVE focuses on investing in early-stage (Seed to Series A) internet and mobile companies. It seeks out companies in Japan, Southeast Asia, and India with top-notch management teams and strong market potential. It is not tied to strategic investments for GREE Inc. and leverages its pan-Asia expertise for guiding its portfolio in an engaged,hands-on role.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, India, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!

netage, inc. is a venture capital firm specializing in startup and incubation investments. They invests in internet business. netage is located in Tokyo, Japan.

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.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Software
Seed, Series A, Series B
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.
Bureau — Bureau is trust network that facilitates end-to-end identity verification, compliance, and fraud prevention for new-age businesses.

Growth Capital and Venture Debt team providing highly customized equity and debt solutions to help take leading technology companies to the next level.

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.

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.

Based in Tokyo, Adways is a mobile marketing solution provider mostly known for its Asia’s largest mobile CPI adnetwork “AppDriver” and mobile app measurement & tracking tool “PartyTrack” used by great number of major app developers around the world. Since 2004 when it opened the first overseas office in China, Adways has been aggressivelyexpanding its mobile app distribution network in Asian markets. Now with 1,000 employees in 11 countries (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and the USA), Adways supports app developers worldwide to maximize their user acquisition and monetization and furthermore thrives to provide new value to the market. Haruhisa Okamura is Founder and CEO of Adways who has grown Adways from a small startup to an international corporation with over a thousand employees around the world. In 2006, Adways went public and Okamura was one of the youngest entrepreneurs to list a company in Japan at that time.You can read his story here: "How a high school dropout became a multi-millionaire entrepreneur" http://www.techinasia.com/high-school-dropout-multimillionaire-entrepreneur/

Investment focus

Internet, Media and Entertainment, Software
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
MiddleField — MiddleField is a team to make cars the best entertainment and to make the lives of everyone involved in cars into entertainment. They creates a society where a lot of people are involved as a middle point of all people's dreams. MiddleField owns and operates an e-commerce platform offering cars.

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.

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.
LanzaJet — LanzaJet producer of aviation fuel that captures waste gas emissions and uses bacteria to turn it into useable ethanol fuel.
Home Credit — Home Credit is a financial services provider based out of Kansas.

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.

Investment focus

Software, Energy, Internet of Things
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, Germany

Portfolio highlights

YourTrade — ONE KEY TO GLOBAL TRADE
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.