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Top 15 Local Startup Investors in Japan

Last updated: Jul 2024 A list of 15 angel investors and VC 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

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

Utaite — Utaite is an operator of an entertainment platform that focuses on planning, production, and development of entertainment content.
Essen — Essen is a vehicle wrapping advertising platform, but in the future, it hopes to offer new services like traffic congestion relief and anomaly detection that make use of mobility data.
Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.

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

MOV — MOV is a technology platform. They offer SaaS for stores that can collectively manage word-of-mouth sites and visualize and analyze customer feedback. It distributes inbound market data, news, and know-how to domestic companies. Their services include inbound support and consulting.
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.
Orange — Orange is a developer of a variety of deep-learning models with a focus on computer vision and natural language processing for comics.

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

Owlto — Owlto Finance is an intent-centric interoperability protocol, 'Bridge the World with AI Agent'.
Landit — Landit manages transportation infrastructure and real estate technology firms.
Woodstock — Woodstock is an investment app that allows to invest in US stocks.

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

3DC — 3DC develops and manufactures a new carbon material, graphene meso sponge (GMS), for electrodes in next-generation batteries, capacitors, fuel cells and other energy storage and generation devices.
YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
Orange — Orange is a developer of a variety of deep-learning models with a focus on computer vision and natural language processing for comics.

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

Portfolio highlights

Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
NIHON AGRI — Exportation of Japanese agricultural products is currently small in volume. While Japanese farmers aspire to export their products to foreign countries for more people to enjoy and local consumers universally share the positive perception of the quality of Japanese agricultural products, issues such as price, communication, and logistics hinder theexpansion of exportation.They aim to solve these issues and satisfy the needs of both Japanese farmers and global consumers which are so clearly evident but devastatingly unmet.
Orange — Orange is a developer of a variety of deep-learning models with a focus on computer vision and natural language processing for comics.

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.
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.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Nature — Nature offers a product that enables its users to save money by controlling the use of their air conditioners.The product that the company offers is an air conditioner controller that transforms any window-mounted or through-wall AC into a smart one, equipped with infrared, power control, and sensors that, along with a mobile app for voicesensors, enabling users to operate household appliances with just one smartphone to control their ACs. It transforms the operation of room air conditioners (ACs) to improve comfort and efficiency for consumers while reducing energy demand peaks for utilities with simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-install device.The Boston, Massachusetts-based company was incorporated by Mash Ohtsuka and Haruumi Shiode in 2014.
Kisui Tech — Kisui Tech is an agricultural AI robotics company that help farmers for farming.
DeepForest Technologies — DeepForest Technologies is an IT firm that offers drone photography, forest information analysis, DF Scanner, and data processing services.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 — Search through huge inventory of 1, 2 & 3 Bhk for rent in Grugaon. Pay Zero Deposit and Zero Brokerage with CirclePe. Hassle free immediate move in.
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.

Takaya Shinozuka is the President, CEO, and Founder at Reiwa Travel.

Investment focus

Internet, Local, Advertising
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
KAUCHE — X Asia creates enjoyable shopping experience.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.

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, Finance
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Niro — Niro is embedding personal credit products into leading consumer internet platforms. The fintech startup aims to disrupt the consumer lending ecosystem in the country by democratizing access to convenient and hassle-free embedded credit products for 624 million internet users in India.
OTO Capital — India's most trusted place to buy bikes, scooters and electric scooters of all brands on loan and in cash. Digital Process. Lowest EMIs. Fast Deliveries - OTO
Sharing Energy — Sharing Energy is providing energy supply and energy management services.

Investors by industry

FinTech

Consumer

Gaming

Media (entertainment)

EdTech

Artificial intelligence