Top 20 Local Startup Investors in Japan in May 2026

Portfolio highlights

• Helpfeel — Our vision is to make saving, sharing, and exploring ideas as natural as breathing. On this journey we're humbled to be helping millions around the world from solo makers to university research labs, from gamers to pro designers, and large to small teams like ours.
• Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
• Cognigy — Automate customer and employee services through Conversational AI implementation across any organization with Cognigy. Book demo or try free now!

Portfolio highlights

• Univearth — Univearth is a tech company that specializes in developing a logistics digital transformation platform to modernize the logistics industry.
• FormX — FormX is a technology company that provides cutting-edge AI software and services for automated document data extraction.
• InfiniMind — The intelligence layer for the physical world. Transform petabytes of video into structured, searchable intelligence.

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.
• Tacoms — CAMEL is a service that allows you to easily manage orders from multiple food delivery / takeout services on a single tablet.
• Linea Innovations — Linea Innovations is an energy production company that develops commercial fusion reactors with advanced fuel technology.

Portfolio highlights

• iCARE — iCARE It is the No. 1 health and labor cloud introduced in Japan, which is selected by small and medium-sized enterprises suffering from lack of manpower and large enterprises expanding their business globally .
• Zen Intelligence — SoftRoid provides a software robot that patrols and collects data for analyzing the construction site.
• Catallaxy — Catallaxy is operates Japan's easiest-to-understand manufacturing industry media and sheet metal processing media.

Portfolio highlights

• Fivot — Fivot is a financial company that provides venture capital, financing, credit, money lending, and prepaid payment services.
• MODE — With offices in both San Mateo, California, and Tokyo, Japan. The company is rapidly growing with now over fifty employees and is in business to provide end-to-end semi-custom IoT and AI solutions for organizations to improve their operations by connecting them to their data, giving them “real-time” insights, so they can turn innovative ideas intosustainable solutions that address a wide range of challenges.Simple, yet powerful, our latest "next generation" BizStack IoT and BizStack AI solutions are comprised of a continuous improvement technology stack that collects real-time data from any sensor, device, product, equipment, or legacy system. The data is then sanitized, uniquely structured, and provided to highly customizable, intuitive dashboards with powerful insights, along with proper security in the cloud for ongoing IoT and AI applications.BizStack can be deployed 4X faster and 75% less expensively than in-house developers or outside consultants.
• OPTEMO — OPTEMO develops and supplies sales technology that allows businesses and customers to connect through a website.

Portfolio highlights

• QREATION — QREATION is a digital intellectual property studio specializing in producing a wide range of popular content that originates primarily from social media platforms. The company focuses on creating high-quality short-form entertainment, including short dramas, comedy sketches, and variety shows.
• Forward — Forward is a SaaS-based startup that offers recruitment agency services.
• Metagen Therapeutics — Metagen Therapeutics is a Drug discovery and medical business company which utilizes microbiome science.

Portfolio highlights

• Ubiden — Ubiden provides Artificial intelligence and Internet of Things mobile network services. The company develops applications for electric vehicle charging services.
• Flosfia — FLOSFIA is a spin-off from a research of Kyoto University, specializing in film-formation by mist chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Making use of physical properties of gallium oxide (Ga2O3), FLOSFIA has devoted to development of low-loss power devices.
• Shippio — Shippio is a service that enables a wide range of collective international logistics arrangements and management solutions via web.The platform features full-service export and import solutions for various international transportation needs; a special dashboard designated for import and export business, shipment, cost analysis, and invoicemanagement; and documentation support.

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.

Portfolio highlights

• Morus — Morus is a university-based biotech startup developing functional food ingredients from silkworms to address global health and nutrition challenges.
• FunPep — FunPep is an Industry-university collaboration bioventure company.
• AI Silk — AI Silk are innovative conductive fibers produced with a dyeing technique. By using natural silk and giving conductivity to the fiber itself, They have succeeded in producing electrodes that reduce some of the risks and challenges of conventional medical electrodes, which can cause discomfort,skin and in vivo inflammation, and measurement failuredue to sweat or other elements. Their brand, AI Silk, is a new material that has strong and diverse application potential, even beyond the health / medical field.

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.

Portfolio highlights

• Cosomil — Cosomil develops early diagnostic drugs for diseases and provides research and development support to healthcare companies.
• Shippio — Shippio is a service that enables a wide range of collective international logistics arrangements and management solutions via web.The platform features full-service export and import solutions for various international transportation needs; a special dashboard designated for import and export business, shipment, cost analysis, and invoicemanagement; and documentation support.
• NaLaLys — NaLaLys is a business consulting firm that provides management, distribution, research, and consulting services.

Portfolio highlights

• Anthropic — An AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
• IndiaMART InterMESH — IndiaMART InterMESH is an online B2B marketplace, connecting buyers with suppliers across various industries.
• Reliance Industries — Reliance Industries Limited is committed to innovation-led, exponential growth in the areas of hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and telecommunications.

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.
• Receptionist — Delighted develops an application for reception services. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
• Zeelab Pharmacy — Zeelab Pharmacy brings to you a high quality affordable generic medicines delivered to your doorstep with ecommerce & network of over 200+ stores in 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.

Portfolio highlights

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

Portfolio highlights

• KAUCHE — KAUCHE is a social commerce app. They provide services for online and mail-order retail shops. Their customers' inquiries are addressed through phone, email, and online applications.
• FLUX — FLUX provide “FLUX Header Bidding Solution” that creates fair competition opportunities and significantly increases advertising revenue within the header bidding server, ad requests are sent to SSPs and ad exchanges all at once, so it is possible to have a pure price competition without prioritization, and to determine the highest bid amount andvalue of the advertising space. I can. Then, the price of the highest bid ad in the header bidding and the ad set in the ad server are competed, and the ad with the higher bid is delivered.
• Landit — Landit manages transportation infrastructure and real estate technology firms.

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.

Portfolio highlights

• INDX — Unstructured data support, AI utilization without exposing confidential data, rapid implementation. Extensive experience in manufacturing, finance, and healthcare. Provide company-specific AI solutions with custom tuning.
• Dr.’s Prime — Doctor's Prime is a technology company that provides is a part-time job information service for optimizing the working style of doctors.
• UnlimiTech — UnlimiTech provides an industrial workflow tool that simplifies and automates complicated spreadsheets processes that get stuck among systems.

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!

Portfolio highlights

• Aperza — Aperza's mission is to contribute to redesigning the manufacturing industry by eliminating three barriers in the industry which are the barrier of information, transaction and communication which most of companies and people often face in this industry.Manufacturing industry is Japanese core industry. We would like to contribute to therebirth of this industry by those activities such as supporting those companies who challenges the global market and supporting those start-ups who tries brand-new industry trend such as Industry 4.0, smart factory or IoT. We believe that this lead to the increase of the people in this industry, and the growth of the industry eventually.
• RightTouch — RightTouch is a media company that offers customer support with KARTE RightSupport, and media CS Mag for tailored solutions and insights.
• Monochrome — Monochrome is creating a home operating system in order to power the next generation of energy-producing homes and roofs. The company is based in Chuo Ward, Tokyo.