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Top 50 Marketplace Angel Investors in Japan in December 2024

Last updated: Dec 2024 A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Marketplace startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Marketplace companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 Marketplace Angel Investors in Japan in December 2024

Investor	Marketplace Japan investments
Yu Akasaka	8
Kotaro Chiba	8
Kotaro Chiba	8
Yusuke Sato	6
Ayataro Nakagawa	4
Kensuke Furukawa	4
Hidetoshi Takano	4
Hirofumi Miki	3
Naruhisa Nakagawa	3
Kazuhiro Ishikura	3
Shintaro Yamada	3
Takaya Shinozuka	3
Kazuma Ieiri	3
Mamoru Taniya	2
Shunsuke Oyu	2
Daisaku Harada	2
Tsunezawa Kahoko	2
Yusuke Tanaka	2
Uenoyama Katsuya	2
Toru Shimada	2
Naoki Aoyagi	2
Shintaro Tabata	2
Masaru Tange	2
Keisuke Kogure	2
Richard Chen	2
Yuzuru Honda	2
Osamu Ogasawara	2
Yasuyuki Kin	2
Christine Herron	2
Soichiro Kawai	2
Keith Yuki Isobe	1
Sakano Atsushi	1
Will Neale	1
Yasumasa Manabe	1
Niklas Eklund	1
Takato Hiroshi	1
Abdo Achkar	1
Kobayashi Toshihito	1
Hisayoshi Mizutani	1
Shohei Sasaki	1
Maneesh Arora	1
Eiko Matsumura	1
Hayama Takashi	1
Ken Soga	1
Hiromi Watase	1
Yoshitsune Ido	1
Hironari Umino	1
Tatsuo Sakamoto	1
Soga Takeshi	1
Kiyohiro Sugashita	1

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Investor list

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.

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.

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Investment focus

Travel, Internet, 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.

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Investment focus

Internet, 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.

Investment focus

Internet, Content, Food and Beverage
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, Indonesia, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaymak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
Paytner — yup is providing services to support freelance people's funding.The freelance population in Japan has been shown to continue to increase in many Chosa. While working styles are diversified, they are not able to respond to the development of the working environment, and they will develop their business to change the situation where problemssuch as funding, credit, sexual harassment, and power harassment are accumulated.
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.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Content
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Hong Kong, United States

Portfolio highlights

For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
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.
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".

Investment focus

Content, Media and Entertainment, Social Media
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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.
Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Neighbor — The creative universe of Fortnite is infinite. To give an example , building fantasy and science fiction worlds, creating simple games and full-scale battle games can all be completed with Fortnite. Is the world of Fortnite, played by 350 million users worldwide, is it real or unreal? We will try to combining the vast world of Fortnite with the real world.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Information Technology, Human Resources
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaymak — 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.

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.

Investment focus

Content, Marketing, Internet
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

aceRNA Technologies — AceRNA contributes to regenerative medicine and drug discovery through the discovery of novel miRNA functions. It began operation in April 2018, with its headquarters in Kyoto in Japan.
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.

Naruhisa Nakagawa is a Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Caygan Capital.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Beauty, Environmental Consulting
Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Zeigo — Zeigo by Schneider Electric provides sustainability software for efficient carbon reduction and supply chain decarbonization, aiming for a carbon-free future.
Ecolectro — Ecolectro is solving the biggest challenges in making Green Hydrogen. Our alkaline ion-exchange membranes and polymers make clean fuel and decarbonize industry.
Sniffer Robotics — Comprehensive methane emissions detection and quantification, advanced imagery and analytics; Sniffer Robotics provides advanced solutions that benefit the environment.

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.

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 Japan — 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.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Finance, Information Technology
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Autify — AI software testing company aimed at solving the challenges associated with automation testing. We are passionate about making software testing faster and easier, empowering companies to release faster and keep their applications stable.
Peach Cars — Peach Cars building a solution for those looking to buy and sell vehicles whole information on vehicles and hassle-free transactions.
AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.

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.

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.

Investment focus

Content, Fashion, Recruiting
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.

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.

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.

Investment focus

Content, Internet, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Lock On — Achieving high performance and minimizing risk through the analysis of 1B+ addresses and a fully automated index.
Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Neighbor — The creative universe of Fortnite is infinite. To give an example , building fantasy and science fiction worlds, creating simple games and full-scale battle games can all be completed with Fortnite. Is the world of Fortnite, played by 350 million users worldwide, is it real or unreal? We will try to combining the vast world of Fortnite with the real world.

Daisaku Harada is the Director of Management Strategy at Mercari. Daisaku attended Chuo University.

Investment focus

Finance, Tourism, Automotive
Seed, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Carstay — Carstay Comfortable Overnight in car or tentdo itCar tripWith guests who want to enjoy.

Tsunezawa Kahoko

Investment focus

Shopping, Apps, Travel
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Germany

Portfolio highlights

Menew — Menew is an online platform that enables users to organize and set menus for family meals. Users can track family preferences and trends; make shopping lists; and get an easy-to-read calendar format for the menus.
Valise — Valise provides insider access & unique experiences to the modern day internationalist. A perfect jump start to who & what is hot in creative capitals. At its core is the Valise Society - a global private members association for innovative leaders of the creative class.
Valise — Valise is a women's travel service platform.

"Shin"ichiro joined Yahoo Japan in April 2013. From July 2013, he joined YJ Capital. He has served as COO of YJ Capital since January 2015. Prior to Yahoo! Japan, Shin was General Director of Dream Incubator Vietnam from 2007 to 2012, managing US$50 million private equity funds in Vietnam. He was formerly a Project Manager at DreamIncubator Japan. He started his career at Future Architect as a system engineer.Shin received his bachelor's degree in Policy Management from Keio University.

Investment focus

Tourism, Consulting, E-Commerce
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TakeMe Co., Ltd. — TakeMe aims to provide an “One-stop Inbound destination service” by enabling tourist to easily find, communicate with, and pay with smartphones via QR code at In-Travel destinations. TakeMe, is the country’s largest inbound service platform in Japan, which lets tourists find, communicate with, and pay with QR code at our affiliated shops,restaurants and tourist attractions. Since our launch in 2015 as JapanFoodie, we have expanded our merchant base to tens of thousands beyond food and restaurants, to include travel, lodging, shopping and events, providing every tourist with the best experience as your best local guide and friend.

Uenoyama Katsuya - CEO @ PKSHA Technology

Investment focus

Fashion, Software, Advertising
Seed, Angel, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Babel — Babel is creating meaningful media for users and expanding globally.
AppBrew — AppBrew develops LIPS, a mobile application for users to share and read real reviews on cosmetics, nail care, personal care, hair care, and other related products of different brands. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
Neural Pocket — Neural Pocket provides Smart City related services for commercial buildings and urban spaces utilizing AI enabled image recognition technology. The company focuses on business development and co-creation serve its clients. Other applications include solutions for digitalization of factories, warehouses, parking lots and retail stores.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, Task Management, Marketing
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ixyas — Ixyas offers internet service planning, operation, marketing support, and sales services.
Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.

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.

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.

Shintaro Tabata - Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Sales @ Line

Investment focus

Sharing Economy, Audio, Content
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

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.
Carstay — Carstay Comfortable Overnight in car or tentdo itCar tripWith guests who want to enjoy.
Telework — Telework is a multi-location workspace that utilizes vacant seats and rooms.

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.

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, SaaS
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.

Mr. Keisuke Kogure serves as general partner at Mint.

Investment focus

Beauty, iOS, Health Care
Seed, Series A, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Requpo — Requpo is a brand-new salon reservation app that allows you to book a beauty salon without having to search.
MOVeLOT — MOVeLOT is an AI company that provides skeletal platform and robot planning, development, and production services.
MoonJapan — MoonJapan is an educational impact startup that offers a variety of programs and thorough assistance.

Richard Chen

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.

Yuzuru Honda is a Founder & Global CEO of FreakOut.

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.
Tyms — Tyms online accounting software for your business connects you to your bank, accountant, bookkeeper, and other business apps. Start a free trial today. Also available in Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa.

Osamu Ogasahara is the founder, CEO, and president of FGN ABBA Lab.

Investment focus

SNS, Content, Fashion
Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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.

Yasuyuki Kin

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.

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.

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.

Soichiro Kawai - CEO @ ReBoost

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.

Keith Yuki Isobe is an Investor, Managing Director and Member of the IC Board at DG VENTURES (AUM 600m USD).Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Geniee International Group, President and COO at Adstars and President Director at Geniee Technology Indonesia (TSE6562 A Member of SoftBank Group). Prior to that, he wasCo-Founder of Medically, Board Director and CFO of MEDCARE (exited, M3 group), a Next-Unicorn HealthcareTech and Co-Founder and Board Director of Waseda M&A Partners, a Startup Programmatic M&As. Contact Email Addresses: yuki-isobe@garage.co.jp (DG VENTURES)

Investment focus

Advertising, Cryptocurrency, SaaS
Seed, Series A, Series C
United States, Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

Adskom — Main slot sekarang makin gampang, bro! Di Tunai188, lo bisa deposit pakai QRIS, jadi gak ribet deh. Slot Thailand di sini juga gacor abis, pasti maxwin terus! Yuk, gaskeun main di Tunai188, situs slot yang bikin lo auto kaya. Jangan sampai ketinggalan, buruan daftar sekarang!
MEDCARE — Medcare is a medical service corporation.
WASEDA M&A PARTNERS — APAC Startup-focused M&A and Financial Consulting Firm (Founders are all graduates of Waseda Business School, Waseda University)

Sakano Atsushi

Investment focus

Medical, Nursing and Residential Care, SaaS
Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Heartseed — Heartseed has set a mission to “open the door to heart disease treatment with regenerative medicine” and is working toward the day-to-day clinical application of myocardial regenerative medicine.
Matsuri Technologies — matsuri technologies is a real estate tech company that provides solutions to support private property rentals. The company's products include m2m Systems, an Airbnb management platform that helps business operators to manage their accounts, communicate with guests, automate check-ins, offer customer service, and more.

Founder (Grabyo, Fonix). Investor.

Investment focus

FinTech, Financial Services, Software
Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
United Kingdom, Italy, Japan

Portfolio highlights

qomodo — Qomodo: La piattaforma BNPL innovativa. Rate a tasso zero, approvazioni veloci, transazioni sicure. Rivoluzionaria nell'acquisto per aziende e consumatori.
Verisian — Verisian accelerates drug time to market with the industry's first platform offering real study traceability (CDISC, SDTM, ADaM, TFLs)
SAPI — SAPI provides capital access to payment companies to facilitate payment flows, engage and retain merchants, and generate new revenue.

Yasumasa Manabe

Investment focus

Information Technology, Drones, Big Data
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Miraikikai — Miraikikai is a start-up originating from Kagawa University with a mission to create intelligent mobile robots for professional-use.Their robots products, designed based on field reseach to provide the high quality and the best cost effective solution, are achieved with mechanical design and control technology backed by the latest researchachievements and years of experience.
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.
XTREME-D Inc. — XTREME-D, formerly known as XTREME-Design Inc., is well-known in Japan for architecting technical computing in the cloud. The award-winning company develops and sells XTREME-DNA, a cloud-based, virtual, supercomputing-on-demand service. XTREME-DNA was launched to cut costs and make it easy to build HPC clusters in just in 10 minutes.XTREMEDEISIGN Inc. was founded in February 2015 by Naoki Shibata. And it is based in Tokyo.

Over the past 25 years, Niklas has an entrepreneur built and internationalized a range of companies in the area of reservation systems, revenue management, online marketing, and web publishing; amongst others he was the CEO and co-founder Bookatable, Livebookings, Infogate, and Epani.Over the past 8 years, Niklas has a direct investor and advisorto investment companies and venture capital companies; amongst others he was a co-founder and general partner at D-Ax (Axel Johnson Group CVC), a venture partner for Wellington Partners Venture Capital. Niklas is currently a general partner for PES Holdings. Investment focus is the Digital Media Sector and Digital Growth Companies, primarily in the Nordic countries and across Europe. Niklas describes himself as a ‘computer software geek and wizard turned businessman’ as he started his career at the age of 15. His achievements in building internationally successful companies have been recognized by various industry awards.

Investment focus

Software, Apps, Internet
Seed, Series A, Angel
Sweden, Japan, Denmark

Portfolio highlights

Savr — Savr is an Investment platform disrupting the Swedish fund industry with a lower fee structure and a new business model.
PinMeTo — Optimize your time and local presence with an all-in-one local SEO tool. Show up in local search, manage listings, reviews, messages from one dashboard.
Winnow — Winnow builds artificial intelligence tools to help chefs run more profitable and sustainable kitchens by cutting food waste in half. They develop technology to cut food waste in their operations. Their digital tools provide data to drive improvements in kitchen production processes and reduce environmental footprint.Winnow's mission is toconnect commercial kitchen, create a movement of chefs, and inspire others. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in London, England, United Kingdom.

Takato Hiroshi - CEO @ M0mentum

Investment focus

Health Care, Legal, Beauty
Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

JAPAN HEALTHCARE — Japan Healthcare is a healthcare start-up that works on the prevention of musculoskeletal diseases with environmentally-friendly preventive medicine . Japan Healthcare Build a preventive system for musculoskeletal diseases with environmentally-improving preventive medicine.
Japan Healthcare Info — Japan Healthcase Info locates english-speaking doctors for you and makes appointments
Legal Technology Japan — Legal Technology is into development of cloud-based research tool called 'Legal Library' using legal books.

Abdo Achkar is the Founder & CEO at Sowlutions.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Marketplace, Software
Pre-Seed, Seed, Series B
United States, Lebanon, Japan

Portfolio highlights

GoBEBA — Shell Afrigas 13KG Cooking Gas Refill
uPaint — Discover uPaint, premium paint by numbers kits for all ages. We craft all components in-house, ensuring top quality. Customize any image to create your own masterpiece. It's the perfect, thoughtful gift idea that's stress-free and easy for everyone. Experience a relaxing and joyful activity with stunning results.
Ur My Type — Ur My Type is an app that uses personality types to make dating and finding friends online more meaningful.

Born in 1977, his family was originally a rice farmer in Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture. He was involved in the development of online games at Community Engine Co., Ltd., from the Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University. After he became a director of the Company in 2003, he moved to Beijing to establish a subsidiary and became CEO. Hereturned to Japan in February 2007. He served as Technical Director of ONE-UP Co., Ltd. in May 2010, and moved to Aiming in June 2011. He was appointed Chief Technology Officer in May 2013 and listed on TSE Mothers in April 2015. In September 2017, he founded ukka Co., Ltd. and assumed the position of President.

Investment focus

Art, Baby, Real Estate
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
Otetsutabi — Otetsutabi is a regional revitalization platform that offers the opportunity for participants to help at accommodations and breweries in rural areas that struggle with seasonal labor shortages. The locals offer transportation expenses and places to stay in return, so participants can travel to the areas with ease.
sketchbook — Baby’s Fun is a baby food kit and infant food kit manufacturing company. The company's food kit offers pre-cut ingredients, enabling customers to reduce food waste.

Hisayoshi Mizutani - President & CEO @ vivit

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Health Care
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Elaly — Elaly Technology makes life better for people around the world.We aim to make the value of money and the experience gained from it flatter.As many people as possible will use technology to realize a happier life, independent of the money economy.
SOELU — SOELU is an online yoga studio where you can take lessons from popular instructors at home for women only. Even if you can't attend yoga classes, the instructor will guide you through the screen, so you can continue online at home!

Shohei Sasaki - CFO @ LeapMind

Investment focus

Content, Fashion, Consulting
Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

yutori — Yutoriis a Startup to expand the D2C business and influencer brand.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.

Maneesh Arora is CEO & co-founder of MightyText. He is a product builder who previously worked at Google and Zynga.

Investment focus

Mobile, Internet, Mobile Apps
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
United States, Japan, Nigeria

Portfolio highlights

HOOKED — HOOKED (formerly Telepathic) is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation. We’ve pioneered a new media format called chat fiction, which has become a phenomenon among teens and millennials in the past year. Hooked has reached 50MM readers and has hit the #1 spot in the App Store in 25 countries, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany,Italy, Japan, and S. Korea. We’re building the media company of the future - the next Netflix, the next Disney. Hooked has raised venture funding from top investors in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, including Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, William Morris Endeavor, SV Angel, Founders Fund, Cowboy Ventures, Greylock and many more.
CloudPeeps — CloudPeeps is a community, marketplace and platform that empowers freelancers and businesses to do their best work. Hire a team of quality professional freelancers to get the job done. Work the way you want, wherever you are!
Flex Finance — Flex Finance is a simple, accessible mobile platform that allows SMEs manage and track their expenses, with little-to-no financial knowledge required. Using our inbuilt AI, business owners also receive insights that help them stop waste, save money and make smarter spending decisions. Flex is committed to enabling more SMEs make it past their thirdbirthday, so they can continue to provide the income and jobs that sustain the vast majority of Nigerians.

Eiko Matsumura - President / CEO @ BASKET

Investment focus

Apps, Beauty, Health Care
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

emol — emol is an application that records emotions and talks with AI robots.emol provide personalized mental and productivity training based on mental data to promote employee well-being and increase employee engagement.

Hayama Takashi - Outside Director @ Eco Style

Investment focus

SNS, Beauty, Medical
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MedPeer — MedPeer operates as a community site for doctors. MedPeer is a recruitment agency collective registration service.MedPeer operation of "MedPeer," a collective intelligence service/ community website for physicians.

Ken Soga is an individual investor.

Investment focus

Music, Mobile, Content
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

UNIVRS — UNIVRS is a popular market and entertainment platform.
Mono.un — Mono.un provides users with opportunities to meet authors and collaborate on tales and specializes in bringing exciting experiences full of stories of Japanese culture to the world.
SAKELOGY — SAKELOGY is a platform enables restaurants and retailers to easily create cloud-based sake menus.

Hiromi Watase

Investment focus

Apps, Rental, E-Commerce
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ecbo cloak — Ecbo cloak is a sharing service that connects "persons who want to store luggage with shops with space to store luggage. Instead of coin lockers, you can pre-order places online online and store your luggage in the open space of stores of various types of business.
TASKAJI — TASKAJI is an online housekeeping service that matches people looking for someone to do their housekeeping with those who want to work as housekeepers.The companies motto is of “from the nuclear family to the extended family” and it aims to provide people with more leisure time through its concept of “housekeeping sharing.

Yoshitsune Ido

Investment focus

Information Technology, Robotics, Software
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
BionicM — BionicM develops high-performance robot prostheses that enhance mobility for people with disabilities.BionicM has been conducting research on innovative technologies since 2015 at the University of Tokyo's Information Systems Engineering Laboratory (JSK) under the guidance of Professor Inaba and utilizing the world's most advancedrobotics research. In 2016, we were adopted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency as part of "Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology" (START), and in 2018, the company was established as a joint-stock company.
Dots for — Dots for is a technology that aims to improve the lives of rural residents by providing them with digital services.

Hironari Umino - Chairman @ Increments

Investment focus

Apps, Beauty, Incubators
Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

emol — emol is an application that records emotions and talks with AI robots.emol provide personalized mental and productivity training based on mental data to promote employee well-being and increase employee engagement.
BoostIO — MAISIN&CO makes meetings efficient. MAISIN&CO was founded in 2014.

Tatsuo Sakamoto is a Head of Sales, Japan at MOLOCO. He Attended The University of Tokyo.

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.

Soga Takeshi

Investment focus

Music, Mobile, Content
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

UNIVRS — UNIVRS is a popular market and entertainment platform.
SAKELOGY — SAKELOGY is a platform enables restaurants and retailers to easily create cloud-based sake menus.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.

Mr. Sugashita joined Polaris as Advisor in May 2011. He is Director and CEO of Sugashita Partners, Ltd since 1998 and provides consulting services to financial institutions and ventures in and outside of Japan. Prior to that position, he was CEO of Lazard Japan Asset Management from 1991 to 1998. His business career also includes positions at DaiwaSecurities and Merrill Lynch Securities, Tokyo Branch. On the academic front, Mr. Sugashita received a BA in Economics from Ritsumeikan University and since 2009 is Special Advisor for the Dean of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.

Investment focus

Marketing, Travel, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

G NEXT — G NEXT is an Information Technology based company.
Fun — Fun is a sightseeing entertainment company that makes the world even more of a fun place.
Tabinaka — Tabinaka is a Japanese booking & reservation platform for overseas tours and travel activities.

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