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Top 50 Marketplace Angel Investors in Japan in July 2025

Last updated: Jul 2025 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 July 2025

Investor	Marketplace Japan investments
Kotaro Chiba	8
Yu Akasaka	8
Kotaro Chiba	8
Yusuke Sato	6
Hidetoshi Takano	5
Ayataro Nakagawa	4
Kensuke Furukawa	4
Naruhisa Nakagawa	3
Takaya Shinozuka	3
Kazuhiko Ishikura	3
Kazuma Ieiri	3
Hirofumi Miki	3
Kazuhiro Ishikura	3
Masaru Tange	3
Daisaku Harada	2
Mamoru Taniya	2
Yusuke Tanaka	2
Soichiro Kawai	2
Shunsuke Oyu	2
Richard Chen	2
Osamu Ogasawara	2
Naoki Aoyagi	2
Yasuyuki Kin	2
Yoichi Aso	2
Christine Herron	2
Shintaro Tabata	2
Keisuke Kogure	2
Uenoyama Katsuya	2
Toru Shimada	2
Fumiaki Koizumi	2
Tsunezawa Kahoko	2
Shintaro Yamada	2
Yuto Nagatomo	1
Richard Chen	1
Kai Asakura	1
Tetsuya Nagashima	1
Toyokazu Ichise	1
Ken Soga	1
Sachin Bhatia	1
Ichiro Umeda	1
Shunsuke Masaki	1
Maneesh Arora	1
Yoshikazu Azuma	1
Hideki Hayashi	1
Hironari Umino	1
David Lloyd	1
Kiyohiro Sugashita	1
Atsuo Nakayama	1
Joshua Stevens	1
Hayama Takashi	1

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Investor list

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

Investment focus

Information Technology, 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.

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

Information Technology, Content, Internet
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

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

Portfolio highlights

Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
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.
Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.

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

Kaimak — 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.

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

Mepple — Mepple is planning, developing, and operating internet services.
For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
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, Social Media, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

iiba — Iiba is a geospatial platform that specializes in providing location information related to child-rearing.
Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

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.

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.

Kazuhiko Ishikura is based out of Tokyo, Tokyo and is the Co-Founder and Director of SDF Capital. Kazuhiko previously worked at 3minute Inc. as a Director. Kazuhiko Ishikura attended Aoyama Gakuin University.

Investment focus

Beauty, Content, Fashion
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
WARC — 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.

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, Logistics
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 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

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.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.

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 — 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.

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

E-Commerce, Food Delivery, Internet
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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.
Back Dooor — Back Dooor is an app that provides 1on1 chatting services with favorite player of the users.
SPeak — SPeak Corporation operates JPort Match that is involved in direct recruiting service. It is a global career platform for budding new talents.

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

Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yoichi Aso is the President and CEO at Alpha Drive.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Apparel, Digital Media
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kamado — Kamado is a publisher of magazines. They offer products that include artist articles, colomn article series, and web magazines.
Yondemy — Yondemy is an online platform for children reading books.
Log build — Log build offers a new form of on-site management that enables productivity improvement and real-time visualization and sharing of on-site information through on-site management robots and VR software. The company provides AI development, VR development, construction site construction management robot, cloud site management, and construction siteplatform.

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.

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.

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.
MoonJapan — MoonJapan is an educational impact startup that offers a variety of programs and thorough assistance.
Respo — Respo is a service that enables people to save money by buying things at a discount.

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.

Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
Aoyama Arts — Aoyama Arts is an architecture and consulting company that develops design offices and supports land search and financing plans.
Fabric Tokyo — FABRIC TOKYO is a Japanese startup provides a direct-to-consumer custom-made apparel brand. (former-company name Lifestyle Design Co., Ltd.). It enables customers to save their sizes, idea fabrics, and favorite designs, allowing them to make their original clothing later.FABRIC TOKYO was founded in 2012 by Yuichiro Mori and is based in Tokyo,Japan.

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.

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, Funding Round
Japan, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Zypsy — A design collective building for web3. We invest creative expertise in exchange for equity/token.
Peach Cars — Buy or sell your car in Nairobi-Kenya with ease. Browse a wide range of vehicles, connect with trusted sellers, and find the perfect car today. Simple, fast, and secure transactions.
AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.

Yuto Nagatomo - President, CEO, and Founder @ Cuore Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

SNS, Video, Beauty
Funding Round, Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
SAURUS JAPAN —

Richard Chen

Investment focus

Software, SaaS, Information Technology
Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
United States, Japan

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.

Kai Asakura

Investment focus

Beauty, Cosmetics
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

THE RICH — THE RICH is a hair care brand that contains silk regenerating and repairing ingredients.

Tetsuya Nagashima - Director COO @ Gunosy

Investment focus

Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.

Toyokazu Ichise is a Director of Peace Communication Foundation.

Investment focus

Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.

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.

Sachin Bhatia - CEO & Co-founder @ Bulbulshop

Investment focus

Travel, Tourism, E-Commerce
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
India, Japan

Portfolio highlights

myHQ — Explore range of myHQ Workspaces & office solutions, including fully furnished managed offices, affordable coworking spaces, day passes, virtual office and meeting room options. Find your perfect workspaces with myHQ.
Lio — Lio lets businesses calculate, tabulate, and organize tasks such as creating to-do lists, wedding registries, and class schedules. The product can be used by home businesses, solo business owners, farmers, doctors, and small to medium businesses, among others.
STAGE — STAGE is an Indian language content platform for artist-led entertainment.

Ichiro Umeda is the Chairman of the New Era Strategy Institute.

Investment focus

Medical, Payments, Health Care
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Agatyca — Agatyca is an IT company that develops customized solutions to optimize payment system processes for organizations.

Mr. Masaki joined Mitsui Ventures in May 2008 as Venture Partner, and since has been focused on investments in retail and service sector. Previously, he worked at Fujita Corporation, a large operator of restaurants and retail chain, where he was responsible for store development and merchandising in Tokyo area. After several successfulyears at Fujita, he took a position with Service Business Division of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., in charge of developing new business utilizing the franchise method.

Investment focus

Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.

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.

Yoshikazu Azuma - Representative Director and CEO @ TWO

Investment focus

Retail, Security, Marketing
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

AWL — AWL is a company that provides the leading edge AI camera solutions company .
W Tokyo — W TOKYO is a content production company that offers the latest and highest quality solutions by multiplying its own original content and solutions, centered on women, using the know-how cultivated in the Tokyo Girls Collection as a weapon .

Hideki Hayashi

Investment focus

Drones, Robotics, Consulting
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Re-abroad —
GenerativeX — GenerativeX provides AI app development, consulting, and generative model development.
Smart Robotics Japan — Smart Robotics is a development and sales of robot-related products development of robots, drones, and IOT devices (hardware and software).

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.

David Lloyd - General Manager, UK, Netherlands & Nordics @ Alibaba Group

Investment focus

E-Commerce
Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kuai Commerce — Kuai Commerce is a next-generation solution for ambitious brands looking to sell directly to Chinese Gen Z consumers through the power of social commerce. Our tech-enabled services provide market entry and brand acceleration options for emerging category-leaders who otherwise would find the complexity of China prohibitively challenging

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.

Atsuo Nakayama is the Executive officer, International Bizdev Div of Bushiroad Inc.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Creative Agency, Web Development
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.

Joshua Stevens

Investment focus

E-Commerce
Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kuai Commerce — Kuai Commerce is a next-generation solution for ambitious brands looking to sell directly to Chinese Gen Z consumers through the power of social commerce. Our tech-enabled services provide market entry and brand acceleration options for emerging category-leaders who otherwise would find the complexity of China prohibitively challenging

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.

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