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Top 50 Payments Startup Investors in Japan in May 2025

Last updated: May 2025 A list of 50 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Payments startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Payments companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 Payments Startup Investors in Japan in May 2025

Investor	Payments Japan investments
Ceres	6
Kotaro Chiba	5
East Ventures	5
Incubate Fund	5
Kotaro Chiba	5
JAFCO	5
SMBC Venture Capital	4
Nissay Capital	3
Mizuho Capital	3
Shintaro Yamada	3
Coral Capital	3
D4V	3
Saison Capital	3
Genesia Ventures	3
Cherubic Ventures	2
Osamu Ogasawara	2
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	2
Spiral Capital	2
VOYAGE VENTURES	2
Kobe University Capital	2
Arbor Ventures	2
Kyokuto Securities	2
Masaru Sunagawa	2
Yu Akasaka	2
Anthemis	2
DeNA	2
DNX Ventures	2
SBI Investment	2
Money Forward	2
Shunsuke Oyu	2
MIRAISE	2
ANOBAKA	2
Mizuho Bank	2
SoftBank Capital	2
Yusuke Tanaka	2
PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund	2
GMO VenturePartners	2
ANRI	2
Venture Labo Investment	2
Kazuma Ieiri	2
Monex Ventures	2
Global Brain Corporation	2
Komura Fujio	2
DG Daiwa Ventures	2
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation	2
KDDI	2
FreakOut Holdings	2
Yuzuru Honda	2
Recruit Strategic Partners	2
Yusuke Sato	2

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Ceres is a company providing internet marketing services and is engaged in the planning, development, and operation of smartphone media.

Investment focus

Cryptocurrency, Content, Internet
Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DINETTE — DINETTE is a cosmetics manufacturing company.
SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Indent — Indent creates products that help writers create original works such as novels, manga, screenplays, and game scenarios. They will work to create an environment in which artists can focus on their creations and enjoy sharing their work.

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.

East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Indonesia, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

SoLeLands — SoLeLands provides children with future-ready skills, virtues, and applied competences and inspires children to love learning.
Maka Motors — MAKA is dedicated to building the best electric motorcycles for Indonesian riders.
Zenith Learning Group — Zenith Learning Group's mission is to deliver a holistic, world-class education to learners across South East Asia through technology.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Gatebox — It is a research laboratory beyond dimension" which is researching and developing to realize "a world where you can live with a character". Therefore, Gatebox Co., Ltd. refers to itself as "Gatebox Lab" and conducts research and development beyond dimension in the area of Akihabara day and night. Dreaming that day,coming to meet beyond dimension.
NABLA Mobility — Solving the complexities involved in the "Operation of Fleets" of Mobility and support its evolution and decarbonization
Mjolnir Spaceworks — Mjolnir Spaceworks desings and manufactures state-of-the-art novel space rockets with efficient engines as well as other space equipments.

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.

Since its founding in 1973, JAFCO has always worked with leading-edge entrepreneurs. The total capital commitments of its investment funds in Japan and overseas have exceeded 1 trillion yen and the number of portfolio IPOs to date has reached over 1,000. In addition to venture investment, JAFCO also carries out buyout investment and commit to thecreations of innovative technologies and services worldwide. As entrepreneurs’ closest partner in bringing their visions to life, JAFCO provides support in areas of HR, marketing/ sales, and back-office operations, in addition to providing financing.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Sanu — SANU is a subscription service that offers a home in nature.
Pocket Sign — Pocket Sign develops digital platforms that store e-signatures and other authentication details for it's users privacy and security.
Tech Doctor — Tech Doctor is a health monitoring service which provides analysis and insights for self care reducing the need for health care workers.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and its group companies offer a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in the leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital and other credit related businesses. The following lists the activities of SMBC, its subsidiaries andaffiliates in the various business segments.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Health Care, Software
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Ababa — Ababa provides recruitment and employment solutions.
DelizMart — Deliz Mart is a digital-driven platform that helps to solve food distribution challenges and reduce cost transactions in the food industry.
Penetrator — Penetrator transforms the real estate market with space technology, tackling transaction issues and forming landslide observation systems.

Nissay Capital is a venture capital Company specializing in seed, start-up, growth capital, middle stage, and later stage investment.

Investment focus

Health Care, Internet, Information Technology
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Ethiopia

Portfolio highlights

CloudLegal — CloudLegal provides AI-powered legal services, combining generative AI with legal expertise to streamline corporate operations.
Blackbox — Blackbox is an entertainment firm that is involved in businesses, including VTuber production, media mix, and live music events.
Knowhere — Knowhere is a company that applies high-performance AI to sports.

Mizuho is the venture capital firm affiliated to Mizuho Bank, the second-largest Japanese bank in terms of assets. The firm has headquarters in Tokyo.The firm has ¥49.6 billion JPY under management, focusing on information technology and biotechnology investments. Over 600 Mizuho companies have gone public. According to Nikkei, Mizuho is thefifth-largest venture capital firm in Japan.Mizuho Capital was formed in 2002 by the merger of Fujigin Capital, Tokyo Venture Capital and IBJ Investment. Three firms were subsidiaries of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan respectively.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Quemix — Quemix is an IT company specialized in providing quantum computing solutions.
Plainer — Plainer is an IT company that provides software development, data management, and SaaS solutions.
Unito — Unito offers people a friction-free lifestyle by pursuing optimization of living.

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 — 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.

Coral Capital is a seed stage venture capital firm in Japan.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, SaaS
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Lens — Lens ocuses on supporting corporate activities related to governance, risk management, compliance (GRC), and security.
CoLab — CoLab is a technology company that provides robotics, artificial intelligence solutions, and business consulting services.
NutmegLabs — NutmegLabs takes care of tourism and leisure by helping with online booking and digitizing the business. It was founded in 2019 and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

D4V (Design for Ventures) is a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in disruptive, consumer and enterprise technology startups.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Software, Apps
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Emole — Emole is a platform that connects content creators with viewers through short drama content, offering a variety of engaging stories.
Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
Yuime — Yuime is an HR consulting firm that offers agricultural staffing, contract farming, and recruitment services.

They invest in Seed to Series A companies across South East Asia and India. Although they have a sector agnostic fund mandate, they particularly like to work with founders that are building ecosystems with the potential to distribute financial services to the unbanked.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
Singapore, India, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Zoplar — Zoplar operates a one-stop platform for all healthcare needs, offers a wide range of products for hospitals and clinics.
Habitto — Habitto by SJ Mobile Labs is a new financial services venture focused on the Japanese market. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.
SeIndonesia — Se’Indonesia is a fastest growing Indonesian Quick Service Restaurant chain. providing high-quality protein that is flavorful, nutritious, accessible, and affordable. The company specializes in smoked beef bowls, leveraging a proprietary smoking process that delivers distinct taste and aroma rooted in Indonesian culinary tradition.Founded with avision to revolutionize the food industry, Se’Indonesia emphasizes product integrity, operational scalability, and efficient delivery formats. Through its commitment to honest cooking and accessible nutrition, the company is positioned to lead the next generation of quick-service food solutions across Indonesia and beyond.

Genesia Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on seed/early stage startups in Japan and Southeast Asia. Since it's inception in Dec 2016, Genesia Ventures has invested in over 90 companies in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the US. Genesia Ventures invests in various sectors: SaaS, marketplace, Media, Finance, Insurance,RealEstate, Healthcare, Medical, Travel, Education, Manufacturing, Construction, HR, Agriculture, Sports, Retail, Entertainment, etc.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Manabie — Manabie is an Education Technology start-up company on a mission to provide a new style of online & offline merged learning around the world. We provide students with everything they need for efficient learning; high-quality learning materials, great learning environments, personal coaches and more! We believe that our new method of learning,integrating online and offline will dramatically innovate the way students learn.
Mined — Mined is a marketplace that provides online lessons in various subjects for elementary school students. Mind develops and operation of education-related services.
Finovo — Finovo specializes in the research, development, operation, and maintenance of cutting-edge accounting and financial software solutions.

Cherubic Ventures is an early stage focused venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley and Greater China.

Investment focus

Software, Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Angel
United States, China, Taiwan

Portfolio highlights

Habitto — Habitto by SJ Mobile Labs is a new financial services venture focused on the Japanese market. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.
Bot Auto — Bot Auto develops and operates autonomous trucks for middle-mile freight.
Anzen — USDz is a stablecoin backed by a diversified RWA portfolio, allowing holders to mitigate volatility and earn rewards through all market cycles

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.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group primarily conducts commercial banking through the following financial services such as leasing, securities, consumer finance, system development, and data processing. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Banking, FinTech, Payments
Series A, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Axiata — As one of Asia's leading telecommunications groups, Axiata has grown into a Triple Core Business centred on digital telco, businesses and infrastructure.
BitFlyer — BitFlyer is a bitcoin exchange and marketplace that enables its customers to buy, sell, and spend bitcoins.
Kyash — Kyash is a fintech platform providing mobile banking services with full-stack banking technology currently offering digital wallet app. It has built proprietary full-stack banking infrastructure from the ground up to offer mobile-first consumer-facing digital wallets in Japan.The platform offers online payment and personal remittance apps underthe Kyash service name, and issues prepaid cards that can be used at Visa merchants. It also provides a new card that is available in three colors, navy, silver, and pink and adopts a simple design with card numbers and card names placed on the back. The first Visa card in Japan with an IC chip and contactless payment function that has no card number on the front side.Kyash was founded on January 23, 2015, and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Spiral Capital is a venture capital fund.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Internet
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Bloomo Securities — Bloomo Investment is a software company that specializes in the development of smart and fun investment apps.
HQ — Hq is a consutling firm that works in the area of personnel organization strategy, working style office strategy and software development.
Acompany — Acompany provides products and consulting development related to secret computing.

Voyage Ventures is the venture capital arm of Voyage Group specializing in seed and early-stage investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the internet and mobile internet industry. It invests from JPY1 million ($.01million) to JPY to 10 million ($.12 million) in its portfolio companies. The firm typically invests in Japan, China, and othergrowing Asian markets. Voyage Ventures, Inc., formerly known as EC Navi Ventures Company, was founded on March 25, 2011, and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Content
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, China, Germany

Portfolio highlights

pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
Bravesoft — bravesoft is a software company that operates events and in-house product for contract development and events. The company offering services such as UI / UX design, application consignment development service, appvisor push, and technical research service.
ventus Japan — ventus is an Media and Entertainment based company.ventus aiming to be an entertainment company that provides technology that all fans can enjoy.

Kobe University Capital is create new indstry academia cllabration and technology transfer models.

Investment focus

Apps, Health Care, Health Diagnostics
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Pittan — PITTAN is a health tech startup that focuses on the development of high-speed analytical equipment for use in the healthcare industry. The company's primary service is to analyze the internal status of an individual's body to promote beautiful and healthy skin. This is achieved through the application of analytical chemistry.PITTAN's services are designed to provide insights into the body's health, which can be used to inform personal care and wellness decisions.
TelaAxon — TelaAxon develops artificial intelligence technology for sustainable operations, enhancing human-AI coexistence, safety, and wellness.
Alpha Fusion — Alpha Fusion Inc. is a clinical-stage startup committed to transforming cancer treatment through the design and development of powerful and precise radiopharmaceuticals.

Arbor Ventures is a visionary fintech-focused VC, partnering with innovators to shape a smarter future.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Finance
Series A, Series B, Series C
United States, Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Lean Technologies — Lean provides the Data and Payments tools to empower MENA's next generation of financial products | Trusted by Etisalat, Hubpay, Lulu Finance, Binance, Sarwa and more.
Tabby — tabby provides consumers across the GCC with the flexibility to pay for their online and in-store purchases in interest-free installments. tabby helps over 2,000 leading retailers grow their sales.
Pagos Solutions — Get real-time payment data detecting issues, trends, and opportunities plus intelligent payment solutions for optimizing payment performance.

Kyokuto Securities is a Japanese financial company focusing on securities dealing and securities brokerage.

Investment focus

FinTech, InsurTech, Insurance
Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Habitto — Habitto by SJ Mobile Labs is a new financial services venture focused on the Japanese market. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.

After joining Mitsubishi Corporation, he studied at Harvard Business School. After graduating, he joined Globespan Capital Partners, an independent United States VC, and worked as a director of investment. He started LocationValue after the company's representative in Japan. Joined Google after selling the company to NTT DOCOMO. He served asDirector of Product Development for Google Maps and General Manager for Android. He left Google in February 2018 and started Smartround Co., Ltd. in May.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, SNS, Music
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Flyle — Flyle provides a cloud based platform for product management helping customers to improve productivity & creativity in product development.
Sustainable Lab — SusLab is a data bank that uses AI technology to support SDG and ESG development goals and investments.
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.

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.

digitally native finance

Investment focus

FinTech, Financial Services, Software
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, United Kingdom, France

Portfolio highlights

LiquidTrust — Confidently make and receive your business payments worldwide. Direct Pay for fast transactions across 229 countries, or Pay by Trust for enhanced protection against fraud and delays.
Burbank — Burbank's technology creates the most seamless customer experience by enabling authentication of users anytime, at any time, using the widely known "Tap and PIN." Burbank gives companies the ability to produce the remarkable.
SimpleClosure — The easiest and most trustworthy way to shut down your startup. Simplify your company dissolution process, saving time and money while getting everything done right.

DeNA provides a social game platform, social games, e-commerce, and other Web services for mobile devices and PCs. Its current flagship business is its mobile social games platform Mobage which offers first, second, and third-party games on multiple localized player networks worldwide.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Education, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Tané — Dubai/NYC/Tokyo-based crypto-focused investment research firm. Investing in the Future of Decentralization.
Buzzreach — Buzzreach is a Tokyo-based MedTech Company.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

DNX Ventues is an early stage VC firm focusing on B2B Startups that are shaping industries and transforming the way we live and work.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, SaaS
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, Canada

Portfolio highlights

Emium — Emium creates an infrastructure that will be a driving force in dental care and dental technology.
ElastixAI — ElastixAI is developing an AI inference platform designed to optimize how large language models are run.
NetRise — NetRise - firmware security, software bill of materials (SBOM), and deep risk visibility for manufacturers and asset owners alike.

SBI Investment supports the business development and growth of private venture companies through fund investment. It manages and manages venture capital funds under the management philosophy of becoming a leading company responsible for the creation and development of core industries in the 21st century as a "new industry creator".SBIInvestment has invested in a total of 986 companies in the past, of which 169 (17.1% of investment companies) have exited through IPO or M & A.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Zolve — Best neo bank in India offering international banking & financial services online. Apply for a US bank account, credit card & student education loan with Zolve!
Zerodoor HD — Zerodoor HD specializes in digital transformation in constructing industry.
TOKYO GameFi — TOKYO GameFi is a Web3 firm formed by a management team of developers and engineers with previous experience at CyberAgent.

Money Forward provides online personal accounting for individuals, allowing them to easily manage their daily expenses by integrating with their bank passbooks and credit purchase history with information scraped from their web bank and credit accounts. The service is also available for desktop, as well as iOS and Android platforms. The companyalso announced that it will launch a cloud-based accounting service for individual and corporate users, and it will also start publishing an online newsletter.

Investment focus

Software, Financial Services, Accounting
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, India, Vietnam

Portfolio highlights

Starley — Starley offers end-to-end development and implementation of artificial intelligence-related products.
Leading Mark — Leading Mark, a rising human resources startup in Japan. Leading Mark is branching out into mid-career and international hiring. It currently has a one-man team in China working to bring the top Japanese-speaking Chinese students to domestic companies. He also touts his startup’s focus on the average job seeker. “We want to make sure that the usersget the info that he or she needs the most,” he says. Large scale, legacy players can sometimes prioritize the needs of the hiring company, and their commission, over the needs of applicants themselves. This leads to frustration and short-circuited careers.
Mesh — Mesh enables safer, easier crypto transfers and payments from 300+ leading exchanges and wallets, all without leaving your platform

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.

We are engineers investing in engineers. With experienced mentors, MIRAISE supports you hands-if basis, for business model, financial planning and presentation. All founders of our potfolio automatically join MIRAISE online community that gives you the peer-learning opportunities with other founders. Join us updating the normal!

Investment focus

Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Consulting
Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States, Estonia

Portfolio highlights

XDeli — XDeli is a digital application that offers food delivery and meal subsidy service for corporate employees.
CareLink — CareLink is an app that connects people looking for one-time part-time work in nursing and welfare.
SUSHI TOP MARKETING — SUSHI TOP MARKETING is an IT company that offers marketing, NFT utilization, and consulting services.

ANOBAKA is a Tokyo-based venture capital firm with rich group resources to add value to seed-stage startups. ANOBAKA actively invests in and supports startups aiming to be a global leader in the innovative Internet business and promising to greatly grow up in the future. ANOBAKA's investment focuses on fledgling seed-stage startups. Inaddition to investment financing, ANOBAKA provides founders with a variety of business support such as development consulting by our engineers, sales support, and international marketing support.

Investment focus

Software, Content, Food and Beverage
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

hicrea — hicrea is an AI-powered SaaS platform for fashion companies.
Blackbox — Blackbox is an entertainment firm that is involved in businesses, including VTuber production, media mix, and live music events.
Josh Collaboration — Josh Collaboration is a software company that provides mailing, fax transmission, and partner management services.

Mizuho Bank is a commercial bank that began operation on July 1, 2013, with its headquarters in Tokyo in Japan. It offers corporate and investment banking services to major corporations, financial institutions, and public sector entities. It also provides current and ordinary, deposits at notice, time, and specified deposits, deposits for tax,nonresident deposits in yen, foreign currency deposits, negotiable time deposits and loans by bill, loans on a deed, and overdrafts as well as discounts for bank acceptances, commercial papers, and documentary bills. Moreover, it offers investment banking and custodial, syndication, bond administrative, real estate finance, acquisition finance and corporate restructuring, project, and asset finance services, settlement and asset management services. It operates as a subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Software
Debt Financing, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Sanu — SANU is a subscription service that offers a home in nature.
KG Motors — KG Motors is an automotive firm that manufactures electric vehicles that can be moved comfortably and safely by one person.
Credit Saison India — Credit Saison India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Saison Co. Ltd, a Japanese credit card/prepaid card issuer. Credit Saison India has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai.

SoftBank Group provides venture funding and strategic support to exceptional entrepreneurs building disruptive enduring businesses. They are a small team of experienced entrepreneurs and investors who take an "active" approach to helping their companies reach their full potential. They manage $600 million across three funds and investacross a company’s lifecycle, from early to growth stages. Through their close ties to a number of Asia’s leading mobile, internet and technology companies – including strategic partners SoftBank Corp, Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba Group – SoftBank Capital offers unique expertise to businesses seeking to address the Asian market. Since 1995, SoftBank Capital has partnered with internet pioneers such as Criteo, Gilt Groupe, OMGPOP (Zynga), betaworks, BuzzFeed, Buddy Media (Salesforce.com), Huffington Post (AOL), Associated Content (Yahoo!), Danger (Microsoft), Geocities (Yahoo!), E*Trade and Yahoo!.

Investment focus

Mobile, Software, Advertising
Series B, Series A, Funding Round
United States, India, China

Portfolio highlights

Birdie — Transform thousands of user feedback into insights with our Feedback Analytics Platform and take faster product decisions
Energy Vault — Energy Vault creates gravity and kinetic energy-based, long-duration energy storage solutions that are transforming the world's approach to energy storage.
Telexistence — TELEXISTENCE Inc. aims to be the systematic innovator of scale in robotics. Innovator means new stuff. And scale means big, systematic ways of looking things done in a way that’s reproducible.

"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.

PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund focuses on start-ups and projects that have machine intelligence, AI-related and robotics technology.

Investment focus

Human Resources, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, China, United States

Portfolio highlights

XDeli — XDeli is a digital application that offers food delivery and meal subsidy service for corporate employees.
Gatebox — It is a research laboratory beyond dimension" which is researching and developing to realize "a world where you can live with a character". Therefore, Gatebox Co., Ltd. refers to itself as "Gatebox Lab" and conducts research and development beyond dimension in the area of Akihabara day and night. Dreaming that day,coming to meet beyond dimension.
RoboTruck — RoboTruck develops autonomous driving technologies for huge trucks, as well as practical applications.

An investment that restructures the value and quality.Supplying big capital is not an essential value of our firm.We have a strong attitude to input and drive critical thinking behind a new startup.After the problem is clarified and solution become established in the world,people could not imagine the society without that solution.An investment that innovates this world.We will become a real partner to execute the strategy together.INVENTION OF THE ESSENCE ----we will keep on doing it.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Finance
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

10x — 10x provides One-stop service from meal planning to grocery shopping.
RightTouch — RightTouch is a media company that offers customer support with KARTE RightSupport, and media CS Mag for tailored solutions and insights.
Zolve — Best neo bank in India offering international banking & financial services online. Apply for a US bank account, credit card & student education loan with Zolve!

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

iiba — Iiba is a geospatial platform that specializes in providing location information related to child-rearing.
AiCAN — AiCAN provides system planning and development, data analysis, IT, and consulting services related to child welfare.
Asusola — Asusola engaged in the renewable energy power generation business

Venture Labo Investment is venture capital firm that provides financial supports to invested companies at each growth stage.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Internet, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series B, Seed
Japan, Indonesia, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

XDeli — XDeli is a digital application that offers food delivery and meal subsidy service for corporate employees.
Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.

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.

Monex Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan that finances seed and early stage investments in startup companies.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Degas — Degas develops solutions to improve the productivity of small-scale farmers in Africa.
pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
Hakki Africa — HAKKI AFRICA provides microfinance services for SMEs.

Global Brain Corporation is a venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed or early to pre-IPO startups. Global Brain has invested in 300+ startups from seed/early to pre-IPO startups and achieved 25 IPOs and 61 M&As as a result of providing hands-on support services and resources to its portfolio startups. Global Brain hasmanaged a pure investment fund as well as multiple corporate venture capital funds partnered together with tier 1 public companies of telecom, real estate development, financial service, beverages, agriculture food, logistics, and electronic devices.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

10x — 10x provides One-stop service from meal planning to grocery shopping.
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.
Japan Culture and Technology — Japan Culture and Technology assists artists and craftspeople in expanding their activities by providing IT support.

Komura Fujio

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.

DG Daiwa Ventures invests in start-up companies with next-generation technology and provides business development support. It is focused on blockchain, xR, AI, security, and BioHealth, as they are likely to be at the foundations of future businesses. In addition to the five core technologies, the fund will also focus on IoT technologies, whichoften overlap or serve as an application layer.

Investment focus

FinTech, Software, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Lens — Lens ocuses on supporting corporate activities related to governance, risk management, compliance (GRC), and security.
Zolve — Best neo bank in India offering international banking & financial services online. Apply for a US bank account, credit card & student education loan with Zolve!
Acompany — Acompany provides products and consulting development related to secret computing.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation offers a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital, and other credit-related businesses. The following lists the activities of SMBC, its subsidiaries, and affiliates in the various businesssegments.It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. As of the year 2009, SMBC was the second largest bank in Japan in terms of assets.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Finance, Energy
Debt Financing, Funding Round, Post-IPO Debt
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

CoreWeave — CoreWeave provides flexible compute services and products to empower innovators. The company provides GPU accelerated compute solutions to the CGI and machine learning industries. Backed by quality hardware and systems management infrastructure, CoreWeave is built to help clients scale and adapt to evolving compute requirements at industry leadingeconomics.
KG Motors — KG Motors is an automotive firm that manufactures electric vehicles that can be moved comfortably and safely by one person.
ACEN Australia — ACEN Australia develops renewable energy assets including several solar, wind, battery, and hydro projects across Australia.

KDDI Corporation is a Japanese telecommunications operator. It was created in 2000 through a merger of DDI, KDD and IDO and now employs over 15,000 people.The company provides a broad range of services, including fixed-line phone communication, mobile phone and web services, and Internet services. It also has a ownership stake in two Japanesecable television companies, Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) and Japan Cablenet (JCN). KDDI's mobile phone and web arm is branded as "au". The company is the current No. 2 in Japan's mobile communications market, trailing NTT DoCoMo and ahead of SoftBank.

Investment focus

Mobile, Software, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Yuime — Yuime is an HR consulting firm that offers agricultural staffing, contract farming, and recruitment services.
ATOMica — ATOMica is a co-working space and business management company for conference rooms, event venues, circles, and schools. The company uses coworking spaces as HUBs to provide services that maximize individuals' power. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including coworking space, shared office space, meetings, events, and web seminars. Itis also possible to use it only once. They plan and run local communities that bring together a diverse range of people, including students, workers, businesses, universities, and governments.
DeCurret — DeCurret is into Cryptocurrency Business.

We are spread out into global with our mission "Give people work that requires a person" through our freak'in technology.

Investment focus

SNS, Content, Finance
Series B, Series C, Funding Round
Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

VAZ — VAZ is a venture company that transforms everyday small changes into a better society together with YouTuber and other influential creators.
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.
91springboard — Explore 91Springboard, the best co-working company offering premium co-working spaces and shared office solutions. Whether you're a startup, freelancer, or team, enjoy flexible workspaces, modern amenities, and prime locations tailored to your needs.

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.

Recruit Strategic Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative startups from all around the world. It is a corporate venture capital arm of Recruit Holdings that seeks to invest in education and financial technology, digital healthcare, and infrastructure sectors. It was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services
Series A, Seed, Series B
United States, Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

Blacklane — Blacklane is the global chauffeur service that offers safety, sustainability, and stress-free travel. Since 2017, the company has been carbon-neutral, combining a five-star guest experience with care for the planet. The customers can book their travels using Blacklane’s mobile app or website.Blacklane was co-founded by Jens Wohltorf and FrankSteuer and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
Steady — Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income
ZenBusiness — Start a new business today for $0 or grow your existing business with the ZenBusiness platform. Get to your first dollar faster without the stress.

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.

Investors by industry

Artificial intelligence