Top 30 Photography Startup Investors in Japan in May 2025
A list of 30 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Photography startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Photography companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 30 Photography Startup Investors in Japan in May 2025
MSIVC is a venture capital firm that invests in Japanese and global startups scaling to IPO. It focuses on startups in verticals of Fintech, SaaS, Healthcare, AI, E-Commerce, Foodtech, and Environment etc.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Health Care
- Funding Round, Seed, 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.
- Tech Doctor — Tech Doctor is a health monitoring service which provides analysis and insights for self care reducing the need for health care workers.
- Gaudi Clinical — Gaudi Clinical is a health care firm that engages in regenerative medicine outsourcing and cell processing contract establishments.
Seiko Electric has contributed to society with the best products and services. They have continued to develop technologies that usher in new eras based on sound management and human resource development. They will work to develop new products and businesses using original information and control technology and contribute to the construction ofenvironmentally friendly, safe, and comfortable social infrastructure.
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Investment focus
- Photography, Digital Media, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- HMS — HMS develops AI smart camera that integrates image input and processing.
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.
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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.
Seiji Kurokoshi (黒越誠治) is an angel investor.
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Investment focus
- Sports, Travel, Fashion
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Myanmar
Portfolio highlights
- Ezay — Ezay provides a mobile platform that connects rural 'mom-and-pop' shops with B2B market place and provide financial and logistics services.
- CURBON — CURBON is a Japan's largest photo learning site for C2C,Provides learning content such as video lectures and photography classes, Lightroom presets, etc.
- Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
Monex Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan that finances seed and early stage investments in startup companies.
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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.
Darwin Venture Management is a venture capital firm headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, with offices in Hsinchu and the United States. Since our founding in 2009, we have managed eight funds, investing primarily in Series A/B, late-stage, and secondary funds. In 2022, we also launched an evergreen angel fund to enable more nimble bets onpromising early-stage teams, and especially those coming from Taiwan’s superb academic and research institutions. This exposure across stages and borders, coupled with the strong technical background of our team, is the source of Darwin’s differentiation. We recently launched our 8th fund Darjune.
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Investment focus
- Software, Manufacturing, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Taiwan, United States, Japan
Portfolio highlights
- KKday — KKday is an e-commerce travel platform that offers 10,000+ experiences around the world. It provides a wide breadth of experiences, including theme park tickets, cooking classes, multi-day tours, airport transfers, sim cards, and hidden sights off the beaten path. KKday was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in T'ai-pei, Taiwan.
- Ball Wave — Ballwave uses the ball SAW sensor based on a new principle as the core of the differentiating factor, and becomes the human eye and the nervous system, and invites it to the horizon of technology.
- EMobi — EMoBi is a transportation company that provides freight transport, and electric vehicle services with reservation facilities.
FGN ABBA Lab is an investment fund that mainly supports pre-seed to series A early stage startups.
In this FGN ABBA Lab fund, they will support startups with the idea of creating “things and things” that make the world exciting without limiting the genre, investment, training, and social implementation.
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Investment focus
- Software, Aerospace, Information Technology
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Funding Round
- Japan, Hong Kong
Portfolio highlights
- neuet — neuet develops and operates a smartphone application that offers bike-sharing services.
- HMS — HMS develops AI smart camera that integrates image input and processing.
- Sorano Me — Sorano Me is a content creation and media company that provides space related content, space data and consulting services.
We provide online services and English-speaking support, allowing you to make transactions anytime, anywhere.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Internet, Task Management
- Funding Round, Series A, Series C
- Japan, United Arab Emirates
Portfolio highlights
- TAQA — TAQA is a utilities and energy company that engages in power, water, and oil and gas operations. It is an international company listed in Abu Dhabi and operates in 11 countries across four continents.The company's interests lie in conventional and alternative power generation, water desalination, oil and gas exploration and production,pipelines, and gas storage. TAQA was founded in 2005 and operates in Canada, Ghana, India, Iraq, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- PeaceTecLab — PeaceTecLab is a CtoCsharing service, as its main business.
- Mirfa International Power & Water Company — Mirfa International Power & Water Company is a renewable energy startup that delivers power and water solutions. A combined-cycle gas turbine power plant, a modular reverse osmosis plant, and three multi-stage flash desalination units comprise the company's power and water plant. It has a gross installed power capacity of 1.7 gigatonnes(GW) and a gross water desalination capacity of 53 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD). It aims to deliver a futuristic power generating plant with a net power capacity of 1600 megawatts to address the country's power issues.
SG Incubation was born as an investment company for the formation of corporate venture capital (CVC), which invests in Kyushu's first startup company.Regardless of the stage of growth, the startup company that will be the investor will first value the “human nature” of the manager, determine whether it is a company that should support thefuture, and provide capital and management back up. The Seibu Gas Group will continue to aim for new business areas.
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Investment focus
- Software, Logistics, Information Technology
- Series A, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- HMS — HMS develops AI smart camera that integrates image input and processing.
- YeLL — YeLL is a company that help transform the organization by making the real sound of employees visible.
- Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.
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.
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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.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Health Care
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, Singapore
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.
- M&A Cloud — M & A is a Match Platform for Small & Medium Venture Companies
- NABLA Mobility — Solving the complexities involved in the "Operation of Fleets" of Mobility and support its evolution and decarbonization
Showa Leasing engages in the leasing of machine tools, construction machinery, medical equipment, and commercial equipment. The company was founded on April 2, 1969 and its headquarters are located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
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Investment focus
- Printing, Publishing, Photography
- Series A
- Japan
Norinchukin Capital is a private equity fund management firm.
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Investment focus
- B2B, Agriculture, Health Care
- Series A, Seed, Series B
- Japan, Germany, United Kingdom
Innovation Engine has been is promoting investment to create and grow promising business areas created from technology.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Health Care
- Funding Round, Series A, Series C
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Asilla — Asilla develops and provides AI specialized in image and video analysis. Its services, the Vehicle recognition AI, recognizes the manufacturer and model from the image of the vehicle. It also has a censorship service that detects inappropriate images that can not be released, including copyrights and obscene expressionsAsilla was founded in 2015and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
- Ranimaru — Ranimaru is pet service providing company that offers pet sitting, care of your pet dog in events, professional course about pet sitting.
- Drone Show Japan — Drone Show Japan company specializes in drone shows for events, aerial photography, and workshops.
Ryosuke Matsumoto is the Founder / CEO at Kankak. Ryosuke Matsumoto attended Chuo University.
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Investment focus
- Art, Reservations, Software
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- 6curry — 6curry is a brand that creates a new community around “curry”, one of the world's best Japanese foods. The concept is to mix many people and ideas like curry made by mixing various ingredients and spices. Original menu development, weekly events are held in the central kitchen, open only to members. We design and produce communication bornfrom food, such as event catering for over 500 people and communication proposals within the company.
- TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
- Vivid Garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.
QTnet is a telecommunication and internet service provider.
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Medical, Software
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- HMS — HMS develops AI smart camera that integrates image input and processing.
- Medmain — To create a world where medical services can be accessed with technology anywhere,anytime-As a supporting partner to medical practitioners throughout the world, Medmain develops and operates PidPort, an analytical system for pathological image diagnosis that makes use of Deep Learning, as well as Medteria, a specialized cloud-based service for medical students.
STRIVE focuses on investing in early-stage (Seed to Series A) internet and mobile companies. It seeks out companies in Japan, Southeast Asia, and India with top-notch management teams and strong market potential. It is not tied to strategic investments for GREE Inc. and leverages its pan-Asia expertise for guiding its portfolio in an engaged,hands-on role.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, E-Commerce
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, India, Indonesia
Portfolio highlights
- Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
- YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
- Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!
Light Up Ventures is an Investment firm.
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Investment focus
- Manufacturing, Market Research, Product Research
- Series B
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Cheiz — Cheiz is a travel and photo app that specializes in photography for foreign tourists occurring at overseas travel destinations.
- Nagasuna Mayu — Nagasuna Mayu is a manufacturing firm that also conduct research on their silk material.
QR Investment Operates as an investment firm.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, Finance, Pet
- Series B, Seed, Series E
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Gojo & Company — We are enabling financial inclusion for everyone by partnering with financial service providers.
- Upsider — - Vue - Nuxt.js - TypeScript - SCSS
- Spine Chronicle — Spine chronicle is a medical device manufacturing firm that specializes in developing orthopedic medical equipment.
Venture United is a provider of venture capital for entrepreneurs, especially for internet-related businesses.
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Investment focus
- Software, Travel, Content
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Zest — ZEST is an IT firm that offers consulting and management support services to its clients. It is based in Tokyo.
- FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
- Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.
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.
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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.
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.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Internet
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, China
Portfolio highlights
Sagin Capital & Consulting is the venture capital arm of The Bank of Saga.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Food and Beverage, Artificial Intelligence
- Funding Round, Series B, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
Kenji Endo - Director @ Japan Business Systems
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Investment focus
- Apps, Fitness, Internet
- Seed, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Pixta — Pixta company’s goal is to assist graphic professionals in the transfer, tracking and collaboration of digital media over the Internet. We build Internet “Cloud”-based applications that provide a great customer experience, easy-to-use, secure and reliable.To assist our customers in transferring large-files simply and securely across the Internet,we built PixtaSynapse. Using PixtaSynapse, the sender needs only a web-browser to send files. To make the service super-reliable, we built the servers and core-technology for our custom file processing pipeline. We then located those key-servers one-hop off the Internet backbone to reduce latency. Our core file pipeline is physically located in a secure Class A co-location facility. We have setup secure, automated, off-site backups to safeguard our customers data in case of a catastrophic emergency.
- HANOWA — HANAWA is a matching platform between freelance dental hygienists and dental clinics.
- Address Japan — ADDress is a provider of co-living spaces in both urban and rural areas, enabling people to live in a range of luxurious residences at fixed prices.
FFG Venture Business Partners is a large-scale enterprise that offers in traditional regional bank venture capital.
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Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence
- Funding Round, Series A, Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Oxxx — Oxxx is an e-commerce management agency that provides EC site management, planning, and sales of frozen home delivery infant food mogumo.
- aiESG — aiESG offers an AI platform that conducts ESG assessments of supply chains and facilitates an in-depth sustainability evaluation.
- Josan-shes — Josan shes is web start up that offers nursing service to women and babies.
Nippon Venture Capital ("NVCC"), established in 1996 as one of the few largest Japanese independent venture capital firms, is destined to undertake the unprecedented task of providing full-range venture capital services in cooperation with major Japanese business leaders and leading companies, which have supported and nurtured various newbusinesses on their own, as well as proactively developing new venture enterprises.
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Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Series A, Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Gecipe — Gecipe is a video service for e-sports players.
- Awarefy — Awarefy is a mental health tech startup that offers CBT-based apps to maximize well-being.
- Tech Doctor — Tech Doctor is a health monitoring service which provides analysis and insights for self care reducing the need for health care workers.
Gakken Plus is a publishing business offering a catalog of books and magazines.
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Investment focus
- Art, EdTech, Robotics
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- OurPhoto — OurPhoto is a service that matches clients and photographers. Professional and semi-professional shooting is surprisingly high quality and reasonable.
- MiRaY School — MiRaY School is an Education based company that service Gifte (! Kifte) is a service that offers a learning experience for the future of children and children.
- GranSky Studios — GranSky Studios makes good stories as well as animations which all ages can enjoy. GranSky Studios brings light of dream and hope to people worldwide through our production.
DIGISEARCH & ADVERTISING is a financial service based company.
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Investment focus
- Fashion, Marketing, E-Learning
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Fondi — fondi is a completely new English conversation communication service that allows you to live a virtual communal life with the world.
- CURBON — CURBON is a Japan's largest photo learning site for C2C,Provides learning content such as video lectures and photography classes, Lightroom presets, etc.
The Regional Economy Revitalization Support Organization supports small and medium-sized companies.
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Investment focus
- Photography, Digital Media, Artificial Intelligence
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- HMS — HMS develops AI smart camera that integrates image input and processing.
HED is an investment firm.
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Investment focus
- Drones, Events, Electronics
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Drone Show Japan — Drone Show Japan company specializes in drone shows for events, aerial photography, and workshops.
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