500 Startups Japan
VC Fund
San Francisco, United States
500 Startups Japan is a VC fund in San Francisco focused on Internet and Software. 500 Startups is the most active seed VC in the world. 500 Startups Japan is a $35M regional fund focusing on Japan.
- Total investments:
- 48
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 25%
- Fund size:
- $35M
- Last fund:
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries 500 Startups Japan invests in
Stages 500 Startups Japan invests in
Countries 500 Startups Japan invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Round size
- Seed
- $275k–$4.3M
- Series A
- $3.6M–$30M
- Venture - Series Unknown
- $91k–$1.6M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Internet 8 (17%)
- Software 5 (10%)
- Task Management 4 (8%)
- Internet of Things 4 (8%)
- SaaS 3 (6%)
Stage
- Seed 20 (42%)
- Series A 9 (19%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 5 (10%)
- Series B 2 (4%)
- Funding Round 1 (2%)
Country
- Japan 30 (63%)
- United States 1 (2%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
James Riney
Head
|
Head | Total investments: 35 | Find email | |
Yohei Sawayama
Managing Partner
|
Managing Partner | Total investments: 10 | Find email |
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noin specializes in cosmetics and delivers content that accurately captures trends like videos that solve girls worries. | $7.4M / Series B / Jul 07, 2019 | ||
| Connected Robotics is an information technology company that designs and manufactures robotic arms for enterprises. The company's product, OctoChef, provides cooking services. It caters to individual restaurants, shopping malls, stations, service areas, amusement centers, and large-scale events. The company was founded in 2014 and is basedin Koganei-shi, Japan. | $7.9M / Series A / Jul 05, 2019 | ||
| GITAI is the world’s leading space robotics startup, aiming to provide safe and affordable means of labor in space and reduce operational costs by 100 times. GITAI is developing highly capable, safe, and reliable robots to help build and maintain satellites, space stations, lunar bases, and cities on Mars. | $4.1M / Series A / Jun 14, 2019 | ||
| Trustdock is a platform for identity confirmation API service in Japan. You can outsource KYC / identity confirmation via online API, complying with various laws including criminal profit transfer prevention law, antique sales law, cell phone fraud prevention use law etc. It can be used with any ID service regardless of business type, such asmatching to FinTech, shared eco, etc. | Seed / May 15, 2019 | ||
| sumutasu is an online real estate marketplace that enables users to quickly buy and sell their properties. | Seed / Mar 25, 2019 | ||
| Graffer is a citizens' movement in the form of a start-up that brings the future to life. Graffer is to create a free and open social infrastructure that solves the various challenges of the traditional government system and enables individuals and businesses to take action smoothly. | $1.6M / Venture - Series Unknown / Jan 21, 2019 | ||
| Koska is a service that automates highly accurate cost calculation without trouble in the IoT system. | $275.1K / Seed / Jan 16, 2019 | ||
| hokan is developing an InsurTech service called "hokan" which is CRM/SFA SaaS service for insurance agents. | $1.3M / Seed / Jan 15, 2019 | ||
| Shippio is a service that enables a wide range of collective international logistics arrangements and management solutions via web.The platform features full-service export and import solutions for various international transportation needs; a special dashboard designated for import and export business, shipment, cost analysis, and invoicemanagement; and documentation support. | $1.7M / Seed / Dec 03, 2018 | ||
| Holmesis a cloud contract system to consistently carry out the creation, conclusion and management of contracts in the cloud. | $4.6M / Series A / Nov 01, 2018 | ||
| See all 48 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
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FAQ
What does 500 Startups Japan invest in?
500 Startups Japan invests primarily in Internet, Software and Task Management startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 48 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Japan. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does 500 Startups Japan invest in?
500 Startups Japan typically joins rounds of $275k–$4.3M at Seed, $3.6M–$30M at Series A and $91k–$1.6M at Venture - Series Unknown. These are whole funding-round sizes, not 500 Startups Japan's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds 500 Startups Japan took part in.
How do I contact 500 Startups Japan?
Public channels for 500 Startups Japan include X (Twitter), the website linked on this profile and Facebook. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
Who are the partners at 500 Startups Japan?
The team at 500 Startups Japan includes James Riney (Head) and Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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