# Dentsu Ventures

> Dentsu Ventures is a VC fund backing Software and Artificial Intelligence. See 62 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Total investments: 62
- Last investment: Jun 2026
- Lead investor: 11%
- Last fund: Mar 2023
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dentsu-ventures
- Website: http://dentsu-v.com/

Dentsu Ventures is a VC fund in Tokyo focused on Software and Artificial Intelligence. Dentsu Ventures is the corporate venture capital fund of Dentsu. It specializes in seed, early, mid and later-stage investments. It prefers to invest in the marketing and communication business sectors in the United States of America, Europe, and Asia.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Dentsu Ventures. Shizune tracks 5 team members at Dentsu Ventures. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/dentsu-ventures?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $1.9M–$56M |
| Series B | $11M–$300M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 11 | 18% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 10 | 16% |
| Machine Learning | 8 | 13% |
| Virtual Reality | 6 | 10% |
| Information Technology | 6 | 10% |

125 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 19 | 31% |
| Series A | 16 | 26% |
| Funding Round | 10 | 16% |
| Series C | 6 | 10% |
| Seed | 5 | 8% |

7 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 24 | 39% |
| Japan | 23 | 37% |
| India | 1 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 2% |
| Singapore | 1 | 2% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Daiji Horibe | General Partner | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/daiji-horibe |
| Daisuke Takemori | General Partner | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/daisuke-takemori |
| Katsuyuki Hasegawa | General Partner | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/katsuyuki-kevin-hasegawa |
| Kotaro Sasamoto | Managing Partner & Co-founder | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kotaro-sasamoto |
| Yu Hirayama | General Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/yu-hirayama |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Yoyogi Animation Academy | Yoyogi Animation Academy is a Japanese vocational‑style education company that operates Yoyogi Animation Academy, one of Japan’s largest and oldest specialized schools for animation, manga, voice acting, and game design.The academy offers practical, industry‑oriented programs in fields such as animator training, background art, illustration, manga,voice‑acting (seiyuu), and digital content creation, mainly at campuses in major cities like Tokyo and Osaka. | $17.9M |  | Jun 22, 2026 |  |
| Astrocade | Astrocade AI is an AI-powered social gaming platform that allows anybody to create games and interactive experiences. | $56M | Series B | May 05, 2026 |  |
| Astrocade | Astrocade AI is an AI-powered social gaming platform that allows anybody to create games and interactive experiences. |  | Series A | May 05, 2026 |  |
| CULTA | CULTA uses technology to increase the efficiency and speed of breeding and improve productivity and profitability in agriculture. | $4.5M | Seed | Mar 02, 2026 |  |
| Fiddler Labs | Fiddler’s mission is to allow businesses of all sizes to unlock the AI black box and deliver transparent AI experiences to end-users. We enable businesses to build, deploy, and maintain trustworthy AI solutions. Fiddler’s next-generation ML Model Performance Management platform empowers data science and AI/ML teams to validate, monitor,explain, and analyze their AI solutions to accelerate AI adoption, meet regulatory compliance, and build trust with end-users. The platform provides complete visibility and understanding of AI solutions to customers. Fiddler works with pioneering Fortune 500 companies as well as emerging tech companies. | $30M | Series C | Jan 27, 2026 |  |
| Forest | Forest Co., Ltd. operates as an e-commerce aggregator, seeks to identify sustainable, high-quality products and brands that embrace the spirit of Japan and help them grow and enter the global market by using the power of technology. | $27.3M | Series B | Oct 06, 2025 |  |
| Metagen Therapeutics | Metagen Therapeutics (MGTx) is a clinical-stage company operating Japan’s first GMP-compliant manufacturing platform for fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) therapies. The company combines proprietary paired metagenomic datasets with AI/ML-driven donor-recipient matching to advance precision microbiome medicine across ulcerative colitis,immuno-oncology, and neurodegenerative disease. Headquartered in Tsuruoka, Japan, MGTx leverages a cross-border regulatory strategy spanning PMDA and FDA pathways, positioning it as a platform bridging Japanese clinical innovation with global market access. | $15.7M | Series B | Sep 08, 2025 |  |
| Kognitos | Kognitos is in stealth mode. | $25M | Series B | Jun 24, 2025 |  |
| Utaite | Utaite is an operator of an entertainment platform that focuses on planning, production, and development of entertainment content. | $51.9M | Series B | May 12, 2025 |  |
| Emole | Emole is a platform that connects content creators with viewers through short drama content, offering a variety of engaging stories. | $5.7M | Series A | Mar 28, 2025 |  |

10 of 62 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Lightspeed Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lightspeed-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [SMBC Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/smbc-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 8 deals together
- [Sony Innovation Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sony-innovation-fund) — VC Fund, 8 deals together
- [Mitsubishi UFJ Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mitsubishi-ufj-capital) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [LG Technology Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lg-technology-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [SBI Investment](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sbi-investment-2) — VC Fund, 5 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Dentsu Ventures invest in?

Dentsu Ventures invests primarily in Software, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning startups, most often at Series B and Series A stage. Most of the 62 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Dentsu Ventures's check size?

Dentsu Ventures typically joins rounds of $1.9M–$56M at Series A and $11M–$300M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Dentsu Ventures participates in.

### How do I contact Dentsu Ventures?

Public channels for Dentsu Ventures include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. 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 Dentsu Ventures?

The team at Dentsu Ventures includes Daiji Horibe (General Partner), Daisuke Takemori (General Partner) and Katsuyuki Hasegawa (General 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 Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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