James Riney
Founding Partner & CEO @ Coral Capital
Tokyo, Japan
James Riney is a seed investor at Coral Capital in Tokyo focused on Software and SaaS. James Riney is the Founding Partner and CEO of Coral Capital and a Partner a t500 Startups. Prior to launching Coral Capital, James was a co-founder and head of 500 Startups Japan. With about $100m under management, he’s been a seed investor in over 40 companies. He is also a Board Director at SmartHR, where he was an early investor and led their~$14m Series B. Prior to 500 Startups, James covered early-stage investments for DeNA’s venture arm, focusing on Silicon Valley and Asia. He has listed on the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list for Finance and Venture Capital in 2016.Before investing, he was the founding CEO of ResuPress (now Coincheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan), and the creator of STORYS.JP, the “Medium.com of Japan.” In another life, he worked at J.P. Morgan in New York and Tokyo. He grew up in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese.James attended Penn State University and The American School in Japan.
- Total investments:
- 30
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 23%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries James Riney invests in
Stages James Riney invests in
Countries James Riney invests in
Round sizes
Round size
- Seed
- $940k–$21M
- Series A
- $2.7M–$99M
- Series B
- $3.3M–$213M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 6 (20%)
- SaaS 5 (17%)
- Information Technology 5 (17%)
- Human Resources 3 (10%)
- Cloud Data Services 3 (10%)
Stage
- Seed 10 (33%)
- Series B 7 (23%)
- Series A 6 (20%)
- Series C 1 (3%)
- Series D 1 (3%)
Country
- Japan 18 (60%)
- United States 2 (7%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Oceanic Constellations, Inc
|
Oceanic Constellations empowers ocean visualization with a network of autonomous surface drones and advanced marine monitoring technology. | $13.1M / Series B / Feb 12, 2026 | |
SmartHR
|
SmartHR provides a cloud-native human resources management platform that offers a suite of tech-enabled human resources management solutions, focusing on employee management and administration, growth, talent management, and employee productivity. Through its comprehensive range of solutions, SmartHR serves a diversified spectrum of businessesincluding large enterprises and SMEs. | $96M / Secondary Market / Nov 18, 2025 | |
IVRy
|
Ivry offers cloud based telephonic answering service. | $26.2M / Series D / Nov 06, 2025 | |
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. | $3.3M / Series B / Feb 27, 2025 | |
HQ
|
HQ offers next-generation employee benefits platform. | $13.1M / Series B / Dec 12, 2024 | |
HQ
|
Hq is a consutling firm that works in the area of personnel organization strategy, working style office strategy and software development. | Series B / Dec 12, 2024 | |
STRACT
|
STRACT is a web platform that provides online platform, dating app, knowledge sharing cloud platform, and casual entertainment services. | $6.6M / Series A / Nov 20, 2024 | |
Nstock
|
Nstock is specialized in developing SAAS based applications for ecosystem. | $21M / Seed / Sep 09, 2024 | |
PartnerSuccess
|
PartnerSuccess develops and provides SaaS tools that automate the collaboration between manufacturers and distributors. | $2.7M / Series A / Sep 02, 2024 | |
MOV
|
MOV is a technology platform. They offer SaaS for stores that can collectively manage word-of-mouth sites and visualize and analyze customer feedback. It distributes inbound market data, news, and know-how to domestic companies. Their services include inbound support and consulting. | $9.6M / Series B / May 21, 2024 | |
| See all 30 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Coral Capital
Coral Capital is a seed stage venture capital firm in Japan.
Coral Capital Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
James Riney
Founding Partner & CEO
|
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Yohei Sawayama
Founding Partner
|
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Kiyoshi Seko
Investment Manager
|
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Miyako Yoshizawa
Senior Associate
|
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1 more contact available
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FAQ
What does James Riney invest in?
James Riney invests primarily in Software, SaaS and Information Technology startups, most often at Seed and Series B stage. Most of the 30 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Japan. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is James Riney's check size?
James Riney typically joins rounds of $940k–$21M at Seed, $2.7M–$99M at Series A and $3.3M–$213M 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 James Riney participates in.
When did James Riney last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for James Riney closed in Feb 2026. Shizune tracks 30 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
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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