# Shogakukan

> Shogakukan is a VC fund in Tokyo backing Information Technology and Media and Entertainment. See 14 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Total investments: 14
- Last investment: May 2025
- Lead investor: 29%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- Website: https://www.shogakukan.co.jp/

Shogakukan is a VC fund in Tokyo focused on Information Technology and Media and Entertainment. Shogakukan Inc. is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Information Technology | 4 | 29% |
| Media and Entertainment | 4 | 29% |
| Video | 3 | 21% |
| Content | 3 | 21% |
| Virtual Reality | 3 | 21% |

40 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series C | 3 | 21% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 3 | 21% |
| Seed | 2 | 14% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 14% |
| Corporate Round | 2 | 14% |

6 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Japan | 11 | 79% |
| United States | 1 | 7% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gaudiy | Gaudiy is involved in a fan-economy business based on blockchain technology. Gaudiy's product, Gaudiy Fanlink, is a Web3-era fan platform that maximizes fan heat by utilizing blockchain technology such as NFT and DID (distributed ID). Gaudiy offers an IP community system, that has the ability to record and accumulate cross-sectional fanactivity data and build an ecosystem that accurately evaluates and returns fan contributions and enthusiasm. | $68.5M | Series C | May 08, 2025 |  |
| Mantra | MANTRA is a developer of machine translation technology. | $4.9M | Venture - Series Unknown | Jun 26, 2024 |  |
| Orange | Orange is a developer of a variety of deep-learning models with a focus on computer vision and natural language processing for comics. | $19M | Seed | May 06, 2024 |  |
| Pretia Technologies | Pretia is a Internet service planning, development and operation business. | $5.3M | Venture - Series Unknown | Aug 04, 2022 |  |
| Plott | Plott producing youtube animation platform under Vision “Become a Content holder from YouTube”. In August 2019, the company name was changed from Fabo to Plott. Plott, the new company name, is derived from the plot that you make before writing novels, etc., and the idea that “I want to make content all the time” is put in the company name. | $56.7M |  | May 12, 2021 |  |
| Plott | Plott producing youtube animation platform under Vision “Become a Content holder from YouTube”. In August 2019, the company name was changed from Fabo to Plott. Plott, the new company name, is derived from the plot that you make before writing novels, etc., and the idea that “I want to make content all the time” is put in the company name. | $3.6M | Seed | May 12, 2021 |  |
| MyAnimeList | MyAnimeList is a social network for anime and manga fans. It provides users a customizable 'listing' feature to show other users what anime or manga they have watched or read. Users can read anime and manga reviews and connect to other users who read and watch the same things as they do. It also offers a database with anime, manga, andperson information. | $5.7M | Corporate Round | Feb 17, 2021 |  |
| Pretia Technologies | Pretia is a Internet service planning, development and operation business. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Dec 24, 2020 |  |
| Wonderfy | Wonderfy is a company that develops and operates educational materials and content for children. Wonderfy taps into children's natural intellectual curiosity all over the world. | $2.4M | Venture - Series Unknown | Jul 29, 2020 |  |
| LATEGRA | LATEGRA is a production technology company. |  | Corporate Round | Jul 17, 2020 |  |

10 of 14 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [ANRI](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/anri) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [SBI Investment](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sbi-investment-2) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Shueisha](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shueisha) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [DIMENSION](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dimension-0ef6) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [GFR Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gfr-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Hakuhodo DY Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hakuodo-dy-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Sequoia Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sequoia-capital) — VC Fund
- [New Enterprise Associates](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/new-enterprise-associates) — VC Fund
- [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bessemer-venture-partners) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Shogakukan invest in?

Shogakukan invests primarily in Information Technology, Media and Entertainment and Video startups, most often at Series C and Venture - Series Unknown stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Japan. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Shogakukan last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Shogakukan closed in May 2025. Shizune tracks 14 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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