# Sony Innovation Fund

> Sony Innovation Fund is a VC fund backing Artificial Intelligence. See 209 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Total investments: 209
- Last investment: Aug 2026
- Lead investor: 18%
- Fund size: $185M
- Last fund: Jul 2019
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11150431/
- Website: http://www.sonyinnovationfund.com/

Sony Innovation Fund is a VC fund in Tokyo focused on Artificial Intelligence and Software. Sony Innovation Fund is the corporate venture capital arm of Sony that invests and engages in early-stage companies. Beyond investment, our mission is to provide resources such as access to the broader Sony world and its global network, as well as collaborate with startups to: • Foster business creation in related lines of business and new areasof interest to Sony • Catalyze a talented and passionate team Sony innovation Fund was founded in 2016.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Sony Innovation Fund. Shizune tracks 7 team members at Sony Innovation Fund. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/sony-innovation-fund?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $1.5M–$50M |
| Series B | $6.9M–$53M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Artificial Intelligence | 29 | 14% |
| Software | 27 | 13% |
| Health Care | 21 | 10% |
| Information Technology | 17 | 8% |
| Machine Learning | 15 | 7% |

214 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 41 | 20% |
| Funding Round | 41 | 20% |
| Series B | 40 | 19% |
| Seed | 25 | 12% |
| Series C | 12 | 6% |

11 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 48 | 23% |
| Japan | 45 | 22% |
| United Kingdom | 14 | 7% |
| India | 7 | 3% |
| Germany | 4 | 2% |

20 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Antonio Avitabile | Managing Director | 12 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antonio-avitabile-cf13 |
| Austin Noronha | Managing Director | 10 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/austin-noronha |
| Ludovic Copéré | Senior Director, Sony Innovation Fund | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ludovic-cop%C3%A9r%C3%A9 |
| Moto Tsuchikawa | Chief Investment Manager | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/moto-tsuchikawa |
| Roy Meirom | Investment Director | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/roy-meirom |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FLASH | FLASH is an entertainment and technology startup. | $8.2M | Seed | Aug 05, 2026 |  |
| Yellow Card | Yellow Card is the easiest and most convenient way to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—no bank account required. | $40M | Venture - Series Unknown | Aug 04, 2026 |  |
| Kotoba Technologies | Kotoba Technologies develops and supports technology tailored to business fields and applications. It supports the implementation of language models into corporate applications by communicating closely with companies in Japanese to accurately understand the needs and actual situation of each company, and then provide optimal technical support.++ | $10M | Seed | Jun 24, 2026 |  |
| 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 |  |
| WeRize | * At WeRize, we are creating a new category in Indian financial services space. We are building, India’s first socially distributed full stack financial services platform for families in small town India. The financial needs of these customers have been largely ignored by traditional players and even fintechs who primarily focus on millennials inurban India* WeRize is a full-stack provider, both manufacturing and distributing a wide portfolio of customized credit, group insurance, and savings products for 100Mn lower-middle-class families and 300Mn individuals spread across the 4000+ towns . This $200 Billion annual market expects a very different product set as well as distribution model which traditional private banks, insurers, and mutual fund companies are unable to provide. The economics of these products as well as operating in small cities for traditional companies is unfeasible due to their high-cost branch-based distribution model.* Families living in small towns across India require high touch sales/after-sales service which can only be profitably provided using a social distribution model. The entire Indian fintech ecosystem is geared towards building do-it-yourself (DIY) apps that help customers choose the right financial products for themselves. However, this approach doesn’t work for small-town Indian families as there is a huge trust deficit about non-government financial products. Using the “Social Shopify of Finance” Tech platform, WeRize has enabled thousands of financially literate and digitally savvy freelancers in 1000+ cities to sell its financial products in their social circle. This solves both the trust issue as well as provides high-touch sales and after-sales services these customers need. The technology platform provided to these partners enables them to source business online and offline, recommend the right product to their customers as well as provide after-sales support. | $7M | Series C | Jun 04, 2026 |  |
| Midnight Labs | Midnight Labs is an enterprise-grade, artificial intelligence-driven brand protection platform engineered to safeguard digital assets, intellectual property (IP), and corporate reputations. |  | Seed | Jun 04, 2026 |  |
| CREW Carbon | CREW Carbon specializes in removing greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater using engineered enhanced weathering. The company's technology leverages the natural power of minerals to treat municipal and industrial wastewater, permanently storing CO2. CREW Carbon operates within the environmental services industry and focuses on GHG managementand carbon removal. The company aims to make a positive impact on the planet through innovative climate tech solutions. | $19M | Series A | May 14, 2026 |  |
| Solidroad | Solidroad is an innovative AI-powered platform dedicated to revolutionizing hiring, onboarding, and training for enterprises and its a training tool for sales teams. | $25M | Series A | Apr 16, 2026 |  |
| LENZO | They are system architects and builders, committed to engineering high-performance, energy-efficient hardware for a new generation of workloads. They hold great expectations that Japan-based LENZO will drive a game-changing breakthrough with its innovative semiconductors and establish a strong presence on the global stage. Their proprietary CGLAarchitecture delivers breakthrough performance per watt in a compact, cost-effective form. | $3.2M | Seed | Mar 11, 2026 |  |
| Minit Games | Minit Games provides bite-sized, instantly playable HTML5 games in a tailored, algorithmically driven feed. | $2M | Pre-Seed | Mar 02, 2026 |  |

10 of 209 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Global Brain Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/global-brain-corporation) — VC Fund, 16 deals together
- [SMBC Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/smbc-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [Mitsubishi UFJ Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mitsubishi-ufj-capital) — VC Fund, 11 deals together
- [SBI Investment](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sbi-investment-2) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [BITKRAFT Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bitkraft-ventures) — VC Fund, 9 deals together
- [Dentsu Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dentsu-ventures) — VC Fund, 8 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Sony Innovation Fund invest in?

Sony Innovation Fund invests primarily in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Health Care startups, most often at Series A and Funding Round stage. Most of the 209 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 Sony Innovation Fund's check size?

Sony Innovation Fund typically joins rounds of $1.5M–$50M at Series A and $6.9M–$53M 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 Sony Innovation Fund participates in.

### How do I contact Sony Innovation Fund?

Public channels for Sony Innovation Fund 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 Sony Innovation Fund?

The team at Sony Innovation Fund includes Antonio Avitabile (Managing Director), Austin Noronha (Managing Director) and Ludovic Copéré (Senior Director, Sony Innovation Fund), among 7 team members tracked by Shizune. 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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