Top 20 Publishing Startup Investors in Japan in February 2025
A list of 20 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Publishing startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Publishing companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 20 Publishing Startup Investors in Japan in February 2025
Investor | Publishing Japan investments |
---|---|
Drone Fund | 2 |
IT-Farm | 2 |
Fuji Startup Ventures | 1 |
Kazuhiro Ishikura | 1 |
Iyogin Capital | 1 |
Showa Leasing | 1 |
Himegin Lease | 1 |
NOW Japan | 1 |
Mizuho Capital | 1 |
Nextblue | 1 |
Vector | 1 |
Shinsei Bank | 1 |
Nippon Venture Capital | 1 |
Shoko Chukin Bank | 1 |
Future Venture Capital | 1 |
STRIVE | 1 |
Kiyoshi Nishikawa | 1 |
F Ventures | 1 |
CBC Group | 1 |
Tsuneishi Capital Partners | 1 |
Drone Fund is a venture capital firm that provides supports in IP strategy, innovative planning, and drone policy. It offers capital investment and financing and aims to create a Drone Ecosystem where LPs and startups can benefit from membership within the Drone Fund.
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Investment focus
- Drones, Robotics, Aerospace
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, United States, Canada
Portfolio highlights
- LOMBY — LOMBY is a logistic firm that delivers orders through its robotic machines.
- Eight Knot — Eight Knot designs and develops autonomous navigation system for water mobility using robotics & AI.
- Proxima Technology — Proxima Technology is an IT company that provides artificial intelligence and deep learning solutions for the manufacturing industry.
IT-Farm is a venture capital firm which specializes in seed, start-up, and early stage companies. It primarily invests in mobile, big-data, connected car, IoT, OTT service, Helth care, Bio Tech and other IT industries. The firm actively invests in SF bay area and Japan, as well as other geometries including Asia and Europe. We support portfoliocompanies, especially on the partnership with Japanese enterprises.
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Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, Medical
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Japan, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- EMobi — EMoBi is a transportation company that provides freight transport, and electric vehicle services with reservation facilities.
- EV Motors Japan — EV Motors Japan provides sales and services for commercial vehicles in the automotive industry.
- Honeycomb — Honeycomb (fka Agilius) is the only place where you can buy a condo/apartment building master policy online in less than 3 minutes at a fraction of the cost! Instant, free, no hassle quotes, online everything and up to 40% savings. With all that we're bringing simplicity and transparency to the real estate insurance space for condoassociations (HOAs), building owners, property managers, and developers everywhere. This is what we do. This is all we do.
Fuji Startup Ventures, the venture capital arm of Fuji Media Holdings, specializes in startup to early stage investments.
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Investment focus
- E-Commerce, Social Media, News
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, China, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Tasogare — Tasogare distributes high-quality coffee.
- The ROOM4D — The ROOM4D is a contract data analysis consulting service company.
- PeaceTecLab — PeaceTecLab is a CtoCsharing service, as its main business.
Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.
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Investment focus
- Beauty, Content, Fashion
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
- WARC Japan — WARC provides hands-on support for business management departments as well as mergers and acquisition advisory services.
- Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.
Iyogin Capital is an investment firm that supports venture companies.
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Investment focus
- Task Management, Information Technology, Manufacturing
- Funding Round, Series B, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Diver-X — Diver-X is a provider of revolutionary virtual reality experience through its products.
- ZABoooN — ZABoooN is a shipping company that offers crew labor management, movement management, and ship management services.
- Optieum Biotechnologies — Optieum Biotechnologies Inc. is a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company committed to developing innovative scFv antibody-based therapies for the treatment of patients with cancers. Their proprietary platform technology, Eumbody System™, enables to develop and detect a scFv-based product candidates that specifically bind to, and modulate tooptimize the immune-cell function for oncology targets.We are committed to helping patients with severe diseases by bringing life-changing therapies to the patients in need.
Showa Leasing engages in the leasing of machine tools, construction machinery, medical equipment, and commercial equipment. The company was founded on April 2, 1969 and its headquarters are located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo.
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Investment focus
- Printing, Publishing, Photography
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- CAMELOVE — Cameloveis a Camera equipment rental subscription service.
Himegin Lease engages in venture capital business and centering on leasing business of machinery and equipment.
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Investment focus
- Drones, Content, Robotics
- Seed, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- KAMOMEYA — Kamomeya is an island and live because of inconvenience in transportation and transportation.
- Setsuro Tech — Seturotech Co., Ltd. is a biotechnology venture company established on February 22, 2017 by Tatsuya Takemoto (PI: Principal Investigator) of the University of Tokushima as a venture from Tokushima University. In 2015, Takemoto and Masakazu Hashimoto (Osaka University) developed a simple and highly efficient method for producing genetically modified(genome-edited) mice using CRISPR / Cas9, and filed a patent application for the technology. The technology is called fertilized egg electroporation (GEEP method), a technology that introduces molecules required for genome editing by CRISPR into fertilized eggs at high throughput by the power of electricity (electroporation). Using this technology, Seturotech will start from the production and sale of genetically modified mice, and will become a fundamental company providing all genetically modified animals, anticipating the future use of genetically modified animals in industry.
Next One for the World.
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Investment focus
- Content, Marketing, Software
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Aracan — Aracan is an e-commerce business that provides online and offline car-sharing services for vehicles.
- GEOFLA — Geofra develops Planning and creation of items that rejuvenate the movement of people in physical areas, regional revitalization initiatives
- HIGHRESO — GPUSOROBAN is a GPU cloud service that enables anyone to perform high-speed calculations on high-end GPUs with ease. Hi-Res, the running business, is the first GPU cloud operator in Japan to be accredited as a "NVIDIA Elite Partner," the program's highest level (CSP Compute field). Furthermore, it received the "Best CSP Partnerof the Year" award at the NVIDIA NPN Partner Award 2022. It is widely used by university research institutes, large corporations, and AI venture firms, with over 100 uses per year.
Mizuho is the venture capital firm affiliated to Mizuho Bank, the second-largest Japanese bank in terms of assets. The firm has headquarters in Tokyo.The firm has ¥49.6 billion JPY under management, focusing on information technology and biotechnology investments. Over 600 Mizuho companies have gone public. According to Nikkei, Mizuho is thefifth-largest venture capital firm in Japan.Mizuho Capital was formed in 2002 by the merger of Fujigin Capital, Tokyo Venture Capital and IBJ Investment. Three firms were subsidiaries of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan respectively.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Internet
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, China
Portfolio highlights
- Torihada — Torihada is a creative firm specializing in influencer marketing, creating content, and digital marketing.
- MOSH Japan — MOSH is a web page creation services for individual business owners.
- Gaudi Clinical — Gaudi Clinical is a health care firm that engages in regenerative medicine outsourcing and cell processing contract establishments.
Nextblue is an early-stage focused VC based in Japan deploying in Japan, EU, and the US. NB fund II is investing in pre-seed, seed and pre-A startups in healthtech, femtech, or female-led startups innovating in the fields of fintech, consumer, and B2B SaaS. We also run our own co-working space in the heart of Tokyo called Nexthub (nexthub.jp)
EUand US startups: Reach out to Vincent at Vincent@nextblue.com
Japan: Kanako at Kanako@nextblue.com
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Apps
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Japan, United Kingdom, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Exactly.ai — Advanced AI artwork creation platform for artists that understands your style, creates inspiring images and streamlines your creative process
- SecureNavi — SecureNavi offers automation tools for the information security management system. It reduces conventional analogue operations using excel and word. For inquiries, telephone numbers and physical addresses are available on their website.
- Fixed Construction — Fixed Construction For Workers
Vector is a Japan-based PR agency that provides PR planning and implementation services for its clients. The agency also offers other services covering areas such as management, finance, accounting, human resources, administration, internal controls, and audits.
Vector was founded in 1993.
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Investment focus
- Software, Marketing, Media and Entertainment
- Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- bythen — bythen enables the production of autonomous 3D avatar bots powered by AI.
- Wewill — Wewill is a consulting company that provides accounting, SaaS, business development, and business consulting services.
- Aplaca.Lab — Aplaca.Lab is a driver substitution platform that provides an unprecedented new driving experience. They released a driving agency application for providing comfortable driving experiences. It enables driving agencies to optimize their resources and clients' safety, prevent accidents, and receive assistance in areas with limited transportationoptions.
We provide online services and English-speaking support, allowing you to make transactions anytime, anywhere.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Internet, Task Management
- Funding Round, Series A, Series C
- Japan, United Arab Emirates
Portfolio highlights
- TAQA — TAQA is a utilities and energy company that engages in power, water, and oil and gas operations. It is an international company listed in Abu Dhabi and operates in 11 countries across four continents.The company's interests lie in conventional and alternative power generation, water desalination, oil and gas exploration and production,pipelines, and gas storage. TAQA was founded in 2005 and operates in Canada, Ghana, India, Iraq, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
- PeaceTecLab — PeaceTecLab is a CtoCsharing service, as its main business.
- Mirfa International Power & Water Company — Mirfa International Power & Water Company is a renewable energy startup that delivers power and water solutions. A combined-cycle gas turbine power plant, a modular reverse osmosis plant, and three multi-stage flash desalination units comprise the company's power and water plant. It has a gross installed power capacity of 1.7 gigatonnes(GW) and a gross water desalination capacity of 53 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD). It aims to deliver a futuristic power generating plant with a net power capacity of 1600 megawatts to address the country's power issues.
Nippon Venture Capital ("NVCC"), established in 1996 as one of the few largest Japanese independent venture capital firms, is destined to undertake the unprecedented task of providing full-range venture capital services in cooperation with major Japanese business leaders and leading companies, which have supported and nurtured various newbusinesses on their own, as well as proactively developing new venture enterprises.
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Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Series A, Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Gecipe — Gecipe is a video service for e-sports players.
- Awarefy — Awarefy is a mental health tech startup that offers CBT-based apps to maximize well-being.
- Rege Nephro — Rege Nephro is a biotech company that specialized in R&D, production and marketing of renal disease therapeutics.
Shoko Chukin Bank is a financial company offering personal banking services.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
- Debt Financing, Funding Round, Series B
- Japan, Singapore, Canada
Portfolio highlights
Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. is a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investment. The firm invests in diversified investment in a broad range of industrial sectors. It seeks to invest in Japan. The firm prefers to be the lead investor in its portfolio companies. Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and is based inKyoto, Japan with offices in Tokyo, Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, Kanazawa, Mie, Sakai, Kobe, and Ehime.
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Investment focus
- Health Care, Manufacturing, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, United States, Myanmar
Portfolio highlights
- CoCooking — CoCooking uses food and cooking to create ample opportunity for dialogue and thought, fostering creativity, diversity, and well-being of individuals and communities.
- TelaAxon — TelaAxon develops artificial intelligence technology for sustainable operations, enhancing human-AI coexistence, safety, and wellness.
- Second Heart — Second Heart is a medical center that offers preventive diabetic care and awareness programs to avoid foot amputations.
STRIVE focuses on investing in early-stage (Seed to Series A) internet and mobile companies. It seeks out companies in Japan, Southeast Asia, and India with top-notch management teams and strong market potential. It is not tied to strategic investments for GREE Inc. and leverages its pan-Asia expertise for guiding its portfolio in an engaged,hands-on role.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, E-Commerce
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, India, Indonesia
Portfolio highlights
- Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
- YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
- Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!
After working at KDD Corporation (Currently known as KDDI Corporation), Kiyoshi Nishikawa next went to work at Arthur D. Little Inc. in the United States, where he became inspired to start his own company. After returning to Japan, he established a Japanese corporation of the world’s largest Internet company, America On Line, LLC. Later andbased on this experience and the relationships he developed, he founded the first Internet business incubator, NETAGE, Inc. After serving as the President and CEO of NETAGE Group, he later became and still serves as the Chairman of ngi group, inc. Kiyoshi was one of the main entrepreneurs responsible for proposing and realization of “Shibuya Bit Valley Concept†and is well known for his various speeches and writings. He is a graduate of the Department of Education at Tokyo University.
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Investment focus
- News, Social Media, Big Data
- Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- PoliPoli — PoliPoli is a next-generation politics co-creation platform where you can participate like a game. Politicians from all over Japan post their policies in an easy-to-understand manner, and those who sympathize can enjoy working on the "missions" necessary to realize the policies.
- Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
- TECHFUND — TechFund is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed stage investments. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
F Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Service Industry
- Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
- Japan, Hong Kong
Portfolio highlights
- Bgrass — bgrass is a consultation support platform for women working in the IT industry.
- Blankr — Blankr inc has developed an application called Raidli. Using the app, Vtubers can hold a virtual handshake event.
- Tripi — Tripi provides travel media and digital marketing services, as well as the accommodation gift service.
CBC Group imports and exports synthetic resins, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, foods, electronics components, and optical equipments.
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Investment focus
- GovTech, Big Data, Government
- Funding Round, Corporate Round
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- 3DC — 3DC develops and manufactures a new carbon material, graphene meso sponge (GMS), for electrodes in next-generation batteries, capacitors, fuel cells and other energy storage and generation devices.
- Elephantech — Elephantech is a startup company that aims to drastically innovate the technology for manufacturing electronic circuits, with the vision of achieving faster manufacturing at lower cost by leveraging printing technology.Electronic circuits are literally part of social infrastructures and are embedded everywhere in the world that we live in today.While the number and types of electronic devices being used by humans have been increasing dramatically, driven by advances in semiconductor and telecommunication technology, the technology for manufacturing electronic circuits has not seen any major innovation over the past 50 years.Conventional electronic circuits are manufactured through a process called photolithography, which involves applying metal all over the surface of a substrate and melting the metal off any unrequired areas. However, photolithography has the disadvantage of wasting large amounts of the materials used and driving up the production cost, in addition to being harmful to the environment.Elephantech’s suggested manufacturing method, which is a totally opposite approach to photolithography, involves printing metal only onto the required areas using inkjet printing and enlarging the printed metal by applying plating technology.This approach has enabled Elephantech to manufacture PWBs at significantly lower cost as the amounts of materials required and the number of processes have been reduced. In addition, as this is an on-demand manufacturing solution that does not require any initial cost, it is cost-effective especially for producing prototypes in small quantities, the cost of which can be reduced by at least 80%.We currently possess the best technology in the world for manufacturing PWBs using inkjet printers, the business of which is slated to expand rapidly going forward. Elephantech is committed to accelerating global manufacturing activities by leveraging such technology.
- FiscalNote — The #1 most trusted partner for managing the global issues and policy affairs that present the biggest risks and opportunities to your organization.
Tsuneishi Capital Partners is a company that formulates and operates investment partnerships.
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Investment focus
- Energy, Robotics, Drones
- Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- UUUO — UUUO is a planning, development, and operation of the UUUO (fish market) connected by smartphone and fresh fish shipment from our own shipping base UUUO Base to each consumption market.
- KAMOMEYA — Kamomeya is an island and live because of inconvenience in transportation and transportation.
- POWERNEXT — POWERNEXT provides electric power supply & demand management, rate calculation, customer management & environmental value trading services.
Investors by industry
Biotech
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Sustainability
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Clean Energy
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Organic Food
Big Data
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Food and Beverage
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Crowdfunding
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Enterprise
LGBT
Oil and Gas
Fashion
Theatre
Life Science
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Non Profit
Renewable Energy
SaaS
Sporting Goods
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Social Impact
Software
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Cryptocurrency
Agriculture (agtech)
Media (entertainment)
Facebook
Blockchain
Investors by country
India
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LATAM
Africa
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China
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Kazakhstan
Kenya
Cayman Islands
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Latvia
Oman
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Investors in Japan by industry
Restaurants
Real Estate
Financial Services
CleanTech
Transportation
Big Data
Payments
Finance
Food and Beverage
Wine And Spirits
Video Games
Medical
Cryptocurrency
Medical Device
Wellness
Social Media
Digital Media
Manufacturing
Platforms
Art
Music
Mobile
Android
Blockchain
Software
Legal
Local
Venture Capital
Construction
Social Network
Enterprise Software
Sports
Fitness
eSports
Hospitality
Automotive
InsurTech
FinTech
Recruiting
Biotechnology
Enterprise
Consumer
Health Care
Biotech
Energy
EdTech
Climate
Sustainability
Proptech
Crowdfunding
SaaS
Marketplace
Hardware
Gaming
Social
Fashion
Beauty
B2B
Life Science
Sporting Goods
Publishing
Photography
Education
Renewable Energy
Community
Retail
Mobile Apps
Web3
Clean Energy
Social Impact
Impact
Artificial intelligence
Internet
Infrastructure
Travel
Agriculture (agtech)
Media (entertainment)
Oil and Gas