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Top 50 Restaurants Startup Investors in Japan in January 2026

Last updated: Jan 2026 A list of 50 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Restaurants startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Restaurants companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 Restaurants Startup Investors in Japan in January 2026

Investor	Restaurants Japan investments
Kemuri Ventures	3
East Ventures	3
Sansei Capital Investment	2
Vector	2
Ceres	2
Femto Partners	2
Venture United	2
Kotaro Chiba	2
Kotaro Chiba	2
Komura Fujio	2
Yusuke Tanaka	2
Freebank	2
YJ Capital	2
iSGS Investment Works	2
NES Venture Capital	2
Orient Corporation	1
Colopl Next	1
Salesforce	1
Nobuyuki Idei	1
JTB Corp.	1
SMBC Venture Capital	1
SLD Entertainment	1
Monex Ventures	1
Japan Finance Corporation	1
Scrum Ventures	1
JAFCO	1
Nobuhiro Ariyasu	1
The Seed Capital	1
Allied Architects	1
Giftee	1
PR Times	1
ANRI	1
500 Startups Japan	1
aucfan	1
Beenos Partners	1
Japan Finance Corporation	1
XTech Ventures	1
Adways	1
Higin Capital	1
Chugin Capital Partner	1
Okinawa Development Finance Corporation	1
Computer Software Association of Japan	1
Winroader	1
iMercury Capital	1
Synchrolife	1
Coconala Skill Partners	1
Shintaro Yamada	1
Mistletoe	1
Nishio Kentaro	1
VELTRA	1

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Investor list

Kemuri Ventures is a Japanese venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Food Processing, Food and Beverage, Agriculture
Series A, Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

AlgaleX — AlgaleX is a firm that utilizes discarded food waste to create ingredients such as plant-based proteins.
HarvestX — HarvestX manufactures fully automatic robots which contributes to the shortage of agricultural human resources and stable food production
Quantum Flowers & Foods — Quantum Flowers & Foods is a technology firm that develops and creates agricultural business models and technologies.

East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Indonesia, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Bababos — Bababos is a platform that allows SME manufacturers to quickly access a variety of high-quality raw materials, from polymers and chemicals to steel and other metal products. This eliminates the need to handle numerous suppliers. The company's platform streamlines the buying process by digitizing administrative duties. Additionally, Bababosprovides manufacturers with flexible payment options that lessen their financial burden and enable them to concentrate on what they do best—producing high-quality products. Bababos enhances the SME producers' supply chains.
Bibit.id — Beli Reksa Dana & Obligasi Negara dengan mudah di aplikasi. Mitra Distribusi SBN Terbaik 2022-2024. Diawasi OJK.
Prefab — Prefab offers cutting-edge AI SaaS solutions tailored for the construction industry, enhancing efficiency, safety, and decision-making through data-driven insights.

Sansei Capital provides portfolio management, corporate management support, and financing services.

Investment focus

Content, Medical, Task Management
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, China, Belgium

Portfolio highlights

RABO — RABO is a Cat-Tech Company that "watches cat life with technology.
MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
Asoview — ASOVIEW Inc. is an online booking website that provides booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving and rafting. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Shibuya, Kanagawa.

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.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, E-Commerce
Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
Japan, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

bythen — bythen enables the production of autonomous 3D avatar bots powered by AI.
Pick You — Pick You offers a marketplace that facilitates seamless purchase of items directly from popular Instagram users.
CareLink — CareLink is an app that connects people looking for one-time part-time work in nursing and welfare.

Ceres is a company providing internet marketing services and is engaged in the planning, development, and operation of smartphone media.

Investment focus

Cryptocurrency, Content, Internet
Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DINETTE — DINETTE is a cosmetics manufacturing company.
SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Indent — Indent creates products that help writers create original works such as novels, manga, screenplays, and game scenarios. They will work to create an environment in which artists can focus on their creations and enjoy sharing their work.

The fund will invest in early-stage venture companies in the Internet sector, which are engaged in platform businesses and financial services. The amount of per-company equity investment will be in the range of between ¥10 million ($.098 million) and ¥300 million ($2.95 million). The fund is also characterized by the practical support for growingcompanies that will be provided by Mr. Isozaki. Shinsei Bank will dispatch personnel to the fund in order to jointly assist Mr. Isozaki in order to source venture companies and maximize their corporate value.

Investment focus

Internet, Communities, Location Based Services
Funding Round, Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

IVRy — Ivry offers cloud based telephonic answering service.
YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
Leading Mark — Leading Mark, a rising human resources startup in Japan. Leading Mark is branching out into mid-career and international hiring. It currently has a one-man team in China working to bring the top Japanese-speaking Chinese students to domestic companies. He also touts his startup’s focus on the average job seeker. “We want to make sure that the usersget the info that he or she needs the most,” he says. Large scale, legacy players can sometimes prioritize the needs of the hiring company, and their commission, over the needs of applicants themselves. This leads to frustration and short-circuited careers.

Venture United is a provider of venture capital for entrepreneurs, especially for internet-related businesses.

Investment focus

Software, Travel, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Zest — ZEST is an IT firm that offers consulting and management support services to its clients. It is based in Tokyo.
FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Content, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

MI-6 — MI-6 is a research, development, consulting, and project management for material development using IT. We will promote materials informatics in the field of material development with our technological capabilities and a wealth of project knowledge that challenge the world's most advanced technologies .
ELESTYLE — ELESTYLE are promoting mobile payments and providing high value-added services for users to realize a cashless society.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

Investment focus

Internet, Drones, Software
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

MI-6 — MI-6 is a research, development, consulting, and project management for material development using IT. We will promote materials informatics in the field of material development with our technological capabilities and a wealth of project knowledge that challenge the world's most advanced technologies .
ELESTYLE — ELESTYLE are promoting mobile payments and providing high value-added services for users to realize a cashless society.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.

Komura Fujio

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.

"Shin"ichiro joined Yahoo Japan in April 2013. From July 2013, he joined YJ Capital. He has served as COO of YJ Capital since January 2015. Prior to Yahoo! Japan, Shin was General Director of Dream Incubator Vietnam from 2007 to 2012, managing US$50 million private equity funds in Vietnam. He was formerly a Project Manager at DreamIncubator Japan. He started his career at Future Architect as a system engineer.Shin received his bachelor's degree in Policy Management from Keio University.

Investment focus

Tourism, Consulting, E-Commerce
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TakeMe Co., Ltd. — TakeMe aims to provide an “One-stop Inbound destination service” by enabling tourist to easily find, communicate with, and pay with smartphones via QR code at In-Travel destinations. TakeMe, is the country’s largest inbound service platform in Japan, which lets tourists find, communicate with, and pay with QR code at our affiliated shops,restaurants and tourist attractions. Since our launch in 2015 as JapanFoodie, we have expanded our merchant base to tens of thousands beyond food and restaurants, to include travel, lodging, shopping and events, providing every tourist with the best experience as your best local guide and friend.

Freebank provides funds, supports, and develops venture business managers with the aim of moving forward with the next decade. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Japan.

Investment focus

CRM, IT Management, Video Conferencing
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Thinca — Thinca is an IT system planning, development, and operations company that provides a cloud-based CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) hospitality & communication solution for corporate offices.
ORENDA WORLD — ORENDA focuses on developing high-definition 3D simulation systems that apply gamification and real-time rendering technology.
QD Laser — QD Laser offers semiconductor lasers such as quantum dot lasers for silicon photonics, and retinal projectors as well. From Japan to the world.

YJ Capital is a Corporate Venture Capital of Yahoo Japan. Our value is to help global minded entrepreneurs build successful and lasting internet companies. We invest in all stages, all sectors in Asia, US and Israel.YJ Capital has a unique access to Yahoo Japan's operational experience and unparalleled Japan market entry support. Oursole LP allows us to focus only on our portfolio companies and make fast decision making.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, United States, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
LEAN BODY — Lean Body is an online platform for fitness videos.
Stacked — Stacked is a new membership platform where fans get the most out of their support for creators.

iSGS Investment Works is Japan-based venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Software, E-Commerce, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Inter — Inter delivers solutions for global difficulties using vacuum technology, which uses a particular check valve to maintain a 99.5% vacuum rate.
Better Place — Better place vision is to create a world in which kind people can continue to be kind, as well as a society in which people can work in their own way without worrying about money.

NES Venture Capital is an investment firm.

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Web3, Music
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Recri — Recri works for the entertainment industry and specializes in operations management tasks like ticketing for stage, film, and music shows.
AccordX — Cookpy operates a ghost restaurant service for individuals, allowing anyone to open a virtual restaurant, prepare food at cloud kitchens, and sell food via online delivery platforms.
OMO — OMO is a hybrid online and offline used goods buying support service,

Orient Corporation is a consumer credit company that provides auto loans, credit cards, and direct cash loan services. The company was founded in 1954 and based in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Apps, Logistics, Information Services
Series A, Funding Round, Series D
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.
Ecommit — Ecommit is a venture company that creates new environmental businesses with reuse and recycling as the main axis
Baseconnect — Baseconnect Co., Ltd. connects people from all over the world and spends one-tenth the time it takes for people to “know”.

Colopl Next is the corporate venture capital of is Colopl, Inc, which is a leading Japanese gaming company. Colopl, Inc. is founded with the mission of “Entertainment in Real Life”, and constantly put its customer as first priority.Colopl Next is headquartered in Japan, but invests globally in a variety of internet businesses, with the commitmentto support innovative entrepreneurs.

Investment focus

Virtual Reality, Software, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

SALOWIN — SALOWIN is a shared salon where freelance hairdressers can freely provide customer service and service.
CaseBlink — AI for immigration lawyers | CaseBlink is AI software for immigration law firms. With CaseBlink, generate EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, and O-1 applications end-to-end.
Wunderbar — Wunderbar provides intellectual property along with branding and marketing services.

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management software and applications. It is a cloud computing company that provides business software on a subscription basis. They design and develop cloud-based enterprise software for customer relationship management. They focused on sales, customer service,marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, and application development.

Investment focus

Software, Non Profit, SaaS
Grant, Series A, Funding Round
United States, Japan, Canada

Portfolio highlights

TAPPI — TAPPI is the leading association for the worldwide pulp, paper, packaging, and converting industries and publisher of Paper360º.
Tech Spark AI — Tech Spark is Canada's first edtech company committed to culturally relevant and equitable tech education for Black and students of colour, girls, and teachers.
Mistral AI — Take control of the future with a complete AI solution from platform to interface, with open, customizable models that can be deployed anywhere.

Nobuyuki Idei has served as our independent director since June 2007.Being an experienced director, Nobuyuki Idei currently also serves as director of Accenture, director of FreeBit Co, Ltd., director of Lenovo Group, and chairman of the National Conference on Fostering Beautiful Forests in Japan.Nobuyuki Idei is the founder and chief executiveofficer of Quantum Leaps Corporation, a specialist consultancy that advises private and public institutions on the changing role of technology in the 21st century.Nobuyuki Idei is also the founder and chairman of the board of Asia Innovators’ Initiative, a private non-profit organization that he established in 2011 to serve as a catalyst for social innovation in Asia by bringing together a diverse range of individuals and promoting knowledge sharing.Nobuyuki Idei was chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Corporation from 2000 to 2005, chief corporate advisor from 2005 to 2007, and chairman of the advisory board from 2007 to 2012.Prior to that, Nobuyuki Idei held a range of leadership positions at Sony including general manager of the audio division, senior general manager of the home video group, and president and representative director.Nobuyuki Idei has also served in a number of other advisory positions including as counselor to the Bank of Japan, member of Japan’s national IT Strategy Council, and vice-chairman of Nippon Keidanren.Nobuyuki Idei received a bachelor of science degree in economics and politics from Waseda University in Tokyo.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Manufacturing, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Corporate Round
Japan, France, United States

Portfolio highlights

Pyrenee — Pyrenee is a hardware startup that creates devices that protect people's lives.
Antescofo — Antescofo is the mariage of world-class R&D and Business endeavours. Their technology is the result of 7+ years of R&D in the world’s largest laboratory dedicated to Music and Technology, IRCAM in Paris, and public experience with the most important musicians and orchestras around the world. The principle? Through Intelligent MachineListening, they recognize how humans perform music in real-time and use that information to synchronize content and provide an immersive experience! Antescofo was incorporated in July 2016 and based in Paris, France.
Stake Technologies — Stake Technologies is a technology company that provides blockchain solutions to enterprises.

One the most biggest company in Japan dealing with tourism.

Investment focus

Travel, Leisure, Sales
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, Denmark

Portfolio highlights

Goodwings — Choose responsible travel options, track emissions, and offset them for free with Goodwings. Our sustainability-focused travel management system helps you travel responsibly while reducing your carbon footprint.
byFood.com — Food tours, cooking classes, dining experiences & tastings in Japan. Enjoy a meal in Japan and help children around the world thr
Tablecross — Tablecross is a Marketing consulting business for restaurants.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and its group companies offer a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in the leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital and other credit related businesses. The following lists the activities of SMBC, its subsidiaries andaffiliates in the various business segments.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Health Care, Software
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Issin — Issin manufactures bath mats that can measure weight and automatically record daily weight changes on your smartphone.
Hireroo — HireRoo is an online coding test service that checks the skills of engineers through programming tests. It provides problems that correspond to a wide range of levels, from new graduates to mid-career tech leads, engineering managers, and various occupations. They also provide coding test planning and execution services.
Neusignal Therapeutics — Neusignal Therapeutics is a medical company that develops therapeutic medicines for dementia and psychiatric illnesses.

SLD Entertainment operates and manages cafes and restaurants under "kawara CAFE＆DINING" brand.

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.

Monex Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan that finances seed and early stage investments in startup companies.

Investment focus

Financial Services, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Degas — Degas develops solutions to improve the productivity of small-scale farmers in Africa.
pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
Hakki Africa — HAKKI AFRICA provides microfinance services for SMEs.

Japan Finance provides a diversified portfolio of financial services to the small and medium enterprise sector.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Debt Financing, Funding Round, Seed
Japan, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

INDX — Unstructured data support, AI utilization without exposing confidential data, rapid implementation. Extensive experience in manufacturing, finance, and healthcare. Provide company-specific AI solutions with custom tuning.
bgrass — bgrass is a consultation support platform for women working in the IT industry.
Dr.’s Prime — Doctor's Prime is a technology company that provides is a part-time job information service for optimizing the working style of doctors.

Scrum Ventures is an early-stage venture firm that has invested in over 80 startups across a range of industries in the U.S. and Japan. Based in San Francisco with extensive experience and networks in both Silicon Valley and Japan, Scrum Ventures accelerates portfolio companies with global opportunities. Scrum Studios is reinventing the traditional accelerator -- taking a stage-agnostic approach in connecting best-in-class startups with leading Japanese corporations.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Health Care
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
United States, Japan, China

Portfolio highlights

Habitto — Habitto by SJ Mobile Labs is a new financial services venture focused on the Japanese market. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.
Ozlo Sleep — Ozlo Sleep is a science-driven sleep and audio technology company that supports and simplifies sleep rituals for clinical benefits, without the use of medication.
DHARMA — DHARMA empowers iconic people and brands to create and sell travel experiences.

Since its founding in 1973, JAFCO has always worked with leading-edge entrepreneurs. The total capital commitments of its investment funds in Japan and overseas have exceeded 1 trillion yen and the number of portfolio IPOs to date has reached over 1,000. In addition to venture investment, JAFCO also carries out buyout investment and commit to thecreations of innovative technologies and services worldwide. As entrepreneurs’ closest partner in bringing their visions to life, JAFCO provides support in areas of HR, marketing/ sales, and back-office operations, in addition to providing financing.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence
Series A, Funding Round, Series B
Japan, United States, Israel

Portfolio highlights

ADiXi — Adixi is a tech-driven business that supports the idea that people and technology may work together. It strives to open doors by utilizing cutting-edge technology, such as artificial intelligence, to promote long-term, sustainable corporate and societal progress.
OPERe — OPERe is an IT company that specializes in the development of semi autonomous hospitalization guidance solutions.
Skygate Technologies — Founded in 2020, Skygate Technologies is building a network to deliver a large volume of data from observation satellites around the Earth to the ground and integrating the network into the web architecture. “Make Space accessible on the Web” is its motto, and the ability to develop both hardware and software is its strength. More information aboutSkygate Technologies can be found at www.skygate-tech.com.

Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.

Investment focus

Finance, Internet, Content
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Mign — Mign offers a generative AI-related SaaS solutions for the construction and real estate fields.
PICK — PICK is a startup that provides a digital transformation platform for the real estate and construction industries.
Conoris Technologies — Conoris Technologies is a staffing agency that offers security check support services for companies.

The Seed Capital is a Japan-based venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Audio, Video Games
Seed, Series A, Angel
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
CharacterBank — CharacterBank offers game development and production services using VR technology.
New Innovations — New Innovations company is offering a snuggling service to many people who support Japan's “high quality”. AI and robots do not take away the job, but robots support the work that is accomplished without the involvement of people, and many working people are aiming for the future to create a more humanoid life. With the problem of lack oftalent, it was difficult to reflect technology on OFF Line until now, trying to provide robots in the “food and drink” and “retail” industry, CEKAI's first demand forecast AI unmanned cafeThe robot “√C” was developed. √C is not “looking for coffee that suits me”, but instead realizes “coffee is perfect for me” with demand forecasting AI. Today, people who drink coffee are choosing their favorite cafe, canned coffee, convenience store coffee, etc., according to their taste needs, SPEED needs, and hospitality needs. The company developed the service as a new choice of coffee, and in the future, the perfect coffee according to the taste preferences, busy, physical condition and mood of the day., which aims to provide. In July 2019, the company receives a third party quota increase of 70 million yen from Zashid Capital and DEEPCORE. From August 1, 2019, with the cooperation of Nankai Electric Railway, “√C” will be installed at Namba Station/Namba Skyo, and demonstration experiments will begin.

Allied Architects vision comes from the combination of two key aspirations being the leading company in their industry and being entrepreneurial at the same time. They not only aspire to be the finest provider of high quality service and to contribute to society, but they are also hungry to continually take on challenges with entrepreneurial driveand spirit.This is because they believe in connecting individuals and businesses together through social media and technology, with a view to enriching their society.The rise of social media has given new power to individuals to express their own personality through dialogue, and by developing a network of contacts on the internet it has dramatically improved the ease communication. Furthermore, businesses can now connect with their existing and prospective customers more easily through official social media accounts. In previous generations, small shops and businesses dealt directly with their customers. This brought people together, with close and direct connection being necessary to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Even though it helped to build strong relationships in the community, it did not go any further.However, the advancement of technology and the emergence of social media has broken down boundaries and upended traditional hierarchies that previously may have constrained the flow of transactions between individuals and businesses around the world. Businesses can now achieve various objectives, such as reducing the time and cost and for disseminating information, having essential communications, pursuing research and development through consumer dialogue and preventing marketing mistakes. This can result in a much more successful and profitable organization and being profitable enables businesses to develop prospective products and services in harmony with consumer needs, and to provide services of high value for a lower price. It means that consumers can purchase good products and services for a low price, creating a win-win relationship between individuals and businesses.

Investment focus

Content, Database, Internet
Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Omatsuri Japan — Omatsuri is Japan's first festival company specializing in Japan.We provide planning, management, promotion, and customer support for festival organizers from local governments to store associations.
Pocket Concierge — Pocket Concierge is an online service for people to make online reservations at selected restaurants. The company's mission is to broadcast Japanese culinary culture worldwide and provide guests with exclusive dining experience.
Conversion Technology Japan — Conversion Technology is a Data and Tachonology Based company

giftee is an online service where you can send a small 'thank you' through small gifts by twitter and email. Supported by Open Network Lab.

Investment focus

Marketing, Internet, CRM
Series A, Funding Round, Debt Financing
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DIRIGIO — DIRIGIO is an Operation and development of mobile order & pay platform.
Domuz — Domuz is a firm that wants to utilize technology and design to create a lifestyle that makes potted plants and flowers more comfortable.
Treasure in Stomach — Treasure in Stomach is a food manufacturing company that develops vegan, gluten-free, and Muslim-friendly products and content.

Boasts more than two million monthly PV, share NO.1 of press release distribution listing services. Including monthly 100 million PV or more of the leading newspaper and communications company Web site, Japan's leading media functions that can be posted to the release to the features. The Facebook fan number of PR TIMES 4 million people morethan, followers number of Twitter accounts has become a 10 006 thousand people than, it is also effective in information diffusion in SNS.

Investment focus

News, Travel, Database
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

byFood.com — Food tours, cooking classes, dining experiences & tastings in Japan. Enjoy a meal in Japan and help children around the world thr
Tablecross — Tablecross is a Marketing consulting business for restaurants.
The Bridge — Tech and Startup News from Japan

ANRI is a Japanese venture capital firm that mainly invests in seed and early-stage startups.

Investment focus

Health Care, Information Technology, Software
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Sukidayo — Sukidayo is a startup company that offers social services related to family and workshops for individuals, companies, and governments.
ARCH — ARCH provides research, development, operation, and support systems for gynecology and fertility treatment solutions
Tanp — Gracia is an EC business and media business that provides coloring precious moments and enriching human connections.

500 Startups is the most active seed VC in the world. 500 Startups Japan is a $35M regional fund focusing on Japan.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Human Resources
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Noin — Noin specializes in cosmetics and delivers content that accurately captures trends like videos that solve girls worries.
Trustdock — Trustdock is a platform for identity confirmation API service in Japan. You can outsource KYC / identity confirmation via online API, complying with various laws including criminal profit transfer prevention law, antique sales law, cell phone fraud prevention use law etc. It can be used with any ID service regardless of business type, such asmatching to FinTech, shared eco, etc.
Connected Robotics — Connected Robotics is an information technology company that designs and manufactures robotic arms for enterprises. The company's product, OctoChef, provides cooking services. It caters to individual restaurants, shopping malls, stations, service areas, amusement centers, and large-scale events. The company was founded in 2014 and is basedin Koganei-shi, Japan.

Aucfan is the only company in Japan that provides all the eCommerce price data across the big three market, America, China and Japan. The data Aucfan aggregates has reached more than 800millions with last 8 years coverage and Aucfan provides these data through its website Aucfan.com. (www.aucfan.com).The data Aucfan provides both to theconsumers and the retailers include the the price across the major global EC and Auction sites such as Rakuten, the No1 shopping site in Japan, Yahoo! Auction, the No1 Auction site in Japan, and Amazon Japan as well as eBay.com, the No1 EC site in US, and Taobao, the No1 Auction site in China.By visiting the Aucfan.com, buyers and sellers can easily find the price and the value of the product globally.Aucfan currently focuses on the consumer buesinss but Aucfan's next strategy is to expand its business to the BtoB by providing the price data to the EC and retail markets and helping them make the critical judgement for the price setting and purchsing just like the Bloomberg providing the financial informationto the financial brokers and helping them make the business judgement.Aucfan's next ambition is to expand its business globally and as the part of that strategy, Aucfan has already launched the Chinese website in JULY/2010 and plans to open the US site in SEP/2010.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Corporate Round
Japan, Indonesia, France

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.
Yuwaeru — Yuwaeru is a Direct-to-Consumer company
nextProtein — nextProtein is developing a large scale and sustainable insect based source of protein. The bioconversion of fly larvae fed with organic waste generates valuable feed components for fish, livestock and pets.

Beenos is a platform for startups. Our in-house team of entrepreneurs-in-residence and specialists help you get your ideas off the ground. We’re (the) experts in engineering, design, data science, and business management. We know how to launch a company in this ever changing IT industry, and we’d like to help establish and expand your present andfuture business.The company was founded in 1999 as NetPrice.com, a provider of eCommerce services. NetPrice.com established Beenos as an incubation program before

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Internet, Mobile
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Raena — RAENA adalah platform reseller kecantikan terbesar di Indonesia yang memberikan peluang bisnis rumahan yang menjanjikan. Dropshipper & Reseller produk kecantikan
Ralali — Ralali.com, Pusat toko grosir online pertama di Indonesia, sebagai b2b wholesale marketplace platform yang menghubungkan supplier, distributor dengan retail.
Delivered Korea — Delivered Korea is an e-commerce platform, that accelerates cross-border e-commerce from South Korea to your country.

Japan Finance provides a diversified portfolio of financial services to the small and medium enterprise sector.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Internet
Debt Financing, Funding Round, Seed
Japan, India, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

AirKamuy — AirKamuy is an aviation company that designs and manufactures fixed-wing VTOL aircraft and drones with the help of modern technology.
Haul — Haul is a human resources company that provides recruitment consulting and marketing SaaS development services.
Sorabito — SORABITO is an eCommerce marketplace for used construction equipment and machinery.

XTech Ventures aims to achieve dramatic growth for investee companies by supporting entrepreneurship, multifaceted management support, and IPO support for the excellent middle class who are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Italy, United Arab Emirates

Portfolio highlights

Medigle — Medigle is a consulting firm that provides medical consulting and B2B services.
Samansa —
Space quarters — Space Quarters is a manufacturing company that produces payload deploy and panels, and develops space assembly robotic systems.

Based in Tokyo, Adways is a mobile marketing solution provider mostly known for its Asia’s largest mobile CPI adnetwork “AppDriver” and mobile app measurement & tracking tool “PartyTrack” used by great number of major app developers around the world. Since 2004 when it opened the first overseas office in China, Adways has been aggressivelyexpanding its mobile app distribution network in Asian markets. Now with 1,000 employees in 11 countries (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and the USA), Adways supports app developers worldwide to maximize their user acquisition and monetization and furthermore thrives to provide new value to the market. Haruhisa Okamura is Founder and CEO of Adways who has grown Adways from a small startup to an international corporation with over a thousand employees around the world. In 2006, Adways went public and Okamura was one of the youngest entrepreneurs to list a company in Japan at that time.You can read his story here: "How a high school dropout became a multi-millionaire entrepreneur" http://www.techinasia.com/high-school-dropout-multimillionaire-entrepreneur/

Investment focus

Internet, Media and Entertainment, Software
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
MiddleField — MiddleField is a team to make cars the best entertainment and to make the lives of everyone involved in cars into entertainment. They creates a society where a lot of people are involved as a middle point of all people's dreams. MiddleField owns and operates an e-commerce platform offering cars.

Higegin Capital is a venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Biotechnology, Medical Device, Medical
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

F.MED — F.MED is a manufacturing company that designs and develops robotic microsurgical devices for the healthcare industry.
KAICO — KAICO is a pharmaceuticals, diagnostic drugs production company.
AMI — AMI Corp is engaged in medical consulting, medical device development and writing.

Chugin Capital Partner is a venture capital firm that invests in startups and business succession.

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Information Technology, Food and Beverage
Series A, Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Experisus — Experisus provides Website production, development and management, and software.
Waku — Waku is a manufacturing company that specializes in the research and development of organic fertilizers for the agriculture industry.
Zip Infrastructure — Inquiry : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDmxd1TpPP331TY4VoRsvn0yWX3Ca5Jd-bfBiuPwvpD2SKtA/viewform

Okinawa Development Finance Corporation provides policy-based financial services.

Investment focus

Apps, Medical, Nursing and Residential Care
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

LiLz — LiLz is an IT technology network for businesses looking to use AI and IoT to offer new services and value.
Swivel — Swivel's mission is to create the fishing brand.
HelloWorld — EdTech, International Exchange between Schools

CSAJ is a non-profit organization which has about 500 PC software developers, publishers, system integrators, distributors, dealers and its related support service providers. The main activities are committees, exhibitions, market surveys, and collaboration with overseas associations.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Apps, Beauty
Seed, Series C, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

tripla — Tripla provides IT services for various industries such as hotels, railways, travel-related, restaurants, real estate, and apparel. It is one of the fastest-growing startups in Japan that aims to provide a platform where any tourists can make any reservations they want to make in their language through any chat and voice platforms. It provides theservice to hundreds of customers like hotels, rent- a- car companies, transportation companies that provide services to tourists. Tripla chatbot, a BPO service that solves daily inquiry cost reduction and multilingual support at once, has been well received by customers due to its learning AI and double support from operators who are familiar with the industry. Also, the new hotel reservation engine equipped with the OTA price comparison of each company and the automatic best rate adjustment function has significantly increased the ratio of in-house reservations and contributed to the improvement of profitability.
umami.me — Order Food in English at Restaurant in Japanumami will help youFind menu you can eat and order in your own languageCommunicate with non-English speaking staff when you orderFind coupons and get discount or rewardSince its launch back in April of 2015, the Umami mobile app has been adopted by about 250 restaurants in Japan. The app allowsrestaurants to provide their menu in English, Chinese (simplified and traditional) and Korean as well as Japanese, attract customers through coupons, and spread words using social network services so that they can better reach out to foreign visitors. For customers, it helps them find restaurants following their dining preference using a recommendation feature, making orders at a restaurant in their mother tongue and choosing allergy-free or halal food menus.
Life Log Technology — Lifelog Technology has been developing exclusive apps for medical professionals, including those for the general public, such as participating in medical institution research technically.

Winroader with a strong mission to create a new flow of goods in the logistics industry.

Investment focus

Delivery, Wholesale, E-Commerce
Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Hachimenroppi — Corporate website of Hachimenroppi, Inc.. Launching e-commerce services for restaurants and individuals in Japan. Includes information about our company, its services, careers, and investor relations.

iMercury Capital is an investment subsidiary established to expand Mixi's business portfolio and realize discontinuous growth beyond the SNS "Mixi" business. iMercury Capital plans to invest 5 billion yen together with Mixi, aiming to generate profits through long-term holdings. It also covers everything from start-ups to latestages, as well as both online and offline businesses.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Mobile
Series B, Funding Round, Series C
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Welmo — WELMO has currently been working on R&D to launch Japan's largest welfare AI service platform called "CPA(Care Plan Assistant)" which supports care coordinator (caregiver), who helps a daily activities of the elderly people, to create a care plan for them, with using ICT and advanced technology, especially NLP(Natural LanguageProcessing), in terms of knowledge support. It has mainly two fundamental technologies; data warehouse includes all fast date and big date about care, explainable AI that describes a reason why the care is provided for the users. It also reduces time and cost to create the care plan, which enables anyone to be able to use easily and get enough information that the users want to know and use.
Creema — Creema operates an online marketplace for handmade products. It provides its clients with social commerce, art events, and related services. The company is based in Shibuya, Kanagawa.
Meleap — HADO is a new sport utilizing the leading AR technology with players wearing a head mounted display and an armband sensor to compete against each other by using the ‘energy ball’ or ‘shield’ and earn points in a three-on-three, eighty-minutes game between two teams.

SynchroLife is the world's first social restaurant discovery service with a blockchain-based reward system for reviewers. It uses borderless cryptocurrency to give review rewards and cashback for dining out to users, and to connect users and restaurants to solve marketing problems for restaurants.

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ginkan — GINKAN is the managing company of SynchroLife, the world's first restaurant recommendation platform where users and can earn cryptocurrency token rewards for dining out and posting restaurant reviews. GINKAN was selected for Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 in the fintech category and we won for best domestic fintech company and won the audienceaward at the Plug and Play Japan Batch 1 EXPO (Demo Day) in September 2018.GINKAN was also selected for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s MUFG Digital Accelerator’s Batch 4 and won the Grand Prix, Audience Award, and AWS Award in a triple win on their demo day on July 26, 2019.

coconala Skill Partners is a matching platform venture capital firm that creates encounters between seed / early-stage entrepreneurs and skill partners who want to support their aspirations.

Investment focus

Human Resources, Online Portals, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Comvey — Comvey provides a shopping experience that is friendly to people and the earth. It primarily offers a foldable share bag online.
SoVa — SoVa operates an accounting firm that combines technology and experts.
ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

During his years at Waseda University, Shintaro worked at Japan’s biggest e-commerce mall, Rakuten, Inc. On August 1st 2001, Shintaro established “Unoh Inc.” after graduating university. At Unoh he was responsible for designing and developing several web services, one of which was the online magazine subscription . Services provided by Unohinclude planning, development and management of the film enthusiast community site “Movie Life” (acquired by PIA Corporation) as well as “Sugu.CC” , “NeoAd” (both acquired by GMOAP) and the photo sharing site “Photozou” (acquired by Digital Garage).In 2009 Unoh entered into social gaming, creating multiple successful social games. Among these games, “Machitsuku!” has been its biggest hit with over 5 million users. On August 3rd 2010, Unoh joined Zynga and Shintaro became General Manager of Zynga Japan. He resigned on January 2012. After traveling around the world, He established the new company “Mercari, Inc.” on February 2013 and released the resale shopping app “Mercari” on July 2013 in Japan.He is a true Internet geek, spending a lot of time on the Internet and boasts around 180,000 followers on Twitter.

Investment focus

Internet, Finance, Artificial Intelligence
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

AssetHub — AssetHub is an AI-powered 3D modeling tool that enables game developers to create and edit 3D assets 100 times faster, enabling mass production of content and combining AI with manual work, enabling faster prototyping and editing.
Peach Cars — Buy or sell your car in Nairobi-Kenya with ease. Browse a wide range of vehicles, connect with trusted sellers, and find the perfect car today. Simple, fast, and secure transactions.
AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.

Mistletoe is a hub for startups and the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. It specifically provides learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, facilitates startup communities, invests in and supports startup companies and venture capitals.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Mobile
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

ULUU — ULUU is an ocean material that replaces plastic and actively benefits the world.
Aquaria — Discover how you can secure access to safe, clean water from air using Aquaria's atmospheric water generators.
Funderbeam — Funderbeam is a funding and trading platform that connects companies and investors to buy and sell equity stakes. The platform allows the founders to gain exposure, legal support, a funding manager, or an investor network. It also allows the investors to take control of their investments and trade anytime they want.The company was founded in 2013as a global data platform for startup companies.

Nishio Kentaro is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer & President at Game8.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Internet, Software
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
Cloud Franchise — Cloud Franchise is a cloud kitchen model that aims to maximize the kitchen occupancy rate of restaurants.

VELTRA is a site dedicated to local tours where you can book over 14,000 kinds of overseas optional tours. A wide range of genres that can be participated overseas such as sightseeing tours, world heritage sightseeing, marine sports, diving, golf, spa and esthetics, dinner cruise, show entertainment, etc. are enriched!

Investment focus

Travel, Consulting, Advertising
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

byFood.com — Food tours, cooking classes, dining experiences & tastings in Japan. Enjoy a meal in Japan and help children around the world thr
Tablecross — Tablecross is a Marketing consulting business for restaurants.

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