Top 50 Restaurants Startup Investors in Japan in October 2024
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 October 2024
Kemuri Ventures is a Japanese venture capital firm.
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Investment focus
- Food and Beverage, Food Processing, Restaurants
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- AlgaleX — AlgaleX is a firm that utilizes discarded food waste to create ingredients such as plant-based proteins.
- 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.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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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.
"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.
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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.
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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.
- QD Laser, Inc. — QD Laser offers semiconductor lasers such as quantum dot lasers for silicon photonics, and retinal projectors as well. From Japan to the world.
- Digital Cruise — Digital Cruise Provides cloud services for video distribution and digital signage.
iSGS Investment Works is Japan-based venture capital firm.
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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 — VIRUTUOUS CYCLE OF ECONOMY AND ECOLOGY
- Gojo & Company — Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world beginning with the developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Its long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in50+ countries by 2030. Five and half years since their establishment, they work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India with 3,400+ employees, serving more than 570,000 women who are also mothers.
Ceres is a company providing internet marketing services and is engaged in the planning, development, and operation of smartphone media.
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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.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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Investment focus
- Travel, Internet, 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
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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.
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.
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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.
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
- Media and Entertainment, Software, Marketing
- Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Nailie — Nailie is an app that lets you connect to a nail specialists just for you.
- xxxxnese — xxxxnese is a logistics company that focuses on import, export, domestic sales, influencer marketing, and software development businesses.
- AstroX — AstroX is a private space startup company that develops satellite launch vehicles for space development. It utilizes the rockoon method for developing launch vehicles and small rockets to help clients easily use space.
East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, Indonesia, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- SoLeLands — SoLeLands provides children with future-ready skills, virtues, and applied competences and inspires children to love learning.
- Maka Motors — MAKA is dedicated to building the best electric motorcycles for Indonesian riders.
- Zenith Learning Group — Zenith Learning Group's mission is to deliver a holistic, world-class education to learners across South East Asia through technology.
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.
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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 — Watch videos with your people on Stacked.com
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.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Health Care, Software
- Funding Round, Series B, Series A
- Japan, United States, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Flucle — Flucle provides company rule building and risk mitigation, cloud advisor, human resource development, training & labor management services.
- Quanmatic — Quanmatic is an information and technology company that provides algorithms development and solutions to bridge quantum technologies.
- Good News — Good News is a staffing agency that provides recruitment, public relations, and human resource management services.
An investment that restructures the value and quality.Supplying big capital is not an essential value of our firm.We have a strong attitude to input and drive critical thinking behind a new startup.After the problem is clarified and solution become established in the world,people could not imagine the society without that solution.An investment that innovates this world.We will become a real partner to execute the strategy together.INVENTION OF THE ESSENCE ----we will keep on doing it.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Finance
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, India
Portfolio highlights
- Niro — Niro is embedding personal credit products into leading consumer internet platforms. The fintech startup aims to disrupt the consumer lending ecosystem in the country by democratizing access to convenient and hassle-free embedded credit products for 624 million internet users in India.
- OTO Capital — India's most trusted place to buy bikes, scooters and electric scooters of all brands on loan and in cash. Digital Process. Lowest EMIs. Fast Deliveries - OTO
- Sharing Energy — Sharing Energy is providing energy supply and energy management services.
One the most biggest company in Japan dealing with tourism.
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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.
Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Internet, Content
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- PeopleX — PeopleX encourages and assists employees in their professional development.
- PICK — PICK is a startup that provides a digital transformation platform for the real estate and construction industries.
- Collectest — Collectest specializes in integrating AI into trading card appraisal procedures that show current market pricing and verify authenticity.
Fujita Kanko is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the hotel business.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Mobile, Travel
- Seed
- 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.
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.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, Italy, United Arab Emirates
Portfolio highlights
- Logo Labo — Logo Labo provides branding and marketing services, including brand development, formulation, IT-based branding and marketing support.
- MUSE — MUSE is a robotics company that provides robotic solutions for retail stores to support in-store operations.
- OpenMoney — OpenMoney is a company that offers information related to financial services.
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.
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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.
DD Holdings Venture Capital is the investment arm of DD Holdings, a restaurant and amusement brand.
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Investment focus
- Content, Ethereum, Education
- 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.
- Knowledge Merchants Works — Knowledge Merchant Works Co., Ltd. is offering the next-generation leader “Juku” series, which provides business and organizational transformation projects to the next generation of store service leaders, and the application series, “Hata,” which helps improve store productivity. Luck® Platform ”.
Coral Capital is a seed stage venture capital firm in Japan.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Internet
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Facilo — Facilo is a real estate communication cloud that offers unifies and visualizes the complex communication of real estate brokerage solutions.
- Nstock — Nstock is specialized in developing SAAS based applications for ecosystem.
- Recustomer — Recustomer is an IT company that develops software for digital payment and provides support for web development.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Health Care
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, China
Portfolio highlights
- Flucle — Flucle provides company rule building and risk mitigation, cloud advisor, human resource development, training & labor management services.
- Triorb — Triorb is a technology company that specializes in robot mobility development with the help of software and hardware solutions.
- Symbiobe — Symbiobe develops and promotes a resource-recycling material production platform that effectively utilizes natural biomass resources and photosynthetic organisms, which have not been fully exploited in the past, and to update manufacturing around the world to a form that can be passed on to the next generation, thereby making sustainable society...
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
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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 — Buy KPOP, Korean skincare, and any products from Korean shopping sites. Use our free Korean address, consolidation, forwarding, and personal shopper!
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!
Osaka University Venture Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage ventures in the fields of life innovation, green innovation, and platform technology.
The firm was founded in 2014 and based in Osaka, Japan.
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, Manufacturing, Health Care
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Celaid Therapeutics — Celaid Therapeutics specializes in manufacturing and sales of regenerative medicine products utilizing human hematopoietic stem cells.
- Restore Vision — Restore Vision is a startup based in Japan aiming to develop a visual restoration gene therapy.
- Red Arrow Therapeutics — Red Arrow Therapeutics is a biotech firm that provides systemic cytokine delivery, targeted intratumoral activation, and biological potency.
500 Startups is the most active seed VC in the world. 500 Startups Japan is a $35M regional fund focusing on Japan.
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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.
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!
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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.
Nishio Kentaro is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer & President at Game8.
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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.
NES Venture Capital is an investment firm.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Software, Web3
- Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Recri — Recri works for the entertainment industry and specializes in operations management tasks like ticketing for stage, film, and music shows.
- D-Chain — D-Chain offers services related to IT development and production in the Web3 and Web2 fields.
- Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.
Winroader with a strong mission to create a new flow of goods in the logistics industry.
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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.
SLD Entertainment operates and manages cafes and restaurants under "kawara CAFE&DINING" brand.
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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.
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.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Health Care
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Japan, China
Portfolio highlights
- Dr. Treat — Experience pet care at its best with exceptional personalized veterinary care at unsurpassed levels. After all, our companions are entitled to happier, healthier, and longer lives.
- SUN METALON — Next Generation Sustainable Metal Manufacturing
- Stellar Sleep — Stellar Sleep is a mobile app that helps you get better sleep using psychology. Stellar Sleep uses a combination of behavioral therapy, habit building social accountability, and gamification to create an enjoyable, yet clinically effective way for people to improve their sleep.
The Seed Capital is a Japan-based venture capital firm.
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Investment focus
- Audio, Architecture, Information Technology
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- FiT — FiT encourages the use of information technology in fitness to address industrial concerns. We will build a highly sustainable fitness facility using a business model that allows consumers to easily use the gym without being burdened by price or procedures, while also allowing owners to build a very successful business with low running costs.
- AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
- AI Communis — Automatic Speech Recognition, NLP, SaaS
Venture United is a provider of venture capital for entrepreneurs, especially for internet-related businesses.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Software, Information Technology
- 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.
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.
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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.
Sansei Capital provides portfolio management, corporate management support, and financing services.
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Investment focus
- Content, Medical, Biotechnology
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, 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.
Mercari is your marketplace. It's the perfect place to declutter and discover items that are uniquely you. Say 'goodbye' to your old go-tos and 'hello' to one-of-a-kind treasures.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Online Portals, Financial Services
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, Indonesia
Portfolio highlights
- aMi Inc. — aMi Inc. is a Booking platform for photographers.
- Meetscare — Meetscare provides correct information and supports the self-awareness of all people involved in care. The company provides a wealth of information to ensure optimal care and create a mechanism for the realization. Users can make a telephone consultation and web diagnosis and search for free information using the system.Meetscare was founded on2016 and is headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo.
- Infradigital — IDN is the fastest growing B2B school platform in Indonesia, providing data & financial services to thousands of schools and hundreds of thousands of students across the country.
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.
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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.
Okinawa Development Finance Corporation provides policy-based financial services.
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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.
- 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.
- Swivel — Swivel's mission is to create the fishing brand.
Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi (formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".
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Investment focus
- Content, Media and Entertainment, Social Media
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- 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.
- Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
- Neighbor — The creative universe of Fortnite is infinite. To give an example , building fantasy and science fiction worlds, creating simple games and full-scale battle games can all be completed with Fortnite. Is the world of Fortnite, played by 350 million users worldwide, is it real or unreal? We will try to combining the vast world of Fortnite with the real world.
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.
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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
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.
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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
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.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Finance, Information Technology
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan, United States, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- Autify — AI software testing company aimed at solving the challenges associated with automation testing. We are passionate about making software testing faster and easier, empowering companies to release faster and keep their applications stable.
- Peach Cars — Peach Cars building a solution for those looking to buy and sell vehicles whole information on vehicles and hassle-free transactions.
- AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.
Monex Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan that finances seed and early stage investments in startup companies.
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Investment focus
- Software, Financial Services, Information Technology
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, China
MTG Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of MTG that invests in beauty and wellness tech, food tech, and sports tech sectors.
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Investment focus
- Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Food and Beverage
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- knowuit — knowuit is a company that provides supply chain efficiency solutions to shippers. It develops and provides "Newit," a supply chain DX tool for shippers.
- Robofull — Robofull is a manufacturing firm that specializes in the design and sale of automation equipment for factories to solve the labor shortage.
- Auba — Auba is engaged in open innovation program, consulting specialized in Ol, and media outreach activities.
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.
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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.
SUKOYAKA HOLDINGS is a mental and physical health care service provider.
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Investment focus
- Automotive, Mobile Apps, Restaurants
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- 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.
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.
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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.
- New Revo — New Revo is a logistics start-up company that provides "strategic logistics".
- Baseconnect Japan — Baseconnect Co., Ltd. connects people from all over the world and spends one-tenth the time it takes for people to “know”.
Ryugin Research Institute Co., Ltd., took over its business from the Economic Research Office of the Corporate Support Department, which is the economic research division of the Bank of the Ryukyus, and became independent on June 28, 2006 in a form that further strengthened its functions.The Ryukyu Bank Research Department was the predecessor ofthe Economic Research Office, but since the foundation of the Ryukyu Bank in 1948, it has conducted various economic and industrial surveys and made proposals and proposals, etc. We have been committed to development.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Automotive, Web Design
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- EC-GAIN — Ec Gain is a service to fulfill the EC operator's "want to sell more".
- Re:Build — Re:Build is to create the world where we can help each other. Re:Build company was born from the desire to help those who challenge.Our mission is to create a world where help and support circulate throughout the business .
- 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.
Voyage Ventures is the venture capital arm of Voyage Group specializing in seed and early-stage investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the internet and mobile internet industry. It invests from JPY1 million ($.01million) to JPY to 10 million ($.12 million) in its portfolio companies. The firm typically invests in Japan, China, and othergrowing Asian markets. Voyage Ventures, Inc., formerly known as EC Navi Ventures Company, was founded on March 25, 2011, and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
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Investment focus
- Software, Internet, Content
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, China, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- pickupon — Pickupon is a company that transcribes important parts of the call
- bravesoft — bravesoft is a software company that operates events and in-house product for contract development and events. The company offering services such as UI / UX design, application consignment development service, appvisor push, and technical research service.
- ventus Japan — ventus is an Media and Entertainment based company.ventus aiming to be an entertainment company that provides technology that all fans can enjoy.
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