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Top 50 SaaS Angel Investors in Japan in July 2025

Last updated: Jul 2025 A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Saas startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Saas companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 50 SaaS Angel Investors in Japan in July 2025

Investor	SaaS Japan investments
Ayataro Nakagawa	29
Kotaro Chiba	22
Kotaro Chiba	22
Hidetoshi Takano	22
Kensuke Furukawa	22
Nobuhiro Ariyasu	22
Yusuke Sato	20
Yu Akasaka	20
Hirofumi Miki	20
Masao Ito	13
Toru Shimada	12
Tatsuo Sakamoto	12
Mamoru Taniya	11
Yoshinori Fukushima	10
Yasuyuki Kin	9
Soichiro Kawai	9
Jun Nishikawa	8
Shogo Kawada	8
Shintaro Yamada	8
Masanori Sugiyama	8
Fumiaki Koizumi	8
Shunsuke Oyu	8
Ryosuke Matsumoto	7
Noguchi Keito	7
Yuki Naito	6
Hironao Kunimitsu	6
Naoki Aoyagi	6
Narita Shuzo	6
Kiyoshi Nishikawa	6
Tomohito Ebine	6
Chihiro Asano	5
Kazuma Ieiri	5
Shota Horii	5
Kazuhiro Ishikura	5
Yuto Nagatomo	5
Suzuki Tatsuya	5
Yuichi Kawasaki	5
Yoshitsune Ido	5
Hiroshi Tomishima	4
Shuichi Takenaga	4
Nishio Kentaro	4
Dai Tamesue	4
Makoto Takano	4
Sotaro Karasawa	4
Oki Matsumoto	4
Masaru Tange	4
Shigeru Urushibara	4
Chikako Morimoto	4
Shunsuke Sasaki	4
Masaru Sunagawa	4

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Investor list

2011 At university, participated in the founding period as a director of Atcole Co., Ltd., and started the web service experience.2012 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd., which operates a curation platform for women "MERY" .2014 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd. Sold to DeNA 2015 Jointly established Tokyo Founders Fund as an angel investor and startedinvesting in startups in Japan and overseas 2019 Appointed outside director of FIREBUG Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Content
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Hong Kong, United States

Portfolio highlights

Mepple — Mepple is planning, developing, and operating internet services.
For you — For you is a comprehensive Advertising agency business specializing in SNS.
SPORTS CROWN — SPORTS CROWN engages in the development and operation of fantasy sports.

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

Information Technology, 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.

Joined Intelligence in 1999. Established Key Players Inc. in 2005. Consultation with more than 3,000 managers and career counseling for more than 10,000 individuals. In addition, we have invested in more than 55 outside directors, advisors and angels in Silicon Valley and Bangladesh in Japan. Over 100 lectures on careers, entrepreneurship andstartups.

Investment focus

Internet, Information Technology, Human Resources
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
D-Chain — D-Chain offers services related to IT development and production in the Web3 and Web2 fields.
Rayout — Rayout is a business consulting company that provides creative content development, recruitment videos, and web production services.

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".

Investment focus

Content, Social Media, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

iiba — Iiba is a geospatial platform that specializes in providing location information related to child-rearing.
Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United.

Investment focus

Finance, Content, Internet
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Mign — Mign offers a generative AI-related SaaS solutions for the construction and real estate fields.
Finovo — Finovo specializes in the research, development, operation, and maintenance of cutting-edge accounting and financial software solutions.
Tsunagari AI — Tsunagari specializes in developing and providing AI-powered consultation services tailored for local governments, aiming to enhance administrative efficiency, support citizen engagement, and streamline public service delivery.

Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder of Pulit.

Investment focus

Content, Internet, Food and Beverage
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, Indonesia, United States

Portfolio highlights

Kaimak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
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.
Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.

During Hosei University student, and intern at Hakuhodo C & D. After joining the Image-net, I do media monetization of EC site as a media planner. Then, new business, engaged in Alliance. Launched a crowdsourcing site "MILLION DESIGNS" of design in the individual, sold to Ransazu Corporation. Established the Eureka Co., Ltd., wasappointed Representative Director CEO.

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Content, Internet
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Australia, Hong Kong

Portfolio highlights

Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
RE — RE specializes in smartphone application design and development.
Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.

After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.

Investment focus

Content, Marketing, Internet
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Epicbase — Epicbase is an AI-based automatic voice transcription service based on voice recognition technology.
Go Visions — Go Visions engages in the edutainment tech for children and human resources services.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.

Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.

Investment focus

Content, Social Media, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Illusil — Illusil is a service that makes it easier for anyone to generate slide materials and reduces the amount of time needed to do it. Additionally, presentations can be automatically generated from text input by AI, and over 1,000 design templates can be used to build original slides.
Alyaum — Aryaum supports "regional revitalization through NFT" by offering local governments all around the nation hometown tax and tourism NFT solutions.
Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.

Toru Shimada is a Senior Executive Officer and Director of Rakuten. Mr. Shimada is a Director of Rakuten Baseball, Inc., and Head of Asia Regional Headquarters Office of the Company.Mr. Shimada joined Rakuten in 2004. Prior to joining Rakuten, Mr. Shimada was founder and Director of INTELLIGENCE, LTD from 1989 to 2004. Prior to INTELLIGENCE, LTD.Mr. Shimada worked at RECRUIT CO., LTD. from 1987 to 1989.

Investment focus

Internet, Task Management, Marketing
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ixyas — Ixyas offers internet service planning, operation, marketing support, and sales services.
Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.

Tatsuo Sakamoto is a Head of Sales, Japan at MOLOCO. He Attended The University of Tokyo.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Education, Recruiting
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

bgrass — bgrass is a consultation support platform for women working in the IT industry.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.
Metaverse Creators — Metaverse Creators is a feature-rich virtual platform providing gamers with a wide range of games, creation tools, and avatar editing tools.

After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he joined Solomon Brothers, where he became the youngest managing director in Asia, where he was in charge of Asian investment. After that, he created one of the largest independent Asuka assets. He also launched Japan's first independent online life insurance company,LifeNet Life Insurance, and inspired Japan's first International.

Investment focus

Apps, Content, FinTech
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, Spain

Portfolio highlights

Revorf — Revorf analyzes data and develops AI-related to infectious diseases and healthcare.
abillion — Find tips for plant-based food & products near you. Join the community to share reviews of restaurants & brands. Raise funds & drive sustainability!
RIMM Sustainability — RIMM Sustainability provides a SaaS platform that enables companies of all sizes to optimise their sustainability management effort. It builds tools for sustainability management, reporting and optimisation.

Yoshinori Fukushima - CEO @ LayerX

Investment focus

Internet, Marketing, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
Amptalk — Amptalk is a software development firm specializing in operating automatic transcription and analysis of online business negotiations.
PeopleX — PeopleX encourages and assists employees in their professional development.

Yasuyuki Kin

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Career Planning
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Onepair — Onepair is a job consulting and recruiting company. Onepair is to co-creating careers by talking about real-world ace with active ace.
Strainer Co., Ltd. — Strainer Co., Ltd. is an information distribution platform that conveys corporate information centered on financial data. Although there are not a few media to deliver financial information, the company's strengths are strong to be easily viewed, including financial information of overseas companies.
LAMILA — LAMILA develops system that improves the creation of retail stores.

Soichiro Kawai - CEO @ ReBoost

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Internet
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Villio — Villio provides talent experience SaaS which helps companies with human resource development and recruitment of talented engineers.
Back Dooor — Back Dooor is an app that provides 1on1 chatting services with favorite player of the users.
SPeak — SPeak Corporation operates JPort Match that is involved in direct recruiting service. It is a global career platform for budding new talents.

Jun Nishikawa - Co-founder, Executive Vice President, COO @ Eureka

Investment focus

Food and Beverage, Media and Entertainment, Mobile
Seed, Series A, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
Misaky Tokyo — Marine plant-based, handmade Japanese sweets. These crystal treats are individually handcrafted, the perfect gift idea! Vegan, gluten-free, and additive-free confectionery, with stunning flavors such as Yuzu, Matcha, and Rose. Supporting artisans in their craft. Japanese luxury sweets with a surprise inside.
Reiwa Travel — Reiwa Trave is a digital travel agency intended that optimizes overseas travel. The company's platform uses online travel booking tools that provide digitalized contracts along with trip management, thereby enabling its customers' vacation and leisure experiences.

Shogo Kawada is Co-founder and Adviser of DeNA, a global Internet company focused on a social games platform, social games, e-commerce and other Web services for mobile devices and PCs.

Investment focus

Software, SaaS, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Voicy — Voicy is a mobile platform that recruits both media personalities and news organizations; the entertainers read the news so users can get the latest info from their favorite voices.
Sunblaze — sunblaze is a android-based smartphone users begin to experience stability issues after one to two years of use. For example, their device may get slower or they encounter unexpected app crashes. These stability issues also lead to security vulnerabilities.SUNBLAZE OS features essential functions only, meaning it does not have any unnecessaryfunctions. This allows the system to be more stable and secure, and users are able to use it for a longer period of time.
Spider Labs — Spider Labs offers solutions to help fight ad fraud and ensure data security.

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, Information Technology
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Zypsy — A design collective building for web3. We invest creative expertise in exchange for equity/token.
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.

He graduated from Kansai University in 1988. He was enrolled in Ljoma while he was in college. 2002 Vice President of Practice (now index lights). In 2004, he became president of zappallas. Listed on the TSE Mothers in the second year of his appointment, and in 2010 he was listed in part of the TSE. In 2011 he became the CEO of enish. Listed on apart of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Thereafter, he served as outside directors such as Nikkatsu and JibannetHD.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

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 .
STUDIO — The easiest and quickest way to build your beautiful portfolio website, landing page or anything. No code. All creative freedom.
STUDIO Japan — STUDIO is a development and operation of the next-generation design tool.

Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.
Aoyama Arts — Aoyama Arts is an architecture and consulting company that develops design offices and supports land search and financing plans.
Fabric Tokyo — FABRIC TOKYO is a Japanese startup provides a direct-to-consumer custom-made apparel brand. (former-company name Lifestyle Design Co., Ltd.). It enables customers to save their sizes, idea fabrics, and favorite designs, allowing them to make their original clothing later.FABRIC TOKYO was founded in 2012 by Yuichiro Mori and is based in Tokyo,Japan.

Shunsuke Oyu is the co-founder of Connehito Inc. Started an online Q&A platform “mamari” which is the largest platform for moms in Japan. Connehito was acquired by one of the telecom giant KDDI in 2016. Selected as a “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” at consumer technology department. Angel-investing 50+ companies globally.

Investment focus

Content, Internet, Media and Entertainment
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Singapore, United States

Portfolio highlights

Tohakusha — Tohakusha is a creative agency that offers design, production and sale of digital content and EC websites, and content creation services.
Ai-Dounyu.com — Ai-Dounyu.com is a platform that helps organizations looking to integrate AI choose their ideal AI implementation partner for free.
Neighbor — Neighbor is a metaverse game developer that specializes in Fortnite.

Ryosuke Matsumoto is the Founder / CEO at Kankak. Ryosuke Matsumoto attended Chuo University.

Investment focus

Art, Reservations, Software
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

6curry — 6curry is a brand that creates a new community around “curry”, one of the world's best Japanese foods. The concept is to mix many people and ideas like curry made by mixing various ingredients and spices. Original menu development, weekly events are held in the central kitchen, open only to members. We design and produce communication bornfrom food, such as event catering for over 500 people and communication proposals within the company.
TRiCERA — TRiCERA is a contemporary art global platform management company.
Vivid Garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.

Noguchi Keito - Founder @ Vapes

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Financial Services
Seed, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Dofa — Dofa aims to develop services that enrich the way of life and work of human resources that are active mainly in sales.
Alliance Cloud — Alliance Cloud primarily engages in the Sales Tech and BtoB Sales Outsourcing Business.
Cloud Franchise — Cloud Franchise is a cloud kitchen model that aims to maximize the kitchen occupancy rate of restaurants.

Yuki Naito - CEO,President @ Drecom

Investment focus

Manufacturing, Internet, SNS
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
Fools — Fools is a footwear manufacturing company.
Interstellar Technologies — Interstellar Technologies is a rocket development, manufacturing and launch service.

Hironao Kunimitsu was born in Hyogo, Japan. After graduating from Okayama High School, he spent several years traveling around the world. He visited over 30 countries including the US, China, India, Canada, and others in Central and South America.In 1996 he entered Fudan University in China, and then later went on to study at Santa MonicaCollege in the US. In 2004 he entered Atmovie Inc. where he produced movies and televised dramas, and was appointed company director in the same year. In 2007 he founded gumi Inc., and it started listing on first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December, 2014.

Investment focus

Virtual Reality, Content, Media and Entertainment
Funding Round, Seed, Angel
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
Gatari — Gatari is developing an AR audio platform, including the AR camera app Vismuth, which can call avatars in reality.
Thirdverse — Thirdverse (formerly known as Yomuneco Inc) is engaged in Virtual Reality content and services planning, development, sales and management.

Naoki Aoyagi is a Senior Vice President at GREE, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of GREE International, Inc. He joined GREE, Inc. in March 2006 from Deutsche Bank, where he had specialized in tech and media sector IPOs and M&A advisory work. At GREE, Aoyagi oversaw the Company's partnership with KDDI and its IPO before leading thedevelopment of GREE’s global operations, a role he continues today. Aoyagi earned a bachelor's degree in policy management from Keio University in 2002.

Investment focus

Internet, Fashion, Software
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Enechain — enechain provides liquidity in Japan’s energy market by brokering OTC transactions of energy.
Parallel — Parallel is the hangout app where you can enjoy games, videos, music, and more with friends.
Holmes — Holmesis a cloud contract system to consistently carry out the creation, conclusion and management of contracts in the cloud.

Narita Shuzo is a Executive Vice President/COO, CrowdWorks Inc.

Investment focus

Task Management, Media and Entertainment, Content
Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
MiL Inc — Emerging products for healthcare food brands Producing food retailing and wholesale recipe development Restaurant management Catering media operation.

After working at KDD Corporation ï¼ˆCurrently known as KDDI Corporationï¼‰, Kiyoshi Nishikawa next went to work at Arthur D. Little Inc. in the United States, where he became inspired to start his own company. After returning to Japan, he established a Japanese corporation of the worldâ€™s largest Internet company, America On Line, LLC. Later andbased on this experience and the relationships he developed, he founded the first Internet business incubator, NETAGE, Inc. After serving as the President and CEO of NETAGE Group, he later became and still serves as the Chairman of ngi group, inc. Kiyoshi was one of the main entrepreneurs responsible for proposing and realization of â€œShibuya Bit Valley Conceptâ€ and is well known for his various speeches and writings. He is a graduate of the Department of Education at Tokyo University.

Investment focus

News, Social Media, Big Data
Seed, Funding Round, Pre-Seed
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

PoliPoli — PoliPoli is a next-generation politics co-creation platform where you can participate like a game. Politicians from all over Japan post their policies in an easy-to-understand manner, and those who sympathize can enjoy working on the "missions" necessary to realize the policies.
Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
TECHFUND — TechFund is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed stage investments. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Tomohito Ebine is non-executive Director at Owls Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

Home Services, Information Technology, Consulting
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Mign — Mign offers a generative AI-related SaaS solutions for the construction and real estate fields.
Smartround — Smartround is a specialized finance management platform for startups and their investors. For start-ups, for entrepreneurs who are not familiar with finance, simply enter the necessary information according to the guide, prepare appropriate financing round, and prepare a function that can simulate and execute a capital increase. Support informationsharing and communication with shareholders even after the capital increase.
CAREER BIJIN — Career bijin is a total support company.

Chief Technology Officer at Money Forward.

Investment focus

Content, Legal, FinTech
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HERP — HERP is a recruitment management platform.
Issues — Issues provides development and management of web service issues that solve the problems.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.

Born in 1978 and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, Kazuma founded paperboy&co. inc. (currently GMO Pepabo) and went on to become the youngest CEO ever (at the time) to take a company public in Japan by taking paperboy&co. public on the JASDAQ Japanese stock exchange. After leaving paperboy&co, he continued his startup trail by foundingBASE, CAMPFIRE, and XIMERA. Kazuma also dabbled in the food services industry via the founding of On The Corner (a cafe) and is active in the startup investment scene. He also started the Liverty-house project which attempts to create shared housing for young people in need.

Investment focus

Content, Fashion, Logistics
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Taliki — Taliki is a Coworking Space Operates Social Entrepreneurs Development Support for Intrepreneur Development.
One Nova — One Nova (ワンノバ) is a lifestyle brand and online platform that offers a range of innerwear products, such as men's boxers.
Vivid Garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.

Shota Horii

Investment focus

Information Technology, Internet, Art
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Flatt Security — Flatt Security is a cyber security company for all developers.
Lecto — Lecto provides Saas solutions to eliminate the tedious practices behind financial services
Respo — Respo is a service that enables people to save money by buying things at a discount.

Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.

Investment focus

Beauty, Content, Fashion
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
WARC — WARC provides hands-on support for business management departments as well as mergers and acquisition advisory services.
Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.

Yuto Nagatomo - President, CEO, and Founder @ Cuore Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

SNS, Video, Beauty
Funding Round, Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
SAURUS JAPAN —

1985. Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Hitotsubashi University. In 2008, he engaged in new business support and venture support for large companies at Inspire Co., Ltd. In 2011, he was appointed director of UXConsulting company wacul. In 2012, he was appointed director of giftee.

Investment focus

Internet, Agriculture, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Pleap — Pleap is a medical engineering company specializing in the development of AI and IoT-based technology solutions tailored for medical institutions. The company's product offerings include "medimo" which is an AI tool that automatically creates medical record manuscripts from medical audio.
AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
Conoris Technologies — Conoris Technologies is a staffing agency that offers security check support services for companies.

Yuichi Kawasaki Prior joining SmartNews, I was COO at mixi, Founder & CEO at kamado, Executive Vice President at Hatena. I started my career at Cisco Systems G.K.

Investment focus

CRM, Finance, Security
Angel, Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Blankr — Blankr inc has developed an application called Raidli. Using the app, Vtubers can hold a virtual handshake event.
Givearth — Givearth app enable users to make donations just by carrying out their daily shopping and consumption activities.
AVA Intelligence — AVA Intelligence is a Internet service development company.

Yoshitsune Ido

Investment focus

Information Technology, Robotics, Software
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

BionicM — BionicM develops high-performance robot prostheses that enhance mobility for people with disabilities.BionicM has been conducting research on innovative technologies since 2015 at the University of Tokyo's Information Systems Engineering Laboratory (JSK) under the guidance of Professor Inaba and utilizing the world's most advancedrobotics research. In 2016, we were adopted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency as part of "Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology" (START), and in 2018, the company was established as a joint-stock company.
Dots for — Welcome to Dots for Inc.
Kisui Tech — Kisui Tech is an agricultural AI robotics company that help farmers for farming.

Hiroshi Tomishima is the President and Founder of Zkyuun Entertainment and an Executive Director at Mercari.

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, Big Data
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

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.
Anyplace — Find furnished accommodations to rent for a month or longer. Choose apartments catered for remote work with an equipped home office and high-speed internet.
space data — Space Data is based on an algorithm that allows the AI to recognize geospatial data from the Earth and easily assign another Earth in VR. The company is developing an algorithm to automatically generate another "Earth" in virtual space using 3DCG technology by making the AI understand the geospatial information of the Earth by learningthe vast amount of ground observation data available from satellites. They want to create an AI that can reconstruct the "world" in virtual space by learning all kinds of data from this world, such as traffic volume, pedestrian traffic, day and night, four seasons, temperature, plant distribution, and nighttime light intensity. Its goal is to build a future in which everyone has the ability to create their own world (universe) and shape their own destiny without regard for race, gender, appearance, or environment.

Takenaga Shuuichi is an individual investor.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Management Consulting, Marketing
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
Tagpic — Tagpic offers influencer marketing targeting services such as influencer casting, SNS branding, and talent production.
H&H Group Japan — H&H Holdingsis a Professional Services company.

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.

Dai Tamesue is the Chief Marketing Officer of Miekuru.

Investment focus

Apps, Sports, Health Care
Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MIL — MIL is a marketing company it can be used for a wide range of video marketing such as video commerce , O2O measures , recruitment videos , and landing videos.
Vivid Garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.
SAMURAI Security —

Makoto Takano is CEO of atomixmedia, inc., publisher and editor-in-chief of Forbes Japan and Rolling Stone Japan since June, 2014. Prior to joining Atomixmedia, Inc., he was Managing Director and President of PIMCO Japan Ltd. Before joining PIMCO in 2001, he was head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Makoto's prior experiencealso includes work at Daiwa Securities where he was head of the strategists team at Daiwa Institute of Research. He has published extensively on the capital markets. In 1992, he was awarded Securities Analysts Journal Prize by the Securities Analyst Association of Japan. He has also given lectures on asset management at Waseda University and Kyoto University. He holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in engineering from Waseda University. Makoto serves as Director of Nippon Finance Association and Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation.

Investment focus

Content, Sports, Apps
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, Philippines

Portfolio highlights

BeatFit — BeatFit is a fitness-tech startup based in Japan.
PROGRIT — PROGRIT is an English-related media management company.
Luup — Luup is an Internet Company.

Sotaro Karasawa - Chief Technology Officer @ STAR FESTIVAL

Investment focus

Software, Blockchain, Art
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Taian — Taian, which specializes in bridal industry services and software. They also provide ''Concept Marry,'' which allows couples to design invites and seating charts that match their wedding theme, as well as display guest information on Oiwaii.
Atmoph — A smart digital window that opens to beautiful scenery from around the world. By simply putting it on your desk or hanging it on the wall, Atmoph Window will open up a whole new world before you.
Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.

Oki Matsumoto began his career at Salomon Brothers Asia Limited in April 1987. He then joined Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. in April 1990 and was appointed General Partner of The Goldman Sachs Group, L.P. in November 1994. As a General Partner, he was Co-Head of its Tokyo Branch’s FX & Fixed Income Business and was in charge of FX and fixedincome products and the related risk management. It was in April 1999 that Matsumoto jointly established (the former) Monex, Inc. with Sony Corporation. In August 2004, Matsumoto become the Representative Director and CEO of the Company (former name: Monex Beans Holdings, Inc.) upon its formation through management integration of Monex, Inc. and Nikko Beans Inc. He was named the Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of the Company in February 2011 and then assumed his current position in June 2013.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Cryptocurrency, FinTech
Angel, Seed, Series A
Japan, Taiwan, Australia

Portfolio highlights

Toposware — From pioneering cryptographic research to engineering global-scale distributed systems technologies, Toposware is committed to solving the hardest problems to advance open internet standards.
WATASHIHA — WATASHIHA is a communication company.
Space Walker — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.

Masaru Tange graduated from Kyoto University and joined Incs Inc. in 2000 where he started their IT business and strategy consulting group with only 2 members and developed it into the company's main business with a team of 140 consultants with annual revenue of $50M in 5 years. He then founded SHIFT Inc in 2005 in his studio apartment. He wasthe only employee. The business world wasn't very kind to him - he made no revenue for a while but he kept experimenting with the business model listening to the needs of customers. In 2009, he finally found traction in the "software testing industry." In 2014, Masaru successfully IPO'ed the company. Shift now has 500 employees.

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, SaaS
Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Timee — Timee is a Planning, development and management of Internet media company.
S-Mat — Smartmat is an eco-friendly IoT purchase system for on-demand, no-hassle grocery with cost-effective shipping.
Launchable — Shorter test runs, smarter test triaging, test health insights, and test failure analysis. Remove friction from the dev-test loop to iterate & ship faster.

Shigeru Urushibara - President & CEO @ UL Systems

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Task Management, Social Media
Series A, Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Ecbo cloak — Ecbo cloak is a sharing service that connects "persons who want to store luggage with shops with space to store luggage. Instead of coin lockers, you can pre-order places online online and store your luggage in the open space of stores of various types of business.
Space Walker — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.
SingulaNet — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.

Chikako Morimoto - External Counsel @ Traimmu

Investment focus

Human Resources, Employment, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Dofa — Dofa aims to develop services that enrich the way of life and work of human resources that are active mainly in sales.
Best Beer Japan — Best Beer Japan provides a barrel tracking software for craft beer and barrel sharing. The company was founded in 2018.
Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.

Shunsuke Sasaki - Executive officer @ Jiraffe

Investment focus

Social Media, Content, SNS
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan, Myanmar

Portfolio highlights

Hackazouk — Hackazouk is an HR Tech company that operates Official-Alumni.com, an alumni relationship management system in Japan and the Philippines to help companies stay connected with their alumni.
bond Japan — Bond Co., Ltd. is a video learning platform specializing in Japanese language studies.
Linklusion — Linklusion is a system development and management support for microfinance institutions in developing countries

After joining Mitsubishi Corporation, he studied at Harvard Business School. After graduating, he joined Globespan Capital Partners, an independent United States VC, and worked as a director of investment. He started LocationValue after the company's representative in Japan. Joined Google after selling the company to NTT DOCOMO. He served asDirector of Product Development for Google Maps and General Manager for Android. He left Google in February 2018 and started Smartround Co., Ltd. in May.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, SNS, Music
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Flyle — Flyle provides a cloud based platform for product management helping customers to improve productivity & creativity in product development.
Sustainable Lab — SusLab is a data bank that uses AI technology to support SDG and ESG development goals and investments.
Paytner — yup is providing services to support freelance people's funding.The freelance population in Japan has been shown to continue to increase in many Chosa. While working styles are diversified, they are not able to respond to the development of the working environment, and they will develop their business to change the situation where problemssuch as funding, credit, sexual harassment, and power harassment are accumulated.

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