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Top 35 Social Startup Investors in Japan (June 2026)

The most active venture capital funds and angel investors investing in Japan Social startups. This investor list is updated monthly from the Shizune investor database, ranked by number of investments in Japan Social startup companies. Find investors to raise a Seed, Series A or Series B round with Shizune.
Investor Relevant Deals Geography Stage Focus Round Size
ANRI
VC Fund
2 Japan, United States, India Seed, Series A Software, Health Care, Information Technology $1M–$624M
Spurcle
VC Fund
2 Japan Seed, Series A Artificial Intelligence, Agriculture, Manufacturing $645k–$142M
East Ventures
VC Fund
2 Japan, Indonesia, Singapore Seed, Series A Software, Information Technology, Internet $649k–$38M
Nissay Capital
VC Fund
2 Japan, United States, Ethiopia Seed, Series A Health Care, Information Technology, Medical $709k–$77M
Sansei Capital Investment
VC Fund
1 Japan, China, Belgium Series A, Series B Content, Medical, Task Management $120k–$113M
Shinji Senba
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Waseda University
VC Fund
1 Japan Series A, Seed, Series B Social, FinTech, Big Data
Recruit Strategic Partners
VC Fund
1 United States, Japan, India Series A, Seed, Series B Software, E-Commerce, FinTech $100k–$57M
KDDI Open Innovation Fund
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States, Israel Series B, Series A Software, Internet, Information Technology $2M–$553M
WERU Investment
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States Seed, Series A Information Technology, Software, Consulting $1.5M–$64M
Hiroshi Sawa
Angel
1 Japan Social, Big Data, Analytics
UNITED
VC Fund
1 Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia Seed, Series A Apps, Software, Media and Entertainment $980k–$89M
Kodansha
VC Fund
1 Japan, Indonesia, United States Corporate Round, Seed Software, News, Content $8.3M–$170M
FreakOut Holdings
VC Fund
1 Japan, India, Singapore Series A, Seed, Series B Software, Information Technology, Finance $102k–$59M
Ogawa Ryo
Angel
1 Japan Seed Apps, Social, Finance $420k–$645k
aucfan
VC Fund
1 Japan, Indonesia, France Series A, Corporate Round E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet $1.4M–$43M
Hakuhodo DY Ventures
VC Fund
1 Japan, Australia, Singapore Series A, Series B Health Care, Media and Entertainment, Internet $3.6M–$156M
Kento Hayashi
Angel
1 Japan Series A Social, Big Data, Analytics
Taliki
VC Fund
1 Japan Seed, Angel, Series A Sustainability, Cooking, Information Technology $645k–$21M
Global Brain Corporation
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States, United Kingdom Series A, Series B Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence $3M–$369M
Maezawa Fund
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States Seed Laser, Beauty, Social
Makuake
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States Product Crowdfunding, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage $79k–$68M
Shunsuke Ikegami
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, Cooking, Big Data
Shochiku Ventures
VC Fund
1 Japan Sales, Space Travel, Manufacturing
Tetsuya Nagashima
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Yoshihiro Yamauchi
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Venture Labo Investment
VC Fund
1 Japan, Indonesia, South Korea Series B, Seed Financial Services, FinTech, Internet $953k–$553M
Hirofumi Miki
Angel
1 Japan Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed Content, Internet, Software $2.8M–$16M
Shunsuke Masaki
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
Toyokazu Ichise
Angel
1 Japan Seed Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
SMBC Venture Capital
VC Fund
1 Japan, United States, Singapore Series A, Series B Information Technology, Health Care, Software $5M–$425M
PKSHA Capital
VC Fund
1 Japan, South Korea, China Seed, Series A Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Internet $1.9M–$43M
Startup Factory
VC Fund
1 Japan Seed, Series A E-Commerce, Sustainability, Apps $400k–$696k
ON & BOARD
VC Fund
1 Japan Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A Artificial Intelligence, Fuel, SaaS
Suzuki Yuto
Angel
1 Japan Seed, Series A SaaS, Social, Content
Access all 79 investors in Japan Social startups.

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822 industries, 177 countries. Updated daily. Emails and phones included.

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Investor list

ANRI
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 2 investments in Japan Social startups

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

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, Health Care, Information Technology
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, United States, India

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 235
  • Round size: Seed $1M–$94M; Series A $6.1M–$624M
  • Lead/follow: 23% lead, 77% follow
  • Last fund: Likely still investing — raised $102M in 2022

Portfolio highlights

  • Fondi — fondi is a completely new English conversation communication service that allows you to live a virtual communal life with the world.
  • 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.
  • Knowledge Work — Knowledge Work specializes in the development and sales of software for companies.
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Spurcle
VC Fund · Sendai, Miyagi, Japan · 2 investments in Japan Social startups

Spurcle is a venture capital firm.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Agriculture, Manufacturing
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 19
  • Round size: Seed $645k–$15M; Series A $21M–$142M
  • Lead/follow: 47% lead, 53% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • LAPRAS — LAPRASis an Artificial Intelligence company.
  • Cell-En — Cell-En is a bioelectricity company that provides power solutions through off-grid power generation.
  • Zip Infrastructure — Inquiry : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDmxd1TpPP331TY4VoRsvn0yWX3Ca5Jd-bfBiuPwvpD2SKtA/viewform
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East Ventures
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 2 investments in Japan Social startups

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

  • Industry: Software, Information Technology, Internet
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, Indonesia, Singapore

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 443
  • Round size: Seed $649k–$18M; Series A $2.1M–$38M
  • Lead/follow: 36% lead, 64% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Sabu — Sabu is an online work agency that offers back-office operations, web production, and outsourcing services for the dental care industry.
  • Lanturn — Register your business in Singapore globally. From incorporation services Singapore to business registration for foreigners & locals, we handle it all.
  • Rekosistem — Rekosistem is a Clean- & Climate-Tech Company that enables circular economy implementation in the waste supply chain by leveraging proprietary waste management operation systems to transform waste into recycled materials and renewable resources.
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Nissay Capital
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 2 investments in Japan Social startups

Nissay Capital is a venture capital Company specializing in seed, start-up, growth capital, middle stage, and later stage investment.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Health Care, Information Technology, Medical
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, United States, Ethiopia

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 223
  • Round size: Seed $709k–$43M; Series A $2.7M–$77M
  • Lead/follow: 25% lead, 75% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Todoker — Todoker is a baggage delivery convenient service providing company.
  • CREO Bioscience — Cleo Bioscience is a Biotechnology company.
  • 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.
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Sansei Capital Investment
VC Fund · Koto, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

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

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Content, Medical, Task Management
  • Stage:Series A, Series B
  • Geography: Japan, China, Belgium

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 50
  • Round size: Series A $1.3M–$85M; Series B $120k–$113M
  • Lead/follow: 6% lead, 94% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2015

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.
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Shinji Senba
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Shinji Senba is a Director of Green Innovations Holdings.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
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Waseda University
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Waseda University is a Tokyo-based private university that offers various degree programs. As the second private university to be founded in Japan, Waseda University is considered to be one of Japan's most prestigious universities, consistently ranking amongst the top universities in Japanese university rankings. The University has manynotable alumni in Japan, with seven Prime Ministers of Japan and many CEOs, including Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of UNIQLO and wealthiest man in Japan.Waseda University's main campus is located in the Nishi-Waseda district of Shinjuku. Apart from the main campus in Shinjuku, It has other campuses around the country, including Toyama Campus and Nishi-Waseda Campus in Shinjuku; Nihonbashi Campus in Chuo-ku; Higashifushimi Campus in Nishitokyo; Tokorozawa Campus in Tokorozawa; Honjo Campus in Honjo, Saitama; and Kitakyushu Campus in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka.The university has more than fifty thousand students and staff, comprising 13 undergraduate schools, 23 graduate schools, and other research and affiliated institutes, and is one of the 13 universities in the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's ""Global 30"" Project. It has partnerships with more than 600 universities and tertiary institutions, with many international students studying abroad at Waseda University each year.Established in 1882 as the Tōkyō College by Okuma Shigenobu, the school was renamed Waseda University in 1902 after the founder's hometown village.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, FinTech, Big Data
  • Stage:Series A, Seed, Series B
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 6
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Zuva KK — Zuva KK provides an information platform dedicated to overseas startups based on the project.
  • ZAISAN Net — ZAISAN Net is the well-known leading AI-Fintech startup in Japan, specializing in handling time-series of data like stock price movements. Institutional investors benefit from ZAISAN Net’s AI forecast signals and alerts while consumers have access to Kabuto-yohou, the stock forecast from wall-street in Japan, which is already popular and has beenintroduced on World Business Satellite, TV program similar to CNN.
  • SymBio Pharmaceuticals — SymBio Pharmaceuticals Limited operates as a biopharmaceutical company. It offers Symbenda medicine for treating low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphatic leukemia in Singapore. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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Recruit Strategic Partners
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Recruit Strategic Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in innovative startups from all around the world. It is a corporate venture capital arm of Recruit Holdings that seeks to invest in education and financial technology, digital healthcare, and infrastructure sectors. It was established in 2008 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, E-Commerce, FinTech
  • Stage:Series A, Seed, Series B
  • Geography: United States, Japan, India

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 71
  • Round size: Seed $100k–$8.5M; Series A $3M–$57M; Series B $6M–$33M
  • Lead/follow: 27% lead, 73% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $25M in 2019

Portfolio highlights

  • Blacklane — Blacklane is the global chauffeur service that offers safety, sustainability, and stress-free travel. Since 2017, the company has been carbon-neutral, combining a five-star guest experience with care for the planet. The customers can book their travels using Blacklane’s mobile app or website.Blacklane was co-founded by Jens Wohltorf and FrankSteuer and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
  • Steady — Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income
  • ZenBusiness — Start a new business today for $0 or grow your existing business with the ZenBusiness platform. Get to your first dollar faster without the stress.
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KDDI Open Innovation Fund
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture capital fund that will support promising startup companies. Total size of the fund is JPY10 billion. This is the first corporate venture capital fund established by KDDI. The fund will be managed by Global Brain Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO, Yasuhiko Yurimoto),which has a strong track record in the venture capital business. By combining KDDI’s know-how and assets with Global Brain’s investment and management support capabilities, we will work together to accelerate cooperative activities with promising startup companies. Through this fund, as well as "KDDI ∞ Labo," a startup incubation program currently inviting a second round of applications, we will continue to support the growth of the next startup companies.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, Internet, Information Technology
  • Stage:Series B, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, United States, Israel

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 97
  • Round size: Series A $2M–$283M; Series B $10M–$553M
  • Lead/follow: 26% lead, 74% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Light — Light is a software development company that allows streamers and viewers to connect in real time through an application.
  • Recho — Recho’s voice AI solutions must offer some unique features. Recho has a mission to "create the future of communication" and provides the VoiceAI platform and its application, Voice Agent.
  • Deeping Source — Real-time Video Analytics based on Data Anonymization. High-accuracy computer vision for large-scale spaces: hypermarkets, shopping malls, convention centers, hospitals, logistics warehouses, construction sites, etc.
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WERU Investment
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

As a pioneer and innovator in venture capital in Japan for the past 2 decades, we are deeply engaged in developing and supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups by leveraging our strategic position as a conduit between government, business and academia.“WERU” is the first research unit in the field of entrepreneurship in Japan established byprofessors at the graduate school, Waseda University in 1993. “WERU Investment” is the first venture capital closely associated with university research labs, centers and institutes in japan. WERU Investment provides financial services for institutional investors (e.g. Pension funds and Endowments) as a Japanese discretionary investment manager (DIM) by fully taking advantage of these research resources, accumulated know-how and strong network.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Information Technology, Software, Consulting
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, United States

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 20
  • Round size: Seed $1.5M–$64M; Series A $6.9M–$13M
  • Lead/follow: 45% lead, 55% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2019

Portfolio highlights

  • Synfini — Synfini, Inc., a privately held Menlo Park, California-based company, is a pioneer in agile chemistry. Its advanced, automated molecular discovery platform is transforming drug discovery through integrated neuro-symbolic AI, discovery-focused robotic automation, and world-class chemistry data. The patented Synfini platform includes automatedchemical synthesis technologies from SRI International. As a commercial enterprise Synfini will provide accelerated molecular discovery to drug hunters and pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
  • Novity — Novity offers predictive maintenance, exceptional accuracy, and cold-start prognostics solutions for the chemical, oil, and gas industries.
  • Cinderelax — Cinderelax is a makeup video app through which individuals can learn makeup.
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Access 48,091 investors

822 industries, 177 countries. Updated daily. Emails and phones included.

Browse database — It's Free!
Hiroshi Sawa
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Joined Fujitsu Limited in 1991, after working at Osaka City University's Faculty of Science. He has a wide range of business experience, from programming to new business development, such as developing Internet services. After that, engaged in IT-related new business development at Sojitz Corporation, and at a major business investmentcompany, engaged in business investment in venture companies, creation of business plans for companies, launching new services, and M & A. In 2008, he became an outside director of eLicense Corporation. In 2009, he was appointed Representative Director of Data Section Co., Ltd. after developing a trend analysis service utilizing big data. Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers on December 24, 2014. Outside director of Japan Data Exchange, Inc. Currently, he is an outside director of Solid Intelligence Co., Ltd. In June 2018, he became chairman.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, Big Data, Analytics
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Datasection — Datasection is a social big data company that provides various big data analysis tools for its clients. It specializes in marketing research, data provision and processing, image analysis, overseas SNS, and data utilization and optimization. Datasection was founded in 2000.
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UNITED
VC Fund · Shibuya, Kanagawa, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

UNITED, Inc. is developing the smart phone app and the advertising technology business.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Apps, Software, Media and Entertainment
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 74
  • Round size: Seed $980k–$57M; Series A $3.8M–$89M
  • Lead/follow: 26% lead, 74% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • iiba — Iiba is a geospatial platform that specializes in providing location information related to child-rearing.
  • xxxxnese — xxxxnese is a logistics company that focuses on import, export, domestic sales, influencer marketing, and software development businesses.
  • Kiwami — Kiwami offers sales promotion assistance and labor-saving solutions through the virtual store clerk.
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Kodansha
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Kodansha is the largest publisher in Japan and produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo. The Noma family—relatives of the founder—continues toown KodanshaSource: [Wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodansha)

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, News, Content
  • Stage:Corporate Round, Seed
  • Geography: Japan, Indonesia, United States

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 14
  • Round size: Seed $28M–$156M; Corporate Round $8.3M–$170M
  • Lead/follow: 21% lead, 79% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • MyAnimeList — Welcome to MyAnimeList, the world's most active online anime and manga community and database. Join the online community, create your anime and manga list, read reviews, explore the forums, follow news, and so much more!
  • SPORTS BULL — SPORTS BULL is an Internet sports media management company.
  • Animoca Brands KK — Animoca Brands KK supports the global strategy of Web3.0 for Japanese intellectual property and content (IP) holders such as major publishers, brands, education, sports organizations, athletes, artists, and game companies. rice field. Animoca Brands KK builds and provides a platform that utilizes blockchain technology and provides a mechanism forIP / IP holders to have their own ecosystem in Web3.0 and issue NFTs and tokens within it.
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FreakOut Holdings
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

We are spread out into global with our mission "Give people work that requires a person" through our freak'in technology.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, Information Technology, Finance
  • Stage:Series A, Seed, Series B
  • Geography: Japan, India, Singapore

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 24
  • Round size: Seed $747k–$14M; Series A $102k–$47M; Series B $10M–$59M
  • Lead/follow: 29% lead, 71% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Progate — Progate is an online platform to learn programming. Learn to build your own apps and services.
  • Coco — Coco is a communication tool. They develop software that will help the service sector become more customer-oriented. They improve customer satisfaction by digitizing customer surveys and converting telephone interactions with customers to text chat.
  • 91springboard — Explore 91Springboard, the best co-working company offering premium co-working spaces and shared office solutions. Whether you're a startup, freelancer, or team, enjoy flexible workspaces, modern amenities, and prime locations tailored to your needs.
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Ogawa Ryo
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Ogawa Ryo - CEO @ Timee

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Apps, Social, Finance
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 3
  • Round size: Seed $420k–$645k
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • LivCo — LivCo is a support service company that offers HR, life support, real estate rental brokerage, and media platform solutions for foreigners.
  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
  • Givearth — Givearth app enable users to make donations just by carrying out their daily shopping and consumption activities.
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aucfan
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

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

  • Industry: E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet
  • Stage:Series A, Corporate Round
  • Geography: Japan, Indonesia, France

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 35
  • Round size: Series A $1.5M–$43M; Corporate Round $1.4M–$40M
  • Lead/follow: 23% lead, 77% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $44M in 2020

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.
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Hakuhodo DY Ventures
VC Fund · Minato, Chiba, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Hakuhodo DY Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Health Care, Media and Entertainment, Internet
  • Stage:Series A, Series B
  • Geography: Japan, Australia, Singapore

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 65
  • Round size: Series A $3.6M–$125M; Series B $5M–$156M
  • Lead/follow: 6% lead, 94% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2019

Portfolio highlights

  • Emole — Emole is a platform that connects content creators with viewers through short drama content, offering a variety of engaging stories.
  • Creator's X — Creator's X is an anime production firm that focuses on developing animation production assistance tools using AI.
  • Wunderbar — Wunderbar provides intellectual property along with branding and marketing services.
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Kento Hayashi
Angel · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Kento Hayashi - President & CEO @ Datasection

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, Big Data, Analytics
  • Stage:Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 2
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Fabeee — "Fabeee" meant to support customers with the challenge of new manufacturing and with all efforts. The line between offline and online is no longer there, and manufacturing is about to change. We will fundamentally change the definition of manufacturing and support customers from various angles.
  • Datasection — Datasection is a social big data company that provides various big data analysis tools for its clients. It specializes in marketing research, data provision and processing, image analysis, overseas SNS, and data utilization and optimization. Datasection was founded in 2000.
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Taliki
VC Fund · Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Taliki is a Coworking Space Operates Social Entrepreneurs Development Support for Intrepreneur Development.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Sustainability, Cooking, Information Technology
  • Stage:Seed, Angel, Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 9
  • Round size: Seed $645k–$21M
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • VCook — VCook is a website for posting recipes that offer vegan food. They give users the ability to search for and save vegan recipes on VCook. They post and share vegan recipes with everyone.
  • Digireha — Digireha is an IT company that provides a tool for rehabilitation by combining digital art and sensors.
  • ForestFolks — ForestFolks Provider of forest management and conservation services aimed at protecting forestry and the environment.The company exploits and successfully employs the forest's CO2 absorption potential and conserves and recovers forest resources and biodiversity, allowing for regulatory compliance and supporting environmental protection.
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Global Brain Corporation
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Global Brain Corporation is a venture capital firm that invests in companies from seed or early to pre-IPO startups. Global Brain has invested in 300+ startups from seed/early to pre-IPO startups and achieved 25 IPOs and 61 M&As as a result of providing hands-on support services and resources to its portfolio startups. Global Brain hasmanaged a pure investment fund as well as multiple corporate venture capital funds partnered together with tier 1 public companies of telecom, real estate development, financial service, beverages, agriculture food, logistics, and electronic devices.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
  • Stage:Series A, Series B
  • Geography: Japan, United States, United Kingdom

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 508
  • Round size: Series A $3M–$142M; Series B $4M–$369M
  • Lead/follow: 24% lead, 76% follow
  • Last fund: Likely actively investing — fund raised in 2024

Portfolio highlights

  • CADDi — CADDi is an online ordering platform for manufacturing industry.
  • Healx — At Healx we use AI drug discovery to develop new treatments for rare diseases. We bring treatments from prediction to patient.
  • Mojo Vision — Mojo Vision is a developer of augmented reality products and platforms intended to invent the future of computing. The company has developed a smart contact lens with a built-in display that gives timely information without interrupting the focus and delivers immediate, powerful, and relevant information without the intrusions of today'smobile devices, enabling users to connect with others at a glance, anytime, anywhere handsfree.Mojo Vision was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Saratoga, California.
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Maezawa Fund
VC Fund · Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

The Maezawa Fund is a joint-stock company that invests in entrepreneurs and organizations whose business themes are “solving social issues” and “pursuing hobbies,” and is based on Yusaku Maezawa’s personal assets. It was established for the purpose of investing 100 million yen.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Laser, Beauty, Social
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan, United States

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 4
  • Lead/follow: no public data

Portfolio highlights

  • YUKASHIKADO — Yukasikado is developing a business on the axis of nutrition that supports the health of the body.
  • ARIGATO BANK — Arigato Bank offers financial services, with a focus on solving social issues.
  • Blue Laser Fusion — Blue Laser Fusion is a commercial fusion company. Blue Laser Fusion is a laser startup to commercialize laser fusion by inventing its own laser and fusion reactor.
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Makuake
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Makuake is a operation of various support services centered on the cloud funding platform "Makuake".It is a product production support project utilizing R & D technology.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage
  • Stage:Product Crowdfunding, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed
  • Geography: Japan, United States

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 41
  • Round size: Seed $170k–$68M; Equity Crowdfunding $79k–$3.3M; Product Crowdfunding $312k–$15M
  • Lead/follow: 63% lead, 37% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
  • Wakaze — Wakaze is a Japanese sake brewing startup.
  • Minimal - Bean to Bar Chocolate — Minimal - Bean to Bar Chocolate is a Chocolate startup
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Shunsuke Ikegami
Angel · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Shunsuke Ikegami is an angel investor.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, Cooking, Big Data
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 2
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • CoCooking — CoCooking uses food and cooking to create ample opportunity for dialogue and thought, fostering creativity, diversity, and well-being of individuals and communities.
  • Datasection — Datasection is a social big data company that provides various big data analysis tools for its clients. It specializes in marketing research, data provision and processing, image analysis, overseas SNS, and data utilization and optimization. Datasection was founded in 2000.
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Shochiku Ventures
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Shochiku Ventures is a venture capital firm.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Sales, Space Travel, Manufacturing
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 3
  • Lead/follow: no public data

Portfolio highlights

  • Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
  • Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.
  • Iwaya Giken — Iwaya Giken manufactures and sells gas balloons, airtight cabins, and other space-travel equipment.
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Tetsuya Nagashima
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Tetsuya Nagashima - Director COO @ Gunosy

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
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Yoshihiro Yamauchi
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Yoshihiro Yamauchi is a individual investor.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
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Venture Labo Investment
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Venture Labo Investment is venture capital firm that provides financial supports to invested companies at each growth stage.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Financial Services, FinTech, Internet
  • Stage:Series B, Seed
  • Geography: Japan, Indonesia, South Korea

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 71
  • Round size: Seed $953k–$75M; Series B $8M–$553M
  • Lead/follow: 17% lead, 83% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $415M in 2018

Portfolio highlights

  • XDeli — XDeli is a digital application that offers food delivery and meal subsidy service for corporate employees.
  • Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
  • Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.
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Hirofumi Miki
Angel · Shibuya, Kanagawa, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

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.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Content, Internet, Software
  • Stage:Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 27
  • Round size: Seed $2.8M–$16M
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • AceRNA Technologies — AceRNA contributes to regenerative medicine and drug discovery through the discovery of novel miRNA functions. It began operation in April 2018, with its headquarters in Kyoto in Japan.
  • 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.
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Shunsuke Masaki
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Mr. Masaki joined Mitsui Ventures in May 2008 as Venture Partner, and since has been focused on investments in retail and service sector. Previously, he worked at Fujita Corporation, a large operator of restaurants and retail chain, where he was responsible for store development and merchandising in Tokyo area. After several successfulyears at Fujita, he took a position with Service Business Division of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., in charge of developing new business utilizing the franchise method.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
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Toyokazu Ichise
Angel · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Toyokazu Ichise is a Director of Peace Communication Foundation.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability
  • Stage:Seed
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 1
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
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SMBC Venture Capital
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

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

  • Industry: Information Technology, Health Care, Software
  • Stage:Series A, Series B
  • Geography: Japan, United States, Singapore

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 485
  • Round size: Series A $5M–$170M; Series B $7.4M–$425M
  • Lead/follow: 4% lead, 96% follow
  • Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2019

Portfolio highlights

  • Metro Weather — Metroweather is a venture from Kyoto University that develops a high-performance Doppler lidar that measures the direction and speed of wind several tens of kilometers away from minute movements of fine particles in the atmosphere. We aim to contribute to the safety of the sky by completing a three-dimensional wind map, which has never beenrealized,based on years of research at the Kyoto University Research Institute for Sustainable Areas.
  • Good News — Good News is a staffing agency that provides recruitment, public relations, and human resource management services.
  • Okuma Diamond Device — Ookuma Diamond Device Co., Ltd. | Creating a next-generation semiconductor industry from Japan, driven by the mission to support the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
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PKSHA Capital
VC Fund · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

We are a venture capital firm accelerating the innovation and the algorithm transformation of existing industries with artificial intelligent technology.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Internet
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan, South Korea, China

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 28
  • Round size: Seed $1.9M–$43M; Series A $2.4M–$25M
  • Lead/follow: 32% lead, 68% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Taxnap — Taxnap develops tax management software for freelancers.
  • LobbyAI — LobbyAI provides a wide range of services related to artificial intelligence, particularly around database construction and management.
  • Ludens AI — Ludens AI develops AI systems for companion robots, focusing on interactive and responsive robotic experiences.
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Startup Factory
VC Fund · Chiba, Chiba, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Startup Factory is a startup fund that provides one-stop support to startups.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: E-Commerce, Sustainability, Apps
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 10
  • Round size: Seed $400k–$696k
  • Lead/follow: 40% lead, 60% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Carstay — Carstay Comfortable Overnight in car or tentdo itCar tripWith guests who want to enjoy.
  • HA-LU — HA-LU is a Short Drama Label that aims to produce authentic "Youth 2.0 IP Contents" for the next generation.
  • Real Akiba Group
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ON & BOARD
VC Fund · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

ON & BOARD is a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments.

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Investment focus

  • Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Fuel, SaaS
  • Stage:Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 5
  • Lead/follow: 60% lead, 40% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Herix — Herix is an AI SaaS that streamlines due diligence (DD) and the developer of "Aidiligence."
  • Qureka — Qureka is a EdTech platform that uses AI to transform learning focuses on leveraging technology to enhance knowledge accessibility.
  • Linea Innovations — Linea Innovations is an energy production company that develops commercial fusion reactors with advanced fuel technology.
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Suzuki Yuto
Angel · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan · 1 investments in Japan Social startups

Suzuki Yuto

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Investment focus

  • Industry: SaaS, Social, Content
  • Stage:Seed, Series A
  • Geography: Japan

Investor stats

  • Total investments: 3
  • Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

  • Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
  • Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.
  • Bizibl Technologies — Bizibl Technologies provides SaaS services for recruitment events.
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Social Investor funding in Japan at a glance

Stats across 40 deals from 79 investors.

79
investors
in Japan Social startups
40
deals
in Japan Social startups
$12M
median round
in Japan Social startups
27%
lead investors
lead at least one round
18%
Seed
most common funding stage
86/14
VC / Angel
share of investor count

Access all 79 investors in Japan Social startups.

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