Top 15 Social Startup Investors in Japan in November 2024

Investor	Social Japan investments
Kodansha	1
Archetype Ventures	1
Shunsuke Ikegami	1
Kento Hayashi	1
Recruit Strategic Partners	1
Hirofumi Miki	1
Global Brain Corporation	1
Hiroshi Sawa	1
Sansei Capital Investment	1
KDDI Open Innovation Fund	1
Waseda University	1
Nissay Capital	1
WERU Investment	1
Makuake	1
aucfan Co.,Ltd.	1

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)

Investment focus

Software, Media and Entertainment, News
Corporate Round, Funding Round, Seed
Japan, Indonesia, United States

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.

Archetype Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in B2B Tech seed and early stage venture investments.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Dioseve — Dioseve is providing novel possibilities for all life.
Katagrma — KatagrMa is the first organization that optimizes the organization and human resources development.
Haul — Haul is a human resources company that provides recruitment consulting and marketing SaaS development services.

Shunsuke Ikegami is an angel investor.

Investment focus

Social, Cooking, Big Data
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

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.

Kento Hayashi - President & CEO @ Datasection

Investment focus

Social, Big Data, Analytics
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

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.

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.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services
Series A, Seed, Series B
United States, Japan, India

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.

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

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.

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.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Poetics — Poetics is an AI startup that develops communication related products concerning language and voice to provide business solutions.
Endophyte — Endophyte specializes in endophytic soil solutions, harnessing beneficial microorganisms to plant growth and agricultural productivity.
Qlay — Qlay is an AI-automated global engineer hiring platform

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.

Investment focus

Social, Big Data, Analytics
Funding Round
Japan

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.

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

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.

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.

Investment focus

Software, Mobile, Internet
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Germany

Portfolio highlights

DataMesh — DataMesh empowers conventional enterprises to adopt intelligent design, accelerate service deployment, and execute cost-effective planning processes by leveraging Digital Twin and Mixed Reality technologies.
THINKR — THINKR provides advertising, video production, content, UX design, and animation services.
Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.

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.

Investment focus

Social, FinTech, Big Data
Series A, Seed, Series B
Japan

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.

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

Investment focus

Health Care, Internet, Medical
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Ethiopia

Portfolio highlights

Tribeau — Tribute is a word-of-mouth app for aesthetic medicine for cosmetic surgeries, cosmetic dermatologists, and orthodontists who are not covered by health insurance.
Space One — Space One specializes in the production and development of rockets and offers innovative solutions for space transportation services.
Qlay — Qlay is an AI-automated global engineer hiring platform

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.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Synfini — The Agile Drug Discovery Company.
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.

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.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage
Product Crowdfunding, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed
Japan, United States

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

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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