Top 50 Social Media Angel Investors in Japan in January 2026

Investor	Social Media Japan investments
Kotaro Chiba	5
Kotaro Chiba	5
Kensuke Furukawa	4
Masao Ito	4
Komura Fujio	2
Tatsuo Sakamoto	2
Jun Nishikawa	2
Christine Herron	2
Shuuichi Wada	2
Shogo Kawada	2
Daisuke Kajiwara	2
Shunsuke Sasaki	2
Yu Akasaka	2
Koki Yabu	2
Kiyoshi Nishikawa	2
Hidetoshi Takano	2
Tsunezawa Kahoko	1
Hayama Takashi	1
Otani Hiroshi	1
Nishiki Takashi	1
Yoshihito Nishioka	1
Yusuke Ando	1
Masato Shibata	1
Yusuke Sato	1
Sotaro Karasawa	1
Hikaru Kashida	1
Fumiaki Koizumi	1
Masashi Mizunaga	1
Cheng Tao	1
Teruhide Sato	1
Koya Arikawa	1
Takashi Shibayama	1
Ayataro Nakagawa	1
Akira Saigo	1
Maneesh Arora	1
Sagehashi Yuki	1
Takeshi Aoki Yamato	1
Makoto Takano	1
Chihiro Asano	1
Yusuke Akiyama	1
Nobuhiro Ariyasu	1
Shunsuke Oyu	1
Takao Ozawa	1
Sachiko Kuno	1
Shigeru Urushibara	1
Kenji Yabuno	1
Richard Chen	1
Masaru Tange	1
Kazuhiko Ishikura	1
Toshiro Wakimaru	1

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

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.

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.

Komura Fujio

Investment focus

Content, Ethereum, Marketing
Seed, Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

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

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.

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.

Christine Herron is an early-stage investor and diversity advocate, and co-leads the Intel Capital Diversity Fund while leading investments in early-stage companies. She is responsible for diversity investing across Intel Capital sectors, to support technology companies founded or run by women, underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ, or veterans. AtIntel, Christine's direct portfolio includes 500 Friends (ACQ: Merkle), betaworks, Brit Media, E la Carte, Funders Club, Goldbely, Jelli, Movable Ink, SmartZip, Storenvy (ACQ: OpenSky), Two Bit Circus, and Yummly (ACQ: WHR), and Intel Education Accelerator companies Comprendio, Immersed Games, Sutori, and Vidcode.Previously, Christine was an investor with seed stage venture fund First Round Capital, working with Better Finance, Double Verify, Get Satisfaction (ACQ: Sprinklr), Mint (ACQ: INTU), and Xobni (ACQ: YHOO). At Omidyar Network, she developed the Media and Web 2.0 practice strategy and led deals such as Common Sense Media and Socialtext.At Geocapital Partners, Christine focused on early Internet and network technology, leading Series A funding for AXON Networks (ACQ: 3COM), D-Vision (ACQ: ADSK), FocusVision (MBO), Netcom (IPO: NETC), and ViaGrafix (IPO: VIAX). Christine was also a founder or early employee at GiftWorks (ACQ: FrontStream), Mercury2, and NetObjects (IPO: NETC).Christine earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Columbia University. She is a founding advisor or mentor to 500 Startups, Bullpen Capital, and StartX, and serves on Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Board of Directors. She is active on @christine and a frequent speaker.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Personalization, Social Media
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, Japan

Portfolio highlights

Roominate — Playing with the W77 online game site can certainly produce crazy jackpots to riches
Soldsie — Soldsie (formerly Centrally) is a payment system enabling merchants to monetize their Facebook page by allowing customers to purchase through comments.Customers register their payment information with Soldsie, and then comment on stores’ pages, channels and feeds to activate a charge to their account, and initiate the shipping process.Merchants use the Soldsie administrative dashboard track and manage inventory and shipping, and experience increased user comments, views and viral shares.
Tokyo Otaku Mode — The ultimate online destination for fans of Japanese pop culture.

Shuuichi Wada - CTO @ alu Japan

Investment focus

Reservations, Content, Social Media
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Craftie — Craftie is an lesson reservation service.
HACK JPN — HACK JPN is a company that transforms imagination into creativity and builds a natural tomorrow.
rocketa — Rocketa is a news curation and social media platform.

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.

Daisuke Kajiwara - Director, CTO and Director of CHECK Company @ Every Japan

Investment focus

Social Media, Content, CRM
Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HACK JPN — HACK JPN is a company that transforms imagination into creativity and builds a natural tomorrow.
Jiraffe — jiraffe focusses on Internet service planning, development, and management.
rocketa — Rocketa is a news curation and social media platform.

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

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.

Koki Yabu is Founder, President & CEO at Mobcast inc.

Investment focus

Content, Finance, Data Mining
Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Mobcast group — mobcast is a sports entertainment company that operates a mobile entertainment platform for smartphones and feature phones. It supports customers with social game and social media services. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, it operates as a subsidiary of mobcast Inc.
SmartApp Japan — Smart Apps is a developer of a blockchain services application designed for smartphones. The company's application uses cryptocurrency technology to offer token issuance, initial coin offering and dApps design support, providing a launchpad for start-up blockchain-related businesses.

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 one of the few companies in the world proposing to aid in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life (EOL) and Active Debris Removal (ADR) services. In addition to providing a technical solution, Astroscale is helping to define the business case for this service and are working with national space agencies,international institutions, non-profit organizations, insurance companies and satellite operators to develop norms, regulations and incentives that contribute to the responsible use of space.
TECHFUND — TechFund is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed stage investments. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

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

Cocoach — Cocoach provides online education service.
Data Viz Lab — Data Viz Lab is a platform that offers data analysis, visualization consulting, and data human resource development support.
ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

Tsunezawa Kahoko

Investment focus

Shopping, Apps, Travel
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, Germany

Portfolio highlights

Menew — Menew is an online platform that enables users to organize and set menus for family meals. Users can track family preferences and trends; make shopping lists; and get an easy-to-read calendar format for the menus.
Valise — Valise provides insider access & unique experiences to the modern day internationalist. A perfect jump start to who & what is hot in creative capitals. At its core is the Valise Society - a global private members association for innovative leaders of the creative class.
Valise — Valise is a women's travel service platform.

Hayama Takashi - Outside Director @ Eco Style

Investment focus

SNS, Beauty, Medical
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MedPeer — MedPeer operates as a community site for doctors. MedPeer is a recruitment agency collective registration service.MedPeer operation of "MedPeer," a collective intelligence service/ community website for physicians.

Otani Hiroshi is the Outside Director at aucfan Co.,Ltd.

Investment focus

Content, Outsourcing, Social Media
Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HERP — HERP is a recruitment management platform.

Nishiki Takashi - Outside Director @ aucfan Co.,Ltd.

Investment focus

Content, Education, Social Media
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Kepple — Kepple Accounting is a start-up accounting and tax services.

DescriptionYoshihito Nishioka is a Japanese tennis player.

Investment focus

Sports, Content, Social Media
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

TENTIAL — With the power of AI, TENTIAL analyzes detailed purchasing behavior and attributes online and aim to deliver its customers' products based on their own information.

YUSUKE ANDO is a Outside Director at hachidori.

Investment focus

Content, Education, Social Media
Series A, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

FLIGHTS — FLIGHTS is a multidisciplinary drone services from EC, media, pilot training, consulting, insurance and localization of foreign softwares.
Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.

Masato Shibata

Investment focus

SNS, Content, Social Media
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Jiraffe — jiraffe focusses on Internet service planning, development, and management.

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.

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.

Hikaru Kashida is a data scientist and is currently working at Mercari Inc., Japan.

Investment focus

Consulting, E-Learning, Communities
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

rocketa — Rocketa is a news curation and social media platform.
alma — alma is a community platform to learn design.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.

Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari

Investment focus

Internet, E-Commerce, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

FiT — FiT encourages the use of information technology in fitness to address industrial concerns. We will build a highly sustainable fitness facility using a business model that allows consumers to easily use the gym without being burdened by price or procedures, while also allowing owners to build a very successful business with low running costs.
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.

Masashi Mizunaga is the President and CEO of Star Mica Holdings.

Investment focus

Recruiting, Social Media, Career Planning
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Mign — Mign offers a generative AI-related SaaS solutions for the construction and real estate fields.
HiTalent — HiTalent is a tool that provides career planning services.

Tao Cheng currently works as Chief Executive Officer and Founder of popIn.

Investment focus

Telecommunications, Content, Internet
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Tokyo — Tokyo provides consistently-designed signage and projector installation, as well as maintenance company support. All customers need is “product selection” considering installation. This is a service that does not take time and effort!
Aidemy — Aidemy is a web service where you can learn AI programming online.
Girasol Energy — Girasol Energy is an IoT Platform provides innovative PLC technologies that enable wiser PV Plants.

Teruhide Sato is President and Group CEO of netprice.com, Ltd., a global internet and e-commerce business incubator group (Tokyo Stock Exchange 3328). Lead the group to deliver the latest experience in online shopping across Japan, US, Europe and Asia. Strongly believe in the power of entrepreneurship.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Internet, FinTech
Seed, Series A, Series B
India, Japan, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Zilingo — Zilingo was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor with a vision to use technology to put fair and efficient business within everyone’s reach. Up until now, the fashion industry has favored a select few - if you had social, human and financial capital, you could get anything done. But we believe the future of fashion belongs to everyone.By using smart, technology-led solutions to bridge the gap between creators and producers, we’re re-imagining the fashion industry to make it accessible, connected and transparent for all. Find out more on business.zilingo.com.
InnerChef — InnerChef is an Indian food tech company that offers a mobile app for online food discovery and delivery. It allows users to order their favorite dishes which can be delivered within 20 minutes. The company offers ready-to-eat meals, gourmets do-it-yourself recipe kits (InnerChef DIY gourmet), detox cleanses, and healthy eats (InnerChef+) as wellas decadent desserts (Indulge by InnerChef). InnerChef has beverages ranging from cold coffees to thick shakes to fruit juices, all freshly prepared. The company also operates Indulge, a hyperlocal dessert marketplace where home bakers and neighborhood bakeries can offer their products to customers.
Pipa.Bella — Pipa.Bella currently offers custom-made and ready-made fashion jewelry at affordable prices to over 40,000 customers across India through an innovative online platform and aims to reach to 1.5 lakh customers over the next twelve months. With few branded players in the fashion jewelry segment, Pipa.Bella aims to solve a pain point that many womenface while shopping for jewelry - branded jewelry is either overpriced with high mark-ups, or unbranded jewelry is cluttered and lacks any proper curation or style guidance. Pipa.Bella launches approximately 100 new styles every week that are all priced well between INR 500 - 3000. The demand for fashion jewellery has grown significantly in the last few years due to high prices of gold and silver and is estimated to be a $6 billion market. The brand has hit operational profitability in FY 17-18 and is aiming to be cash flow positive in the next twelve months. Pipa.Bella targets the 22-35-year-old urban woman who is fashion-conscious, social media savvy and is quick to adapt to latest trends. Pipa.Bella derives its name from two European words that describe the company's range of products and customers. A typical "Pipa" woman is bold, edgy and always ready to experiment and a typical "Bella" woman is a classicist, graceful, more conservative. The brand celebrates the different styles that exemplify these two aesthetics through its product range, which consist of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings, sterling silver jewelry, charms, personalized jewelry, wedding jewelry Pipa.Bella is a recipient of the Google SMB Heroes 2017 Award, Top 25 Startups by Singapore's Javelin Startup-O Victory Fund, and Digital Women in E-Commerce 2017 Award by Shethepeople.tv. The brand has been worn on top Bollywood celebrities and has been featured in International fashion and business publications such as Vogue, Harpers, Femina, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Economic Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Koya Arikawa is the Representative Director and Founder at Hotspring.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Content, SNS
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Tanp — Gracia is an EC business and media business that provides coloring precious moments and enriching human connections.
Syukatsu Labo — Syukatsu Labo is a leading company that solves various problems in an aging society.
Somewhere — Somewhere is engaged in the travel and transportation business.

Takashi Shibayama

Investment focus

Music, EBooks, Gaming
Seed, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

FOWD — FOWD is a comprehensive entertainment company in Japan.
AtHearth — AtHearth is a real estate agency offering specialized services for expats in Tokyo. Find Out More.
Recipio Japan — Recipio is a service that can suggest recipes just by entering ingredients the user already has at home. The app can also refine suggestions based on the user's mood, the occasion, and how many people the user is eating with, and more.

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.

Akira Saigo - Professional officer @ Recruit Technologies Japan

Investment focus

Recruiting, Social Media, Career Planning
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HiTalent — HiTalent is a tool that provides career planning services.

Maneesh Arora is CEO & co-founder of MightyText. He is a product builder who previously worked at Google and Zynga.

Investment focus

Mobile, Internet, Mobile Apps
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
United States, Japan, Nigeria

Portfolio highlights

Circa — More and more people are relying on mobile as their primary source of news yet the content itself continues to be produced in a format that translates very poorly to mobile devices. Rather than trying to shoehorn existing content into a new environment, Circa is creating the first born-on-mobile news experience. It will deliver news in a uniqueformat – native to mobile devices with an experience intuitive to mobile users. Through comprehensive yet to-the-point news updates paired with an engrossing mobile experience, Circa redefines how news is produced, delivered and consumed. Circa is news reimagined.Circa was founded by
HOOKED — HOOKED (formerly Telepathic) is redefining entertainment for the Snapchat generation. We’ve pioneered a new media format called chat fiction, which has become a phenomenon among teens and millennials in the past year. Hooked has reached 50MM readers and has hit the #1 spot in the App Store in 25 countries, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany,Italy, Japan, and S. Korea. We’re building the media company of the future - the next Netflix, the next Disney. Hooked has raised venture funding from top investors in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, including Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, William Morris Endeavor, SV Angel, Founders Fund, Cowboy Ventures, Greylock and many more.
CloudPeeps — CloudPeeps is a community, marketplace and platform that empowers freelancers and businesses to do their best work. Hire a team of quality professional freelancers to get the job done. Work the way you want, wherever you are!

Sagehashi Yuki

Investment focus

Content, FinTech, Finance
Angel, Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DariaMe — DariaMe is a web media planning, development and operation, planning and production of various contents, online consultation service.
BrainCat — BrainCat is a Japanese company that specializes in developing FinTech platforms. It has developed a social fund service “Gojo”. BrainCat was established on June 29, 2016.
Kepple — Kepple Accounting is a start-up accounting and tax services.

Takeshi Aoki Yamato is the Representative Director of Capital Medica Ventures.

Investment focus

Social Media, Digital Media, Social Network
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Chipee — Chipee is a social networking platform that enables its users to send digital gratitude in the form of chips.

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.

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.

Yusuke Akiyama is a former equity analyst at Goldman Sachs Securities Co., Ltd.

Investment focus

Recruiting, Social Media, Career Planning
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HiTalent — HiTalent is a tool that provides career planning services.

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.

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.

Takao is the former CEO of YJ Capital. He is also the President of Shopping Company at Yahoo Japan. Prior to Yahoo, he founded Bizseek, Inc. in 1999 which was acquired by Rakuten, Inc. in 2001. He joined Rakuten after the acquisition and was the Corporate Officer in charge of auctions. During his career in Rakuten, he was engaged in projects suchas formation of Rakuten Eagles. He left Rakuten in 2006 and founded Ozawa Research Institute where he enhanced business in areas such as investments to start-up companies and consulting. In 2011, he founded Crocos, Inc. which was sold to Yahoo Japan in 2012. As an angel investor, he invested/founded companies like nanapi, Appgrooves, STARFESTIVAL, Crocos, Netage and many others.

Investment focus

Real Estate, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Tokyo — Tokyo provides consistently-designed signage and projector installation, as well as maintenance company support. All customers need is “product selection” considering installation. This is a service that does not take time and effort!
Astroscale — Astroscale is one of the few companies in the world proposing to aid in the removal of orbital debris through the provision of End of Life (EOL) and Active Debris Removal (ADR) services. In addition to providing a technical solution, Astroscale is helping to define the business case for this service and are working with national space agencies,international institutions, non-profit organizations, insurance companies and satellite operators to develop norms, regulations and incentives that contribute to the responsible use of space.
Driver Technologies — Driver Technologies is a cloud logistics platform provider. It provides a solution for driver matching and cargo vehicle demands.

Sachiko Kuno - Co-Founder, President & CEO @ Halcyon Incubator

Investment focus

Art, Social Media, Museums and Historical Sites
Angel
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ARTLOGUE — ARTLOGUE is an arts tech company that innovates in the art industry through technology. It is also a social art media that works to solve social problems that make use of art. It was established on July 7, 2017.

Shigeru Urushibara - President & CEO @ UL Systems

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

EmbodyMe — Making the unimaginable, imaginable with AI
SPACE WALKER — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.
SingulaNet Ltd — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.

Kenji Yabuno is a Founder & CEO at Cookbiz Co.,Ltd.

Investment focus

Art, Social Media, Product Design
Angel, Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ARTLOGUE — ARTLOGUE is an arts tech company that innovates in the art industry through technology. It is also a social art media that works to solve social problems that make use of art. It was established on July 7, 2017.
Replace — Replace operates " STAND3.0" that matches the opening of stalls and idle spaces.

Richard Chen

Investment focus

Mobile, Software, Advertising
Seed, Angel, Series A
United States, Japan, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Farel — Run your airline on one platform. Farel unifies PSS, IBE, DCS, and B2B with a built-in AI assistant to grow direct sales and automate ops. Get a personalized demo and pricing.
Maslo — We make companions that care about people.
Kinnek — Potential customers are looking for reasons to trust your company, and they want third-party sources to vouch for you. Kinnek helps suppliers like you build a world-class online reputation and easily share it. Because when you win more trust, more prospects become loyal customers.

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

E-Commerce, Food Delivery, Internet
Seed, Series A
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Timee — Timee is a Planning, development and management of Internet media company.
EMET Creation — Vimet is a video app that allows you to instantly watch your favorite topic videos.ViMET offers high-quality video content that is currently talked about, Realizing a world where everyone can see, by providing new services, Restructure the power relationships of all players involved in existing video
S-Mat — Smartmat is an eco-friendly IoT purchase system for on-demand, no-hassle grocery with cost-effective shipping.

Kazuhiko Ishikura is based out of Tokyo, Tokyo and is the Co-Founder and Director of SDF Capital. Kazuhiko previously worked at 3minute Inc. as a Director. Kazuhiko Ishikura attended Aoyama Gakuin University.

Investment focus

Beauty, Content, Fashion
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
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.

Toshiro “Tosh” Wakimaru is the Chief Operating Officer of MedPeer, Inc. , Tokyo, Japan since May 2010. Medpeer is the “Medical Doctor Exclusive” SNS in Japan that has just successfully gone to the market in 2014.Prior to the current job, Tosh had been actively working for Price Waterhouse Consulting, Japan LLP (now IBM Japan, Ltd.) aftergraduating from the Boston University School of Management in 1996. While there he completed numerous projects in corporate strategy, operation improvement, and new business development focusing on the retail, service, and healthcare industries with a secondment to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Investment focus

Task Management, Food and Beverage, SNS
Seed, Funding Round
Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

Clear — Clear, Inc. operates sake subscription service “SAKELIFE".
Cub McPaws — Buy comfortably fashionable kids clothes (4 - 12 years) online in India from Cub Mcpaws at best prices. Gorgeous dresses, jumpsuits, t-shirts, shirts & bottom wear for boys and girls | Free Shipping | COD
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.