Top 50 Social Media Startup Investors in Japan

Investor	Social Media Japan investments
Incubate Fund	8
East Ventures	7
Mizuho Capital	6
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital	6
Kotaro Chiba	5
Kotaro Chiba	5
Masao Ito	4
Kensuke Furukawa	4
Genesia Ventures	4
Daiwa Corporate Investment	4
Colopl Next	3
SMBC Venture Capital	3
TLM	3
Ceres	3
Recruit Strategic Partners	3
Mistletoe	2
Shunsuke Sasaki	2
Freebank	2
Daisuke Kajiwara	2
Tatsuo Sakamoto	2
Christine Herron	2
Kiyoshi Nishikawa	2
Yamaguchi Capital	2
UTEC - The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners	2
Komura Fujio	2
Jun Nishikawa	2
Venture United	2
MTG Ventures	2
ITOCHU Technology Ventures	2
Shogo Kawada	2
Koki Yabu	2
Nissay Capital	2
Akatsuki Games Inc.	2
Sansei Capital Investment	2
Shuuichi Wada	2
Venture Labo Investment	2
GMO VenturePartners	2
Suneight Investment	2
STRIVE	2
aucfan Co.,Ltd.	2
Hidetoshi Takano	2
Future Venture Capital	2
PE&HR	2
Yu Akasaka	2
Otani Hiroshi	1
VCDE Venture Partners	1
Nagoya TV Ventures	1
UTokyo Innovation Platform	1
Masaru Tange	1
Adways	1

Incubate Fund is an independent early-stage venture capital that specializes in providing capital to technology startups at the seed stage. The firm built a portfolio of over 300 companies in Asia, taking 12 companies to public and 20 companies to M&A exit since 2010.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Mycel — Mycel is a decentralized cross-chain asset management platform with an intent-based token transfer layer.
MaterialGate — MaterialGate focuses on single-molecule dielectrics, developing technologies for devices with better electronic characteristics.
Mechano Cross — Mechano Cross is a mechanical company that offers mechanochemical organic synthesis technology for solution reactions.

East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, Indonesia, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

SoLeLands — SoLeLands provides children with future-ready skills, virtues, and applied competences and inspires children to love learning.
Maka Motors — MAKA is dedicated to building the best electric motorcycles for Indonesian riders.
Zenith Learning Group — Zenith Learning Group's mission is to deliver a holistic, world-class education to learners across South East Asia through technology.

Mizuho is the venture capital firm affiliated to Mizuho Bank, the second-largest Japanese bank in terms of assets. The firm has headquarters in Tokyo.The firm has ¥49.6 billion JPY under management, focusing on information technology and biotechnology investments. Over 600 Mizuho companies have gone public. According to Nikkei, Mizuho is thefifth-largest venture capital firm in Japan.Mizuho Capital was formed in 2002 by the merger of Fujigin Capital, Tokyo Venture Capital and IBJ Investment. Three firms were subsidiaries of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan respectively.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

Loglass — Loglass offers corporate intelligence to enhance business management.
Yoriso — Yoriso, formerly known as Minrebi, is a Japanese startup that connects families to funeral homes and other end-of-life service providers. It is a funeral / medical IT venture that aims to be a “company that creates a world where everyone can make their own choices by overcoming the limitations of ingenuity”.Yoriso was founded in 2009 and isheadquartered in Tokyo.
Stayway — Stayway is operating the world's largest hotel and vacation facility search and comparison site.

Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Health Care
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

F.MED — F.MED is a manufacturing company that designs and develops robotic microsurgical devices for the healthcare industry.
Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.
Mirai no Genba — Mirai no Genba is an IT company that offers AI form creation, input assist, data analytics,and visualization services.

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.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

Masao Ito is a Founder & CEO at User Local.

Investment focus

Content, Information Technology, Social Media
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.
Aruya Umu — 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.

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

Portfolio highlights

Plott — Plott producing youtube animation platform under Vision “Become a Content holder from YouTube”. In August 2019, the company name was changed from Fabo to Plott. Plott, the new company name, is derived from the plot that you make before writing novels, etc., and the idea that “I want to make content all the time” is put in the company name.
Now Do — Now Do provides online growth revolution platform.
Neighbor — The creative universe of Fortnite is infinite. To give an example , building fantasy and science fiction worlds, creating simple games and full-scale battle games can all be completed with Fortnite. Is the world of Fortnite, played by 350 million users worldwide, is it real or unreal? We will try to combining the vast world of Fortnite with the real world.

Genesia Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on seed/early stage startups in Japan and Southeast Asia. Since it's inception in Dec 2016, Genesia Ventures has invested in over 90 companies in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the US. Genesia Ventures invests in various sectors: SaaS, marketplace, Media, Finance, Insurance,RealEstate, Healthcare, Medical, Travel, Education, Manufacturing, Construction, HR, Agriculture, Sports, Retail, Entertainment, etc.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Runchise — Runchise is an integrated restaurant and franchise management system to increase operational efficiency and profit.
Oyraa Inc. — Oyraa provides online meetings and conference apps. Their interpreters will help you communicate not only in business but also in personal situations, such as in hospitals and real estate agencies.
Rara — Rara offers carbon-free and organic mushroom culture production equipment.

Daiwa Corporate Investment is a private investment firm of Daiwa Securities Group that has been engaged in overseas VC investments by taking advantage of an extensive business network in Japan and foreign countries, long experience and professional knowledge, and by supporting the growth of a number of overseas portfolio companies and their stockexchange listings.

Investment focus

Software, Task Management, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, France, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

GITAI — GITAI is a robotics startup for space development. The company aims to replace astronauts with robots that can work for a long time while being remotely controlled from earth while in low earth orbit space stations to decrease the burden on astronauts, shorten the time it takes to perform work in space, and reduce costs.
COUNTERWORKS — Counter works is an Information technology company.
Nippon Hydropowtech — Nippon Hydropowtech uses proprietary technology and experience in hydrolysate production to investigate new food applications.

Colopl Next is the corporate venture capital of is Colopl, Inc, which is a leading Japanese gaming company. Colopl, Inc. is founded with the mission of “Entertainment in Real Life”, and constantly put its customer as first priority.Colopl Next is headquartered in Japan, but invests globally in a variety of internet businesses, with the commitmentto support innovative entrepreneurs.

Investment focus

Virtual Reality, Software, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Rybit — A leading technology platform that connects the last mile delivery industry, optimizing and simplifying day-to-day delivery operations.
CaseBlink — CaseBlink is AI-powered immigration software for law firms, generating EB-2 NIW and O-1 applications with smart automation
Return Helper — Founded in 2018, Return Helper is a data-driven return management solution that optimizes return process and the aftermarket activities for online retailers. We support all the major ecommerce platforms including Amazon and FBA, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, Rakuten etc.

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.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Health Care, Software
Funding Round, Series B, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Nailie — Nailie is an app that lets you connect to a nail specialists just for you.
Loglass — Loglass offers corporate intelligence to enhance business management.
Pathos Logos — Pathos Logos is an HR co-creation platform that specializes in sales of SaaS and supply of human resources for corporations.

TLM is a venture capital that invests basically in seed rounds, including some Series A startups.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Content, SNS
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

Morght — Morght is an information technology service company.
nanameue, Inc. — Nanameue creating a new future that makes people smile and has a fun experience. Create your own place by connecting people to people in “nanameue” way.
Hogetic Lab — Hogetic Lab specialize in DCaaS, AI development, and Data human resources training.

Ceres is a company providing internet marketing services and is engaged in the planning, development, and operation of smartphone media.

Investment focus

Cryptocurrency, Content, Internet
Funding Round, Seed, Corporate Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DINETTE — DINETTE is a cosmetics manufacturing company.
SOUNDRAW — Your personal AI music generator.
Indent — Indent creates products that help writers create original works such as novels, manga, screenplays, and game scenarios. They will work to create an environment in which artists can focus on their creations and enjoy sharing their work.

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.

Mistletoe is a hub for startups and the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. It specifically provides learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, facilitates startup communities, invests in and supports startup companies and venture capitals.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

ULUU — ULUU is an ocean material that replaces plastic and actively benefits the world.
Funderbeam — Funderbeam is a funding and trading platform that connects companies and investors to buy and sell equity stakes. The platform allows the founders to gain exposure, legal support, a funding manager, or an investor network. It also allows the investors to take control of their investments and trade anytime they want.The company was founded in 2013as a global data platform for startup companies.
Craft Health — Craft Health aims to combine all your daily medicines and supplements into a single daily pill, through 3D printing of personalized medicines and supplements. Our technology allows controlled release of each active ingredient as selected by the user.

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

Freebank provides funds, supports, and develops venture business managers with the aim of moving forward with the next decade. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Japan.

Investment focus

CRM, IT Management, Video Conferencing
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Thinca — Thinca is an IT system planning, development, and operations company that provides a cloud-based CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) hospitality & communication solution for corporate offices.
QD Laser, Inc. — QD Laser offers semiconductor lasers such as quantum dot lasers for silicon photonics, and retinal projectors as well. From Japan to the world.
Digital Cruise — Digital Cruise Provides cloud services for video distribution and digital signage.

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

Investment focus

Social Media, Content, CRM
Seed, Series B
Japan

Portfolio highlights

hackjpn — 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.

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

Investment focus

Information Technology, Content, 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.
ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

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 — With Soldsie, you can seamlessly drive traffic from your social media pages to your website, increasing conversions and boosting sales. Customize your link in
Tokyo Otaku Mode — The ultimate online destination for fans of Japanese pop culture.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

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

Yamaguchi Capital Co., Ltd. is a venture capital firm. Yamaguchi Capital Co., Ltd. was established in 1996 and is based in Yamaguchi-ken, Japan.

Investment focus

Apps, Manufacturing, Task Management
Funding Round, Seed, Series B
Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

Payn — Payn is a digital billing tool that automates the cancellation fee billing process by automating message sending and billing reminders.
Loglass — Loglass offers corporate intelligence to enhance business management.
MUSE — MUSE is a robotics company that provides robotic solutions for retail stores to support in-store operations.

UTEC-The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd.. UTEC is a seed/early stage technology focused venture capital firm associated with The University of Tokyo.

Investment focus

Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

SWAT Mobility — SWAT Mobility is a smart mobility company that provides demand-responsive, ride-sharing technology in high capacity vehicles. We work with corporates, transport operators and government agencies to improve transport services. Learn more about how we can help you leverage technology for your transport.
Celaid Therapeutics — Celaid Therapeutics specializes in manufacturing and sales of regenerative medicine products utilizing human hematopoietic stem cells.
Red Arrow Therapeutics — Red Arrow Therapeutics is a biotech firm that provides systemic cytokine delivery, targeted intratumoral activation, and biological potency.

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.

Jun Nishikawa - Co-founder, Executive Vice President, COO @ eureka, Inc.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
Petokoto — Petokoto is a media created with pet specialists such as certified veterinarians.
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.

Venture United is a provider of venture capital for entrepreneurs, especially for internet-related businesses.

Investment focus

Internet, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

ZEST — ZEST is an IT firm that offers consulting and management support services to its clients. It is based in Tokyo.
FamiOne — FamiOne is creating a society that will support the future of couples who want to receive children.
Meetcareer — Meetcareer provides online counseling services for career planning.

MTG Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of MTG that invests in beauty and wellness tech, food tech, and sports tech sectors.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Food and Beverage
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Airato — Airato specializes in the development of radiation therapy using artificial intelligence technology.
Auba — Auba is engaged in open innovation program, consulting specialized in Ol, and media outreach activities.
Lx Design — Lx Design is an application that connects schools with people who wants to work as a teacher.

ITOCHU Technology Ventures (ITV), based in Tokyo, is the venture capital arm of ITOCHU Corporation. ITOCHU is one of the world's largest corporations with offices in over 80 countries and operations that cover a broad spectrum of industries. ITV's mission is to invest and help build leading information technology companies by leveraging avast array of resources both domestically and internationally throughout ITOCHU and its group companies. The ITOCHU group has a long history of funding information technology companies with successes including Siebel Systems, NVIDIA, Openwave and Aruba Networks. Current portfolio includes, Box, Fab, Ooyala, WHILL, Tokyo Otaku Mode, etc.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Software, Information Technology
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, United States, Belgium

Portfolio highlights

KAICO — KAICO is a pharmaceuticals, diagnostic drugs production company.
Aeterlink — Aeterlink is a wireless device maker and developer. They applied their technology to fields such as FA, robots, smart houses, and medicine and developed practical level technologies such as elemental technology that can wirelessly supply power.
Quollio Technologies — Quollio Technologies is an IT company that specializes in corporate data governance, SaaS, metadata management, and software solutions.

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.

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.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Zpeer — Zpeer provides appropriate medical care to all livestock and companion animals
Nailie — Nailie is an app that lets you connect to a nail specialists just for you.
Loglass — Loglass offers corporate intelligence to enhance business management.

Akatsuki offers MobileSocialGame services. They utilize cutting edge technology and ideas to realize and deliver their ambitions to their users. They provide new value to society through the services we manage daily. Providing services throughout the world that brighten up everyone's daily lives.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Gaming, Content
Seed, Funding Round, Corporate Round
Japan, India, United States

Portfolio highlights

Hitcard — Hitcard is a trendy card culture brand that uses technology to upgrade card-like consumer products.
Stems Labs — community and platform for collaborative creativity
MetaverseGo — MetaverseGo is a web 3.0 app that offers easy access to Play-and-Earn Games, Guilds, NFTs, and Decentralized Applications allowing users to own assets, connect with industry players, and use their earnings across multiple payment platforms.

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.

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.
hackjpn — 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.

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

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Internet
Funding Round, Series B, Seed
Japan, Indonesia, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

SImount — SImount is a database management system platform that connects all data such as Excel, CSV, PDF. Moreover, It can utilize all the data related to business, leading to higher business efficiency and higher sales.
HashPort — HashPort is a leading solution provider that strives to innovate Japan with block chain technology
Uniforce — Uniforce helps businesses expand sustainably by providing cloud-based and consulting services.

An investment that restructures the value and quality.Supplying big capital is not an essential value of our firm.We have a strong attitude to input and drive critical thinking behind a new startup.After the problem is clarified and solution become established in the world,people could not imagine the society without that solution.An investment that innovates this world.We will become a real partner to execute the strategy together.INVENTION OF THE ESSENCE ----we will keep on doing it.

Investment focus

Financial Services, FinTech, Finance
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Niro — Niro is embedding personal credit products into leading consumer internet platforms. The fintech startup aims to disrupt the consumer lending ecosystem in the country by democratizing access to convenient and hassle-free embedded credit products for 624 million internet users in India.
OTO Capital — India's most trusted place to buy bikes, scooters and electric scooters of all brands on loan and in cash. Digital Process. Lowest EMIs. Fast Deliveries - OTO
Sharing Energy — Sharing Energy is providing energy supply and energy management services.

Suneight is a independent Venture Capital firm that invests and supports business development of all the stages of the venture companies.

Investment focus

Internet, Social Media, E-Commerce
Series A, Series B
Japan, India

Portfolio highlights

Niro — Niro is embedding personal credit products into leading consumer internet platforms. The fintech startup aims to disrupt the consumer lending ecosystem in the country by democratizing access to convenient and hassle-free embedded credit products for 624 million internet users in India.
Aquaconnect — Aquaconnect was founded in 2017 as a full-stack aquaculture technology venture to offer data-driven farm advisory solutions and market place solutions to Shrimp and Fish farmers. As a part of promoting sustainable farming practices in aquaculture ecosystem, we have launched an Artificial Intelligence farm advisor 'FarmMOJO' - a friendlyfarm companion. FarmMOJO's data intelligence improves farm productivity and connects farmers with aquaculture industry stakeholders under its market place. Aquaconnect works with about 3000 farmers in Indian states of Andhra, Tamilnadu, and Gujrat to improve their farm revenues through technology intervention.
Virohan — Virohan is India's leading professional training partner of NSDC, providing paramedical diploma courses in MLT, OTT, HA, etc for 12th pass and graduates.

STRIVE focuses on investing in early-stage (Seed to Series A) internet and mobile companies. It seeks out companies in Japan, Southeast Asia, and India with top-notch management teams and strong market potential. It is not tied to strategic investments for GREE Inc. and leverages its pan-Asia expertise for guiding its portfolio in an engaged,hands-on role.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
Japan, India, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
YOUTRUST — YOUTRUST is a startup to operate YOUTRUST a referral recruitment platform for side-job change.
Testsigma — Powerful cloud-based test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up now!

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.

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

Portfolio highlights

Kaymak — Kaymak is a recruitment platform that focuses on creating a recruitment website, planning a recruitment strategy, and managing candidates.
Rayout — Rayout is a business consulting company that provides creative content development, recruitment videos, and web production services.
ElevationSpace — ElevationSpace offers high quality & well equipped workspaces giving tenants a nurturing environment .

Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. is a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investment. The firm invests in diversified investment in a broad range of industrial sectors. It seeks to invest in Japan. The firm prefers to be the lead investor in its portfolio companies. Future Venture Capital Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and is based inKyoto, Japan with offices in Tokyo, Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, Kanazawa, Mie, Sakai, Kobe, and Ehime.

Investment focus

Health Care, Information Technology, Manufacturing
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Myanmar

Portfolio highlights

Soxai — Soxai manufactures rings for healthcare purposes using IoT.
Dioseve — Dioseve is providing novel possibilities for all life.
YeLL Japan — YeLL is a company that help transform the organization by making the real sound of employees visible.

PE&HR is a private equity and venture capital firm that seeks to invest in incubation, start-up, and early-stage companies. PE&HR primarily invests in the human resources, internet, healthcare, IT, mobile, and social commerce-related industries.

Investment focus

Software, Fashion, Education
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

MEME — MEME is a money app for parents and children to make money more familiar and simplifies the flow of money.
VIE STYLE — VIE STYLE offers wearable music device and AI technology services.
Sixty Percent — Sixty Percent is an overseas fashion mail order site that collects street brands from various countries and transmits asian fashion.

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.

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.

VCDE Venture Partners was started in 2008 in Frankfurt/Germany and is a growth equity investment firm with a clear focus on technology companies in the field of software, the internet, mobile telecommunications and IT business services.Their main purpose is to build and develop successful growth companies. By partnering with outstandingentrepreneurs and management teams venturecapital.de delivers true value beyond financing and pro-actively works with portfolio companies to accelerate growth.They look for companies, that have a proven business model and through a strong value proposition address large markets and deliver real value to their customers be it consumers or enterprises. Out entrepreneurs‘ fund „venturecapital.de“ is funded by 150 European tech entrepreneurs, founders and industry veterans. It constitutes one of the strongest and most value adding business networks in Europe with an excellent platform for an exchange of expertise and know-how between investors, the fund and its portfolio companies.

Investment focus

Software, SEO, Automotive
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Germany, Turkey, India

Portfolio highlights

itravel — itravel allows leisure travelers to configure and book experiences, hotels, and transportation on tablets, the web, and in social media. itravel offers the client tools to select and “build” custom trips based on desired experiences (such as kitesurfing, elephant rides, special spa treatments), specific room configurations, and personalpreferences. itravel’s app interfaces allow these selections to happen effortlessly and with appealing content.
123Fahrschule — 123fahrschule.de - consolidating and digitizing the German driving school market
StalkBuyLove — A one-click "en Vogue" destination. Get your daily dose with the trendiest styles and best fashion inspiration updated on our fashion portal every day. We provide unprecedented access to the hottest and handpicked looks of the current season; looks that are inspired from celebrities, European catwalks and high-end luxury labels.As soonas we design new styles, we make them accessible online within 10 days from conceptualization. Styles might be quickly sold out because we do not keep a lot of stock - so you have to purchase quickly to avoid out of stocks. Our designs are super unique, so you will likely not find anybody else wearing the styles that we have.Every day we work hard to ensure that our designs are absolutely unique, beautiful and trendy. We make the latest fashion accessible; provide the prettiest pieces in town and hand-pick the fabrics, colors, prints and designs. We triple check each product before we put it online and send it to you. We personally look at things like fitting, color, comfort, design and quality to ensure that everything is perfect.Keep Stalking, Buying and Loving :)

Nagoya TV Ventures is wholly owned by Nagoya Broadcasting Network, invests in everything from seed to later stage in companies focused on media, entertainment, video, and internet.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Content, Internet
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Gatari — Gatari is developing an AR audio platform, including the AR camera app Vismuth, which can call avatars in reality.
Petokoto — Petokoto is a media created with pet specialists such as certified veterinarians.
bravesoft — bravesoft is a software company that operates events and in-house product for contract development and events. The company offering services such as UI / UX design, application consignment development service, appvisor push, and technical research service.

The University of Tokyo IPC is a company responsible for expanding the innovation ecosystem of the University of Tokyo. Accelerate global innovation from the University of Tokyo through three activities: start-up support, investment business, and corporate innovation support.It was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University ofTokyo in 2016 with the enforcement of the revised law of the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Law, which is the basis law. The investment targets of the Todai IPC are venture companies that utilize the research results and human resources of the University of Tokyo, but they also make FOF (fund of funds) investments in funds managed by some private venture capital companies. In 2019, it started a consortium-type incubation program (University of Tokyo IPC 1stRound) to support the establishment and financing of Tokyo University-related ventures.

Investment focus

Biotechnology, Medical, Health Care
Series A, Funding Round, Seed
Japan, United States, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Heartseed — Heartseed has set a mission to “open the door to heart disease treatment with regenerative medicine” and is working toward the day-to-day clinical application of myocardial regenerative medicine.
Yoii Fuel — Yoii Fuel is a software company which analyzes a company's KPIs and enables them to obtain a means of financing based on this data.
Better Place — Better place vision is to create a world in which kind people can continue to be kind, as well as a society in which people can work in their own way without worrying about money.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Timee — Timee is a Planning, development and management of Internet media company.
Smart Shopping — Smartmat is an eco-friendly IoT purchase system for on-demand, no-hassle grocery with cost-effective shipping.
Launchable — Your test results suck. We make them better.

Based in Tokyo, Adways is a mobile marketing solution provider mostly known for its Asia’s largest mobile CPI adnetwork “AppDriver” and mobile app measurement & tracking tool “PartyTrack” used by great number of major app developers around the world. Since 2004 when it opened the first overseas office in China, Adways has been aggressivelyexpanding its mobile app distribution network in Asian markets. Now with 1,000 employees in 11 countries (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and the USA), Adways supports app developers worldwide to maximize their user acquisition and monetization and furthermore thrives to provide new value to the market. Haruhisa Okamura is Founder and CEO of Adways who has grown Adways from a small startup to an international corporation with over a thousand employees around the world. In 2006, Adways went public and Okamura was one of the youngest entrepreneurs to list a company in Japan at that time.You can read his story here: "How a high school dropout became a multi-millionaire entrepreneur" http://www.techinasia.com/high-school-dropout-multimillionaire-entrepreneur/

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Internet, Software
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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.
MiddleField — MiddleField is a team to make cars the best entertainment and to make the lives of everyone involved in cars into entertainment. They creates a society where a lot of people are involved as a middle point of all people's dreams. MiddleField owns and operates an e-commerce platform offering cars.