Top 20 Social VC (Venture Capital) Funds in Japan in September 2025

Investor	Social Japan investments
Nissay Capital	2
East Ventures	2
ANRI	2
UNITED	1
Global Brain Corporation	1
Spurcle	1
WERU Investment	1
Venture Labo Investment	1
Archetype Ventures	1
Makuake	1
Maezawa Fund	1
Taliki	1
Recruit Strategic Partners	1
Startup Factory	1
Hakuhodo DY Ventures	1
Kodansha	1
Sansei Capital Investment	1
Shochiku Ventures	1
Mizuho Capital	1
Waseda University	1

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, Information Technology
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, United States, Ethiopia

Portfolio highlights

Japan AI — Japan AI specializes in R&D of artificial intelligence and consulting services.
Blackbox — Blackbox is an entertainment firm that is involved in businesses, including VTuber production, media mix, and live music events.
Linea Innovations — Linea Innovations is an energy production company that develops commercial fusion reactors with advanced fuel technology.

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

SIRCLO — SIRCLO is a leading omnichannel commerce enabler in Indonesia, driven by the mission to unlock the digital potential of people and businesses.
CrestLab — CrestLab Inc. is a startup focused on developing and providing products for anime production, with a central offering called "ANICRA," which is an anime production support platform that leverages AI technology. This platform aims to aid in various aspects of anime production by integrating artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency andcreativity.
Pintarnya — Situs penyedia lowongan kerja online untuk berbagai posisi, pendidikan dan pekerjaan dari lulusan SD hingga S1 Tersedia di seluruh indonesia.

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Chorakuchoju — Chorakuchoju is a healthcare organization that tries to avoid isolation by implementing AI technologies and medical services.
Linea Innovations — Linea Innovations is an energy production company that develops commercial fusion reactors with advanced fuel technology.
Strand Therapeutics — Strand Therapeutics is developing the first platform for creating programmable mRNA drugs to deliver precise, multi-functional, potentially curative treatments.

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

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Content, Information Technology
Funding Round, Seed, Series A
Japan, Nigeria, United States

Portfolio highlights

Brainbuddy — Brainbuddy specializes in sales support, business growth, recruiting, consulting, and training services.
FUNDiT — FUNDiT is an IT-focused M&A and business consolidation company that specializes in acquiring, managing, and scaling IT companies.
Ageless — Ageless is a staffing agency that provides human resources-related services primarily to middle-aged and senior citizens.

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

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

Portfolio highlights

SAKANA Dream — Japanese fish and its cuisine are a treasure of Japan, On the other hand, the variety of fish consumed on a daily basis accounts for less than 1% of all fish living in Japanese waters. Although there are many underutilized fish that surpass the well-known fish, they are even discarded due to unstable catches and lack of name recognition. Aquaculture can provide a stable supply, however, it is not easy to keep fish in a small water cage and only a limited number of fish are delivered to the market. We, SAKANA Dream, select the most delicious fish from over 4,000 species in Japan, and make it possible to farm and produce them using the cutting edge technology. Our goal is to create the "world's most delicious fish" that no one has ever tasted before and deliver it to our customers.
Cierpa & Company — Cierpa & Company develops environmental, social, and governance management software. They offer services for the cloud, share information between departments, optimise workflows, and analyse and improve scores.
Counter Culture Company — Counter Culture Company is an online platform that offers K-pop dance classes ranging from beginner to professional levels.

Spurcle is a venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, Agriculture
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
AirKamuy — AirKamuy is an aviation company that designs and manufactures fixed-wing VTOL aircraft and drones with the help of modern technology.
Zip Infrastructure — Inquiry : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDmxd1TpPP331TY4VoRsvn0yWX3Ca5Jd-bfBiuPwvpD2SKtA/viewform

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

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

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

XDeli — XDeli is a digital application that offers food delivery and meal subsidy service for corporate employees.
Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.

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

Diggle — DIGGLE is a service that provides fundamental management accounting management on the cloud called fraud management. It is possible to reduce the mistakes and man-hours of the fraud management task and easily carry out the fraud management task even if it is not an expert in finance or accounting.DIGGLE covers budget creation work and budgetrecord comparison work, especially in the foreman management work. In the budget creation work, the KPI and the budget are automatically created by inputting the target numerical value to the preset parameters utilizing the budget generator function, while the forecast contrasting work is made up of the financial information, non-financial information It is easy to calculate by simply entering the numerical value, and it is possible to carry out calculation of the forecast contrast.
FLUX — FLUX provide “FLUX Header Bidding Solution” that creates fair competition opportunities and significantly increases advertising revenue within the header bidding server, ad requests are sent to SSPs and ad exchanges all at once, so it is possible to have a pure price competition without prioritization, and to determine the highest bid amount andvalue of the advertising space. I can. Then, the price of the highest bid ad in the header bidding and the ad set in the ad server are competed, and the ad with the higher bid is delivered.
Hubble — Cloud-based software specialized for contracts and other legal documents

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

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

Investment focus

Laser, Beauty, Social
Seed, Funding Round
Japan, United States

Portfolio highlights

YUKASHIKADO — Yukasikado is developing a business on the axis of nutrition that supports the health of the body.
ARIGATO BANK — Arigato Bank offers financial services, with a focus on solving social issues.
Blue Laser Fusion — Blue Laser Fusion is a commercial fusion company. Blue Laser Fusion is a laser startup to commercialize laser fusion by inventing its own laser and fusion reactor.

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

Investment focus

Cooking, Retail, Children
Seed, Angel, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

AiCAN — AiCAN provides system planning and development, data analysis, IT, and consulting services related to child welfare.
Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
CoCooking — CoCooking uses food and cooking to create ample opportunity for dialogue and thought, fostering creativity, diversity, and well-being of individuals and communities.

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.

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

Investment focus

Video, Content, Film Production
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

HARTi — HARTi produces iconic artists worldwide. they are always on the lookout for partners who will bring art to expand the business.
Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
Super Galaxy Records — Super Galaxy Records is a company that plans and produces IP that creates new works, and is also a record company that produces and manages voice actors and artists.

Hakuhodo DY Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Health Care, Internet
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, Australia, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Emole — Emole is a platform that connects content creators with viewers through short drama content, offering a variety of engaging stories.
Utoniq — Utoniq service allows them to collect the works of the artists they support digitally in the form of trading cards. Trading cards will be collected as proof of support for the creators. It is a brand-new trading card service that is both enjoyable to collect and enjoyable to exchange. They provide a service lineup in order to continually increasefan engagement. They can make flexible proposals based on the needs of artists, creators, influencers, anime characters, and so on.
Wunderbar — Wunderbar provides intellectual property along with branding and marketing services.

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.

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

Investment focus

Content, Medical, Task Management
Funding Round, Series A, Series B
Japan, China, 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.

Shochiku Ventures is a venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Sales, Space Travel, Manufacturing
Funding Round
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.
Iwaya Giken — Iwaya Giken manufactures and sells gas balloons, airtight cabins, and other space-travel equipment.

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

Terass — TERASS is a High-end real estate information site.
Helical Fusion — Helical Fusion is a startup company that aims to commercialize fusion energy using magnetic confinement of high-temperature plasmas.
Metagen Therapeutics — Metagen Therapeutics is a Drug discovery and medical business company which utilizes microbiome science.

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.