Top 20 Social VC (Venture Capital) Funds in Japan in April 2025
A list of 20 VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Social startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Social companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 20 Social VC (Venture Capital) Funds in Japan in April 2025
Investor | Social Japan investments |
---|---|
Nissay Capital | 2 |
Mizuho Capital | 1 |
Maezawa Fund | 1 |
Taliki | 1 |
UNITED | 1 |
Global Brain Corporation | 1 |
Recruit Strategic Partners | 1 |
ANRI | 1 |
Archetype Ventures | 1 |
Waseda University | 1 |
Makuake | 1 |
Startup Factory | 1 |
Hakuhodo DY Ventures | 1 |
Spurcle | 1 |
KDDI Open Innovation Fund | 1 |
Kodansha | 1 |
aucfan Co.,Ltd. | 1 |
Sansei Capital Investment | 1 |
WERU Investment | 1 |
Venture Labo Investment | 1 |
Nissay Capital is a venture capital Company specializing in seed, start-up, growth capital, middle stage, and later stage investment.
Show more
Investment focus
- Health Care, Internet, Medical
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, United States, Ethiopia
Portfolio highlights
- AirX — AirX is a management service company specializing in air transportation agency business and travel arrangement business. The company leverages technology to transform the notion of mobility into an unprecedented experience. It also provides services such as CodeShare, AIROS Skyview, and AIROS Air Loss. AirX will create the movement of the futuresociety, sightseeing and the way of life of helicopter, Empty MaaS, Flying taxi, eVTOL, and Next-generation traffic.AirX was established on February 23, 2015, and is based in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
- HQ — HQ offers next-generation employee benefits platform.
- Doctor's Prime — Doctor's Prime is a technology company that provides is a part-time job information service for optimizing the working style of doctors.
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.
Show more
Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Internet
- Funding Round, Series A, Series B
- Japan, United States, China
Portfolio highlights
- Instalimb — Instalimb is the world's first 3D printing prosthesis business.
- Penetrator — Penetrator transforms the real estate market with space technology, tackling transaction issues and forming landslide observation systems.
- Umee Technologies — Umee Technologies is an IT firm that offers full-stack development, conversational AI, and psychological analysis engine services.
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.
Show more
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.
Show more
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.
UNITED, Inc. is developing the smart phone app and the advertising technology business.
Show more
Investment focus
- Media and Entertainment, Content, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Seed, Series A
- Japan, Nigeria, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Precal — Precal is an information technology company that develops applications that are common with pharmacies, pharmacists, and dispensing clerks.
- Gab — Gab is a company that works to solve social problems as well as develops and markets ethical products.
- FLASH — FLASH is an entertainment and technology startup.
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.
Show more
Investment focus
- Information Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence
- Series A, Series B, Funding Round
- Japan, United States, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Cellid — Cellid developing the waveguide-architecture display module for AR glasses and high-performance spatial recognition software.
- Tokenz — Tokenz is your all-in-one platform for global digital payments, cross-border tax compliance, and seamless payouts.
- Boston Medical Sciences — Boston Medical Sciences conducts research, prevention, and diagnostics procedures to eliminate colorectal cancer deaths.
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.
Show more
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.
ANRI is a Japanese venture capital firm that mainly invests in seed and early-stage startups.
Show more
Investment focus
- Software, Health Care, Information Technology
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, United States, India
Portfolio highlights
- AirX — AirX is a management service company specializing in air transportation agency business and travel arrangement business. The company leverages technology to transform the notion of mobility into an unprecedented experience. It also provides services such as CodeShare, AIROS Skyview, and AIROS Air Loss. AirX will create the movement of the futuresociety, sightseeing and the way of life of helicopter, Empty MaaS, Flying taxi, eVTOL, and Next-generation traffic.AirX was established on February 23, 2015, and is based in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
- Pleap — Pleap is a medical engineering company specializing in the development of AI and IoT-based technology solutions tailored for medical institutions. The company's product offerings include "medimo" which is an AI tool that automatically creates medical record manuscripts from medical audio.
- Ryulog — Ryulog is a recruiting company that helps job seekers find international work opportunities and migrate abroad.
Archetype Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in B2B Tech seed and early stage venture investments.
Show more
Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, United States
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.
Show more
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.
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.
Show more
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
Startup Factory is a startup fund that provides one-stop support to startups.
Show more
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.
- HA-LU — HA-LU is a Short Drama Label that aims to produce authentic "Youth 2.0 IP Contents" for the next generation.
Hakuhodo DY Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm.
Show more
Investment focus
- Media and Entertainment, Artificial Intelligence, Task Management
- Funding Round, Series B, Series D
- Japan, Australia, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
- Tribeau — Tribute is a word-of-mouth app for aesthetic medicine for cosmetic surgeries, cosmetic dermatologists, and orthodontists who are not covered by health insurance.
- Recustomer — Recustomer is an IT company that develops software for digital payment and provides support for web development.
Spurcle is a venture capital firm.
Show more
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.
- Essen — Essen is a technological company that specializes in mobility and data analysis, as well as using data to improve transportation.
- ForestFolks — ForestFolks Provider of forest management and conservation services aimed at protecting forestry and the environment.The company exploits and successfully employs the forest's CO2 absorption potential and conserves and recovers forest resources and biodiversity, allowing for regulatory compliance and supporting environmental protection.
KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture capital fund that will support promising startup companies. Total size of the fund is JPY10 billion. This is the first corporate venture capital fund established by KDDI. The fund will be managed by Global Brain Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO, Yasuhiko Yurimoto),which has a strong track record in the venture capital business. By combining KDDI’s know-how and assets with Global Brain’s investment and management support capabilities, we will work together to accelerate cooperative activities with promising startup companies. Through this fund, as well as "KDDI ∞ Labo," a startup incubation program currently inviting a second round of applications, we will continue to support the growth of the next startup companies.
Show more
Investment focus
- Software, Mobile, Internet
- Funding Round, Series B, Series A
- Japan, United States, Germany
Portfolio highlights
- MOSH Japan — MOSH is a web page creation services for individual business owners.
- Thinkr — THINKR provides advertising, video production, content, UX design, and animation services.
- Turing — Turing develops and manufactures fully autonomous vehicles.
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)
Show more
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.
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.
Show more
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.
Sansei Capital provides portfolio management, corporate management support, and financing services.
Show more
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.
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.
Show more
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.
Show more
Investment focus
- Financial Services, Internet, Information Technology
- Funding Round, Series B, Seed
- Japan, Indonesia, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Castee — Castee provides social collaboration services and also helps with a tool for job requests and overseas projects for creators.
- 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.
- Batton — Batton is a product-developing company that sells AI-enabled RPA buttons and AI formats that allow papers to be automatically formatted.
Investors by industry
Proptech
Impact
Hardware
Gaming
Google
Consumer
Energy
Climate
Marketplace
FinTech
Health Care
Community
Artificial intelligence
Biotech
EdTech
Sustainability
Venture Capital
Organic Food
Real Estate
Social Media
Android
Art
Digital Media
Social Network
Franchise
Construction
Local
eSports
Legal
Enterprise Software
Internet
Sports
Medical
Email
Wellness
Music
Manufacturing
Mobile
Platforms
Mobile Advertising
Recruiting
Biotechnology
Hospitality
Cannabis
Fitness
Travel
Automotive
Wine And Spirits
Medical Device
Crowdfunding
Social
CleanTech
Mobile Apps
Transportation
InsurTech
Enterprise
LGBT
Web3
Big Data
Education
Finance
Video Games
Payments
Publishing
Food and Beverage
Financial Services
Retail
Fashion
Oil and Gas
Clean Energy
B2B
Photography
Infrastructure
Theatre
Film
Life Science
Beauty
Sporting Goods
Non Profit
Renewable Energy
SaaS
Restaurants
Social Impact
Celebrity
Software
Cryptocurrency
Agriculture (agtech)
Machine Learning
Media (entertainment)
Facebook
Blockchain
Investors by country
Germany
United Kingdom
India
New Zealand
Canada
Ireland
Australia
United States
South Korea
China
Oceania
Japan
Sri Lanka
Singapore
Europe
Indonesia
South Africa
Vietnam
LATAM
Spain
Armenia
Brazil
Africa
Middle East
Qatar
Asia
Georgia
Ecuador
Bahrain
Faroe Islands
Belize
Egypt
Croatia
Greece
Ghana
Hungary
Finland
Estonia
Costa Rica
Czech Republic
Ethiopia
France
Belgium
Hong Kong
Barbados
Gibraltar
Bermuda
Belarus
Algeria
Chile
Denmark
Bulgaria
Liberia
Kuwait
Peru
Myanmar
Liechtenstein
Morocco
Norway
Mexico
Panama
Lithuania
Nicaragua
Mali
Lebanon
Mauritius
Philippines
Israel
Jersey
Malaysia
Malta
Italy
Tajikistan
Togo
Seychelles
Poland
Zimbabwe
Saudi Arabia
Dominican Republic
Namibia
Iceland
Azerbaijan
Nigeria
Bahamas
Iraq
United Arab Emirates
Jamaica
Honduras
Bolivia
Isle of Man
Luxembourg
Pakistan
Albania
Romania
Grenada
Bangladesh
Argentina
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Tanzania
Puerto Rico
Serbia
Sweden
Senegal
Taiwan
Rwanda
Tunisia
Zambia
Slovenia
Sierra Leone
San Marino
Thailand
Uruguay
Kenya
Cayman Islands
Cambodia
Cyprus
Oman
Latvia
Guatemala
Portugal
Uzbekistan
Russian Federation
Turkey
El Salvador
Ukraine
Uganda
Venezuela
Cameroon
Austria
Switzerland
Colombia
Marshall Islands
VC (Venture Capital) Funds in Japan by industry
Crowdfunding
Restaurants
Real Estate
Financial Services
Transportation
Big Data
Cryptocurrency
Finance
Climate
Food and Beverage
Wine And Spirits
Video Games
Medical
Medical Device
Wellness
Internet
Social Media
Digital Media
Manufacturing
Art
Music
Mobile
Android
Blockchain
Software
Legal
Local
Construction
Enterprise Software
Sports
Fitness
Hospitality
Automotive
Travel
InsurTech
FinTech
Recruiting
Biotechnology
Enterprise
Consumer
Health Care
Biotech
Energy
EdTech
Sustainability
Proptech
SaaS
Marketplace
Hardware
Gaming
Retail
Fashion
Beauty
B2B
Life Science
Sporting Goods
Publishing
Photography
Education
Renewable Energy
Mobile Apps
Social
Social Network
Platforms
Clean Energy
Payments
Artificial intelligence
Infrastructure
Web3
Social Impact
Media (entertainment)
Machine Learning
CleanTech
Impact
Community
eSports
Agriculture (agtech)