Top 10 Sporting Goods Startup Investors in Japan in January 2026

Last updated: Jan 2026 A list of 10 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Sporting goods startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Sporting goods companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.

Top 10 Sporting Goods Startup Investors in Japan in January 2026

Investor	Sporting Goods Japan investments
Keio Innovation Initiative	1
Innovation Engine	1
Ricoh	1
Kaga Electronics	1
Adways	1
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital	1
Sansei Capital Investment	1
IPBridge	1
Edge Labs	1
RION	1

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Investor list

Keio Innovation Initiative (KII) is a venture capital established by Keio University. In order to make more effective use of the research results of Keio University, we aim to contribute to the development of society by creating investment for venture companies that utilize research results and creating new industries.The key to thinking aboutJapan's future growth strategy is to utilize advanced research results of the university. In addition to GDP, in addition to GDP, Japan is the world's third largest R & D exporter in R & D expenses, but as the low growth rate shows, it has a problem in investment efficiency in research and development. There are also reports on the entrepreneurial spirit that is indispensable for creating new industries, with the lowest entrepreneurial activity rate among developed countries.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Fermelanta — Fermelanta produces rare plant-based ingredients through microbial fermentation. It engineers a cell to build a biosynthetic pathway of target molecules with gene transfer and disruption.
Space quarters — Space Quarters is a manufacturing company that produces payload deploy and panels, and develops space assembly robotic systems.
Metagen Therapeutics — Metagen Therapeutics is a Drug discovery and medical business company which utilizes microbiome science.

Innovation Engine has been is promoting investment to create and grow promising business areas created from technology.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Health Care
Funding Round, Series A, Series C
Japan

Portfolio highlights

CoA Nexus — CoA Nexus develops and operates a skillshare matching platform for human resource research and development.
bestat — bestat is a developer of platforms for 3D data creation, management, and utilization using AI and offers digital twins services.
Drone Show Japan — Drone Show Japan company specializes in drone shows for events, aerial photography, and workshops.

Ricoh provides innovative products and services, and it is expanding its business in three customer segments: office, printing, and others.The company provides image equipment such as MFPs and printers for offices and visual communication products that support new work styles. In addition, the company solves problems for office customers throughtotal solutions that combine IT environment construction, network environment operation support, and user support.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Software
Seed, Series C, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
Flucle — Flucle provides company rule building and risk mitigation, cloud advisor, human resource development, training & labor management services.
Log build — Log build offers a new form of on-site management that enables productivity improvement and real-time visualization and sharing of on-site information through on-site management robots and VR software. The company provides AI development, VR development, construction site construction management robot, cloud site management, and construction siteplatform.

Kaga Electronics is a Japan based company engages in the sales of electronic components, electronic devices and other. It operates through following segments: Electronic Components, Information Equipment, Software and Other. The firm generates majority revenue from the Electronic Components.

Investment focus

Education, Internet, Artificial Intelligence
Funding Round, Series A, Seed
Japan, Taiwan

Portfolio highlights

17LIVE — Flip action technology, connect the world together; integrate instant audio and video into life, and create a new generation of action audio and video. No matter where you are, in any corner of the world, you can connect with the world anytime, anywhere through the 17LIVE platform, show your talent and enthusiasm, realize your dreams, and createyour own wonderful life.
DriveX — DriveX is a consulting firm that helps in creating new businesses using AI solutionst.
Linkage — Linkage is a Online health support business and Online specific health guidance.

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/