Top 40 Web3 Angel Investors in Japan in November 2024
A list of 40 angel investors that invest in Web3 startups based in Japan. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Web3 companies from Japan. We update this investor list every month.Top 40 Web3 Angel Investors in Japan in November 2024
Investor | Web3 Japan investments |
---|---|
Shintaro Yamada | 3 |
Yuzuru Honda | 2 |
Osamu Ogasawara | 2 |
Komura Fujio | 2 |
Sotaro Karasawa | 2 |
Kotaro Chiba | 2 |
Kotaro Chiba | 2 |
Oki Matsumoto | 2 |
Ziqi Jerry Zhou | 1 |
Bo Shen | 1 |
Kazuma Ieiri | 1 |
Uchino Hiroyuki | 1 |
Kazuma Yamauchi | 1 |
James Gong | 1 |
Tomokaz Saito | 1 |
Gaku Saito | 1 |
Kei Yoshikoshi | 1 |
Michael Carter | 1 |
Hironao Kunimitsu | 1 |
Yamazaki Reijiro | 1 |
Batara Eto | 1 |
Sandeep Nailwal | 1 |
Fujiyo Ishiguro | 1 |
Jay Zaveri | 1 |
Kazutaka Muraguchi | 1 |
Yuichi Kawasaki | 1 |
Mamoru Taniya | 1 |
Hirofumi Miki | 1 |
Amin Azumude | 1 |
Makoto Takano | 1 |
Taiga Matsuyama | 1 |
Kensuke Furukawa | 1 |
Yuki Naito | 1 |
Koki Yabu | 1 |
Mizuki Inoue | 1 |
Mai Fujimoto | 1 |
Kenji Kasahara | 1 |
Ryutaro Katayama | 1 |
Shigeru Urushibara | 1 |
Kazuhiro Ishikura | 1 |
During his years at Waseda University, Shintaro worked at Japan’s biggest e-commerce mall, Rakuten, Inc. On August 1st 2001, Shintaro established “Unoh Inc.” after graduating university. At Unoh he was responsible for designing and developing several web services, one of which was the online magazine subscription . Services provided by Unohinclude planning, development and management of the film enthusiast community site “Movie Life” (acquired by PIA Corporation) as well as “Sugu.CC” , “NeoAd” (both acquired by GMOAP) and the photo sharing site “Photozou” (acquired by Digital Garage).In 2009 Unoh entered into social gaming, creating multiple successful social games. Among these games, “Machitsuku!” has been its biggest hit with over 5 million users. On August 3rd 2010, Unoh joined Zynga and Shintaro became General Manager of Zynga Japan. He resigned on January 2012. After traveling around the world, He established the new company “Mercari, Inc.” on February 2013 and released the resale shopping app “Mercari” on July 2013 in Japan.He is a true Internet geek, spending a lot of time on the Internet and boasts around 180,000 followers on Twitter.
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Investment focus
- Internet, Finance, Information Technology
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan, United States, Kenya
Portfolio highlights
- Autify — AI software testing company aimed at solving the challenges associated with automation testing. We are passionate about making software testing faster and easier, empowering companies to release faster and keep their applications stable.
- Peach Cars — Peach Cars building a solution for those looking to buy and sell vehicles whole information on vehicles and hassle-free transactions.
- AnotherBall — AnotherBall is a blockchain startup that combines entertainment and blockchain.
Yuzuru Honda is a Founder & Global CEO of FreakOut.
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Investment focus
- SNS, Internet, Software
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, Nigeria, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- NodeFlair — NodeFlair aims to help tech talents make better career decisions through jobs, salaries, reviews, company insights, and more
- AGRI SMILE — AGRI SMILE is a platform that focuses on sharing agricultural technology.
- Tyms — Tyms online accounting software for your business connects you to your bank, accountant, bookkeeper, and other business apps. Start a free trial today. Also available in Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa.
Osamu Ogasahara is the founder, CEO, and president of FGN ABBA Lab.
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Investment focus
- SNS, Content, Fashion
- Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- CAMPFIRE — Campfire engages in the planning, development, and operation of a crowd funding platform.They operate the largest cloud funding platform in Japan [CAMPFIRE (campfire)], which supports "whoever wants to start something."The fee is 5% of the domestic level, and about 15,000 projects have collected about $70million in total from over700,000 people.
Komura Fujio
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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.
Sotaro Karasawa - Chief Technology Officer @ STAR FESTIVAL
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Investment focus
- Software, Blockchain, Art
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Taian — Taian, which specializes in bridal industry services and software. They also provide ''Concept Marry,'' which allows couples to design invites and seating charts that match their wedding theme, as well as display guest information on Oiwaii.
- Atmoph — A smart digital window that opens to beautiful scenery from around the world. By simply putting it on your desk or hanging it on the wall, Atmoph Window will open up a whole new world before you.
- Cloudbase — Cloudbase is an information technology company that specializes in the fields of cloud services and management.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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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.
Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.
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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.
Oki Matsumoto began his career at Salomon Brothers Asia Limited in April 1987. He then joined Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd. in April 1990 and was appointed General Partner of The Goldman Sachs Group, L.P. in November 1994. As a General Partner, he was Co-Head of its Tokyo Branch’s FX & Fixed Income Business and was in charge of FX and fixedincome products and the related risk management. It was in April 1999 that Matsumoto jointly established (the former) Monex, Inc. with Sony Corporation. In August 2004, Matsumoto become the Representative Director and CEO of the Company (former name: Monex Beans Holdings, Inc.) upon its formation through management integration of Monex, Inc. and Nikko Beans Inc. He was named the Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of the Company in February 2011 and then assumed his current position in June 2013.
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Investment focus
- Information Technology, Cryptocurrency, FinTech
- Angel, Seed, Series A
- Japan, Taiwan, Australia
Portfolio highlights
- Toposware — From pioneering cryptographic research to engineering global-scale distributed systems technologies, Toposware is committed to solving the hardest problems to advance open internet standards.
- WATASHIHA — WATASHIHA is a communication company.
- SPACE WALKER — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.
Ziqi Jerry Zhou is the partner at Puzzle Ventures.
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Investment focus
- Security, Blockchain, Network Security
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- KEKKAI — KEKKAI is a wallet Security product create an environment where all users can enjoy Web3 with ease and secure.
Bo Shen - Founding/Managing Partner @ Fenbushi Capital
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Switzerland, China
Portfolio highlights
- Web3Port — Web3port BUILDS tools CONNECTING Web3.0 startups and contributors to ACCELERATE innovation.
- Liquity — Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol that allows you to draw 0% interest loans against Ether used as collateral.
- Global Risk Exchange — Global Risk Exchange (or "GRE") is a blockchain based, decentralized and open global risk exchange market, with the purpose of helping individuals, companies and organizations to access and trade and manage their risks. GRE completely reconstructed traditional risk management tools(insurance and derivative contracts) in a decentralizedway, and will become the underlying operation system to support insurance and derivative transactions in the era of blockchain. GRE aims to build the infrastructure and trading platform for risk management industry in the blockchain driven world in the near future, by providing a fundamental protocol for the creation of risk events, pricing, trading, information collection and oracles to verdict specific risks. It will enable individuals and institutions around the globe to achieve risk and return equilibrium.
Born in 1978 and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, Kazuma founded paperboy&co. inc. (currently GMO Pepabo) and went on to become the youngest CEO ever (at the time) to take a company public in Japan by taking paperboy&co. public on the JASDAQ Japanese stock exchange. After leaving paperboy&co, he continued his startup trail by foundingBASE, CAMPFIRE, and XIMERA. Kazuma also dabbled in the food services industry via the founding of On The Corner (a cafe) and is active in the startup investment scene. He also started the Liverty-house project which attempts to create shared housing for young people in need.
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Investment focus
- Content, Fashion, Recruiting
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Taliki — Taliki is a Coworking Space Operates Social Entrepreneurs Development Support for Intrepreneur Development.
- ONE NOVA — One Nova (ワンノバ) is a lifestyle brand and online platform that offers a range of innerwear products, such as men's boxers.
- vivid garden — vivid garden is an Agriculture company.
Uchino Hiroyuki - Founder And Chairman @ WingArc1st
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Information Technology
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- SingulaNet Ltd — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.
Kazuma Yamauchi
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Investment focus
- Content, Art, Social Media
- Seed, Funding Round, Angel
- Japan, Singapore, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Sozi — The core members of Sozi are information technology experts. I have been involved in communication and web service development in the information society. On the other hand, each is familiar with many contents such as manga, anime, and illustrations .
- Anique — Anique is a service that utilizes blockchain technology to make artworks.
- Misaky Tokyo — Marine plant-based, handmade Japanese sweets. These crystal treats are individually handcrafted, the perfect gift idea! Vegan, gluten-free, and additive-free confectionery, with stunning flavors such as Yuzu, Matcha, and Rose. Supporting artisans in their craft. Japanese luxury sweets with a surprise inside.
Ming Gong the Co-Founder of ChainB, is widely recognized on the internet under the pseudonym ""rage prince Gong."" Ming graduated with a degree in math and specializes in IT and financial securities analysis. He has many years of experience in IT and finance, and focused mainly on industry study and investment analysis whileserving at the Delong Group. In 2012, he began devoting his time to the development of digital currency and the blockchain industry. Additionally, he translated a large amount of relative materials and wrote the blockchain white paper. His publications includes ""Blockchain Society,"" ""Blockchain - A New Economic Blueprint,"" and ""Digital Currency"" etc. Ming participated in the development and investment of many blockchain and digital asset programs, and created the new media company ChainB, which has become influential in the blockchain industry.Currently Ming serves as Vice President of the Beijing Blockchain Technology Application Association. He is also a member of the Internet Finance Association - Blockchain Group, as well as Senior Researcher at China Blockchain Study Alliance. He is a member of the IT professional committee at the Chinese Securities Investment Fund Association, and member at the Policy Committee of the Quantchain Foundation, with several other positions.
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Investment focus
- FinTech, InsurTech, Blockchain
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Global Risk Exchange — Global Risk Exchange (or "GRE") is a blockchain based, decentralized and open global risk exchange market, with the purpose of helping individuals, companies and organizations to access and trade and manage their risks. GRE completely reconstructed traditional risk management tools(insurance and derivative contracts) in a decentralizedway, and will become the underlying operation system to support insurance and derivative transactions in the era of blockchain. GRE aims to build the infrastructure and trading platform for risk management industry in the blockchain driven world in the near future, by providing a fundamental protocol for the creation of risk events, pricing, trading, information collection and oracles to verdict specific risks. It will enable individuals and institutions around the globe to achieve risk and return equilibrium.
Tomokaz Saito - Corporate Legal Manager @ Mercari
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Investment focus
- Finance, Security, Blockchain
- Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- earlyworks — Earlyworks Co., Ltd. provides blockchain technology solutions. The Company develops hybrid blockchain product that is fast and secure. Earlyworks offers software and system development, consulting, and security solution services.
Graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering , Graduate School of Engineering 2007 Graduated from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering
April 2007 Joined Goldman Sachs Securities. He is engaged in a variety of investments, from non-performing loan investment, private equity investment, real estate investment toship investment, in the strategic investment department, which is a proprietary investment team.
May 2010 Moved to Goldman Sachs Investment Partners to become an investor at his own discretion. Participate in a global hedge fund with total assets of over 800 billion yen, and as a hedge fund manager, invest and manage up to 80 billion portfolios in stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, interest rates, CDS, derivatives, loans, etc.
February 2019 Appointed Cryptact Co., Ltd.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Cryptocurrency, Asset Management
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Gaia Japan — Gaia is a Financial based Company
Kei Yoshikoshi is the Co-founder of DeForm.
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Investment focus
- Web3, Blockchain, Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Apas Port — Apas Port is an NFT production firm that provides Web3 sessions, straining, and advisory services to clients seeking NFT projects.
Michael Maxwell Carter is CEO at Weeby.co.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Music, Dating
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- United States, South Korea
Hironao Kunimitsu was born in Hyogo, Japan. After graduating from Okayama High School, he spent several years traveling around the world. He visited over 30 countries including the US, China, India, Canada, and others in Central and South America.In 1996 he entered Fudan University in China, and then later went on to study at Santa MonicaCollege in the US. In 2004 he entered Atmovie Inc. where he produced movies and televised dramas, and was appointed company director in the same year. In 2007 he founded gumi Inc., and it started listing on first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December, 2014.
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Investment focus
- Virtual Reality, Content, Media and Entertainment
- Funding Round, Seed, Angel
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- 1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
- Gatari — Gatari is developing an AR audio platform, including the AR camera app Vismuth, which can call avatars in reality.
- Thirdverse — Thirdverse (formerly known as Yomuneco Inc) is engaged in Virtual Reality content and services planning, development, sales and management.
Yamazaki Reijiro - Chairman @ Anymarry
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Investment focus
- CRM, Finance, Security
- Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- G-Next — G NEXT is an Information Technology based company.
- earlyworks — Earlyworks Co., Ltd. provides blockchain technology solutions. The Company develops hybrid blockchain product that is fast and secure. Earlyworks offers software and system development, consulting, and security solution services.
Batara Eto was the Co-founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures. Batara Eto attended Takushoku University.
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Investment focus
- Financial Services, FinTech, Information Technology
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, Thailand, Indonesia
Portfolio highlights
- Lanturn — Streamline your company incorporation. We assist both locals and foreigners in hassle-free, ACRA-compliant incorporation. Contact us today.
- Telcoin — Telcoin provides low-cost, high-quality financial products for every mobile phone user in the world.
- Toku — Seamless employment, built for Web3. WorkDAO is the only Web3-native employment service that provides legal employment, token payroll, and employee benefits that make a difference, globally. We're building the infrastructure to scale DAOs and Web3 organizations so you can focus on building.
Sandeep Nailwal is the co-founder and COO of Polygon. Sandeep previously worked at Scopeweaver as the Co-Founder and CEO. He attended the Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Financial Services
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- United States, India, Singapore
Portfolio highlights
- Fermah — Fermah can generate proofs for any instance in which ZK is used. Fermah is credibly neutral and architected to support all proof systems. This includes zkVMs, zkEVMs, Groth16, and all other proof systems. It is optimized for cheap, fast, and reliable ZK proof generation.
- RISE Labs — The Gigagas Layer 2
- OpenGradient — OpenGradient is a leading decentralized AI platform for open-source model hosting, secure inference, agentic reasoning, and application deployment. By developing tooling and a feature-rich platform that makes developing AI workflows both secure and seamless, OpenGradient empowers developers with the ability to build in its ecosystem of intelligentand optimized AI-empowered applications. With native model hosting, permissionless composability, and secure inference execution, OpenGradient also aims to accelerate open-source AI by democratizing model ownership, improving verifiability guarantees, and promoting censorship-resistant model access.Our heterogeneous AI compute architecture (HACA) and our proprietary library NeuroML scale secure AI workflows with features like inference, agentic reasoning, statistical analysis, and more. OpenGradient also accelerates open-source innovation with a web portal and SDK for Web2 developers to leverage our AI stack without navigating blockchain complexities, while enjoying the security and composability benefits of decentralized infrastructure.
Fujiyo Ishiguro is a President & CEO at Netyear Group Corp.
Fujiyo Ishiguro After working at Brother Industries and Swarovski Japan, Ms. Ishiguro founded a high-tech specialty consulting firm in Silicon Valley and advised clients such as Yahoo!, Netscape, Panasonic, and Sony on US-Japan alliances and technology transfers. She is a foundingmember of Netyear Group in US and Japan, devising comprehensive digital marketing solutions for corporate clients that resolve fundamental business issues as CEO. The company was listed on the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2008. Ms. Ishiguro graduated the School of Economics at Nagoya University and received an MBA from Stanford University. She had been a member of the Government committee for the past several years, such as Cabinet Office “The future to choose” Committee, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) “IoT” Committee, and so on.
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Investment focus
- Content, Marketing, Blockchain
- Seed, Series B
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Netyear — Netyear offers a variety of strategic internet professional services that lead brands to their business innovation in the digital age. The company’s service portfolio includes strategic consulting, communication design, web development, data analysis, mobile application development, social media marketing, and more. Its clients include KDDI,Skyperfect TV, NHK Educational, and Recruit.Netyear was founded in 1999 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.
- Cinnamon AI — Cinnamon AI develops AI-based business platforms to extend human potential by eliminating repetitive tasks. Cinnamon AI offers a computer system that has human intelligence such as academic, recognition, and judgment that helps to select appropriate and flexible correspondence according to the partner and circumstances, based on patternsaccumulated as data, allowing users to focus on creative work.
- SingulaNet Ltd — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.
Jay Zaveri has been serving Social Capital as a partner since November 2015. He also founded CloudOn and Future Thought Productions.
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Investment focus
- Biotechnology, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Japan, Canada
Portfolio highlights
- Cleerly — Cleerly is a healthcare company whose mission is to create digital care pathways to prevent heart attacks. The company develops a new standard for coronary artery disease by integrating quality clinical science with the latest-generation AI, in order to offer actionable clinical insights to every stakeholder in the heart care pathway.Throughthese data-driven solutions, the company aims to provide a comprehensive solution for cardiovascular disease evaluation that offers value to the healthcare system and improves heart health for patients at risk of heart attacks.
- BitClout — BitClout is a platform owned by its users. Bitcoin is decentralizing money, BitClout is decentralizing social media.
- Kingdom Supercultures — Kingdom Supercultures create microbial cultures that help food manufacturers to create new foods with boosted benefits. It re-assembles nature's microbes into new combinations, creating plant-based foods that taste like dairy, low-alcohol beverages with full flavor, and natural preservatives that work as well as artificial ones.They workwith clients across diverse industries including food, beverage, personal care, beauty, and more. Their technology comprises an expansive biobank of GRAS microbial strains, high-resolution strain characterization, and new algorithms for predicting and assembling microbial communities.
Kazutaka Muraguchi
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Financial Services
- Seed, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- warashibe — warashibe engages in the development and operation of blockchain-related products.
- Gruff —
- Crypto asset market —
Yuichi Kawasaki Prior joining SmartNews, I was COO at mixi, Founder & CEO at kamado, Executive Vice President at Hatena. I started my career at Cisco Systems G.K.
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Investment focus
- CRM, Finance, Security
- Angel, Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Blankr — Blankr inc has developed an application called Raidli. Using the app, Vtubers can hold a virtual handshake event.
- G-Next — G NEXT is an Information Technology based company.
- earlyworks — Earlyworks Co., Ltd. provides blockchain technology solutions. The Company develops hybrid blockchain product that is fast and secure. Earlyworks offers software and system development, consulting, and security solution services.
After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he joined Solomon Brothers, where he became the youngest managing director in Asia, where he was in charge of Asian investment. After that, he created one of the largest independent Asuka assets. He also launched Japan's first independent online life insurance company,LifeNet Life Insurance, and inspired Japan's first International.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Content, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Japan, Singapore, Spain
Portfolio highlights
- Revorf — Revorf analyzes data and develops AI-related to infectious diseases and healthcare.
- abillion — Find tips for plant-based food & products near you. Join the community to share reviews of restaurants & brands. Raise funds & drive sustainability!
- RIMM Sustainability — RIMM Sustainability provides a SaaS platform that enables companies of all sizes to optimise their sustainability management effort. It builds tools for sustainability management, reporting and optimisation.
After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.
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Investment focus
- Content, Marketing, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- aceRNA Technologies — AceRNA contributes to regenerative medicine and drug discovery through the discovery of novel miRNA functions. It began operation in April 2018, with its headquarters in Kyoto in Japan.
- Epicbase — Epicbase is an AI-based automatic voice transcription service based on voice recognition technology.
- Go Visions — Go Visions engages in the edutainment tech for children and human resources services.
Amin Azumude is the Representative Director and Founder of Cryptact.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Cryptocurrency, Asset Management
- Seed
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Gaia Japan — Gaia is a Financial based Company
Makoto Takano is CEO of atomixmedia, inc., publisher and editor-in-chief of Forbes Japan and Rolling Stone Japan since June, 2014. Prior to joining Atomixmedia, Inc., he was Managing Director and President of PIMCO Japan Ltd. Before joining PIMCO in 2001, he was head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Makoto's prior experiencealso includes work at Daiwa Securities where he was head of the strategists team at Daiwa Institute of Research. He has published extensively on the capital markets. In 1992, he was awarded Securities Analysts Journal Prize by the Securities Analyst Association of Japan. He has also given lectures on asset management at Waseda University and Kyoto University. He holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in engineering from Waseda University. Makoto serves as Director of Nippon Finance Association and Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation.
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Investment focus
- Content, Sports, Apps
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- Japan, Philippines
Taiga Matsuyama graduated form Waseda University, Matsuyama has been engaged in venture company support for more than ten years in Tokyo, after experience as a consultant at Accenture.Matsuyama became one of the board member of NetAge, Inc (IPO 2006), start-up incubator known by having invested in MIXI – Japanese top SNS and support severalstart-up companies.He also has contributed to the activity for create the start-up eco-system in Tokyo through the NPO Organization BVA (Bit Valley Association). Currently he has established Kronos Fund with angel investors, venture capital fund for investment in emerging early-stage companies.Kronos Fund has invested in more than 20 companies.
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Investment focus
- Software, Artificial Intelligence, Telecommunications
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Shippo — Shippo is the best multi-carrier shipping software for e-commerce businesses. Find the best shipping rates, integrate with e-commerce platforms, print shipping labels, track package delivery, and verify addresses with either our shipping API or web app.
- CAMPFIRE — Campfire engages in the planning, development, and operation of a crowd funding platform.They operate the largest cloud funding platform in Japan [CAMPFIRE (campfire)], which supports "whoever wants to start something."The fee is 5% of the domestic level, and about 15,000 projects have collected about $70million in total from over700,000 people.
- Spectra Japan — Spectra is a Provision of services for artists and fans company.
Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi (formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".
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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.
Yuki Naito - CEO,President @ Drecom
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Investment focus
- Manufacturing, Internet, SNS
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- 1SEC — 1sec is a virtual influencers in Japan,develop in-house and management. IMPACT to CEKAI in 1 second. Based on the concept of making CEKAI happy in one second, US based in Los Angeles and Japan, based in Tokyo, virtual influencers × AI, fashion & music & The company will develop a number of CEKAI's first and first projects in Japan inthe field of enter teignment.
- Fools — Fools is a footwear manufacturing company.
- Interstellar Technologies Japan — Interstellar Technologies is a rocket development, manufacturing and launch service.
Koki Yabu is Founder, President & CEO at Mobcast inc.
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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.
Mizuki Inoue - Director @ Kudan
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Investment focus
- CRM, Finance, Security
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Kudan — Kudan has been providing proprietary Artificial Perception technologies based on SLAM to enable use cases with significant market potential and impact on our lives such as autonomous driving, robotics, AR/VR and smart cities
- G-Next — G NEXT is an Information Technology based company.
- earlyworks — Earlyworks Co., Ltd. provides blockchain technology solutions. The Company develops hybrid blockchain product that is fast and secure. Earlyworks offers software and system development, consulting, and security solution services.
Mai Fujimoto is known domestically and internationally as Miss Bitcoin. She has been promoting the spread of Bitcoin around the world since 2011.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Marketplace, Art
- Seed, Funding Round, Series A
- Japan, Canada, Hong Kong
Portfolio highlights
- RSS3 — RSS3 structures open information for the next Twitter, Google, and OpenAI.
- GCR DAO — Global Coin Research is a Community-led DAO for Web3 Research & Investing. We source, vet & fund Pre-Seed to Series A opportunities. Join to Invest Together!
- Brand New Vision — Brand New Vision uses smart contracts to help creators sell digital fashion and other accessories.
Born in 1975, Kenji Kasahara grew up in Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo.
Inspired by the case studies of IT business he studied in a university seminar on management strategy and by the rapid rise of Internet business in Silicon Valley in the USA, he started up “Find Job !”, an online jobinformation site, in 1997. In 1999 Kasahara established eMercury, Inc. (mixi, Inc.) and assumed the post of representative director.
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Investment focus
- Aerospace, Information Technology, Robotics
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Japan, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Age well Japan — Age Well Japan is a conference and festival aimed at understanding Japan's super-aged society and defining new values for the future. The purpose of the gathering is to bring together young people and the elderly to exchange ideas.
- ONE — One is a Japanese startup. It primarily creates and operates consumer apps, some of which have been sold to publicly traded Japanese corporations.This runs the BeReal exchange application "BeMatch."
- Firstcard — All-in-One Student Credit Builder. Build credit. Earn cashback. Grow your deposit.
He holds a BA in Economics and a Master of Sociology from Keio University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
After regenerating many companies as president, he served as a representative of Giuliani Partners Japan and the president of Japan's oldest and largest art auction company Christie's Japan.
He has also served as a number ofprominent corporate outside directors and director of art groups. Participated in the creation of Whiz Partners, a leading venture capital firm, and is still a managing partner of international venture capital.
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Investment focus
- Art, Blockchain, Information Technology
- Series A
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Startbahn — Startbahn aims to realize a richer society by providing the technology needed by artists and people involved with art all over the world. We are developing Startbahn Cert., a service that issues blockchain certificates for artworks, and promoting the development of Startrail, a blockchain infrastructure that is the basis for Startbahn Cert. We alsorun joint projects with other companies.
Shigeru Urushibara - President & CEO @ UL Systems
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Task Management, Social Media
- Series A, Seed, Angel
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- EmbodyMe — Making the unimaginable, imaginable with AI
- SPACE WALKER — SPACE WALKER specializes in design, manufacture and sale of peripheral components.
- SingulaNet Ltd — SingulaNet Ltd provides a total solution using cutting-edge blockchain services.
Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.
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Investment focus
- Beauty, Content, Fashion
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- Japan
Portfolio highlights
- Neith — Neith is a apparel manufacturer, seller and a whoelseller of water absorbing bralette, lingerie and shorts for women.
- WARC Japan — WARC provides hands-on support for business management departments as well as mergers and acquisition advisory services.
- Vitalogue Health — Vitalogue Health offers Canvas, a home-based hormone testing service for women.
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