Top 5 Biotech Angel Investors in Japan in October 2023

Koki Yabu is Founder, President & CEO at Mobcast inc.

Investment focus

Content, Finance, Data Mining
Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Mobcast group — mobcast is a sports entertainment company that operates a mobile entertainment platform for smartphones and feature phones. It supports customers with social game and social media services. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, it operates as a subsidiary of mobcast Inc.
SmartApp Japan — Smart Apps is a developer of a blockchain services application designed for smartphones. The company's application uses cryptocurrency technology to offer token issuance, initial coin offering and dApps design support, providing a launchpad for start-up blockchain-related businesses.

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Kenshin is a CEO at Hacarus Inc., a healthcare technology startup based in Kyoto, Japan.He co-founded several tech startups with 2 exits in the past 15 years. His first career started as an engineer at Sony Computer Entertainment and worked on PlayStation development projects. HIs fist startup was acquired by Japanese public company, and thesecond startup was sold to the US company.Born in 1976. He holds a Computer Science degree from California State University. He loves mountain hiking and currently living in Kyoto Japan with his wife and family.

Investment focus

Mobile, Medical, Software
Seed, Series A
Japan

Portfolio highlights

Helpfeel — Our vision is to make saving, sharing, and exploring ideas as natural as breathing. On this journey we're humbled to be helping millions around the world from solo makers to university research labs, from gamers to pro designers, and large to small teams like ours.
HACARUS — We make AI work, where common Big Data aproaches fail. Get explainable results, even from small data amounts. Available on the cloud or as embedded devices.

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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.

Investment focus

Content, Marketing, Internet
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

AceRNA — 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.

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1997 Graduated from Tokyo University, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering. In 2002, he completed the doctoral program at the same graduate school. Ph.D. (Engineering) He was a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Science and Technology since the same year. After working as a visiting researcher at Stanford University in August2005, Associate Professor of Technology Management Strategy, Institute of Research, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo in 2007. Co-Representative, Associate Professor, Global Consumption Intelligence Donation Course, Department of Technology Management Strategy, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University. Professor from 2019, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Engineering, Department of Technology Management Strategy. He specializes in artificial intelligence, web mining, big data analytics. The Society of Artificial Intelligence received the Paper Award (2002), the 20th Anniversary Project Award (2006), the Field Innovation Award (2011), and the Merit Award (2013). At the Society of Artificial Intelligence, he has been a student editorial committee and an editorial committee, and vice chair/director since 2010. Chairman of Ethics from 2014 to 2018. Chairman of Japan Deep Learning Association since 2017.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Machine Learning
Seed
Japan

Portfolio highlights

DeepX — DeepX is an AI startup company based in Tokyo that was founded in 2016 by graduates from the University of Tokyo, Japan’s leading institution of higher education. After three strong years of establishing ourselves, we continue to grow and are ready to make an impact on society through our work. Our core mission is to ‘automate any machinery’ andsupported by our successful projects, we believe that Deep Learning and its real-world implementations will bring an unprecedented breakthrough to solve current and future societal problems. A key challenge that Japan is currently facing is a super-aging society and a shrinking labor population leading to shortages. We develop software to automate machines ranging from small industrial robots to big heavy equipment. Our control models can achieve flexible operation for various environments and conditions using cutting-edge technology such as Deep Reinforcement Learning.
MinD in a Device — MinD in a Device Co., Ltd. is a university-launched venture that aims to port human consciousness to devices (machines and computers) in the medium to long term based on long-term research results on consciousness. As the first step toward realization, we will evolve and deepen the "generation model" considered to be the source ofconsciousness, and promote the development of next-generation AI and social implementation.

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