# Top 50 Recruiting Startup Investors in Japan in May 2026 ## Colopl Next - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 4 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Virtual Reality, E-Commerce Colopl Next is the corporate venture capital of is Colopl, Inc, which is a leading Japanese gaming company. Colopl, Inc. is founded with the mission of “Entertainment in Real Life”, and constantly put its customer as first priority.Colopl Next is headquartered in Japan, but invests globally in a variety of internet businesses, with the commitmentto support innovative entrepreneurs. ## YJ Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Series A, Seed - Focus: Software, Information Technology, Internet YJ Capital is a Corporate Venture Capital of Yahoo Japan. Our value is to help global minded entrepreneurs build successful and lasting internet companies. We invest in all stages, all sectors in Asia, US and Israel.YJ Capital has a unique access to Yahoo Japan's operational experience and unparalleled Japan market entry support. Oursole LP allows us to focus only on our portfolio companies and make fast decision making. ## East Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce East Ventures is an early stage venture capital (VC) focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia & Japan. Success cases include Tokopedia, Traveloka, and Mercari. ## TLM - Type: VC Fund - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Information Technology, Content, SNS TLM is a venture capital that invests basically in seed rounds, including some Series A startups. ## Mizuho Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Series A, Series B - Focus: Information Technology, Software, Internet 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. ## BEENEXT - Type: VC Fund - Location: Singapore, Central Region, Singapore - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Software, E-Commerce, FinTech BEENEXT is a Venture Capital fund managed by serial entrepreneurs that focuses on assisting founders with its operational experience, network, trust, unique perspectives, and the capital. The team invests in early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building the new digital platforms driven by the data network. BEENEXT aims to establish aplatform of founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe, primarily in South East Asia, India and Japan. Since its establishment in 2015, the team has invested in over 180 companies globally. ## Tatsuo Sakamoto - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Education, Task Management, Recruiting Tatsuo Sakamoto ## ANRI - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Health Care, Software, Information Technology ANRI is a Japanese venture capital firm that mainly invests in seed and early-stage startups. ## Incubate Fund - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce Incubate Fund is an independent early-stage venture capital that specializes in providing capital to technology startups at the seed stage. The firm built a portfolio of over 300 companies in Asia, taking 12 companies to public and 20 companies to M&A exit since 2010. ## DNX Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: San Mateo, California, United States - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Software, Information Technology, SaaS DNX Ventues is an early stage VC firm focusing on B2B Startups that are shaping industries and transforming the way we live and work. ## Genesia Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Information Technology, Software, Content Genesia Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on seed/early-stage startups in Japan and Southeast Asia. ## Vector - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Corporate Round - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Content Vector is a Japan-based PR agency that provides PR planning and implementation services for its clients. The agency also offers other services covering areas such as management, finance, accounting, human resources, administration, internal controls, and audits. Vector was founded in 1993. ## Sato Takahiro - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Employment, Recruiting, Human Resources Sato Takahiro - CEO @ Sekaisha ## aucfan Co.,Ltd. - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Corporate Round - Focus: E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet 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. ## Nippon Venture Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Seed - Focus: Software, Health Care, Information Technology Nippon Venture Capital ("NVCC"), established in 1996 as one of the few largest Japanese independent venture capital firms, is destined to undertake the unprecedented task of providing full-range venture capital services in cooperation with major Japanese business leaders and leading companies, which have supported and nurtured various newbusinesses on their own, as well as proactively developing new venture enterprises. ## Globis Capital Partners - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series A, Series B - Focus: Internet, Information Technology, Software Globis Capital Partners (GCP) is one of Japan's leading venture capital firms. With its unique combination of local business presence through Globis Group and the experience of Western VC experience, GCP has set new VC standards in Japan, with hands-on, and in-depth industry expertise. ## ITOCHU Technology Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series B, Series A - Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Information Technology ITOCHU Technology Ventures (ITV), based in Tokyo, is the venture capital arm of ITOCHU Corporation. ITOCHU is one of the world's largest corporations with offices in over 80 countries and operations that cover a broad spectrum of industries. ITV's mission is to invest and help build leading information technology companies by leveraging avast array of resources both domestically and internationally throughout ITOCHU and its group companies. The ITOCHU group has a long history of funding information technology companies with successes including Siebel Systems, NVIDIA, Openwave and Aruba Networks. Current portfolio includes, Box, Fab, Ooyala, WHILL, Tokyo Otaku Mode, etc. ## Kensuke Furukawa - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Media and Entertainment, Software 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". ## Shinichiro Sugiyama - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Recruiting, Wedding, Home Decor After HR in charge of the Tokyo Stock partially listed manufacturer, joined Pacific Management Co., Ltd. in 2001. After experience IPO on JASDAQ, TSE 2, and TSE partially listed, HR and management planningHe is responsible for management planning, equity finance, and IR, supporting the IPO of two Group companies to the TSE J-REIT market. JoinedEscrit Co., Ltd. in 2008, and oversees the listing of Mothers IPO and Tokyo Stock Exchange as CFO. Joined Bengo4.com Co., Ltd. in 2013 and launched several IPO and new businesses in Mothers in a year and a half as a director CFO. Representative Director of Burritudo Co., Ltd., 5 IPO Experience Companies. In July 2017, he was appointed Director of REXIT Co., Ltd. In November 2017, he became the Auditor of REXIT Co., Ltd. ## Delight Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Shibuya, Kanagawa, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Food Delivery, Software, Service Industry Delight Ventures is a venture capital firm that thoroughly reduces the hurdles of entrepreneurship in Japan and supports entrepreneurs in the world. Entrepreneurship is taken as a natural career path, and we aim to be a society where both successful and unsuccessful people can continue to take on challenges. ## Yasuyuki Kin - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Career Planning Yasuyuki Kin ## Crooz - Type: VC Fund - Location: Nishi-shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Corporate Round - Focus: Recruiting, Apps, Mobile Apps Crooz, a company based in Japan that offers smartphone games to the Japanese and global markets.CROOZ, Inc. is one of the leading mobile social game providers in Japan. We also publish original titles on “Mobage” and other leading social gaming platforms.Some of our games are grossing over US$1MM per month. We are currently expanding thebusiness internationally to capitalize on the rapid growth of global smartphone game industry., and in doing so, we aim to become a dominant player in both domestic and global markets. ## Hidetoshi Takano - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment Joined Intelligence in 1999. Established Key Players Inc. in 2005. Consultation with more than 3,000 managers and career counseling for more than 10,000 individuals. In addition, we have invested in more than 55 outside directors, advisors and angels in Silicon Valley and Bangladesh in Japan. Over 100 lectures on careers, entrepreneurship andstartups. ## Mitsubishi UFJ Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Series B, Series A - Focus: Software, Health Care, Information Technology Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments. ## Kazuma Ieiri - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Fashion, Recruiting 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. ## Yu Akasaka - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Food and Beverage, Content, Internet During Hosei University student, and intern at Hakuhodo C & D. After joining the Image-net, I do media monetization of EC site as a media planner. Then, new business, engaged in Alliance. Launched a crowdsourcing site "MILLION DESIGNS" of design in the individual, sold to Ransazu Corporation. Established the Eureka Co., Ltd., wasappointed Representative Director CEO. ## Ayataro Nakagawa - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Software, Information Technology 2011 At university, participated in the founding period as a director of Atcole Co., Ltd., and started the web service experience.2012 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd., which operates a curation platform for women "MERY" .2014 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd. Sold to DeNA 2015 Jointly established Tokyo Founders Fund as an angel investor and startedinvesting in startups in Japan and overseas 2019 Appointed outside director of FIREBUG Co., Ltd. ## F Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: Internet, Information Technology, Human Resources F Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Japan. ## Noguchi Keito - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Financial Services Noguchi Keito - Founder @ Vapes ## Yasuo Takahata - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Task Management, SNS, Recruiting Yasuo Takahata - President @ DesignOne Japan, Inc. ## Nobuhiro Ariyasu - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Internet, Finance Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United. ## Recruit Strategic Partners - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B - Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services 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. ## Salesforce - Type: VC Fund - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Grant, Series A - Focus: Software, SaaS, Non Profit Salesforce is a global cloud computing company that provides business software on a subscription basis. It is best known for its on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. It offers users a customer community, partner community, developer community, and an app exchange marketplace. Salesforce provides its products and services tovarious industries, including healthcare, finance, life sciences, automotive, media, retail, manufacturing, and communications.Salesforce's products portfolio includes Sales Cloud: a platform that enables users to track customer information and interactions in one place via its contact management, opportunity management, sales collaboration, and sales performance management services; Service Cloud: tools that enable users to access personalized, 24/7, and intelligent customer service, along with multichannel support; Marketing Cloud: a platform that offers email, mobile, and social media marketing services, along with web personalization and advertising services; Community Cloud: an online collaboration platform that connects customers, partners, and employees; and Analytics Cloud: a platform that enables users to share datasets and insights, access them and find answers for their questions, and collaborate with their teams via any device.Data.com is a cloud-based automated system with an online business directory of companies and business professionals that enables users to acquire and manage CRM records within a user's Salesforce.com account. Desk.com is a cloud-based helpdesk system for interacting with customers and solving customer issues. Pardot is a B2B marketing automation tool that enables users to optimize deliverability rates, target emails to a specific audience, and test the success rate of email content. Chatter connects employees with appropriate files, data, and expert help to handle their work.The Salesforce1 platform brings together Salesforce.com, Force.com, Heroku, and ExactTarget into one family of cloud services. Salesforce.com provides companies with an interface for case management and task management, and a system to automatically route and escalate important events. Force.com is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to create multitenant add-on applications. Heroku is an app development platform.Salesforce was founded by Parker Harris and Marc Benioff in 1999 and is based in California, United States. ## Oita Venture Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Oita, Oita, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Seed - Focus: Manufacturing, Task Management, Biotechnology Oita Venture Capital Co. Ltd. is the investment arm of Oita Bank Ltd. It is a venture capital and private equity firm which specializes in growth capital, buyouts, and turnaround investments. It primarily invests in companies in the Oita region. Oita Venture Capital Co. Ltd. was founded in 1999 and is based in Oita, Japan. ## MARUI GROUP - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series B, Series C - Focus: Content, Software, Fashion MARUI GROUP's web-site provides company information such as Group companies, as well as IR and Sustainability information. ## Venture Labo Investment - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series B, Seed - Focus: Internet, Software, Media and Entertainment Venture Labo Investment is venture capital firm that provides financial supports to invested companies at each growth stage. ## 500 Startups Japan - Type: VC Fund - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Internet, Software, Internet of Things 500 Startups is the most active seed VC in the world. 500 Startups Japan is a $35M regional fund focusing on Japan. ## Optima Ventures - Type: VC Fund - Location: Matsuyama, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Food Processing Optima Ventures is a company that invests and supports venture companies mainly in Shikoku. ## Doroquia Holatheta - Type: VC Fund - Location: Osaka-shi, Osaka, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Marketing, Recruiting, Marketing Automation Doroquia Holatheta is an entertainment company that brings happiness to customers by planning, manufacturing and selling surprising sweets. ## MAKOTO Capital - Type: VC Fund - Location: Sendai, Miyagi, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A, Series B - Focus: Medical, Manufacturing, Software MAKOTO Capital engages in VC business, venture studio business, and management consulting business. ## Toshiro Wakimaru - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Task Management, Food and Beverage, SNS Toshiro “Tosh” Wakimaru is the Chief Operating Officer of MedPeer, Inc. , Tokyo, Japan since May 2010. Medpeer is the “Medical Doctor Exclusive” SNS in Japan that has just successfully gone to the market in 2014.Prior to the current job, Tosh had been actively working for Price Waterhouse Consulting, Japan LLP (now IBM Japan, Ltd.) aftergraduating from the Boston University School of Management in 1996. While there he completed numerous projects in corporate strategy, operation improvement, and new business development focusing on the retail, service, and healthcare industries with a secondment to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. ## Drone Fund - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Drones, Robotics, Aerospace Drone Fund is a venture capital firm that provides supports in IP strategy, innovative planning, and drone policy. It offers capital investment and financing and aims to create a Drone Ecosystem where LPs and startups can benefit from membership within the Drone Fund. ## WAVY Japan - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 WAVY is an accelerator that accelerates the start-up, independence, opening of business, and subsequent company & business. ## Shinji Kimura - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series B - Focus: FinTech, Financial Services, E-Commerce Shinji Kimura - Chairman/Founder @ AnyPay ## Yakumi - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Food and Beverage, Biotechnology, iOS A platform connecting global angel investors with startups based in, or relating to, Japan ## NOW Japan - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Content, Marketing, Information Technology Next One for the World. ## S-Pool - Type: VC Fund - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Video, Beauty, Medical S-Pool is a business solution and human resource solution business. ## Fukuoka Financial Group - Type: VC Fund - Location: Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Health Care, Media and Entertainment, Management Consulting Fukuoka Financial Group provides banking and financial services that contributes to the development of the regional economy.It operates through the Banking and Others divisions. The Banking division offers deposits, loans, and domestic and foreign exchange services. The Others division provides guarantees, business revitalization support,receivable management, and collection services. The company was founded on April 2, 2007 and is headquartered in Fukuoka, Japan. ## Hu Hua - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Aerospace, Consulting Hu Hua ## Kotaro Chiba - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Internet, Content, Software Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University. # About Shizune Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features: - 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others) - Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data - Updated daily from public funding news - CSV and Excel export The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co