Top 10 Social VC Funds & Investors in Japan (May 2026)
For AI agents: Short investor table (Markdown), Detailed investor list (Markdown)
| Investor | Relevant Deals | Geography | Stage | Focus | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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KDDI Open Innovation Fund
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, United States, Germany | Series B, Series A | Software, Internet, Mobile | $6M–$275M |
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Global Brain Corporation
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, United States, United Kingdom | Series B, Series A | Information Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence | $4M–$247M |
|
Makuake
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, United States | Product Crowdfunding, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed | E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage | $76k–$66M |
|
WERU Investment
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, United States | Seed, Series A | Information Technology, Consulting, Software | $1.5M–$14M |
|
Waseda University
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan | Series A, Series B | FinTech, Therapeutics, Biotechnology | |
|
Kodansha
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, Indonesia, United States | Corporate Round, Seed | Software, Media and Entertainment, News | $8M–$165M |
|
Recruit Strategic Partners
VC Fund
|
1 | United States, Japan, India | Series A, Seed, Series B | E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services | $100k–$55M |
|
aucfan Co.,Ltd.
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, Indonesia, France | Series A, Corporate Round | E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet | $1.4M–$41M |
|
Archetype Ventures
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan, United States | Seed, Series A | Software, Information Technology, Machine Learning | $1M–$102M |
|
Maezawa Fund
VC Fund
|
1 | Japan | Seed | Beauty, Social, Nutrition | |
| Access all 40 VC funds in Japan Social startups. | |||||
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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
- Industry: Information Technology, Software, Artificial Intelligence
- Stage:Series B, Series A
- Geography: Japan, United States, United Kingdom
Investor stats
- Total investments: 312
- Round size: Series A $4M–$165M; Series B $10M–$247M
- Lead/follow: 23% lead, 77% follow
- Last fund: Likely still investing — fund raised in 2023
Portfolio highlights
- Josys — Josys is an IT device and SaaS integrated management service that automates analog operations in corporate IT, reduces operational costs, and improves security levels.
- Spiral.AI — Spiral.AI offers services for large language models, AI language model platform, and customization features for ChatGPT for businesses.
- Pathos Logos — Pathos Logos is an HR co-creation platform that specializes in sales of SaaS and supply of human resources for corporations.
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
- Industry: E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage
- Stage:Product Crowdfunding, Equity Crowdfunding, Seed
- Geography: Japan, United States
Investor stats
- Total investments: 41
- Round size: Seed $165k–$66M; Equity Crowdfunding $76k–$3.2M; Product Crowdfunding $302k–$15M
- Lead/follow: 63% lead, 37% follow
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
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
- Industry: Information Technology, Consulting, Software
- Stage:Seed, Series A
- Geography: Japan, United States
Investor stats
- Total investments: 17
- Round size: Seed $1.5M–$14M; Series A $7.3M–$13M
- Lead/follow: 41% lead, 59% follow
- Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2019
Portfolio highlights
- INCGROW — INCGROW is a business consulting firm that supports SMEs through business alliances.
- Synfini — Transforming modern drug discovery by uniting physical and virtual chemistry to deliver novel therapeutics for the benefit of human health and longevity.
- ELternal — ELternal develops tourism resources for shrines and temples. Their services include business process support, sns utilisation support, and website creation for temples.
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
- Industry: FinTech, Therapeutics, Biotechnology
- Stage:Series A, Series B
- Geography: Japan
Investor stats
- Total investments: 6
- Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow
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.
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
- Industry: Software, Media and Entertainment, News
- Stage:Corporate Round, Seed
- Geography: Japan, Indonesia, United States
Investor stats
- Total investments: 14
- Round size: Seed $27M–$151M; Corporate Round $8M–$165M
- Lead/follow: 21% lead, 79% follow
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.
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
- Industry: E-Commerce, Software, Financial Services
- Stage:Series A, Seed, Series B
- Geography: United States, Japan, India
Investor stats
- Total investments: 71
- Round size: Seed $100k–$14M; Series A $3M–$55M; Series B $6M–$28M
- Lead/follow: 27% lead, 73% follow
- Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $25M in 2019
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.
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
- Industry: E-Commerce, Marketing, Internet
- Stage:Series A, Corporate Round
- Geography: Japan, Indonesia, France
Investor stats
- Total investments: 35
- Round size: Series A $1.5M–$41M; Corporate Round $1.4M–$38M
- Lead/follow: 23% lead, 77% follow
- Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $41M in 2020
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.
Archetype Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in B2B Tech seed and early stage venture investments.
Show more...Investment focus
- Industry: Software, Information Technology, Machine Learning
- Stage:Seed, Series A
- Geography: Japan, United States
Investor stats
- Total investments: 73
- Round size: Seed $1M–$27M; Series A $11M–$102M
- Lead/follow: 9% lead, 91% follow
- Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — raised $60M in 2018
Portfolio highlights
- Spacely — Spacely is a cloud software that allows you to easily create, edit and manage VR web contents using photos taken with a 360 degree camera. From April 1, 2018 the service name has been changed from 3D Stylee to Spacely.
- any. — any. develops and offers knowledge sharing tool Qast.
- FLUX — FLUX provide “FLUX Header Bidding Solution” that creates fair competition opportunities and significantly increases advertising revenue within the header bidding server, ad requests are sent to SSPs and ad exchanges all at once, so it is possible to have a pure price competition without prioritization, and to determine the highest bid amount andvalue of the advertising space. I can. Then, the price of the highest bid ad in the header bidding and the ad set in the ad server are competed, and the ad with the higher bid is delivered.
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
- Industry: Beauty, Social, Nutrition
- Stage:Seed
- Geography: Japan
Investor stats
- Total investments: 3
- Lead/follow: no public data
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.
- Smart Senkyo —
Social VC funding in Japan at a glance
Stats across 24 deals from 40 investors.
Access all 40 VC funds in Japan Social startups.
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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
Investor stats
Portfolio highlights
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iPrice Group
— Shop now with the largest selection of top brands and products in the region - all in a single website! Discover new products, compare smartphone prices and products. Get the latest coupon and voucher codes for Lazada, Zalora, Qoo10, Grab Car, and more!
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Eclypsium
— Eclypsium's platform enhances supply chain security by incorporating zero-trust in every device, fortifying hardware, firmware, and software.
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space data
— Space Data is based on an algorithm that will allow the AI to know the geospatial data of the Earth & easily assign another "Earth" in VR.
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