Top 10 Sporting Goods VC Funds &amp; Investors in Japan (May 2026)

Innovation Engine has been is promoting investment to create and grow promising business areas created from technology. Established in 2001 and it is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Investment focus

Industry: Robotics, Information Technology, Medical
Stage:Series A, Series C
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 19
Round size: Series A $37M–$69M; Series C $43M–$82M
Lead/follow: 5% lead, 95% follow

Portfolio highlights

LisB — LisB provides cloud service development, smartphone, tuplet, PC application development web system.
Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
Ispace Technologies — ispace is a private lunar robotic exploration company that is developing micro-robotic technology to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space.

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Mitsubishi UFJ Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on life science, ICT, and high technology investments.

Investment focus

Industry: Software, Health Care, Information Technology
Stage:Series B, Series A
Geography: Japan, United States, China

Investor stats

Total investments: 259
Round size: Series A $11M–$96M; Series B $12M–$330M
Lead/follow: 3% lead, 97% follow
Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2020

Portfolio highlights

LiLz — LiLz is an IT technology network for businesses looking to use AI and IoT to offer new services and value.
CADDi — CADDi is an online ordering platform for manufacturing industry.
EX-Fusion — EX-Fusion develops the first commercial laser based nuclear fusion reactor for power generation.

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IPBridge is a company specializing in the management of intellectual property and funds.

Investment focus

Industry: Sports, Content, Education
Stage:Series A
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 2
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Bonx — GO MAKE NOISE
KIYO Learning — KIYO Learning offers a commuting course, an online course to acquire qualifications for business people.

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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

Industry: Medical, Health Care, Biotechnology
Stage:Seed, Series A
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 43
Round size: Seed $12M–$55M; Series A $49M–$100M
Lead/follow: 21% lead, 79% follow
Last fund: May invest from a new fund soon — last raise in 2020

Portfolio highlights

Heartseed — Heartseed has set a mission to “open the door to heart disease treatment with regenerative medicine” and is working toward the day-to-day clinical application of myocardial regenerative medicine.
Metagen Therapeutics — Metagen Therapeutics is a Drug discovery and medical business company which utilizes microbiome science.
Nanofiber Quantum Technologies — Powering a globally connected quantum future with pioneering nanofiber cavity QED.

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Edge Lab provides various support services for IP business.

Investment focus

Industry: Sports, Wearables, Sporting Goods
Stage:Series A
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 1
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Bonx — GO MAKE NOISE

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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

Industry: Education, Internet, Artificial Intelligence
Stage:Series A, Seed
Geography: Japan, Taiwan

Investor stats

Total investments: 12
Round size: Series A $37M–$102M
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Bonx — GO MAKE NOISE
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.
Life is Tech — Life is Tech is a developer of education platform intended for elementary and junior high school students.The company's platform organizes coding and IT camps, collaborating with local governments and running several schemes such as Tech for Local, Be Startup, Code Girls and Tech for Teachers, enabling students to improve their coding skillsand creativity

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Sansei Capital provides portfolio management, corporate management support, and financing services.

Investment focus

Industry: Content, Software, Medical
Stage:Series A, Series B
Geography: Japan, Belgium

Investor stats

Total investments: 32
Round size: Series A $2.6M–$82M; Series B $23M–$65M
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

RABO — RABO is a Cat-Tech Company that "watches cat life with technology.
MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
ASOVIEW Inc. — ASOVIEW Inc. is an online booking website that provides booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving and rafting. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Shibuya, Kanagawa.

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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

Industry: Apps, Sports, Wearables
Stage:Series A, Series C
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 2
Lead/follow: 50% lead, 50% follow

Portfolio highlights

Bonx — GO MAKE NOISE
Wacul — WACUL is a Japan-based company that provides web consulting and simplifies decision making process of enterprises.

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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/

Investment focus

Industry: Internet, Media and Entertainment, Software
Stage:Seed, Series A
Geography: Japan

Investor stats

Total investments: 27
Round size: Seed $30M–$38M; Series A $1M–$62M
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
MiddleField — MiddleField is a team to make cars the best entertainment and to make the lives of everyone involved in cars into entertainment. They creates a society where a lot of people are involved as a middle point of all people's dreams. MiddleField owns and operates an e-commerce platform offering cars.

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