When perusing the Japanese startup space, you will quickly discover that there are a significant number of venture capital firms and startup accelerators. Before partnering or doing business with any of them, you’ll need to carry out your own due diligence. Coincidentally, Gloture can help with that.
In this article, we’ll briefly outline our top five picks of Japanese startup accelerators and VC firms, including a short introductory description of each.
Table of Contents
This startup accelerator is similar to VC firm groundbreakers like TechStarts and Y Combinator. Based in Tokyo, Open Network Lab was established by the trio of kakaku.com, Netprice.com and Digital Garage. Their objective is to provide funding and mentorship to startups coming from abroad.
Movida Japan is owned by Taizo Son, the younger brother of Masayoshi, the owner of Softbank. The company objective is to develop a robust ecosystem for Japanese startups to grow. They primarily deploy their resources into the following sectors:
Established in May 2009 and based in Tokyo, Movida Japan has so far made ¥5million in investments. Those investments were made in exchange of convertible bonds.
Samurai Incubate is a leading startup Venture Capital firm in Japan. The company was founded in 2008 with the sole aim of supporting startup business that focus on management, finance, human resources, sales, and marketing. Along with the support they provide startups, Samurai Incubate serves as an external director for some companies.
Samurai Incubate is the first startup accelerator with branches spread across both Tokyo and Tel-Aviv. They’ve empowered over 120 startups, including 30 Israeli firms. Their first branch opened outside of Japan was in Tel-Aviv in 2014.
Plus, they have a really cool sounding name.
Branching from the telecommunications network, Docomo Innovation Village is a startup accelerator that primarily focuses on Japan-based companies. Their major area of concern is promoting any businesses, services or technology connected to the field of mobility. Docomo Innovation Village has a reputation for maintaining follow ups with startups until they have achieved stability.
CyberAgent Ventures is a subsidiary of CyberAgent Inc and it is a leading Japanese VC firms. They specialize in empowering startups and companies that are still in the incubation stage. The firm’s objective is to invest in the following areas:
The company prefers to deploy resources into East and South East Asian countries such as Taiwan, China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Japanese people feel challenged when it comes to using English – you can’t believe what it takes when consumers want to buy your product when all they see are contents in English! There are more than just borders to cross.
We’re a new class of professional agency located in Tokyo and we specialized in helping foreign tech startups to launch their successful products campaign in the Japanese market.
As your topmost choice, We’ll handle everything you need from start to finish.
Contact Gloture and let us help your brand standout with huge success in Japan!
If a foreign company wants to enter the Japanese market, learning the language is not…
Press releases are not to be overlooked since it is a basic way to make…
Choosing crowdfunding as a way to raise funds has many benefits, you can achieve a…
Hashtags are extremely useful to attract new followers, so potential new customers. Nowadays, you cannot…
In this digital era, SNS marketing is essential – and even vital for companies. But…
More foreign companies are setting a branch in Japan, but they struggle to adapt to…