Tokyo-based Sixty Percent (60%), the Japanese startup running a cross-border e-commerce platform focused on Asian fashion brands under the same name, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 460 million yen (about $3 million US) in a Series A round. Participating investors are KURONEKO Innovation Fund (managed by Yamato Holdings and Global Brain), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, PE&HR, Hakobune, Frontier International, Japanese hip-hop music producer Verbal as well as unnamed individual investors. The amount includes debt from financial institutions. This follows the startup’s pre-series A round ..read more

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). He is the Managing Partner of Shizen Capital (formerly known as Tachi.ai Ventures) in Japan. You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him on Nostr @reggae. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. As is customary, we are publishing once again our annual VC Radar for Japan. The 2023 edition of the VC Radar re ..read more

Tokyo-based BeBit, the Japanese startup offering companies with digital transformation (DX) solutions through improving user experience (UX), has secured 1.2 billion yen (about $8.2 million) in a series B round.. San-in Godo Bank (TSE: 8381), Benesse Holdings (TSE: 9783), Mitsubishi Estate (TSE: 8801), Rakuten Securities and Turn Cloud Technology Service participated in the latest round. This follows the company’s previous funding round back in July of 2020. San-in Godo Bank follows their previous investment. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum to date up to 3.7 billion yen ($25 ..read more

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). He is the Managing Partner of Shizen Capital (formerly known as Tachi.ai Ventures) in Japan. You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him on Nostr @reggae. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. The other day a large growth equity fund in Europe reached out to me. This firm has invested across Europe as we ..read more

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). He is the Managing Partner of Shizen Capital (formerly known as Tachi.ai Ventures) in Japan. You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow himon Nostr @reggae. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. Years ago I began publishing an annual list of technology predictions in order to provoke constructive dialogue a ..read more

Tokyo-based Degas, the Japanese startup aiming to help improving the livelihoods of small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, announced last week that it has secured 970 million yen (about $6.7 million). Participating investors in the latest unspecified round are Animal Spirits, Global Catalyst Partners Japan, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, Nanto CVC (run by Nanto Bank and Nanto Capital Partners), and Primal Capital. The company has so far secured 240 million yen in the 1st close of the seed round revealed in November of 2020 (Primal Capital, Akatsuki’s Heart Driven Fund, and others participated) and subseq ..read more

Tokyo-based EmbodyMe launched a new app called Xpression Avatar, which allows users to move their own avatars in real-time, available for iOS and Android. The app uses the company’s proprietary real-time video generative AI technology to instantly generate your avatar in different styles which responds to your facial expressions and head movements fin real time. Since its launch back in 2016, EmbodyMe has developed several apps in the generative video field, including the EmbodyMe VR app, the Xpression Camera face swap app, as well as the Xpression Chat VR- / ChatGPT-based app. In the new app ..read more

Tokyo-based game developer Thirdverse announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 1.2 billion yen (about $8.1 million US) in its latest round. B Dash Ventures, Shinsei Corporate Investment, Now, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Thirdverse CEO Hironao Kunimitsu participated in this round. For the company, this follows a 2 billion yen ($13.5 million) funding back in November of 2022, and brought their funding sum to date to 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million). Thirverse uses the funds to more focus on developing and global marketing of its latest VR titles X8 and Soul Covenant. X8 has achieve ..read more

Singapore-based AnotherBall announced that it has secured 1.9 billion yen (about $13 million US) in a seed round to promote its VTuber project targeting the English-speaking market called Izumo. The latest round was led by ANRI with participation from Hashed, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners (GCP), Sfermion, HashKey Capital, Everyrealm, Ethereal Ventures, Emoote, Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, and other angel investors. This follows an angel round in May of 2023 and brought their funding sum up to 2.2 billion yen (about $15 million US). The company was founded in May of 2022 by CEO Shunsuke ..read more

Nikkei reported on Monday that EQT has agreed to acquire Japanese startup HRBrain for an undisclosed sum. Japanese startup database Initial reported the company was valued around 21.5 billion yen (about $145 million US) when it secured 1.8 billion yen (about $12 million yen in equity and loans in the previous round back in February of 2022. After the aquisition, founder and CEO Hiroki Hori will remain on board and as a shareholder while EQT will dispatch an outside director. Prior to HRBrain, Mori managed a media business unit at CyberAgent (TSE:4751). After recognizing the complexity and inef ..read more