Japan’s 58 Best Venture Capital List: Exploring VC and Incubator for Startups
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Raising Funds During the Venture Seed Stage
When overseas startups consider establishing a business in Japan, one of the significant hurdles is securing funding. If you’ve already made some progress with your business in your home country, and you’re looking to expand internationally, the financial requirements are relatively low. However, if you’re starting a business from scratch in Japan, you’ll face substantial costs, including office rent, equipment purchase, communication expenses and more. Securing funding during the seed stage, which is a crucial growth period for venture companies, is essential to enable you to focus on your business in Japan.
Funding during the seed stage typically consists of two main categories: initial investment and operational capital. It’s only when your revenues surpass your operational costs that you start generating surplus funds, so until then, raising capital becomes a necessity.
Let’s explore some methods for securing funding during the seed stage.
- Personal Funds
- Borrowing from Family and Friends
- Grants and Subsidies
- Bank Loans
- Investment from Angel Investors
- Investment from Venture Capitalists
In this discussion, we’ll delve into the prospect of raising funds from venture capitalists.
Japan’s 18 Best CVC List:Corporate Venture Capital Comprehensive Guide
Corporate Venture Capital for Fundraising in the Seed Stage When foreign startups set out to establish their b […]
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The article above provides information about Corporate Venture Capital (CVC). It explains the differences between VC and CVC, and it also includes a list of CVC firms in Japan.
Venture Capital and Incubator’s condition in Japan
Securing investment from venture capitalists is a prevalent method worldwide. In Japan, independent VCs like Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins have emerged, and numerous startups have achieved successful IPOs.
One notable difference between Japanese and Western venture capital markets is the prevalence of VC firms affiliated with major corporate groups. Japanese financial giants like Mitsubishi UFJ Group and Japan Post Bank operate VC arms. However, these corporate-affiliated venture capital firms are relatively less known, likely because their support is often limited to funding and doesn’t extend to broader support for startups.
In contrast, independent VCs, although smaller in scale, offer comprehensive support, including office space, human resources, legal assistance, and more.
List of VCs and Incubators with International Reach
Japan boasts a surprisingly vast number of venture capital firms. However, some of them have websites available only in Japanese. This can be misleading, as some banks’ VC arms, like SMBC Capital and Resona Capital, might still support international companies, even if their websites aren’t in English. Nevertheless, it’s essential to have multilingual resources for international fundraising. Therefore, the list below comprises VC members of the Japan Venture Capital Association whose websites feature English content. Notably, the top 16 companies on the list include major players like the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital..
In Conclusion
While it’s true that some VCs on the list might be cautious about international startups, many large corporations invest in alternative investments like venture capital, albeit not directly in startups. It’s advisable to start with discussions and explore the possibilities.
