Participated · Equity · Dec 2023

Utill operates a platform of DX consultation counters for small and medium enterprises, including Web幹事 (Web Kanji), 動画幹事 (Video Kanji), システム幹事 (System Kanji) and 営業幹事 (Sales Kanji). Its flagship Web Kanji service matches clients with suitable web production firms free of charge, drawing from a database of over 5,000 agencies and guidance from specialists. The company reports having handled 35,000 consultations and achieved total orders exceeding ¥3.5 billion. Utill’s stated mission is to “make digitization easier,” and it supports SMB DX across multiple service verticals. The company plans to use new capital to strengthen hiring for business expansion, broaden its consultation areas, and accelerate business development. Utill is actively recruiting across sales, marketing, and engineering roles to support that growth. ユーティル launched Web幹事 on November 5, 2018, a B2B matching platform that connects companies seeking homepage/web production with vetted web production firms. The service centralizes information on over 3,600 web production companies and offers expert consultants who conduct detailed requirement hearings and introduce 1–3 suitable agencies. Consultation and the company-introduction service are provided free to clients, and the database supports searches by specialties (e.g., landing pages, industry expertise). The operator began as a web production company in 2015 and has completed projects for more than 50 clients, including listed firms. Financially, the company announced a seed financing of about ¥57 million composed of angel investment and loans from financial institutions. Future plans include expanding the B2B matching model beyond web production into areas such as app and system development to reduce opacity across other B2B services.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2023

Newond offers an end-to-end platform that handles back-office tasks for layoffs, including ToDo lists, scheduling, state- and country-specific contract creation, and reemployment support. The service is designed to reduce cost, time, and personnel/legal risk versus manual in-house handling or expensive outsourcing. The company says it will use the funds raised to pursue customer development in the United States, focusing on the technology sector where layoff volumes are high. Newond was established in May 2023 and is led by CEO 小磯 純奈. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company develops and operates HR systems. Its stated long-term aim is to reduce or reframe layoffs by lowering operational and psychological burdens on affected workers.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2022

Paytner offers an automated invoice receipt service (Paytner Invoice) and an online invoice prepayment/factoring service (Paytner Factoring) aimed at improving cash flow for freelancers and SMBs. The company was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Paytner positions itself to remove "money stress" for growing businesses and says it is expanding its platform to support broader cash-management and financing needs. The business reports strong traction—Incubate Fund noted cumulative application volumes have surpassed 200,000—and other investors describe the company as a rapidly growing industry leader. Paytner is using the new funding to strengthen hiring and organizational capabilities, accelerate product feature development, and prepare for a potential IPO. The company is pursuing growth toward becoming the domestic No.1 provider in freelance-focused factoring services. Peitner (formerly yup) offers invoice automation via its "Peitner Invoice" service and an invoice prepayment service called "Peitner Factoring." The company targets individual proprietors and small legal entities. Peitner launched Peitner Factoring in September 2019 and Peitner Invoice in September 2022. Since launch, Peitner Factoring has surpassed 55,000 cumulative applications. The company says it will use the newly raised capital to expand hiring, strengthen organizational structure, and enhance product functionality. Cumulatively the company has raised about ¥2.5 billion to date. yup offers a factoring-based advance-payment service that buys invoice receivables to deliver same-day payouts primarily to sole proprietors and small corporations. The company began its service in September 2019 and spent two years improving a proprietary credit-scoring algorithm to minimize default risk. yup differentiates by focusing on smaller-scale users underserved by traditional factoring, and by strengthening bank-system integrations. It is developing a SaaS to digitize invoices, selected for MUFG Digital Accelerator, with planned integrations to banking systems and accounting SaaS to enable end-to-end invoice processing. Financially, yup announced a Series A round that included debt financing totaling about ¥450 million. The company sees competition from domestic payroll-advance and cloud-factoring players but believes there is no equivalent full-service domestic offering today.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2021

Better Place operates the "Hagukumi" corporate pension fund and provides pension DX tools (including the "Hag uONE" system) and corporate defined‑contribution (DC) plan services to help SMEs implement pension and retirement benefit schemes. The company reports rapid adoption: as of April 2024 the fund had been introduced by 2,263 participating employers, 2,606 subscribing offices, and 67,180 members. Nearly 98% of adopting firms have 300 or fewer employees, and over 40% of adopters are in welfare, medical, or education sectors. Better Place has partnered with regional banks and plans to deepen those ties to expand nationwide distribution; it also established a business partnership with Credit Saison to broaden corporate DC outreach. Financially, the company completed a Series C equity financing in which it raised ¥299,910,000, bringing cumulative funding to about ¥1.54 billion. Management says the new capital will be used for hiring, marketing, and pension DX system development to position its service as a leading solution for talent retention in an era of labor shortages. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Better Place operates the "Hagukumi Fund," a corporate defined-benefit pension scheme and related digital tools (including the Hagukumi ONE system and Work/Life shift tool) aimed at enabling asset formation for workers in sectors like healthcare, childcare, and eldercare. Since launching the Fund in 2018, the company has grown to 1,386 subscribing businesses and about 45,722 enrolled members as of July 2023, with roughly 73% of subscribing firms in medical and welfare sectors. The business emphasizes low-barrier pension access—guaranteed principal and benefits that can be paid at retirement, leave or other life events—targeting employees at small and medium enterprises who lack employer pension programs. Better Place plans to strengthen partnerships with regional banks to expand the Fund nationwide and to digitize and complete pension onboarding online to reduce administrative barriers. The company aims to reach 175,000 Hagukumi Fund members by fiscal 2026 and to enable online annual onboarding of 850 firms. The press release also notes a recent capital raise that increased the company’s cumulative funding, which management intends to deploy to accelerate bank partnerships and the online completion of pension introduction. Better Place operates a welfare- and healthcare-focused pension fund service ('福祉はぐくみ企業年金基金') and develops industry IT products such as the Work/Life shift-scheduling system and the in-development care-record system Notice. The company says its pension fund saw rapid adoption—543 member organizations and about 25,000 enrolled members (≈14.6x growth) as of November 2021—and the fund has been described as growing roughly 210% year-over-year. Better Place positions its offerings to improve staff quality of life and retention while supporting institutional DX across childcare, nursing care and other welfare operators. The company plans産学連携 research and new service development with the University of Tokyo and to expand service penetration among welfare and medical corporations. Founded in October 2011 and headquartered in Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Better Place emphasizes combining academic insight and corporate partnerships to create additional value for the sector. Recent strategic partnerships include collaboration arrangements with LITALICO and Chatwork to extend services and distribution into industry customer bases.