
Cool Japan Fund
17F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Tokyo, Minato-ku, 106-6117, Japan
Overview
Cool Japan Fund was founded in November 2013 as a public-private fund with the aim of supporting and promoting the development of demand overseas for excellent Japanese products and services. Cool Japan Fund aims to commercialize the “Cool Japan” and increase overseas demand by providing risk capital for businesses across a variety of areas, including media & content, food & services, and fashion & lifestyle.
- Total investments
- 17
- Lead investments
- 9
- Investments · 12mo
- 5
- Active investors
- 2
Sector focus
- Finance
- Financial Services
- Government
- GovTech
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- Konvy.com
Led · Series B · May 2026
Konvy.com operates an omnichannel beauty and personal care platform offering over 20,000 products from more than 1,000 brands and a growing portfolio of private label items. The company has built a market-leading position in Thailand and is actively expanding into the Philippines and Malaysia. Its omnichannel strategy spans marketplaces, social commerce, and localized marketing to reach consumers across the region. Konvy raised $22 million in a Series B led by Cool Japan Fund to support this regional expansion and private label growth. Previously, Konvy raised $11 million in a 2024 second tranche Series A from New Day Ventures, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, and Insignia, and $10 million in a 2022 Series A from Insignia. The company is positioning itself to capture rising middle-class spending and growing demand for curated premium beauty products in Southeast Asia.
- Brave group
Participated · Series E · Apr 2026
Brave group is an IP production company centered on VTuber talent and related businesses, operating projects including ぶいすぽっ!, HIMEHINA, and Neo-Porte. The company has pursued international expansion into English-speaking markets, Korea, and China. Founded in October 2017, Brave group has raised cumulative funding of about ¥14 billion to date. Its business spans talent management, streaming activities, music production, live events, and merchandise production as part of broader IP commercialization. Following the Series E financing, GREE Holdings (via REALITY) became the company's largest shareholder, strengthening a strategic partnership. Brave group plans to use new proceeds to accelerate global expansion, diversify IP businesses, invest in technology, and pursue strategic M&A.
- PolicyStreet
Led · Series C · Apr 2026
PolicyStreet operates an embedded insurance platform that integrates protection into digital platforms and everyday transactions, partnering with commerce, gig-economy, mobility, travel, logistics and telecommunications businesses. Over the past nine years it has scaled to serve more than 10 million customers and facilitated over $10 billion in sum insured, while reaching over 50,000 SMEs and serving a sizable share of gig workers. The company reports more than $1 million in profit for FY2025 and has doubled its customer base recently as it expanded regionally. PolicyStreet plans to use new capital to accelerate regional growth, deepen distribution partnerships, enhance technology capabilities and roll out new products for individuals and businesses. By 2030 the company aims to serve 1.5 million gig workers and 300,000 SMEs and MSMEs as it pushes to close protection gaps among underserved populations.
- Coolmate
Participated · Series C · Nov 2025
Founded in 2019, Coolmate designs, manufactures, and sells its own apparel lines entirely online, eschewing physical stores in favor of a direct-to-consumer model across major e-commerce platforms. Its catalog focuses on affordable yet functional innerwear and activewear for men and women, featuring quick-dry, cooling, antibacterial, stretch, and UV-cut fabrics. The company is developing officially licensed products in partnership with local distributors of Japanese anime and manga IP to tap regional fan demand and combat counterfeit goods. With fresh capital, Coolmate plans to launch women’s sportswear in March 2025 and aims for women’s products to contribute 40 % of revenue by 2030. It also intends to open its first brick-and-mortar store by December 2025 and target 40 % of sales from offline channels by 2030. Internationally, Coolmate will debut on Amazon in the United States in 2025 with sports socks and pursues a goal of deriving 50 % of sales from overseas markets, especially Southeast Asia, by 2030.
- Carro
Led · Equity · Sep 2025
Carro runs a technology platform that lets consumers and dealerships across Southeast Asia buy and sell used cars online while offering ancillary services such as insurance, financing and post-sale support. Headquartered in Singapore, the company is active in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Management says the fresh capital will be used to boost the presence of Japanese plug-in hybrid electric vehicles across the Asia-Pacific region. Carro is evaluating further international expansion into Australia and is exploring a dual public listing, including a potential U.S. IPO that sources say could value the company at more than US$3 billion. Such a listing would be the largest Southeast Asian debut in the United States since 2017, highlighting Carro’s scale and regional dominance. The business is already backed by prominent investors such as Temasek and SoftBank Group. Carro positions itself as a full-stack automotive commerce player, monetizing through vehicle transactions as well as financial and after-sales services.
Team
Kenichi Kawasaki
President & Chief Executive Officer
Nobuo Sugiuchi
Co-Chief Investment Officer