Credit Saison
Sunshine 60 Bldg., 1-1 Higashi-Ikebukuro 3-chome, Tokyo, Toshima-ku, 170-6073, Japan
Overview
Credit Saison is a Japanese financial services company. They will fulfill their corporate social responsibility by striving to meet the expectations of all of their customers, shareholders, and business partners. They will compete successfully in the market by promoting their three shared values: practical implementation of the principles of customer satisfaction as a leading-edge service company; mutual respect for their interests and those of their business partners; and developing a corporate culture of creative innovation. They aim to develop and offer many settlement instruments such as credit cards and prepaid cards to reduce reliance on cash, which is still the main way to settle transactions, and enable a cashless society. With measures to promote personal consumption, they are working to expand their client base, their card transaction value, and the scope of card settlements. With their entire corporate marketing system reinforced, they are working to move various kinds of corporate payments to cashless settlements by providing optimal solutions that match the needs and scale of companies. They are working to establish multiple core earnings pillars through stronger relationships with their partners and the provision of financial functions tailored to market needs in their lease rental, credit guarantee, and finance-related businesses. In the rapidly-changing Internet business sector, the Company has stepped up its agile cooperation with companies with outstanding content and with startups that have promising technologies, along with efforts at new business development, in a bid to expand its Internet business. They are preparing a foundation for a longer-term overseas strategy with an eye on forming strategic partnerships with local companies and Japanese companies expanding in these markets to enable us to advance in Asia’s non-bank market. Based on their belief that the personal growth of their staff constitutes the growth of their company, they are bolstering human resource development initiatives that make effective use of individual strengths and support the active participation of women in the workplace.
- Total investments
- 21
- Lead investments
- 2
- Investments · 12mo
- 8
- Active investors
- 3
Sector focus
- Financial Services
- FinTech
Investment portfolio
- UME Financial Services
Participated · Debt Financing · Aug 2026
Ume offers a full credit infrastructure platform that uses AI to handle credit analysis, pricing, collections, customer service and access to capital. The company enables retailers, marketplaces and service providers to offer consumer financing across its network. Ume operates in 10,000 points of sale and serves roughly 4 million consumers in Brazil. The recent R$96M FIDC transaction is expected by Ume to generate more than $192M in additional revenue for its partners. The funding injects receivables-backed capital into the business to support continued expansion of its financing operations.
- JOYCLE
Participated · Series A · Jun 2026
JOYCLE develops the JOYCLE BOX, a vehicle-towable small distributed upcycle plant that reduces waste volume by over 95% using electric heat and converts waste into inorganic resources and char. Its systems include an IoT data-visualization platform called JOYCLE BOARD and can operate off-grid using solar support and satellite communications (Starlink Business). The company has run multiple municipal and corporate pilot projects and began a limited pre-sale of 10 JOYCLE BOX units to ‘‘co-creation partners.’’ JOYCLE plans to scale to mass production, offer rental services, and continue R&D to improve automatic control and processing efficiency while pursuing IP protection. Financially, the company reports cumulative funding including loans of about ¥350 million and recently raised ~¥150 million in a pre-Series A round to support production, R&D, and hiring. CEO Yutaro Koyanagi leads operations from offices in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Okinawa.
- Snack Technologies
Participated · Series A · Jun 2026
Founded in August 2024 and based in Tokyo, Snack Technologies (Snatech) offers a web application that brings cashless payments, automated accounting, transparent pricing, and customer management to Japan's snack bars. It also provides Snabomb, a patent-pending digital tipping system that lets remote patrons buy drinks for people in the bar with on-screen visual effects. The company is moving from proof-of-concept to full-scale rollout and is prioritising merchant expansion, product development, Snabomb deployment, and hiring. Snack Technologies has raised a total of ¥356M to date following the ¥222M pre-series A round. The startup is still pre-product-market-fit and faces adoption challenges among an ageing, analogue merchant base. The market opportunity sits within roughly 100,000 snack bars in Japan, a sector estimated to generate about ¥2 trillion in annual revenue.
- Zippi
Participated · Debt Financing · Feb 2026
Zippi designs credit products specifically for Brazil’s 21 million micro-entrepreneurs, tying credit limits and repayment schedules to the actual retail cash flow captured through Pix transactions and other data sources. The company’s product supplies revolving working capital that adapts to daily sales patterns, aiming to replace one-size-fits-all consumer loans traditionally offered to small merchants. Management plans to double the business in 2025 and, by the end of 2026, expects to process about R$10 billion in cumulative transactions while managing R$350 million in its credit fund (FIDC). Previous FIDC issuances totaled R$66 million in 2024 and R$80 million in 2025. The newly strengthened capital structure is intended to widen the active customer base and grow per-client volume while maintaining portfolio quality and lowering funding costs. Zippi is led by CEO and co-founder André Bernardes and CFO and co-founder Bruno Lucas, and remains focused exclusively on the Brazilian market.
- Mylapay
Participated · Equity · Jan 2026
Mylapay is a Chennai-based startup that builds core payment processing systems covering 3-D Secure authorisation, switching, clearing and settlement, and reconciliation. The company’s platform, certified by Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay, recently launched as a unified acquiring solution enabling banks and payment aggregators to handle both card and UPI transactions via a single integration. Engineered to process more than 5,000 transactions per second, the system emphasizes compliance-led, modular design. Founder Mohanraj Ravi plans to use new capital to fortify the payment infrastructure, expand the product stack, and deepen integrations with banks and payment aggregators. Future growth initiatives include international expansion across the Middle East, Africa, and the United States. Financially, the firm had previously attracted $550,000 in seed funding and has now added $1 million in fresh capital as it gears up for a full Series A later this year.
Team
Shunji Ashikaga
Alvaro Landi
LinkedInToshihisa Aikawa
Manager