Led · Series A · Aug 2026

First Coffee is an Indian specialty coffee brand offering specialty coffee products to consumers. The company operates in the retail coffee segment and positions itself within India’s specialty coffee market. With the recent $1.3 million pre-Series A raise, management plans to use the capital to expand the brand’s physical and/or market footprint across India. The company’s financial metrics, customer counts, and prior funding history were not disclosed in the announcement. The round was led by DG Daiwa Ventures with participation from BEENEXT and several angel investors.

Participated · Series A · Jun 2026

Dioseve is developing ReproNest (development code DIOS-101), a co-culture IVM product that uses ovarian support cell-like cells differentiated from iPS cells to support maturation of immature oocytes. The co-culture approach cultivates patient-derived oocytes together with support cells in the same system and is not intended as a cell therapy for administration into the body. Non-clinical studies reported by the company have shown potential benefits in supporting oocyte maturation compared with conventional IVM culture conditions. The company's technological strength is its proprietary differentiation induction technology, which it says enables efficient induction of oocytes and ovarian somatic cells from iPS cells and production of ovarian support cell-like cells. Dioseve sees applications in fertility preservation (including oocyte freezing), treatment of patients at high risk of OHSS, and rapid fertility preservation before cancer treatment. The recent funding will support validation, manufacturing and quality control setup, reproducibility assessment, regulatory compliance work, and business development to advance ReproNest toward practical application.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2026

CULTA applies a proprietary, non-GMO, AI-powered breeding process that shortens new variety development from the traditional ten years to roughly two, enabling rapid creation of climate-resilient fruit crops. To date the company has produced four strawberry varieties, including its flagship “SAKURA DROPS,” which delivers about 30% higher yield, roughly 40% higher sugar content, and maintains quality for more than ten days even when harvested fully ripe. CULTA contracts growers, buys their entire output, and manages sales and marketing itself, giving it end-to-end control of supply and brand. Production is already scaling in Japan and Malaysia, with berries sold in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Thailand, and over 100 Japanese farms cultivating the varieties. The firm plans to greatly expand Southeast Asian production, enter Australia, and begin sales in Japan while pushing variety registration overseas. Future R&D targets include additional strawberry lines suited to large farms in Australia, North America, and Europe, as well as new grape and apple varieties and eventual work on coffee and banana. Including the current round, CULTA has raised roughly ¥1 billion (~US$7 million) in total funding.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2026

Founded in December 2022 and headquartered in Tokyo, CAPER builds and operates OpenSeek, an AI recruiting platform optimized for mid-career hiring. The product uses large-language-model technology to search across more than 15 open data sources, learn each client’s hiring preferences, and recommend when and how to contact potential candidates via social media or direct channels. OpenSeek handles candidate discovery, one-to-one outreach and long-term nurturing, replicating the work of experienced recruiters. The service is already deployed at 20+ companies ranging from seed-stage startups to enterprises with over 5,000 employees, delivering up to 10× higher interview conversion rates and rapid hires for hard-to-fill roles such as senior engineers and marketing leaders. CAPER’s mission is to let AI take over routine recruiting so humans can focus on judgment and relationship building. Proceeds from its latest funding will accelerate product development and expand the company’s engineering and business teams.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2025

Voicetep builds a “next-generation communication platform” that uses AI to analyze natural conversation and enhance human relationships. Its inaugural service, the patent-registered voice-based dating app “Voicestep,” debuted on iOS in April 2025 and lets users meet by talking before exchanging photos or texts. Four months after launch the company added an “AI conversation skills diagnosis” feature and continues to layer on AI-powered communication coaching. The app’s user base has grown at an average 1.99× per month, and 79 % of couples who progressed to their first video call moved on to the next step, demonstrating a high “gapless” rate between online and offline impressions. Revenue is partially subscription-based (“some features paid”), but no figures were disclosed. Looking ahead, Voicetep plans to extend its voice-and-AI model from romance into marriage, family and workplace communication. The company is headquartered in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture and is led by Co-CEOs Masahiro Goto and Akihiko Kakita.