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Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

1-1-2, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0005, Japan

Overview

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation offers a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital, and other credit-related businesses. The following lists the activities of SMBC, its subsidiaries, and affiliates in the various business segments. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. As of the year 2009, SMBC was the second largest bank in Japan in terms of assets.

Total investments
41
Lead investments
13
Investments · 12mo
12
Active investors
12

Sector focus

  • Banking
  • Finance
  • Financial Services
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Investment portfolio

  • Triorb

    Participated · Series B · Aug 2026

    Triorb develops the TriOrb BASE, a ball-driven 360° omnidirectional mobility platform that uses three spheres and three motors at its base to achieve full-direction movement. The platform offers millimeter-level positioning and autonomous navigation via proprietary Visual SLAM and ROS2 modules and supports coordinated transport of multiple units. The standard model has a 300 kg payload capacity while a heavy-duty model carries up to 800 kg; the system can traverse 45 mm grooves, 10 mm steps, and gradients of approximately 9°. An optional battery provides about 3.5 hours of continuous operation. Target industries include automotive, semiconductors, steel manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, and construction, and a cited adoption example is Sugino Machine’s new mobile manipulator. The company has opened a Detroit base to support U.S. expansion.

  • KnowledgeWork

    Participated · Series C · Aug 2026

    KnowledgeWork is a Japanese sales enablement company that has moved from a SaaS knowledge-sharing platform for sales teams into a provider of sales-specific AI agents for large enterprises. It sells three lines: Sales AX Consulting, in which consultants and forward-deployed engineers build and operate AI agents fitted to a customer's own sales process; Sales AI Products, including a tool that automates meeting minutes and CRM/SFA entry and a roleplay tool that runs practice sales conversations against AI avatars; and Sales AI Agent OS, launched in August 2026 as the underlying platform, composed of ontology, strategy, AI agent, and interface layers. Its software is deployed at major Japanese enterprises at thousands-of-seats scale, including NTT Docomo Business, Mizuho Bank, and Nissin Foods. The company is pursuing capital and business alliances with large corporates and their venture arms to widen distribution of its sales AI agents. KnowledgeWork was incorporated in March 2020 under CEO Koji Asano and is headquartered in the Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Financially, the company had raised ¥6.12 billion cumulatively through its Series B in November 2023 and added ¥3.5 billion (~$22.1M) in the first close of its Series C in August 2026.

  • Whale

    Led · Series C · Jul 2026

    Whale builds an AI Operating System (AIOS) for enterprise operations based on its proprietary Business World Model (BWM), which interprets camera, sensor, and audio signals similar to how LLMs process text. Its product suite includes SpaceSight (physical space intelligence), Echo (voice and audio intelligence), Lume (content distribution), Alivia (workflow automation and intelligent agents), Harbor (knowledge management and compliance), and Novus (AI infrastructure and governance). Whale serves more than 1,600 enterprises in 45+ countries and manages over 600,000 edge AI nodes globally across industries including retail, automotive, F&B, manufacturing, and financial services. Headquartered in Singapore, the company is scaling deployments across North America and APAC with plans for MENA and Europe. Whale recently raised a Series C round that now totals $100 million, which it says will fund global expansion, team growth, deeper partnerships, and expanded platform integrations.

  • Zenobe Energy

    Participated · Debt Financing · Jun 2026

    Zenobe Energy provides electrification services aimed at enabling fleet electrification, particularly for bus operators and local authorities. The company arranges and deploys EV-focused financing and infrastructure to support fleet transitions. With the newly announced £980m UK and Ireland debt facility, Zenobe intends to support the deployment of more than 1,000 electric buses. Since 2017 the company has raised over £3.2bn in capital. The recent financing strengthens its balance sheet to scale electrification projects across its markets. The articles do not disclose revenue, valuation, or specific investor names.

  • Digital Edge

    Led · Debt Financing · May 2026

    Digital Edge operates and develops campus-scale data center facilities across Asia‑Pacific, targeting hyperscale and enterprise demand. Since its formation by New York–based Stonepeak in August 2020, the company has grown via acquisitions of smaller operators to establish local footholds and by developing larger facilities for hyperscale tenants. It currently has around 25 data centers in operation and under construction and more than 1.1 GW of secured IT power across Japan, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Digital Edge has executed over US$2 billion in green financings to date and recently completed a $575 million HoldCo debt facility that can be converted into a Sustainability‑Linked Loan subject to agreed targets. The company is using proceeds to expand its campus footprints across existing markets as AI and hyperscale demand accelerates in the region.

Team

  • Takeshi Kunibe

    President & CEO

  • Laughlan Waterston

    Head of Energy

    LinkedIn
  • Sieh Wai Yap

    Chief Compliance Officer

    LinkedIn
  • Jun Miyagawa

    General Manager