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.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2023

ThinkCyte develops VisionSort, the company’s flagship AI-based, dual-mode fluorescence and morphometric cell sorting platform, launched in June 2023. VisionSort has been adopted by major biopharmaceutical companies and leading academic research institutions worldwide. The company plans to use new funding to scale production and manufacturing and to accelerate global commercial expansion of VisionSort. ThinkCyte completed a Series C financing (including a recent extension) and also secured a loan to support growth. The new proceeds bring ThinkCyte’s total funding to $91 million. ThinkCyte was founded in 2016 and maintains offices in Tokyo, Japan and Redwood City, California. ThinkCyte develops scientific instruments that combine proprietary optics, microfluidics, and artificial intelligence to enable high‑throughput, label‑free single‑cell analysis and sorting using its Ghost Cytometry technology. Its flagship product, VisionSort, commercially launched in June and is an AI‑based dual‑mode fluorescence and morphometric cell sorting platform. Since the summer launch the company has completed deliveries to major pharmaceutical companies and leading research institutions in the U.S. The company plans to use new funding to expand production capacity for VisionSort and accelerate sales across North America, Europe, and Asia. ThinkCyte says it will continue developing complementary technologies and products to broaden the impact of Ghost Cytometry in life sciences. The company was founded in 2016 and has offices in Tokyo and Redwood City, California. ThinkCyte develops life‑science research, diagnostic, and therapeutic platforms built around its proprietary image‑based high‑throughput cell sorting technology, Ghost Cytometry. The company focuses on drug discovery, cell therapy, and clinical diagnostics applications of its image‑based cell analysis and sorting system. ThinkCyte intends to use new funding to accelerate development of its cell‑therapy sorting system, expand clinical diagnostics and drug‑discovery activities, and pursue global business growth. The company was founded in 2016 and is led by CEO Waichiro Katsuda. ThinkCyte is based in Tokyo, Japan, and also maintains offices in San Carlos, California. The recent financing strengthens its balance sheet to support product development and international expansion plans.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2021

Heartseed develops HS-001, an allogeneic iPSC-derived, highly purified ventricular cardiomyocyte spheroid therapy intended to remuscularize the myocardium and promote neovascularization. The company completed first human dosing of HS-001 in December 2022 and reports initial safety and early signs of efficacy. Heartseed plans to use new funds to complete its Phase 1/2 LAPiS study in Japan and to build an organization for product launch. It is also examining less invasive delivery, such as transendocardial catheter injection, for global development by Novo Nordisk. Since its founding in 2015, Heartseed has raised a total of 10.2 billion JPY (approx. $74 million). The LAPiS study is a 52-week, open-label, dose-escalation Phase 1/2 trial in patients with advanced ischemic heart failure with primary safety assessment at 26 weeks and secondary endpoints including LVEF and myocardial wall motion. Heartseed raised 4 billion yen (approx. $37M) in a Series C financing. The company will use the funds to accelerate initiation of a global clinical trial of HS-001 for heart failure, confirm proof of concept in the Phase 1/2 LAPiS study in Japan, and examine less invasive administration such as transendocardial injection via catheter. HS-001 is an allogeneic iPSC-derived, highly purified ventricular cardiomyocyte spheroid designed to improve retention rate and viability by forming micro-tissue-like spheroids. The spheroids are transplanted using a special administration needle (SEEDPLANTER®) and guide adapter developed for safe and efficient delivery into the myocardial layer. The round brought Heartseed’s total financial backing to 8.2 billion yen (approx. $75M) since its foundation in 2015. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Professor Keiichi Fukuda and is based in Tokyo, Japan. Heartseed is a Tokyo-based biotechnology company originating from Keio University that is developing HS-001, an allogeneic iPSC-derived cardiomyocyte spheroid therapy for severe heart failure. The company is preparing to initiate clinical trials for HS-001 and is arranging clinical-trial supply logistics. In advance of the trial, Heartseed will outsource manufacturing to Nikon CeLL innovation Co., Ltd. and is discussing transport of the cardiomyocyte spheroids with MEDIPAL. MEDIPAL and its wholly owned subsidiary SPLine will collaborate with Heartseed on logistics and will begin research on transport solutions for the therapy. MEDIPAL will also acquire an equity stake in Heartseed as part of the capital and business alliance. MEDIPAL brings a distribution system compliant with Japanese GDP guidelines and an ultra-low temperature transport system used for regenerative medicine products. Heartseed develops iPSC-derived ventricular-specific cardiomyocytes as a regenerative medicine approach for heart failure. Its lead program, HS-001, is intended to engraft in patients' hearts long-term and is positioned as a potential curative therapy for severe HFrEF. The company says it has solved key technical challenges including ventricular-specific cardiomyocyte differentiation, purification, large-scale manufacturing and efficient cell delivery. Heartseed planned to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for HS-001 in late 2020 and is supporting an investigator-initiated trial for dilated cardiomyopathy expected in the first half of 2020. Financially, Heartseed announced a ¥2.8 billion (approx. $26M) Series B and reports total financial backing of ¥3.8 billion (approx. $35M).

Participated · Series C · May 2021

Axelspace Holdings offers a one-stop service for microsatellites via its AxelLiner service and operates the AxelGlobe Earth-observation platform. The company handles satellite design, manufacturing, launch arrangement, and post-launch operation support for microsatellites and related components. Axelspace emphasizes proprietary microsatellite technology and end-to-end in-orbit operations expertise. The firm aims to advance its vision, “Space within Your Reach,” by expanding commercial and co-created offerings in aerospace and aviation. Recent strategic share acquisitions by corporate venture funds are intended to accelerate business expansion and new business co-creation with industry partners. Axelspace is headquartered in Tokyo and was established in March 2020. Axelspace develops, builds, launches and operates microsatellites and provides Earth-observation services such as AxelGlobe. The company currently operates a proprietary microsatellite constellation of five satellites and has developed and operated nine microsatellites in total, including a JAXA technology demonstration satellite. Axelspace offers full-scale microsatellite services to public and private sector customers and is developing an integrated one-stop service called AxelLiner, whose demonstration satellite is expected to launch in early 2024. The company is also working on constructing optical data-relay satellite constellations to expand its service capabilities. Axelspace says it will use the new funds to meet more diverse customer demands and accelerate societal applications of microsatellites. Headquartered in Tokyo, the company positions itself to expand both AxelGlobe and AxelLiner offerings. Axelspace builds and operates GRUS small satellites that collect panchromatic imagery at 2.5-meter resolution and multispectral bands (red, blue, green, near-infrared and red-edge) at 5-meter resolution. It sells 2.5-meter pan-sharpened images through AxelGlobe, a web-based platform. The company launched its first 100-kilogram satellite in 2018 and sent four more satellites into sun-synchronous orbit in March. With the planned five additional satellites funded by the Series C round, Axelspace aims to field a ten-satellite constellation in 2023 to obtain daily imagery of mid-latitude regions including Japan. Axelspace emphasizes capturing large areas in a single image—about 57 kilometers across and up to 1,000 kilometers vertically—to simplify client analysis compared with mosaicked data. The firm has about 80 employees, more than 50 of whom are engineers from around the world.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2016

BizReach is a Tokyo-based company that operates an online talent search platform under the same name. Its product portfolio includes employment search engines and job listing services, notably StanBy, which launched last year, and an applicant tracking system called StanBy Company. The company plans to launch a cloud-based hiring management platform called HRMOS in May while continuing to operate its existing services. BizReach reported a significant financing event in its second funding round to support product development. The business was founded in April 2009 by Soichiro Swimmy Minami. Minami previously spun off a premium outlet e-commerce site, Luxa, and later reinvested proceeds from Luxa’s sale back into BizReach.