• Starlight Engine

  Participated · Equity · Jul 2026

  Starlight Engine was established in April 2025 as a group company of Kyoto Fusioneering and is focused on advancing fusion energy through its FAST project. FAST is a privately led, industry–academia initiative that adopts a tokamak configuration and aims to demonstrate fusion power generation in the 2030s by generating and sustaining D–T burning plasma and demonstrating integrated power generation and fuel-cycle systems. The project has completed its conceptual design and is currently moving into engineering design and construction preparations. SLE is coordinating with leading fusion researchers and a wide set of private-sector partners and universities to develop the project and domestic supply chains. The company plans to use newly raised funds to accelerate engineering and technology development, site selection, regulatory processes, supply chain development, and organizational expansion. SLE intends to grow its headcount to about 200 employees over the next two years as it advances toward fusion power demonstration and future commercial plants.

• Monogusa

  Participated · Series C · Oct 2025

  Founded in 2016, Tokyo-based Monogusa develops and operates Monoxer, a memory-optimization platform that personalizes drills and repetition to improve long-term recall. The software was first adopted by cram schools and private institutions and is now expanding into public education systems, municipalities, and enterprise upskilling programs. Corporations use Monoxer to raise qualification-exam pass rates, onboard sales staff, and capture tacit knowledge in manufacturing, retail, leasing, and other operational settings. New features in development include automatic generation of learning content from internal manuals and data, as well as sector-specific enablement tools for skills transfer in construction and manufacturing. The company recently introduced "Monoxer Junior" for early childhood learning and plans a university student service that links study with career development, plus lifelong learning offerings for professionals. Capital from the Series C round will fund product development, marketing, hiring, and new business lines. Although no revenue or user figures were disclosed, management highlighted rapid adoption across both education and enterprise markets.

• Pale Blue

  Participated · Series C · Aug 2025

  Pale Blue designs, develops, and manufactures propulsion systems for small satellites, having demonstrated water‑based thrusters in space multiple times. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Kashiwa, Chiba. Its core product line focuses on reliable, scalable thrusters for global satellite operators, and it is expanding its portfolio to include Hall thrusters. Pale Blue plans to strengthen production and quality-management systems, establish a production‑technology development site, and scale hiring to meet growing demand. The company will continue R&D and space demonstrations to broaden its product lineup and validate new propulsion technologies. The recent Series C fundraise will support these commercialization and production efforts. Pale Blue is a University of Tokyo–spawned space startup based in Kashiwa, Chiba that researches, develops, and manufactures propulsion systems for small satellites. Its core products are an ultra‑small water ion thruster and a water Hall thruster, both using water as the propellant. The ultra‑small water ion thruster is an electric propulsion system for orbit control and orbital transfers offering higher fuel efficiency than chemical thrusters; the water Hall thruster uses a water‑Hall plasma acceleration effect to achieve high specific impulse with low power consumption. These thrusters are intended for small‑satellite orbit control and attitude control. Pale Blue aims to reduce small‑satellite operating costs, expand launch opportunities, and ultimately apply its technology to deep‑space missions such as lunar or Martian exploration. The company plans to continue development and manufacturing, pursue in‑space demonstrations, establish a production‑technology development base, and strengthen its organization. Pale Blue is a Tokyo-based small-satellite thruster developer focused on water-based propulsion, notably its Resistojet steam thruster. The company tested its Resistojet in orbit in March on a 6U cubesat called Star Sphere, using jets of steam for maneuvering. Pale Blue is building a 2,000-square-meter factory to mass-produce Resistojet thrusters sized for satellites under 10 kilograms and announced $7.5 million in funding in October to start production for customers including Yonsei University. Under a multiphase Japanese government SBIR-3 grant worth up to $27 million, Pale Blue aims to develop water-plasma propulsion and to scale its technology to service spacecraft up to 500 kilograms. The company plans to demonstrate water-fed ion and Hall-effect thrusters, which use electricity and magnetic fields to accelerate propellant, with a demo targeted around 2027–2028 and prototypes due by September 2025 for the first grant phase. Pale Blue positions water as a lower-cost, safer propellant alternative to xenon, though it acknowledges water cannot yet match xenon's thrust performance.

• Toggle

  Led · Series A · Feb 2023

  Toggle is a New York-based robotics company that builds machines to bend rebar used in heavy construction. The startup has raised a total of $15 million to date, including an initial $8M Series A announced in 2021 and a recent $3M Series A extension. The new funds will be used to ramp up robotic production and expand hiring, with roles focused on engineering and operations. Toggle’s headcount is currently 40 and the company plans to double that over the next year ahead of an upcoming Series B. CEO Daniel Blank says demand is being driven by renewed interest in American manufacturing, infrastructure and renewable energy investments and by pandemic-era pressures such as supply-chain disruptions, inflation, and rising labor costs that are accelerating automation and prefab construction methods. Toggle builds robotics technology that automates the assembly of rebar, the foundational building material, completing work in a fraction of the time of manual methods. The company targets large construction projects and says its tools add capacity while saving time and cost, with a stated focus on renewable energy and sustainable urban development. Toggle announced an $8 million Series A to expand production capacity. The startup previously raised a $3 million seed round in late 2019. Proceeds from the new round will fund increased headcount and an upgrade to a new 50,000 square foot production facility. The raise comes amid rising investor interest in robotics and construction automation. Toggle is a Brooklyn-based, 15-person robotics startup that builds robots to fabricate and assemble rebar. Its systems are designed to work alongside existing robotics and steel fabrication technologies and, by the company’s count, can speed the process up to five times. Toggle has begun a soft launch for a wide range of projects in New York City and the surrounding area. The company expects to ramp toward commercial production over the next year and a half. CEO Daniel Blank says the recent seed funding will be used for R&D, development of both hardware and software around assembly and fabrication automation, and to grow the engineering team. The funding also provides a foundation for Toggle’s manufacturing operation, which is already supplying services and materials to customers in the NYC region.

No current team members are available.