corporate venture capital
Relcu has raised new funding with participation from both new and existing investors, including Menlo Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Clocktower Ventures, MUFG Innovation Partners, Commerce Ventures, and Valley Ventures. Relcu provides an all-in-one Unified CRM and AI Agent Co-Pilot built for financial services. The capital will accelerate Relcu’s mission
banking
This past week has marked a pivotal moment in Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation's (SMBC) engagement with the African continent. Against the backdrop of the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), SMBC has announced a series of strategic partnerships and investments that underscore a deep and multi-faceted
venture capital
Leading global fintech AND Global, today announced it has raised $21.4 million USD in a Series B funding round led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of The World Bank Group, and AEON Financial Service, a leading Japanese financial group active in 11 Asian markets. Other investors
venture capital
A new partnership between specialist venture capital firm Uncovered Fund and corporate VC Monex Ventures highlights increasing Japanese investment in Africa's technology landscape. The two have launched the "Uncovered Monex Africa Investment Partnership," a ¥3 billion (around $20 million) fund targeting early-stage startups in Africa and
venture capital
DigiFT, a licensed exchange purpose-built for institutional-grade, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), has raised a total of US$25 million to date—following the close of a new strategic funding round. The latest round was led by SBI Holdings, Japan’s largest financial group, with participation from leading institutional investors including
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-fifth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Chaos, chaos, everywhere! The subway line to the Osaka Expo 2025 broke down, leaving thousands of people stranded late into the night. McDonald's offered a Pokemon promotion, leading to piles of "Happy Meals" discarded
venture capital
TRUSTART, which supports DX transformation of users' real estate-related operations through proprietary real estate big data collection, has raised 1 billion yen through third-party allotment to HIRAC FUND (MoneyForward Venture Partners), Daiwa Corporate Investment, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Japan Venture Capital, Asia Air Survey, Iwagin Future Investment, GMO VenturePartners, mint,
venture capital
The Japan Securities Dealers Association has been holding a "Roundtable Meeting on the Supply of Growth Funds to Startup Companies and Other Entities" to consider issues regarding the trading system for unlisted shares based on the needs of market participants, and the FSA has been participating in this
venture capital
Mesh, the leading crypto payments network, today announced additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, Mirana Ventures (venture partner for ByBit), SBI Investment, Overlook Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Moderne Ventures and CE-Ventures, bringing total capital funding to more than $130 million. This support positions the company to accelerate its impact
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The TOPIX reached a record high on August 8, 2025, hitting 3038.84 points during the regular session and closing at 3024.21. This was the first time TOPIX has broken 3000 points in its history. It closed
venture capital
GREE Ventures has established the GREE LP Fund JP 2, Limited Partnership (“JP2”), its second fund of funds (FoF) focused on Japanese venture capital. JP2 completed its first close at ¥4.4 billion, with a target final fund size of ¥6 billion. Overview of JP2 GREE Ventures aims to accelerate
venture capital
TERASS has completed a Series C round totaling 3.1 billion yen (2 billion yen in third-party allotment capital increase, 1.1 billion yen in existing shareholder stock transfer) with 10 companies as underwriters, including Norinchukin Capital, Mizuho Capital, Boost Capital, and Z Venture Capital. The cumulative fundraising amount since