Japanese startups attract increasing interest from overseas investors

Japan’s startups are attracting increasing interest from overseas investors as the country starts to shake off a reputation as a unicorn-free venture backwater.

More than $3 billion was raised in the first six months of 2021 alone, triple the amount in the same period five years earlier, according to local data tracker Initial. That’s being driven by growing interest from foreign investors with deep pockets, including Sequoia, Soros Capital and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund — as well as Masayoshi Son, whose Vision Fund this year took stakes in Japanese start-ups for the first time.

One factor leading venture firms to seek opportunities in Japan and elsewhere is the crackdown in China’s tech sector. Investors including Son have said the pandemic has in some ways been a boon, with Zoom meetings replacing face-to-face bonding sessions and making a start-up’s physical location less relevant. Even as recently as 2019, Son was assailing the country’s businessmen as unambitious “herbivores."