On the 15th, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry held a startup event in Osaka City with prominent venture capital investors from the United States. The event was conducted in English, and its aim was to create startups in Japan that aim to enter overseas markets.

There are only eight unicorn companies in Japan, and a lack of investment capital has been cited as one of the reasons for this. However, recently there have been an increasing number of cases of large-scale fund-raising from overseas VCs. Sakanai AI raised approximately 20 billion yen from US-based Khosla Ventures, and Dine raised approximately 7.5 billion yen from US-based Bessemer Venture Partners.

B Capital's Karan Mora said, “Overseas funds are showing interest in Japan. The lack of funds is no longer an excuse.” As overseas capital continues to flow in, attention is turning to whether Japanese startups can grow into globally competitive companies.

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