When was Open Network Lab founded?

Open Network Lab was founded in 2010.

Where is Open Network Lab's headquarters located?

Open Network Lab's headquarters is located in Shibuya (Japan).

How many companies has Open Network Lab invested in?

Open Network Lab has invested in 96 companies, including Luup & SmartHR.

Which companies has Open Network Lab invested in lately?

Ichirou & MentaRest are the latest investments by Open Network Lab.

How many exits has Open Network Lab been involved in?

Open Network Lab's portfolio has seen 3 IPOs and 7 acquisitions.

How many unicorns are there in Open Network Lab's portfolio?

There is 1 unicorn in Open Network Lab's portfolio.

Open Network Lab - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends

Open Network Lab, an accelerator and incubator program founded in 2010, is based in Shibuya, Japan. With a presence in 6 countries, it has supported around 96 startups in sectors like Enterprise Applications, Consumer. As of Apr 2026, Open Network Lab has 1 unicorn under its belt and has witnessed 10 portfolio exits. Most notable companies in its portfolio include Luup, SmartHR and Jimdo Free. The program is backed by a team of 2 people who primarily support Seed startups based in Japan. Its latest investment was a $7.67M Series B round in Ichirou on Sep 11, 2025, which also saw participation from Fast Track Initiative and Aflac Ventures Japan.

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2010

Location

Shibuya, Japan

Portfolio Companies

Luup, SmartHR & 94 more

Sectors of Investment

Enterprise Applications, Consumer & 25 more

Stages of Investment

Seed, Series B & 2 more

Locations of Investment

Japan, United States & 4 more

Unicorn in Portfolio

SmartHR

View Open Network Lab's full profile

Open Network Lab has a portfolio of 96 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in AGE technologies and SmartHR.Their portfolio spans across Japan, United States, Denmark and 3 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, Consumer, HealthTech and 24 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series B and 2 more. Here is the list of top investments by Open Network Lab:

1. Luup

App-based platform for electric kick scooters. Through the app, users can find and book electric kick scooters. Also, they can navigate to the nearby bike stations to get the scooters. Users can unlock the scooters by scanning the QR code. It offers station-based service users have to leave the scooter at the nearby docks at the end of the ride.

Key facts about Luup

Founded Year: 2018
Location: Shibuya (Japan)
Stage: Series C
Total Funding till date: $87.9M
Employee Count: 83 as on Feb 28, 2026
Investors: Mori Trust, ANRI and 24 Others
Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Oct 22, 2024, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

2. SmartHR

Platform that offers HR management solutions. It is a company focused on providing technology solutions for human resources and labor management. The platform features in smart HR that includes solutions such as recruitment management, personnel evluation, layout simulation, employee surveys and more.

Key facts about SmartHR

Founded Year: 2013
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Valuation: $*****
Stage: Series E
Total Funding till date: $328M
Employee Count: 470 as on Feb 28, 2026
Investors: Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, The Fund and 21 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series E, Jun 30, 2024, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

3. Jimdo Free

Platform offering website development software. It provides a drag and drop feature to build websites. It enables developers to add images and texts from the image library and photo editing feature. It also helps to build a logo for the business.

Key facts about Jimdo Free

Founded Year: 2018
Location: Hamburg (Germany)
Annual Revenue: €65.1M as on Dec 31, 2022
Stage: Acquired
Employee Count: 290 as on Dec 01, 2025
Investors: Europa, Open Network Lab and 1 Other
Latest Funding Round: Grant (prize money), Dec 19, 2018, $*****
Highlight: Acquired

4. Fril

Fril is a C2C (consumer to consumer) marketplace app launched in September 2012. Fril focuses on women by allowing only women to use the app. The app was downloaded over 5,000 times within a month of its release and more than 10,000 items were sold. The average price of items on sale is around 2,000-3,000 yen (around USD$20-30). Fablic, the maker of the Fril app was established in 2012 and is a fourth batch graduate of Tokyo-based seed accelerator Open Network Lab.

Key facts about Fril

Founded Year: 2012
Location: Setagaya (Japan)
Stage: Acquired
Total Funding till date: $9.2M
Investors: Digital Garage, COLOPL and 4 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Sep 25, 2014, $*****
Highlight: Acquired

5. Fond

Employee recognition and perks platform. It is a recognition platform for managers, employees, and company admins to recognize and reward peers. It provides features to allocate budget, set up programs including spot awards, service awards, and birthdays. It recognizes peers with reward points, redeems reward points, and tracks program progress. It allows employees to avail corporate discounts on various products and services spanning categories in fitness, travel, professional development, home services, entertainment, and others with Fond's partners. Also, provides a free engagement survey tool.

Key facts about Fond

Founded Year: 2012
Location: San Francisco (United States)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $24.5M
Employee Count: 68 as on Mar 31, 2026
Investors: FCVC, GMO Venture Partners and 23 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Jul 01, 2016, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

View the full list of portfolio companies

Open Network Lab has invested in 96 companies over the last 14 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 1 investment. Its most recent first time investment was in Ichirou.

Here are Open Network Lab's Year-on-Year Investment Trends:

Year	No. of Investments
Year	1^st Round	Follow-on	Total
2026 (YTD)	0	0	0
2025	1	0	1
2024	1	0	1
2023	2	0	2
2022	2	0	2
2021	1	0	1
2020	0	0	0
2019	0	0	0
2018	1	0	1

View all investments by Open Network Lab

Open Network Lab has made 11 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $732K, 2 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $6.04M, 1 investment in Angel stage and 1 investment in Series A stage with an average round size of $1.87M.

Here are Open Network Lab's investments by stage:

Stage of entry	No. of Investments
Seed	11
Series B	2
Angel	1
Series A	1

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Open Network Lab

Open Network Lab has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Vertical SaaS, Consumer, HealthTech and Business Services. Notably, it has invested in 71 Tech companies, 50 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 43 Software companies and at least 34 companies focusing on Consumer (B2C).

Here are Open Network Lab's investments by sector:

Sector	No. of Investments
Enterprise Applications	8
Vertical SaaS	4
Consumer	3
HealthTech	3
Business Services	2
Others	9

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Open Network Lab

Open Network Lab has made most investments in Japan (13), followed by United States where it has made 2 investments.

Here are Open Network Lab's investments by geography:

Country	No. of Investments
Japan	13
United States	2

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Open Network Lab

Open Network Lab has not made any investment in 2026 so far.

Here are the most recent investments by Open Network Lab:

Filter this list

Date	Company	Location	Round Details	Round Amount	Co-Investors
Sep 11, 2025	Ichirou	Japan	Series B	7373	Fast Track Initiative [+7]
Apr 24, 2024	MentaRest	Japan	Seed	8668	-
Apr 12, 2023	AGE technologies	Japan	Series B	6556	KUSABI [+3]
Feb 16, 2023	Alpaca Lab	Japan	Series A	4618	ODFC [+3]
Jul 12, 2022	Ex-Work	Japan	Seed	6480	Digital Garage [+3]

See more recent investments made by Open Network Lab

Open Network Lab has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - SmartHR. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is SmartHR which became a unicorn in 2021, 6 years after Open Network Lab first invested in it.

Here is a list of unicorns in Open Network Lab's portfolio:

Filter this list

Tracxn Score	Company	Short Description	Founded year	Sector	Location	Company Stage	First Investment/ Acquisition Details
59	SmartHR	Platform that offers HR management solutions	2013	Enterprise Applications	Tokyo	Series E	qqdjcdw

View more details about unicorns in Open Network Lab's portfolio

3 of Open Network Lab's portfolio companies have become public. Unerry got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), in Jul 2022 at marketcap of $34.8M and True Data got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) at marketcap of $89.3M.

Here are Open Network Lab's portfolio companies that went public:

Filter this list

Company	IPO Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Unerry	Jul 28, 2022	-	-	1014
True Data	Dec 16, 2021	-	-	8949
giftee	Sep 20, 2019	-	-	1212

View more details about public companies in Open Network Lab's portfolio

7 companies from Open Network Lab's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition were Logikura in Mar 2026 by freee.

Here are Open Network Lab's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:

Filter this list

Company	Acquisition Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
Logikura	Mar 19, 2026	-	-	5400
Jimdo Free	Nov 01, 2021	-	-	5194
Emotion Intelligence	Oct 16, 2019	Dec 14, 2014	Angel	4024
Increments	Dec 22, 2017	-	-	3016
HouseCare	Dec 13, 2016	-	-	8240

View all acquired companies in Open Network Lab's portfolio

Open Network Lab has a team of 2 members located in Japan. Open Network Lab's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.

View team details of Open Network Lab

Over the past 14 years, 86 investors have co-invested in Open Network Lab's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.

Invested before Open Network Lab: DG Ventures, K-Startup Grand Challenge and 13 others have invested in rounds before Open Network Lab. There are 2 companies where DG Ventures has invested before Open Network Lab and 1 company where K-Startup Grand Challenge has invested before Open Network Lab.
Top Co-investors of Open Network Lab: 30 investors entered a company along with Open Network Lab. These include investors like Digital Garage (2 companies).
Invested after Open Network Lab: A total of 41 investors have invested in Open Network Lab's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include DG Ventures (2 companies) and 500 Global (1 company).