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About IE
IE is a venture capital firm founded in 2001. It is primarily based out of Minato City, Japan. As of Oct 2025, IE is an active investor, having invested in 84 companies, with 1 new investment in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Series A round in Japan based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from High Tech to Life Sciences and Enterprise Applications. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series A round of tokuty Overall, IE portfolio has seen 30 IPOs and 1 acquisition including key companies like ispace, Astroscale and 17LIVE. A lot of funds co-invest with IE, with names like Mitsubishi UFJ Capital sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. IE has team of 9 people including 4 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Rounds of Entry
Series A, Seed & 3 more
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Soonicorns
Deals in last 12 months
IE's List of Top Investments
IE has a portfolio of 84 companies. Their most notable investments are in KAKEAI and LANIMAL.Their portfolio spans across Japan, China and Taiwan. They have invested in High Tech, Life Sciences, Enterprise Applications and 32 other sectors, across stages such as Series A, Seed and 3 more. Here is the list of top investments by IE:1. ispace
Developer of micro-robots that locate the resources necessary to extend human life into outer space. It focuses on locating, extracting, and delivering lunar ice to customers in cis-lunar space. It utilizes 3D printed and commercially off-the-shelf products for rapid prototyping while maximizing structural mass efficiency and shortening the developmental life cycle.
Key facts about ispace
- Founded Year: 2010
- Location: Chuo City (Japan)
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $385M
- Employee Count: 342 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Toyota, TBS Innovation Partners and 22 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series E, Aug 04, 2026, $*****
- Highlight: Public
2. Astroscale
Developer of satellite solutions for space debris removal. It provides users with an end-to-end rendezvous solution, which consists of two spacecraft to be launched stacked together. It leverages proximity rendezvous technologies and a magnetic capture mechanism, while another has a docking plate for capturing the debris. It also developed a micro-lite satellite for the in-situ debris environment awareness missions.
Key facts about Astroscale
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Sumida City (Japan)
- Annual Revenue: $10M - $50M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $384M
- Employee Count: 479 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: Mistletoe, SBI Investment and 43 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Conventional Debt, Oct 06, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Public
3. 17LIVE
Social music streaming platform. It allows artists, music, models to live stream on the platform. It allows users to chat, message, and play interactive games on the platform. The application is available for Android and iOS users. it monetizes through in-app purchases.
Key facts about 17LIVE
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: Taipei (Taiwan)
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $26.5M
- Employee Count: 482 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Innoven Capital, Vertex Growth and 14 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series D, May 11, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Public
4. SkyDrive
Developer of compact electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft systems. These vehicles utilize advanced attitude control to facilitate takeoff and landing in confined urban environments, including building rooftops and small designated spaces. The design emphasizes structural simplicity and redundant systems to ensure operational reliability. The technology supports various applications, including urban transportation, tourism, emergency medical access, and disaster response. By enabling aerial transit from existing infrastructure, the platform aims to reduce ground traffic congestion and improve travel efficiency.
Key facts about SkyDrive
- Founded Year: 2018
- Location: Shinjuku City (Japan)
- Stage: Series C
- Total Funding till date: $175M
- Employee Count: 229 as on Jun 30, 2026
- Investors: Pegasus Tech Ventures, ITOCHU and 27 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series C, Jul 05, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
5. GNI Group
Gni pharma is engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and sales of pharmaceutical drugs and traditional Chinese medicines. The drug development pipeline includes tamibarotene for acute promyelocytic leukemia under preparation for import drug registration; F351 in phase 1 for liver fibrosis and for chronic kidney failure in preclinical stage; F573 for acute chronic liver failure in investigational new drug application stage; and etuary for pulmonary fibrosis (approved), for radiation pneumonitis in phase 2, for diabetic nephropathy in preclinical stage, and connective disease in preclinical stage
Key facts about GNI Group
- Founded Year: 2001
- Location: Chiba (Japan)
- Stage: Public
- Employee Count: 9 as on Jul 31, 2026
- Investors: UTEC, First Analysis and 3 Others
- Highlight: Public
IE's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
IE has invested in 84 companies over the last 23 years, with an average of 2 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 1 investment. Its most recent first time investment was in tokuty.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2024 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2023 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2022 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
2021 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2020 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
2019 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2018 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
IE's Investments by Stage
IE has made 8 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $3.87M, 3 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $2.3M, 3 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $4.8M, 2 investments in Series C stage with an average round size of $5.5M and 1 investment in Series F stage with an average round size of $109M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Series A | 8 |
Seed | 3 |
Series B | 3 |
Series C | 2 |
Series F | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
IE's Investments by Sector
IE has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Consumer, High Tech, Business Services and Internet of Things - Industry Applications. Notably, it has invested in 41 Tech companies, 36 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 18 Consumer (B2C) companies and at least 17 companies focusing on Software.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 6 |
Consumer | 4 |
High Tech | 3 |
Business Services | 2 |
Internet of Things - Industry Applications | 2 |
Others | 13 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
IE's Investments by Geography
IE has made most investments in Japan (17).IE's recent investments
IE has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by IE:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 27, 2025 | Japan | Series A | 7011 | ||
Sep 04, 2024 | Japan | Series A | 7436 | [+3] | |
Jun 10, 2024 | Japan | Series A | 4506 | - | |
Jun 27, 2023 | Japan | Series A | 9847 | ||
Apr 03, 2023 | Japan | Seed | 2050 | [+1] |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in IE's Portfolio
30 of IE's portfolio companies have become public. I-Grid got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO), in Jul 2026 at marketcap of $151M and ZenmuTech got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO) at marketcap of $11.2M.Here are IE's portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jul 29, 2026 | - | - | 5491 | |
Mar 27, 2025 | Oct 29, 2018 | Seed | 2889 | |
Jan 16, 2025 | - | - | 8321 | |
Dec 09, 2024 | - | - | 1901 | |
Jun 11, 2024 | - | - | 4480 |
Acquired companies in IE's Portfolio
1 company from IE's portfolio has been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Photonic Lattice in Dec 2020 by PHOTRON for $*****.Here are IE's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 03, 2020 | - | - | 6624 |
Team profile of IE
IE has a team of 9 members including 4 Partners and 5 Venture Partners located in Japan and China. IE's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of all team members in IE:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Japan | - | ||
Partner | Zhongshan | - | ||
Partner | Japan | - | ||
Partner | Tokyo | - | ||
Venture Partner | Japan | - | ||
Venture Partner | Chiba | - | - | |
Venture Partner | Japan | - | ||
Venture Partner | Japan | - | ||
Venture Partner | Tokyo | - |
Co-investors of IE
Over the past 23 years, 117 investors have co-invested in IE's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before IE: Nissay Capital, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and 39 others have invested in rounds before IE. There are 2 companies where Nissay Capital has invested before IE and 1 company where Tokyo Metropolitan Government has invested before IE.
- Top Co-investors of IE: 54 investors entered a company along with IE. These include investors like Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (4 companies).
- Invested after IE: A total of 22 investors have invested in IE's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Mitsubishielectric (2 companies), Yusaku Maezawa (1 company) and MUFG (1 company).
Recent News related to IE
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Astroscale raises $109M for its on-orbit services technologyTechCrunch+•Nov 25, 2021•Astroscale, The Fund, Seraphim, DNCA Finance and 6 others
