About World Innovation Lab
World Innovation Lab is a venture capital firm founded in 2013. It is primarily based out of Palo Alto, United States. As of Aug 2026, World Innovation Lab is an active investor, having invested in 141 companies, with 7 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Series C round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Retail. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series C round of KnowledgeWork Overall, World Innovation Lab portfolio has seen 21 unicorns, 17 IPOs and 28 acquisitions including key companies like DocuSign, HubSpot and Wise. A lot of funds co-invest with World Innovation Lab, with names like New Enterprise Associates sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. World Innovation Lab has team of 35 people including 25 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Series A, Series B & 7 more
Portfolio IPOs
Portfolio Acquisitions
Portfolio Unicorns
Deals in last 12 months
World Innovation Lab's List of Top Investments
World Innovation Lab has a portfolio of 141 companies, including 21 unicorns. Their most notable investments are in Cresta and Harutaka.Their portfolio spans across United States, Japan, China and 7 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Retail and 31 other sectors, across stages such as Series A, Series B and 7 more. Here is the list of top investments by World Innovation Lab:
1. DocuSign
Provider of electronic signature and intelligent agreement management platform solutions. The platform offers tools for contract lifecycle management, agreement preparation, and agreement workflow automation. It provides features such as electronic notarization, web forms, and multi-channel delivery options. The platform extends its capabilities through integrations, APIs, and a mobile application.
Key facts about DocuSign
- Founded Year: 2003
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Annual Revenue: $1B+ as on Jan 31, 2026
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $520M
- Employee Count: 8,503 as on Jun 30, 2026
- Investors: HTIF, Glynn Capital and 90 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Jul 20, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Public
2. HubSpot
Provider of a platform offering marketing, sales, and customer service software. The platform provides tools for marketing automation, sales management, and customer support. It offers an CRM as its core, integrating various hubs such as Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, Operations Hub, and Commerce Hub, each providing specialized tools to enhance different aspects of customer management and business operations. Key features include a robust CRM supporting contact and deal management, email tracking, marketing email creation, and meeting scheduling.
Key facts about HubSpot
- Founded Year: 2005
- Location: Cambridge (United States)
- Annual Revenue: $1B+ as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $101M
- Employee Count: 12,234 as on Jun 30, 2026
- Investors: Cross Creek, Fidelity Investments and 22 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Jun 02, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Public
3. Wise
Provider of international money transfer and multi-currency. It offers secure, transparent, and cost-efficient cross-border payment solutions. It provides personal accounts, business accounts, multi-currency cards, and platform APIs that enable individuals, companies, and financial institutions to send, receive, hold, and convert money globally.
Key facts about Wise
- Founded Year: 2011
- Location: Shoreditch (United Kingdom)
- Annual Revenue: €500M - €1B as on Mar 31, 2022
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $397M
- Employee Count: 10,710 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Glynn Capital, Galtymore Partners and 103 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Venture Debt, May 19, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Public
4. Mercari
Online marketplace platform for used multi-category products. The platform allows users to buy and sell products from different categories like fashion, beauty, sports, electronics, books, pet supplies, art supplies, home decor, office supplies, and more. The mobile application is available for Android and iOS users.
Key facts about Mercari
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Minato City (Japan)
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $114M
- Employee Count: 1,782 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: World Innovation Lab, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and 10 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Oct 12, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Public
5. Fortinet
Provider of cybersecurity solutions, services, and threat intelligence for enterprises. It offers a platform delivering network and cloud security, unified SASE, and security operations. The company provides services such as incident response, managed detection, and security awareness training. It also delivers operational technology security, including secure networking and ruggedized products.
Key facts about Fortinet
- Founded Year: 2000
- Location: Sunnyvale (United States)
- Annual Revenue: $1B+ as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $39M
- Employee Count: 16,403 as on Jun 30, 2026
- Investors: Meritech, ForgePoint Capital and 16 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Venture Debt, Mar 02, 2004, $*****
- Highlight: Public
World Innovation Lab's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
World Innovation Lab has invested in 141 companies over the last 12 years, with an average of 7 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 13 investments, while as of Aug 2026, it has made 3 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in KnowledgeWork and most recent follow-on round was in Tive.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 3 | 0 | 3 |
2025 | 9 | 4 | 13 |
2024 | 11 | 5 | 16 |
2023 | 5 | 2 | 7 |
2022 | 8 | 6 | 14 |
2021 | 7 | 5 | 12 |
2020 | 8 | 2 | 10 |
2019 | 7 | 4 | 11 |
2018 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
2017 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
World Innovation Lab's Investments by Stage
World Innovation Lab has made 26 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $19.2M, 22 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $41.9M and 19 investments in Series C stage with an average round size of $65.5M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Series A | 26 |
Series B | 22 |
Series C | 19 |
Seed | 9 |
Series D | 5 |
Others | 8 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
World Innovation Lab's Investments by Sector
World Innovation Lab has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Consumer, Vertical SaaS and FinTech. Notably, it has invested in 112 Tech companies, 96 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 90 Software companies and at least 60 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 54 |
High Tech | 15 |
Consumer | 14 |
Vertical SaaS | 14 |
FinTech | 13 |
Others | 81 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
World Innovation Lab's Investments by Geography
World Innovation Lab has made most investments in United States (44), followed by Japan where it has made 38 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 44 |
Japan | 38 |
United Kingdom | 3 |
India | 2 |
Argentina | 1 |
Others | 4 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
World Innovation Lab's recent investments
World Innovation Lab has made 3 investments in 2026 so far. KnowledgeWork and Aqua Theon are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by World Innovation Lab:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aug 04, 2026 | Japan | Series C | 3753 | [+12] | |
Feb 27, 2026 | United States | Seed | 8407 | ||
Jan 14, 2026 | Japan | Series A | 7447 | ||
Dec 18, 2025 | Norway | Series C | 4209 | [+3] | |
Sep 16, 2025 | United States | Series B | 9998 |
Unicorns in World Innovation Lab's Portfolio
World Innovation Lab has 21 unicorns in its portfolio - HappyRobot, Framer, ElevenLabs and others. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is HappyRobot. It became a unicorn in 2026.Here is a list of unicorns in World Innovation Lab's portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
58 | Developer of an AI operating system for autonomous business operations | 2023 | San Francisco | Series C | ijtryfy | ||
71 | Provider of a no-code website builder with integrated content management | 2014 | Amsterdam | Series D | uwhouvg | ||
77 | AI platform for speech, voice cloning, music, and AI agents | 2022 | New York City | Series D | qwkbjja | ||
69 | Developer of software for generating videos using artificial intelligence avatars | 2017 | London | Series E | mwetptv | ||
75 | AI, SaaS, and neural network-based machine translation tools | 2017 | Cologne | Series C | qqczkji |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in World Innovation Lab's Portfolio
17 of World Innovation Lab's portfolio companies have become public. Digital Grid got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO), in Apr 2025 at marketcap of $188M and Laxus got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).Here are World Innovation Lab's portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Apr 22, 2025 | - | - | 4657 | |
Dec 13, 2024 | Oct 06, 2015 | Series A | 4559 | |
Mar 26, 2024 | Jun 12, 2015 | Series A | 1107 | |
Oct 04, 2023 | - | - | 5529 | |
Dec 22, 2022 | - | - | 1826 |
Acquired companies in World Innovation Lab's Portfolio
28 companies from World Innovation Lab's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Jaspersoft in Dec 2025 by HCL Technologies for $*****.Here are World Innovation Lab's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Dec 19, 2025 | - | - | 8497 | |
Dec 17, 2025 | - | - | 5309 | |
Nov 19, 2025 | May 17, 2022 | Series A | 7244 | |
Nov 04, 2025 | Apr 21, 2021 | Series C | 1523 | |
Jul 29, 2025 | May 12, 2022 | Series C | 5897 |
Team profile of World Innovation Lab
World Innovation Lab has a team of 35 members including 25 Partners, 1 Venture Partner and 4 Principals located in United States and Japan. World Innovation Lab's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Here is a list of top team members in World Innovation Lab:
Name | Designation | Location | Board Memberships | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Partner | Palo Alto | - | - | |
Partner | San Francisco | - | ||
Partner | Tokyo | - | ||
Partner | Japan | - | ||
Partner | Palo Alto | - | ||
Partner | Tokyo | - | ||
Partner | Menlo Park | - | ||
Partner | Palo Alto | - | ||
Partner | Los Altos | - | ||
Partner | San Francisco | - | ||
Partner | - | - | - |
Co-investors of World Innovation Lab
Over the past 12 years, 874 investors have co-invested in World Innovation Lab's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before World Innovation Lab: Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and 434 others have invested in rounds before World Innovation Lab. There are 10 companies where Andreessen Horowitz has invested before World Innovation Lab and 6 companies where Y Combinator has invested before World Innovation Lab.
- Top Co-investors of World Innovation Lab: 232 investors entered a company along with World Innovation Lab. These include investors like New Enterprise Associates (4 companies).
- Invested after World Innovation Lab: A total of 206 investors have invested in World Innovation Lab's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (5 companies), Salesforce Ventures (4 companies) and Goldman Sachs (4 companies).
Recent News related to World Innovation Lab
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Aqua Theon Secures $13M Seed Round to Expand OoMee Marine Plant-Based BeverageFoodBev Media•Feb 27, 2026•Aqua Theon, Sparks Asset Management, Beyond Next Ventures, World Innovation Lab and 2 others
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Taxnap, provider of tax return app, raises 1.3 billion yen in Series A round.Startup Log•Jan 14, 2026•Archetype Ventures, WiL, Taxnap, Mizuho Financial Group and 2 others
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Lightsmith Group backs Tive to climate-proof global supply chainsImpactAlpha•Jan 13, 2026•AVP, Tive, The Lightsmith Group, Sageview Capital and 2 others
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Tabs Raises $55M Series B in FundingFinSMEs•Sep 16, 2025•Tabs, Lightspeed Venture Partners, World Innovation Lab, General Catalyst and 2 others
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HappyRobot raises USD $44 million to boost AI for supply chainsIT Brief UK•Sep 03, 2025•HappyRobot, Base10 Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Array Ventures and 14 others
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Sherpa & Company raises 1 billion yen in Series B round 1st closeStartup Log•Aug 28, 2025•Global Brain, Canon, , SmartESG and 2 others
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Amsterdam’s Framer raises $100M at $2B valuationSilicon Canals•Aug 28, 2025•Framer, Atomico, HV Capital, Meritech and 3 others
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Goldman Sachs leads $50m series F of Japan-US legal AI startupTech in Asia•Jul 26, 2025•LegalOn Technologies, World Innovation Lab, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Mizuho Financial Group and 3 others
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LegalOn secures $50m to expand AIVerdict•Jul 25, 2025•LegalOn Technologies, World Innovation Lab, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Mizuho Financial Group and 2 others
