JIC and Transpose hold event to support startups in Japan “Tokyo Founder’s Day – The Success Formula behind Early Stage Startups”

・Sharing cutting-edge knowledge on global startup support

・Introducing best practices of global startup founders

・ Inviting domestic founders to participate in global acceleratorprogram

Tokyo, December 23, 2024 – Japan Investment Corporation (“JIC”), incollaboration with Transpose Platform Management, LLC (“Transpose”), a fund offunds established in the United States that invests in VC funds and hassupported the creation of numerous unicorns and decacorns through the funds inwhich it invests, held “Tokyo Founder's Day - The Success Formula behind EarlyStage Startups” (“the event”) for the purpose of supporting startups in Japan. Transposeinvests in funds managed by Y Combinator (“YC”), one of the world’s leadingaccelerators; given this close working relationship, YC CEO Garry Tan spoke inthe event. JIC announced in June 2024 that it would be making an LP investmentin a fund managed by Transpose*.

■ About the event

Transpose founder Alex Bangash and YC CEO Tan as wellas startup founders who are YC’s accelerator program alumni made presentation thatshed light on the strengths of the program, which has helped many startupssucceed. A candid discussion on how to address the challenges faced by startupsand how to develop strategic partnerships with investors to realize sustainablestartup growth was also made. Approximately 120 participants including foundersof early stage startups, foreigners who started business in Japan, and studentswho are interested in being an entrepreneur shared knowledge regarding thedevelopment and strengthening of the domestic startup ecosystem and mingled tobuild relationships.

Tan and Yuka Hata, JIC Senior Managing Director, Headof Fund Investments exchanged opinions on topics such as YC’s strategy forsupporting startups. They agreed on the importance of founders deepening theirunderstanding of their own business and market environment, etc., referring to theYC’s accelerator program selection process. They also discussed on the outlookfor startups using AI-related technology, which is attracting attention both inJapan and overseas.

Saying that “We would like to continue to play a roletrying to build all the ecosystem in the world,” Tan expressed his expectationsfor Japanese startups and encouraged domestic founders participating in theevent to consider applying for YC accelerator program.

■ About JIC initiatives

JIC’s mission is to create a virtuous cycle of risk capital that supports Japan'snext-generation industries. JIC promotes private investment and develops professionals for investment byproviding funds that allow companies to grow and strengthen theircompetitiveness through open innovation.

To develop Japan’s startup ecosystem, JIC is pursuing “GoGlobal” as one of its priority investment areas ; as part of this effort, JICis investing in overseas VCs with the aim of strengthening collaborationbetween domestic VCs and startups and overseas VCs. In addition to holdingevents to increase opportunities for domestic startups and VCs to learn knowledgefor creating unicorns and global practices from global accelerators, JIC supportsdomestic VCs to extend network with overseas VCs, which will allow them to receivefeedback from the overseas VCs. JIC is also working to promote investment indomestic startups from overseas VCs, expecting that enabling high-quality early-stagestartups aiming for global expansion to raise funds from global investors willlead to the creation of global unicorns from Japan.

Event Details

*JIC makes LP investment in TransposePlatform BOV II, L.P. (June 25, 2024)

About Japan Investment Corporation (JIC)

Japan InvestmentCorporation (“JIC”) was established on September 25, 2018 under the IndustrialCompetitiveness Enhancement Act. JIC’s investment focus areas are driving thecreation of new businesses for Society 5.0, creating "unicornstartups", leveraging promising untapped regional technologies andpromoting business consolidation across industries and organizations. JICprovides risk capital to these areas through funds independently established byJIC and LP investment in private funds to promote open innovation andcontribute to strengthening the competitiveness of Japanese industries andexpanding the investment ecosystem.