The Singapore-based venture capital firm Antler’s Japanese subsidiary, Antler Japan, announced on Tuesday that it will invest a total of ¥240 million ($1.55 million) in ten Japanese startups in 2025, reaffirming its belief that Japan is a solid foundation for entrepreneurs with global aspirations.
Adding to this momentum, Antler said in a statement that it also announced a more generous initial investment of $150,000 net per company, along with a simplified six-week Inception Residency for 2026.
For founders building from Japan, it stated, the direction is clear: more funding, quicker execution, and earlier conviction.
“We are deliberately doubling down on Japan as a source of globally competitive companies. The local talent pool is highly skilled, technically rigorous, and already comfortable building at the frontier of modern technology,
“When this is paired with strong founder expertise from both local and international teams building out of Japan, the bar naturally becomes higher and our conviction stronger in the teams that meet it,” said Jussi Salovaara, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Antler.
The statement claims that Antler’s extremely picky approach is reflected in the 2025 investments.
Antler received over 2,100 applications for its Japan programs in just the last year, ultimately supporting about 0.5 percent of those applications.
In the fields of deep tech, enterprise, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), logistics, compliance, and applied science, the chosen companies are founded by entrepreneurs who consciously built for global markets from the ground up.
Antler’s Inception Residency model, which supports founders from company formation through early validation, strategy development, and investor readiness to help them scale further, faster, provided each company with ¥24 million in pre-seed funding.
On February 13, Antler Japan will host its next Investor Demo Day, which aims to link upstarts with downstream investors in the area.
The increasing diversity of founders selecting Japan as their base was emphasized by Florian Geier, Senior Director at Antler Japan.
