Delight Ventures — Investment Thesis & Preferences

01Investment Thesis

By entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs — backing bold founders creating societal value through AI-native vertical software, momentum-driven market shifts, and Japanese founders scaling to the US. Operates both as a direct investor and as a venture builder co-creating startups from scratch.

Exclusion Criteria

Late-stage growth rounds, consumer hardware without software layer, projects requiring corporate synergy approvals, or founders seeking purely passive capital.

02Investment Team

TN

Tomoko Namba

Managing Partner

DW

Dai Watanabe

Managing Partner

SA

Shintaro Asako

Managing Partner

SK

Shuhei Kawasaki

Managing Partner / Engineer

RB

Ryo Bando

Managing Partner

TS

Takuya Sakata

Partner

TT

Takashi Tsujiguchi

Partner / CFO

YN

Yusuke Nagano

Partner

KN

Kosuke Nishida

Partner

KF

Kosuke Fujii

Partner

NS

Naoya Shibahara

Principal

NA

Natsuki Arii

Associate

MU

Masato Ushio

Director, Global Strategy

JK

Jun Kitamura

Business Development

KT

Kaoru Tsurumi

Manager, HR & PR

AM

Ann Miura-Ko

Global Advisor (Co-Founding Partner, Floodgate)

CS

Craig Sherman

Global Advisor (General Partner, Meritech Capital)

03F4 Research Brief

Delight Ventures Research

Investment Thesis

Delight Ventures is an independent venture capital firm founded in 2019 by Tomoko Namba, the founder and former CEO of DeNA (a major Japanese internet company). Operating under the motto "by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs," the firm's mission is "creating businesses that move the world." Delight Ventures is dedicated to helping Japanese startups and entrepreneurs expand globally, and it positions itself as a long-term partner that prioritizes founder success over short-term investor returns.

The firm's current investment thesis centers on three pillars:

Vertical Shift – AI-driven transformation of specific industries such as logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, construction, and primary industries. The firm backs founders building AI-native software to replace or augment legacy processes in vertical markets.
Momentum Shift – New industries and cultural creation driven by regulatory, economic, social, and technological changes. This includes emerging markets created by policy changes in Japan or shifts in consumer behavior.
US Cross-border – Japanese-founded AI startups launching and scaling in the United States, primarily the Bay Area. This is supported by the DelightX accelerator program, which provides Bay Area residency and seed capital of $60K to selected Japanese founders.

Stage Focus

Delight Ventures focuses primarily on pre-seed and seed-stage investments. The firm is one of the most active early-stage investors in the Japanese startup ecosystem. It rarely invests at Series A or later unless following on from an early position. The Venture Builder arm operates at even earlier stages — co-founding and incubating startups from concept through initial product validation.

Check Size

Typical investment range is JPY 10–100 million per deal (approximately $67K–$670K USD at current exchange rates). The Venture Builder Fund III (JPY 5 billion, formed November 2025) operates with:

Shared creation model: up to JPY 50 million (~$333K)
Pure investment track: JPY 10–100 million (~$67K–$670K)
Verification support: up to JPY 1 million (~$7K)

The main Venture Investment fund (Fund II, JPY 15 billion, first close July 2023) likely makes larger initial checks, but precise data is unavailable.

Lead Tendency

Delight Ventures acts as a lead investor in seed and pre-seed rounds. The firm explicitly states it provides "independent decision authority" enabling rapid funding decisions without needing corporate strategic synergy approvals. It has led rounds in portfolio companies like NaLaLys (co-led with DNX Ventures, June 2025) and Coopel (October 2024).

Recent Activity

Delight Ventures made 12 investments in 2024 and approximately 6–8 investments in 2025 (as of Q3 2025). Recent notable activities:

November 2025: Announced Venture Builder Fund III at JPY 5 billion (~$33M USD), focused exclusively on early-stage AI startups across the three strategic pillars.
November 2025: Appointed Yusuke Nagano and Kosuke Fujii as new Partners.
December 2025: DelightX AI Talent Program sent 14 participants to the Bay Area, with 6 advancing to funded company formation.
June 2025: Led NaLaLys's Pre-Series A round of JPY 250 million (~$1.7M), alongside DNX Ventures and MPower Partners. NaLaLys builds AI-powered corporate compliance tools.
October 2024: Participated in Coopel's JPY 140 million seed round. Coopel develops cloud-based RPA (robotic process automation).
August 2024: Participated in Trans-N's JPY 155 million pre-seed round alongside University of Tokyo IPC.

Portfolio Highlights

With 90+ portfolio companies, Delight Ventures has built a diverse early-stage portfolio spanning enterprise SaaS, consumer apps, healthcare, fintech, HR tech, and deep tech:

Notable companies:

YOUTRUST (youtrust.jp) – Career-focused social network, one of Japan's leading professional networking platforms.
Shippio (shippio.io) – Cloud platform digitalizing international trade and logistics.
OLTA (olta.co.jp) – Cloud factoring and invoicing platform (INVOY).
Zeroboard (zeroboard.jp) – SaaS for corporate greenhouse gas emissions tracking.
EX-Fusion (ex-fusion.com) – Laser nuclear fusion commercialization startup.
Anyplace (anyplace.com) – Month-to-month residential sharing globally.
LEBER (leber.jp) – Telemedicine platform with 500,000 daily users.
Beatrust (beatrust.com) – Enterprise people graph connecting skills and knowledge.
HireRoo (hireroo.io) – Online coding assessment for engineer hiring.
NaLaLys (nalalys.com) – AI-powered corporate compliance SaaS.

Team

The firm has approximately 30 staff members including 5 Managing Partners:

Tomoko Namba – Managing Partner; founder of DeNA (listed on TSE, ~$1B+ valuation); one of Japan's most prominent tech entrepreneurs and venture investors. Namba brings a global perspective and has spearheaded Delight's cross-border thesis.
Dai Watanabe – Managing Partner; deep operational background in Japan's internet industry; drives investment committee and portfolio support.
Shintaro Asako – Managing Partner; oversees Venture Builder operations.
Shuhei Kawasaki – Managing Partner / Engineer; leads technical co-building programs (V-ShIP, M-ShIP) where engineers co-develop products with founders.
Ryo Bando – Managing Partner; portfolio operations and strategy.
Takashi Tsujiguchi – Partner / CFO; oversees fund finance and LP relations.
Ann Miura-Ko – Global Advisor (Co-Founding Partner at Floodgate, Silicon Valley); provides US market connectivity.
Craig Sherman – Global Advisor (General Partner at Meritech Capital); advises on growth-stage bridge between Japan and US.

Decision Process

Delight Ventures operates with independent decision authority as a standalone VC (not a corporate CVC). Decisions are made by the partnership without requiring approval from a parent corporation. The firm is known for fast decision-making, which it lists as a core value proposition to founders. Their stated philosophy rejects personal guarantee provisions and forced IPO timelines — both common in traditional Japanese VC contracts.

Founder Preferences

Delight Ventures explicitly welcomes founders who have experienced previous failures, viewing resilience as a strength. The firm targets bold, innovative founders with global ambitions, particularly those building AI-native solutions for vertical markets. A significant subset of the portfolio focuses on Japanese founders with plans to expand to the US market.

Geographic Focus

Primary focus is Japan-based startups. The firm has a growing US cross-border track, operating the DelightX program in the Bay Area to support Japanese founders launching US-facing businesses. The firm is headquartered in Tokyo (Shibuya Sakura Stage).

04Selected Portfolio