Startup Fundraising in Japan: How to Raise Money with VC

In this session, leading venture capitalists and funding experts — including representatives from firms such as W-inc, Plug & Play Tecg Center — will unpack how Japanese VCs think: what kinds of ideas and growth potential they look for, and how to structure your pitch, equity plan, and funding strategy to match those expectations. You’ll hear about what works — and what doesn’t — when seeking VC funding in Japan, the common traps to avoid, and how to identify investors suited to your startup’s stage and sector.

Learn expert tips, big pitfalls to avoid, what investors are looking for, how equity works, and more. After the Q&A session, you'll have the chance to network with other founders and investors.

Venue: Venture Cafe Tokyo

Agenda:

• Welcome & FI Introduction

• Speakers Introduction

• Panel Discussion

• Q&A Session

Featured Speaker: 

• Jeongwoo Lim, Associate at W-inc.
• Rebecca Chai, Ventures Associate at Plug and Play Tech Center
• TBD

Moderator:

• Erdinc Ekinci - Founder, Investment Lead of Co-capital.vc, Co-Founder, CEO of Openfor.co, Managing Director of Founder Institute Japan/Korea/Taiwan

Who Should Attend?

• Entrepreneurs who are looking to raise funds for their business

• Individuals who are interested in learning about the startup ecosystem and the role of funding 

• Individuals who would like to engage with global community leaders and investors

What You Will Learn:

• Learn the key stages of raising funds for your startup and how to prepare for each stage.

• Understand what investors are looking for and how to position your startup to attract funding.

• Discover how equity works in the fundraising process and how to structure deals with investors.

• Identify the common mistakes founders make when raising funds and learn how to avoid them.

• Gain strategies to connect with investors and fellow entrepreneurs for future opportunities.

About Founder Institute:

-Founder Institute: Founder Institute, which originated in Silicon Valley, is a founder and idea stage accelerator, and with its Founder Capital, backs the best performing FI alumni as early as the angel stage. FI has over 8K+ startup portfolio (Including leading e-learning platform Udemy, IPO in Nasdaq $3,8B) across 200 cities in 100 countries around the world.) We are also the largest mentor network in the world, with over 35,000 mentors, and our alumni have already raised over $2 billion in US dollars and have recently exceeded the 10K mark of investors in the FI-Venture-Network.

-FI’s sister program, called VC Lab, helps launch aspiring investors into launching VC firms. As an accelerator that allows both sides of the table, 70% of the activities we do are advocacy of entrepreneurship and ecosystem creation, which means we do way more activity than the accelerator to promote entrepreneurship to solve real-world problems with entrepreneurship in an economically feasible way, build a company that grows into a venture-scale.

-Openfor.co: A “Global Partnership Accelerator” originated in Silicon Valley that combined with an online platform and marketplace for learning, building, launching, monetizing, and growing partner ecosystems and a collaborative community around you for achieving effective marketing, sales, community building, GTM, fundraising, and many more.

-Co-Capital: Pre-seed & Seed stage new firm that focuses on hands-on GTM, sales, and partnership support, focusing on English-speaking Asian founders who have global ambitions from day ONE. Domiciled in the USA, with regional appearances in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Utilizes partnerships with the GTM expert network and the venture partner network across 20 major hubs and a network of 35 other VC networks who are willing to co-back our founders!