Investor Profile: Skyland Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Tokyo's seed scene has a firm with a clear self-image: Skyland Ventures calls itself "The Seed Maker." Founded in August 2012 by Yoshihiko "Max" Kinoshita, a former JAFCO investor, the firm backs pre-seed and seed founders — often before a company even exists. If Skyland Ventures funding interests you, the headline numbers are a ¥5 billion fourth fund closed in April 2023 with the SBI Group as a new investor, and more than 200 startups backed to date, including the VTuber giant ANYCOLOR and metaverse platform Cluster.

Skyland Ventures funding: the thesis

Skyland invests from pre-founding through the immediate post-launch phase, with a long-standing focus on young entrepreneurs — historically the under-25 founder cohort. Its current priority themes are generative AI, entertainment and inbound (tourism-related) startups. Since 2022 it has deepened its Web3 activity, investing in both equity and tokens across domestic and overseas startups. Its limited-partner base is drawn largely from internet businesses and their founders, which keeps the firm close to operator networks in Japan's startup ecosystem.

Cheque size & stages

The stage window is pre-seed to early-stage — the firm explicitly invests "from before founding to right after launch." Its SV4 Fund totals ¥5 billion (about $37 million), established in April 2022 with fundraising completed in April 2023. An older firm listing cited roughly ¥7.5 billion under management across around 100 companies. Skyland does not publicly state a typical cheque size, so founders should treat it as a classic seed investor: first institutional money for very early teams, with the firm's network rather than cheque size doing the heavy lifting.

Notable portfolio

The portfolio mixes Japanese consumer-internet winners with newer Web3 bets. ANYCOLOR — the company behind the NIJISANJI VTuber agency, now public — was a joint investment with SBI Holdings. Cluster, the social VR/metaverse platform, was backed from Series A in 2017. Recent SV4 Fund investments include TAIKO (Ethereum ZK-rollup), KEKKAI (NFT security), Desoul (soulbound-token tooling), Bitlayer (Bitcoin L2), Ageless (senior-talent matching) and LUCO (live-streaming tools), alongside earlier names such as 400F, VAZ and Aidemy, the AI-education company that was acquired.

Programs & perks

Skyland runs several ecosystem initiatives rather than a single accelerator: CryptoLand, its Web3 engineer community; Aranami, an incubation programme for seed-stage startups; and SV Fest Tokyo, its startup showcase event. It was also the first Japanese VC partner of the BNB Chain European Innovation Incubator. No founder credits or perks programme is publicly disclosed.

How to apply for Skyland Ventures funding

There is no public application form. The entry point is the firm's official site at skyland.vc (primarily in Japanese), and the team publicly invites startup and fundraising consultations via direct message — "feel free to DM about startup advice and fundraising." For non-Japanese speakers, a warm introduction through Japan's startup community or through the firm's Web3 and entertainment networks is the practical route. Come with a working product or a founding team the firm can diligence; Skyland likes to meet founders early.