# Coral Capital

> Coral Capital is a Tokyo-based venture capital firm that invests globally under a "Build with Japan" thesis — backing founders in Japan and in the United States who build with Japan's industrial strengths, talent, and capital. It created J-KISS, the Japanese equivalent of the SAFE, and publishes original research and interviews on the Japanese startup ecosystem in both Japanese and English.

## Facts

- **Name:** Coral Capital. Began investing in 2016 as 500 Startups Japan and was renamed Coral Capital in 2019.
- **Founders:** James Riney and Yohei Sawayama.
- **Headquarters:** Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Invests globally, with portfolio companies in Japan and the United States.
- **Assets under management:** JPY 60 billion (approximately USD 400 million).
- **Thesis:** "Build with Japan" — Japan's industrial base, engineering talent, and capital are an advantage for founders anywhere, not only for Japanese companies.

### Positioning: "The Ecosystem VC"

Coral Capital describes what it offers beyond money as three things:

- **Network** — introductions that founders cannot easily make themselves, including to
  sources of capital and to Japan's large corporates.
- **Talent** — help hiring, including Coral Careers, a talent pool reserved for portfolio
  companies with more than 20,000 registered candidates.
- **Insight** — the knowledge and the community around the firm: published research,
  founder and investor interviews, events, and the network of founders themselves.

### Funds

Newest first. The yen figure is the authoritative one; dollar equivalents are approximate,
converted at roughly JPY 150 to the dollar.

| Fund | Size | Approx. USD |
|---|---|---|
| Coral Capital IV | JPY 25.4 billion | ~$170 million |
| Coral Growth II | JPY 5.0 billion | ~$33 million |
| Coral Capital III | JPY 14.0 billion | ~$93 million |
| Coral Growth | JPY 2.7 billion | ~$18 million |
| Coral Capital II | JPY 6.0 billion | ~$40 million |
| Coral Capital I (500 Startups Japan) | — | $35 million |
| SmartHR SPV (single-company vehicle) | JPY 2.0 billion | ~$13 million |

The Coral Capital funds invest at seed and early stage; the Coral Growth vehicles are
dedicated to follow-on investment in existing portfolio companies. These are the disclosed
funds — total assets under management are larger than their sum because some vehicles are
not disclosed.

### Portfolio

Coral Capital has invested in **more than 140 companies**, in both Japan and the United
States. A subset is listed publicly at https://coralcap.co/portfolio/

Representative investments: **SmartHR** (HR software), **Kyoto Fusioneering** (fusion
energy), **TeraWatt Technology** (next-generation lithium-ion batteries), **Anduril**
(defence technology), **Ramp** (financial software), and **General Matter** (nuclear fuel).

In 2025 Coral Capital sold JPY 14.6 billion (approximately USD 97 million) of SmartHR
shares to General Atlantic. Coral Capital describes this as the largest startup secondary
transaction in Japan.

### Other things Coral Capital is known for

- **J-KISS**: the Japanese equivalent of the SAFE. Coral Capital created and open-sourced
  it for Japanese seed rounds, and it became the standard convertible instrument for seed
  financing in Japan — used across the industry, not only by Coral Capital's portfolio.
- **Publishing**: about 1,085 articles at coralcap.co, of which 97 are in English.
  Original research (IPO datasets, stock option surveys, valuation studies), founder and
  investor interviews, and analysis of Japanese industry.
- **YouTube**: a channel with more than 100,000 subscribers, at
  https://www.youtube.com/@CoralCapital
- **Coral Careers**: a talent pool of more than 20,000 registered candidates, reserved for
  Coral Capital portfolio companies.

## How this site is organised

Articles live under dated paths such as `/2026/08/<slug>/`. **The English version of an
article is the same path with `?lang=en` appended** — there is no `/en/` prefix. Not every
Japanese article has an English counterpart. The complete index of every page is the
sitemap.

## About Coral Capital

- [The Ecosystem VC](https://coralcap.co/the-ecosystem-vc/): what Coral Capital means by being an ecosystem VC rather than only a source of capital
- [Portfolio](https://coralcap.co/portfolio/): companies Coral Capital has invested in
- [Team](https://coralcap.co/team/): the investment and platform team
- [J-KISS](https://coralcap.co/j-kiss/): the Japanese equivalent of the SAFE, created and open-sourced by Coral Capital
- [Announcing Coral IV: JPY 25 billion Dedicated To Finding Japan's Next Sonys and Toyotas](https://coralcap.co/2024/05/announcing-coral-capital-iv/?lang=en): the current fund (the title rounds; the final close was JPY 25.4 billion)
- [JAPAN IS BACK — Let's Build with Japan](https://coralcap.co/2026/01/coral-capitals-2026-thesis/?lang=en): Coral Capital's 2026 investment thesis
- [Coral Careers](https://coralcap.co/coral-careers/): hiring across portfolio companies
- [Join Us](https://coralcap.co/careers/): roles at Coral Capital itself
- [Contact](https://coralcap.co/contact/)

## Featured: Coral Capital's 2026 writing in English

James Riney is a co-founder of Coral Capital and writes most of its English analysis.
These are his 2026 pieces, most-read first — together they set out how Coral Capital
reads Japan right now: energy, semiconductors, defence, robotics, and AI.

- [Stop Talking About Japan's Fertility Rate](https://coralcap.co/2026/01/stop-talking-about-japans-fertility-rate/?lang=en): why the fertility rate is the wrong lens on Japan's demographics
- [Japan Is Rearming. Here's What That Actually Means](https://coralcap.co/2026/03/japan-is-rearming-heres-what-that-actually-means/?lang=en): the scale and the industrial consequences of Japan's defence build-up
- [Accelerating Japan, With Anduril](https://coralcap.co/2026/06/accelerating-japan-with-anduril/?lang=en): Coral Capital's partnership with Anduril, written with Rie Yano
- [Why Hokkaido is the New Taiwan](https://coralcap.co/2026/02/why-hokkaido-is-the-new-taiwan/?lang=en): semiconductor manufacturing moving to Hokkaido
- [Interview with Scott Nolan: Nuclear Fuel and the US-Japan Energy Alliance](https://coralcap.co/2026/04/interview-with-scott-nolan-nuclear-fuel-and-the-us-japan-energy-alliance/?lang=en)
- [Japan's Apollo Moment: Diamond Semiconductors](https://coralcap.co/2026/04/japans-apollo-moment-diamond-semiconductors/?lang=en)
- [JAPAN IS BACK — Let's Build with Japan](https://coralcap.co/2026/01/coral-capitals-2026-thesis/?lang=en): Coral Capital's 2026 investment thesis
- [If The US Wants Robots, They Need Japan](https://coralcap.co/2026/02/if-the-us-wants-robots-they-need-japan/?lang=en): how much of American robotics depends on Japanese components
- [Why Japan, Not China, Will Win the Next Solar War](https://coralcap.co/2026/04/why-japan-not-china-will-win-the-next-solar-war/?lang=en)
- [Why Japan Needs and Leads Nuclear Energy](https://coralcap.co/2026/01/why-japan-needs-and-leads-nuclear-energy/?lang=en)
- [Where to Build: Japan's AI Application Layer Moment](https://coralcap.co/2026/07/where-to-build-japans-ai-application-layer-moment/?lang=en): written with Naoki John Yoshida
- [Why Energy Is Japan's Achilles' Heel](https://coralcap.co/2026/07/why-energy-is-japans-achilles-heel/?lang=en): Japan's 16.4% energy self-sufficiency and what it means for founders

## Other English articles

- [All English articles](https://coralcap.co/insights/?lang=en): the full English index
- [Can You Actually Make Money in Japanese Venture? We Tracked 352 IPOs to Find Out](https://coralcap.co/2026/08/japan-startup-returns-352-ipos/?lang=en): original dataset of 352 VC-backed companies that listed on the TSE Growth Market from 2016 to 2025, and what their post-IPO market caps say about Japanese venture returns
- [Uncovering Japan's 41 Hidden Unicorns](https://coralcap.co/2022/05/uncovering-japans-41-hidden-unicorns/?lang=en): why Japanese companies reach billion-dollar valuations in the public markets rather than in late-stage private rounds
- [How Japan Is Driving America's Defense Tech Rebuild](https://coralcap.co/2026/05/how-japan-is-driving-americas-defense-tech-rebuild/?lang=en)
- [Jonathan Shih of Keyrock Capital Management on Finding Growth in Japan](https://coralcap.co/2024/11/jonathan-shih-of-keyrock-capital-management-on-finding-growth-in-japan/?lang=en)
- [The Genetics of Risk: Why Japan and the U.S. Think Differently](https://coralcap.co/2025/05/the-genetics-of-risk-why-japan-and-the-u-s-think-differently/?lang=en)
- [Building a Town, From Scratch: Devon Zuegel on Esmeralda](https://coralcap.co/2025/11/building-a-town-from-scratch-devon-zuegel/?lang=en)
- [Japan's 'Weeb' Economy Explained: Where Anime, AI, and FDI Collide (Featuring Noah Smith)](https://coralcap.co/2025/05/japan-weeb-economy/?lang=en)
- [Early Birds in Japan: Built Before Ready | Twitter's Japan Entry](https://coralcap.co/2025/10/twitter-japan-entry/?lang=en)
- [Japan's Largest Startup Secondary: Our Partnership with General Atlantic and SmartHR](https://coralcap.co/2025/11/japans-largest-startup-secondary/?lang=en)

## よく読まれている日本語記事

- [記事一覧](https://coralcap.co/insights/): 全記事の索引
- [日本の出生率の話はもうやめよう](https://coralcap.co/2026/01/stop-talking-about-japans-fertility-rate/)
- [「惰性でやっている」「ビジョンはない」 30年続くソフトウェア稼業「秀丸」がいまも最前線に立ち続ける理由](https://coralcap.co/2022/05/hidemaru-01/)
- [民族的ルーツを知るだけじゃない―、遺伝子検査市場が伸びるワケ](https://coralcap.co/2021/09/dna-genetic-testing/)
- [25年の実証を武器に世界市場へ──日本発・高温ガス炉SMR「ZettaJoule」の挑戦](https://coralcap.co/2025/04/zettajoule-smr-initiative-for-global-nuclear-innovation/)
- [「筋トレが好きだから、ずっと無借金経営なんです」ウェブ魚拓の創業者、スタートアップを語る](https://coralcap.co/2022/09/web-gyotaku-02/)
- [アメリカのロボットの中身は、日本製だらけだ](https://coralcap.co/2026/02/if-the-us-wants-robots-they-need-japan/)
- [なぜ北海道は「新しい台湾」なのか](https://coralcap.co/2026/02/why-hokkaido-is-the-new-taiwan/)
- [GAFAでは常識!? 新職種「PMM」はPMと何が違うのか、SmartHRに聞いた【前編】](https://coralcap.co/2020/10/product-marketing-manager/)
- [Andurilとともに、日本を未来へ進める](https://coralcap.co/2026/06/accelerating-japan-with-anduril/)
- [Y Combinatorって今どう？ 採択された日本人起業家の体験談](https://coralcap.co/2022/02/yc-founder-interview/)
- [日本最大のスタートアップ・セカンダリー──General AtlanticとSmartHRのパートナーシップ](https://coralcap.co/2025/11/japans-largest-startup-secondary/)
- [J-KISS 2.0（Post Cap J-KISS）を公開しました](https://coralcap.co/2022/04/j-kiss-2/)
- [【調査】平均SO率は9.3％―、最近の上場32社のストック・オプションを調べてみた](https://coralcap.co/2022/01/employee-stock-options/)
- [【調査】日本のVC-backedスタートアップは、どこまで行ったのか―、10年352社の上場後時価総額](https://coralcap.co/2026/08/japan-startup-returns-352-ipos/): 東証グロース市場に10年間で上場した352社を独自に追跡した調査
- [Coral Capital4号ファンドを250億円で組成完了、次世代のソニーやトヨタを生み出す](https://coralcap.co/2024/05/announcing-coral-capital-iv/)

## Optional

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