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Are you a founder preparing to raise your pre-seed round in Japan?This event offers a practical, data-informed look at how early-stage fundraising actually works in the Japanese startup ecosystem. As Japan continues to grow as a major venture market in Asia, pre-seed funding remains highly relationship-driven and selective. Founders often underestimate how investors evaluate teams, traction, and risk at the first-check stage and how different expectations can be compared to other global markets.
In this session, experienced early-stage investors and ecosystem leaders will share how Japanese VCs and angels think at the pre-seed stage, what they look for before metrics, how founders should approach equity and fundraising structure, and what common mistakes slow or block early funding rounds.
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 pre-seed 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: Tokyo Innovation Base, 3-8-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0005
Date & Time: March 4th 2026 from 6 PM JST
Agenda:
-Welcome & FI Introduction
-Speakers Introduction
-Panel Discussion
-Q&A Session
Featured Speaker:
Evan Burkosky - Founder at kimaru.ai
Colin Magne - Founder at Japan Angels
Koki Tanaka - VC at Incubate Fund
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?
- Pre-seed and soon-to-raise startup founders building in Japan
- First-time founders seeking clarity on early-stage fundraising
- Founders planning to raise capital from Japan-based investors
- Angel investors and early-stage venture capitalists
- Accelerators, incubators, and startup ecosystem operators
What You Will Learn:
- How pre-seed fundraising actually works in Japan, beyond theory and pitch decks
- What Japanese angels and early-stage VCs look for at the first check stage
- Typical pre-seed round structures, timelines, and investor expectations
- How to approach equity, valuation, and ownership at the pre-seed stage
- Common fundraising mistakes founders make in Japan and how to avoid them
- How to identify and engage the right investors for your stage and sector
About Ecosystem Organization:
- Founder Institute: Founder Institute is an equity warrant-based non-funding accelerator that supports determined founders who already have some scalable ideas and are committed to entrepreneurship. At this stage, founders validate their ideas, build a strong founder mindset, and learn through structured programs, mentorship, and accountability. Founder Institute helps turn raw ideas into real startup foundations.
- Founder Capital: Founder Capital is a venture capital firm focused on investing in FI’s best-performing pre-seed full-time founders who have already demonstrated traction. This layer supports founders who are building full-time, executing consistently, and showing early signs of market validation. It provides capital, strategic guidance, and long-term partnership to help founders scale with confidence.
- Openfor.co: It is an entrepreneurial talent development company and non-equity venture/ecosystem builder supporting individuals and organizations starting from individual-level; detects high-potential people with our proprietary system, developing and featuring personal stories to launching a digitally productized personal brands, content creation and visibility with our 700K audience reach, to turning it into a business, and monetization to all the way up to launching a company. All-in-one platform with a marketplace, education, back-office support, content creation, and global reach, combining early visibility with hands-on operational support. Meanwhile, as an ecosystem builder, we work with more later-stage startups, larger enterprises, and governments, building and operating complex multinational 7-8 figure programs. It all boils down to this: we are on a mission to make the venture ecosystem accessible, making the world a more entrepreneurial place.
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Event Venue
TIB - Tokyo Innovation Base, 東京都千代田区丸の内３丁目８−３,Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Tickets
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