Global Brain

Global Brain is a Tokyo-based venture capital firm founded in 1998, specializing in early-stage investments across various sectors, including e-commerce, software, gaming, media, IoT, education, entertainment, and fintech. The firm has expanded its investment activities to the US and Asia, targeting series A-stage technology companies. Since its inception, Global Brain has invested in approximately 30 companies, achieving seven initial public offerings and seven mergers and acquisitions. The firm supports its portfolio companies by providing not only capital but also strategic guidance, partnerships, and team-building resources to help them reach their milestones. Global Brain is particularly adept in e-commerce, operating a platform called EC-PLANET, which encompasses several group companies, including a large online sports goods store and a logistics firm offering comprehensive fulfillment services. This network, along with Global Brain's connections to established Japanese companies, facilitates market entry for US and Asian businesses into Japan.

Kaori Akiba

Principal, Corporate Management Group

Tatsunori Arai

Director, Investment Group

Megumi Asatsuma

Corporate Management Group, Director

Anjani Bansal

Partner, India Office Representative

Brooke Beers

Partner

Takuji Chida

Director, Investment Groups

Hogil Doh

General Partner, Investment Group

Thomas Duong

Principal

Brian Flucht

Partner and Head, US Division

Daisuke Furukawa

Venture Partner

Hajime Furuya

Venture Partner

Kenji Hayashi

Principal, Investment Group

Shohei Hayashi

Partner

Harue Hayashi

Partner and Vice Chief Fund Management Officer

Yosuke Hirai

Director

Joopyo Hong

Partner Investment Group

Naoki Horie

Principal, Investment Group

Jang Hyeokjin

Principal, Investment Group

Shohei Ichimiya

Partner, US Office

Nozomu Ikuta

Principal

Kotona Inaida

Director, Fund Management Group

Tomoaki Ishikure

Investment Group Partner

Yoshinari Ito

Venture Partner

Yuki Ito

Director

Hiroyuki Izumi

Partner, Investment Group

Ken Kajii

General Partner, Investment Group

Naoki Kamimaeda

Partner and Europe Division Head

Masaru Kaneshiro

Principal

Daisuke Kashiro

Partner, Investment Group

Kirin Kato

Principal

Takashi Kato

Partner, San Francisco Office Representative

Masaya Kawakami

Partner

Hiroyuki Kawamoto

Principal

Ko Kawaragi

Director

Maiko Kayata

Principal

ByeongJin Kim

Principal, Fund Management Group

Jungyong Kim

Principal, Investment Group

Riichiro Kimura Ph.D

Director, Investment Group

Kenta Kitsuka

General Partner

Issei Kokubu

Principal, Investment Group

Yoshiomi Kubota

Principal

Jinya Kurita

Director

KyungHun Lee

Partner, South Korea Office Representative

YingQi Liang(Joy)

Principal, Investment Group

Chukaku Lin

Principal

Atsushi Matsuda

Venture Partner

Akira Matsumoto

Principal, Investment Group

Natsumi Matsuoka

Principal

Hiroshi Mihayashi

Principal

Tomoko Minagawa

Director, Investment Group

Ai Minamizaki

Principal, Investment Group

Shigeru Mitarai

Principal

Kazuhiko Miyama

General Partner

Shuhei Mori

Principal

Seiichiro Mukai

Director

Satoko Murata

Principal, Investment Group

Kohtaro Nagawa

Director, Investment Group

Tasuke Nakagawa

Partner / M&A

Mitsutaka Nakao

Principal, Investment Group

Shien Nakayama

Director, Investment Group

Yuya Namiki

Director

Ying Jian Ng

Director, Investment Group

Daisuke Nishida

Partner, Investment Group

Akiko Noguchi

Director, Corporate Management Group

Rina Obi

Investment Director

Sho Ohtani

Principal, Investment Group

Tetsui Okada

Director, Investments Group

Mayu Okamoto

Principal

Akane Okuyama

Director

Shingo Otaki

Partner, Investment Group

Naoki Sadakuni

Venture Partner

Enen Sai

Principal, Fund Management Group

Kazuki Sakuragawa

Partner and Editor in Chief, Corporate Management Group

Masumi Sato

Principal

Naoki Sato

Principal, Investment Group

Tomoki Sekiguchi

Principal

Rie Shibata

Director, Fund Management Group

Takeru Shigemura

Director

Miku Shimamura

Principal

Hiroshi Shimazu

Managing Director

Masamune Shin

General Partner, Investment Group

Ayu Shinoyama

CFO and Board Member

Chisa Shinsakaue

Director

Divyansh Singh

Principal

Hiroto Sorita

Director, Investment Group

Sachiko Sugiura

Principal

Yusuke Suzuki

Partner

Kazumo Tachibana

Director

Mana Takabayashi

Director, Investment Group

Hiroki Takai

Director, Investment Group London Office

Toko Takao

Principal

Hideyuki Tanaka

Principal

Marika Tazaki

Partner

Hirotaka Togashi

Director, Investment Group

Haruka Tsujii

Principal

Atsushi Ueda

Principal, Investment Group

Takuya Ukai

Principal, Investment Group

Tetsuya Urimoto

Director, Investment Group

Noriko Usui

Partner and Chief Fund Management Officer

Keita Washizu

Principal

Hirokazu Watanabe

Partner

Keita Wazhizu

Principal, Investment Group

Masao Yamada

Senior Partner, Investment Groups

Kazunori Yamaguchi

Partner, Investment Group

Ryozo Yamamoto

Partner, Investment Group

Michiko Yamazaki

Principal, Investment Group

Isao Yasuda

Senior Partner

Takuro Yoda

Principal, Investment Group

Sayaka Yoshino

Director

Miku Yoshio

Partner, Investment Group

Yasuhiko Yurimoto

Founder and President and CEO & Board Member

Miyazawa Yusuke

Venture Partner

Lusheng Zou

Director, Investment Group

Past deals in Hospitality

SANU

Series A in 2022
Operator of a lifestyle brand intended to create a society in which people and nature co-exist. The company develops a hotel and residence platform that offers a monthly subscription and proposes a lifestyle with another house in nature, enabling people to enjoy the lifestyle of going to nature repeatedly as an extension of their daily life-based in the city.

Bizly

Seed Round in 2021
Bizly, Inc. operates a platform that facilitates the booking of meeting spaces, including private meeting rooms, co-working areas, and elevated hotel experiences. Founded in 2015 and based in New York, the company offers an on-demand mobile application and website designed for professionals seeking efficient solutions for meetings and events. Bizly provides an employee-facing, self-service enterprise software that streamlines collaboration and enhances meeting planning through automated workflows. The platform utilizes smart templates for effective attendee management and venue booking while integrating with various enterprise systems to drive operational efficiency. Additionally, Bizly addresses unmanaged spending by offering financial insights, helping organizations save time and money while creating impactful meeting experiences. The company's services cater to users globally, promoting effective collaboration across teams.

Bizly

Seed Round in 2021
Bizly, Inc. operates a platform that facilitates the booking of meeting spaces, including private meeting rooms, co-working areas, and elevated hotel experiences. Founded in 2015 and based in New York, the company offers an on-demand mobile application and website designed for professionals seeking efficient solutions for meetings and events. Bizly provides an employee-facing, self-service enterprise software that streamlines collaboration and enhances meeting planning through automated workflows. The platform utilizes smart templates for effective attendee management and venue booking while integrating with various enterprise systems to drive operational efficiency. Additionally, Bizly addresses unmanaged spending by offering financial insights, helping organizations save time and money while creating impactful meeting experiences. The company's services cater to users globally, promoting effective collaboration across teams.

Hosty

Series E in 2020
Hosty Inc. is a company based in Fukuoka, Japan, that owns and operates a chain of unmanned hotels under the brand name Mizuka. Founded in 2015, Hosty focuses on providing affordable accommodation for travelers through its share-front compact hotels. The hotels are designed to offer fully equipped rooms and free Wi-Fi, allowing guests to easily secure a low-cost stay without the need for traditional front desk services.

Atta

Series A in 2020
atta (formerlyWithTravel) is an accommodation metasearch service that recommends hundreds of hotels, apartments, and vacation rentals for your next holiday. We cover hotels and apartments in most holiday destination under one-site. Just search by entering your destination, dates, and number of guests. Sort your search results by price range, type of accommodations, or amenities. WithTravel App is currently available in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. We cover major cities in Japan at the moment and will keep populating more accommodations for your discovery.

Anyplace

Seed Round in 2019
Anyplace is a marketplace that provides flexible housing to digital nomads and millennials. Its mission to free people to live wherever they feel inspired to go by providing modern, dependable, turn-key living and accommodations anyplace in the world.

Hosty

Series A in 2019
Hosty Inc. is a company based in Fukuoka, Japan, that owns and operates a chain of unmanned hotels under the brand name Mizuka. Founded in 2015, Hosty focuses on providing affordable accommodation for travelers through its share-front compact hotels. The hotels are designed to offer fully equipped rooms and free Wi-Fi, allowing guests to easily secure a low-cost stay without the need for traditional front desk services.

Atta

Seed Round in 2019
atta (formerlyWithTravel) is an accommodation metasearch service that recommends hundreds of hotels, apartments, and vacation rentals for your next holiday. We cover hotels and apartments in most holiday destination under one-site. Just search by entering your destination, dates, and number of guests. Sort your search results by price range, type of accommodations, or amenities. WithTravel App is currently available in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. We cover major cities in Japan at the moment and will keep populating more accommodations for your discovery.

Hosty

Venture Round in 2019
Hosty Inc. is a company based in Fukuoka, Japan, that owns and operates a chain of unmanned hotels under the brand name Mizuka. Founded in 2015, Hosty focuses on providing affordable accommodation for travelers through its share-front compact hotels. The hotels are designed to offer fully equipped rooms and free Wi-Fi, allowing guests to easily secure a low-cost stay without the need for traditional front desk services.

DAILYHOTEL

Series C in 2018
DAILYHOTEL is a lifestyle technology enabler that provides affordable access to quality experiences in accommodation, dining and travel offerings through its mobile platform. They focus on transaction through mobile app only, selling more than 100,000 room every month on average in just South Korea alone. In 2017 March, they have reached over 7million downloads for their app.

Trust Us

Series B in 2018
Trust Us Co., Ltd., founded in 2012 and based in Seoul, South Korea, operates an online portal specializing in restaurant bookings. The company offers various services, including Poing, an application that facilitates restaurant reservations, and My Booking, which serves as a social food magazine app. As a Korean IT venture, Trust Us is dedicated to providing reliable online content and enhancing the dining experience through its digital platforms.
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