About WASEDA University Ventures, Inc. (WUV)

WASEDA University Ventures (WUV) was established in April 2022 with the main objective of creating businesses and industries that contribute to the evolution and well-being of human society and sustainability by implementing academic knowledge and research results into society through the creation and development of start-ups that utilise learning and "the practical application of scholarship" which is one of Waseda University's founding principles.

WUV is not a captive fund but is independently managed by professional venture capitalists and funded by outside institutional investors. WUV can invest in opportunities coming out of any universities and research labs in the world, which will seek synergies with Waseda University and Japan. 

WUV Strategy

Universities are a source of innovation, and researchers themselves have the power to open up new 'knowledge'. While it is very important to create businesses and industries from science and technology seeds, we believe that it is most preferable if researchers themselves can concentrate on their research, rather than focusing on business and management WUV's partners have a love of academia themselves, a deep understanding of science and technology and, through dialogue with researchers, can seeds to envision projects with global impact that contribute to the evolution, well-being and sustainability of human society. WUV will then provide support for the start-up from the formulation of the business plan to the formation of the management team, even before the company is established, and will focus on founding investment to create a new start-up as a co-founder and provide initial funding for its activities. Thereafter, WUV aims to bring in other VC funding and will lead the start-up to success and play a leading role in realising an innovation ecosystem at Waseda University.

WASEDA University Ventures, Inc.

• Registered address: 

    Waseda University Entrepreneurship Centre, Building 19-3, 

1-22-3 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN

• Office: 

 Waseda University Nishi Waseda Building 2F Room 201,

     1-21-1 Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN

• Date of establishment: 

     5 April 2022

• Capital: 

     JPY 10 million

• Shareholders:           

     WUV Partners LLP (80%)

     Waseda University  (20%)

• Board of Directors:    

     Yasuyuki Abe, Chairman

     Ted Yamamoto, Representative Director

     Hiroaki Ohta, Representative Director

• Audit & Supervisory Board Member: 

     Aiko Sekine

WUV 1 L.P.

Name:                          WUV 1 Limited Partnership

Established:                  August 8th, 2022

Fund Size：                   JPY 8.4 billion

Fund Term:                   10 years (with a possible                                                             extension of 3 years)

GP Entity:                      WUV 1 GP LLP

General Partners:           Ted Yamamoto 

                                     Hiroaki Ohta

Partner:                         Daisuke Niwa

                                     Satoko Ohno 

About Waseda University

Founded in 1882, Waseda University is Japan's top private research university, with 50,000 students in 13 undergraduate and 21 postgraduate schools. Waseda University was founded on three principles: academic independence, practical application of scholarship and fostering global citizenship. For the past 140 years, Waseda University has produced nine prime ministers of Japan and many founders of great companies, including Sony (founded by Masaru Ibuka), UNIQLO (by Tadashi Yanai) and Samsung Group (founded by Lee Byung-chul), to name a few.