# Elephant Design Holdings

Elephant Design Holdings is an Asset Manager based in Tokyo, Japan.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** Tokyo, Japan
- **Region:** Asia
- **Address:** 5-25-19 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- **Founded:** 1997
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** elephantdesignholdings.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://linkedin.com/company/elephant-design-co-ltd-

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Elephant Design Holdings is a Tokyo-based holding company founded in 1997 that invests in and incubates businesses leveraging underutilized, distributed resources through online platforms. The firm has historically developed proprietary crowdsourcing and crowdfunding technologies, with core operations centered on its CUUSOO SYSTEM and elephant design subsidiaries. Its investment strategy focuses on long-term, stable shareholding across sectors including logistics, data science, energy aggregation, fintech, gaming, agriculture, and space technology.

## Sectors

- Logistics & Supply Chain
- Data & AI
- Energy Transition & Renewables
- FinTech
- Gaming & Digital Media
- AgriTech & FoodTech
- SpaceTech

## People

- Kohei Nishiyama — CEO, Co-founder, and Representative Director

## Questions

### How does Elephant Design Holdings source its investments?

The firm's deal flow is closely tied to its operating subsidiaries, particularly CUUSOO SYSTEM, the crowdsourcing platform originally developed by founder Kohei Nishiyama that became the engine for LEGO Ideas. Elephant Design uses these internal labs to test aggregation theses—such as consolidating trucking capacity or crowdsourcing bilingual translation—and then converts validated models into stand-alone portfolio companies. This origination model means many investments are incubated internally rather than sourced through conventional fund-manager networks.

### What is the relationship between Elephant Design Holdings and LEGO Ideas?

Elephant Design Holdings' founder, Kohei Nishiyama, created the CUUSOO crowdsourcing system that LEGO adopted in 2008 as LEGO CUUSOO, later rebranded LEGO Ideas. The platform enables fans to submit and vote on product concepts, with selected designs manufactured as official LEGO sets. Elephant Design spun CUUSOO SYSTEM into a separate operating company in 2011, and the relationship remains one of the firm's most visible co-creation partnerships.

### Which sectors does Elephant Design explicitly target, and what stages does it invest in?

Elephant Design focuses on growth and venture-stage companies in logistics, data science, energy aggregation, fintech, gaming, agritech, and space. Stage coverage ranges from founding participation—such as a 2014 capital commitment to a gaming-and-art platform—to later-stage operating businesses. The firm has also demonstrated an exit strategy, having sold a bilingual data-science crowdsourcing business in 2019.

### What is Elephant Design's geographic footprint?

The firm is headquartered in Tokyo and deploys capital in Australia, the United States, and across Asia. Its logistics investment operates in both Australia and the US, while the distributed energy aggregation play focuses on Asia. The bilingual translation business that exited in 2019 served the US and Japan markets.

### Who runs investment decisions at Elephant Design Holdings?

Kohei Nishiyama, as CEO, co-founder, and representative director, leads investment decisions. He is supported by a board that includes three external directors—Yoko Sugita, Atsushi Akaike, and auditor Hatsumi Kawanishi. Nishiyama's professional background includes tenure at McKinsey & Company and membership in both the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders program and the Young Presidents' Organization.

## Related profiles

- [Elephant](https://altss.com/profile/elephant)
- [Elephants & Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/elephants-ventures)

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Last updated: 2026-07-10T22:56:30.000Z

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