# Minerva Growth Partners

Minerva Growth Partners is a Private Equity based in Tokyo, Japan.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Private Equity
- **Headquarters:** Tokyo, Japan
- **Region:** Asia
- **Address:** 2-23-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Ark Hills Front Tower 802, Tokyo, Japan
- **Founded:** 2020
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** minerva-growth.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/minerva-growth-partners

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Minerva Growth Partners is a growth investment business focused on late-stage private startups in Japan. The firm operates a technology-focused growth equity fund with Pleiad Investment Advisors, primarily investing in pre-IPO and private equity opportunities. Minerva Growth Partners has made 15 investments, including a Series C investment in NOT A HOTEL on February 17, 2026, and has achieved one portfolio exit, Infcurion, on October 24, 2025.

## Sectors

- Enterprise Software
- FinTech
- Digital Health
- Media & Entertainment
- Mobility & Transportation
- Real Estate
- Energy Transition & Renewables

## People

- Kei Nagasawa — Founding Partner
- Kensuke Murashima — Founding Partner
- Michael Yoshino — Founding Partner, Pleiad CIO
- Kenneth Lee — Founding Partner, Pleiad CIO
- Ryuto Terasaka — Principal
- Miki Ito — Vice President, Head of Investor Relations
- Daisei Hirakawa — Senior Associate
- Edward Tashima — Senior Research Analyst, Pleiad
- Hiroshi Yamamoto — Research Analyst, Pleiad

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Minerva Growth Partners?

Decisions are led by co-founders Kei Nagasawa and Kensuke Murashima, supported by the broader Minerva-Pleiad partnership. Nagasawa brings the operating lens from his tenure as Mercari's CFO; Murashima contributes two decades of tech investment-banking experience from Morgan Stanley. Michael Yoshino and Kenneth Lee, the co-founders and co-CIOs of Pleiad Investment Advisors, are also MGP founding partners and participate in investment-committee and deal-sourcing processes.

### How is Minerva Growth Partners related to Pleiad Investment Advisors?

Minerva Growth Partners was founded in 2020 as a co-venture with Pleiad Investment Advisors, a Hong Kong SFC-licensed asset manager established in 2014. Pleiad's founders serve as MGP founding partners, delivering the public-market perspective that supports the firm's private-public crossover strategy. Pleiad can invest in MGP portfolio companies at IPO and beyond, while MGP itself focuses on pre-IPO and late-stage private capital.

### Does Minerva Growth Partners do only minority-growth deals, or also buyouts?

The firm writes minority growth checks of ¥1-3 billion as its core, but it also executes management buyouts, PIPE transactions, and carve-outs of tech businesses or subsidiaries. This buyout capability is specifically aimed at listed companies whose management teams feel constrained by short-term public-market expectations.

### Which sectors does Minerva Growth Partners explicitly avoid?

MGP has not published a formal exclusion list, but its stated focus is consumer internet (B2C) and software and services (B2B), including health-tech and fintech. It has no announced investments in heavy industry, hardware, traditional manufacturing, or life sciences outside digital health.

## Related profiles

- [Minerva Capital Group](https://altss.com/profile/minerva-capital-group)
- [Minerva Planning Group](https://altss.com/profile/minerva-planning-group)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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