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ON & BOARD
ON & BOARD was founded in Tokyo in October 2023 by former Dream Incubator investors Masato Shimodaira and Kosuke Nakayama, alongside former Mitsubishi...
ON & BOARD
ON & BOARD was founded in Tokyo in October 2023 by former Dream Incubator investors Masato Shimodaira and Kosuke Nakayama, alongside former Mitsubishi Corporation executive Shunsuke Hasegawa and AI researcher Yuki Takeuchi. The firm positions itself as a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the earliest stages, with a mandate to fund companies that can produce a tenfold increase in value by solving large-scale problems facing Japan and the world through 2050. Its founding thesis is that risk capital should accelerate non-linear solutions to structural issues in society. The firm writes pre-seed and seed checks using SAFE and J-KISS instruments, explicitly avoiding buyback clauses and listing-obligation terms that it considers premature for deep-tech founders. It targets startups with global ambitions, proprietary technology, or deep industry insight. Confirmed portfolio companies span autonomous trucking (RoboTruck), proton-boron nuclear fusion (LINEA Innovation), quadruped robotics and humanoids (Highlanders), AI-driven legal-tech (KenRi), and AI-powered due-diligence SaaS (Herix). The portfolio also includes AI-Tuber live-commerce (AI Impulse), animation creation tools (Puri Prince), and Southeast Asian back-office AI BPO (Acua). The firm operates primarily from Japan but supports portfolio companies in go-global strategies, citing partnerships with overseas accelerators and local VCs. ON & BOARD operates with a lean core team that includes its four founding members plus a network of specialized advisors — among them a former Japanese Vice-Minister of Defense for policy, a former CEO of Paidy, and AI professors from the University of Tokyo. In September 2025, the firm hosted its startup camp “SWISH! Startup Camp 2025” in Karuizawa, Nagano, drawing over 200 investors and CVC representatives, and in May 2026 it held the fourth demo day for its incubation program “Out of BOUNDS” at Global Business Hub Tokyo. The firm also operates a startup studio under the same Out of BOUNDS brand, providing pre-incorporation support from idea validation to team formation and fundraising preparation, with participants receiving hands-on mentorship from the firm's investors and external domain experts. The firm's structural differentiator is its startup studio integrated with a venture fund, allowing ON & BOARD to originate deals by co-creating companies with founders before incorporation. This model blurs the line between accelerator, incubator, and institutional seed investor, giving the firm a proprietary sourcing pipeline in a Japanese early-stage market where most venture firms compete for the same visible deal flow. Its strategy advisors — spanning defense, regional banking, and consumer internet exits — also provide portfolio companies with access points into regulated industries and local government relationships unusual for a venture firm of its size.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2023
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Asia
Country
Japan
City
Tokyo
Corporate office
1-17-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Principals
Masato Shimodaira
Representative Director, General Partner
Kosuke Nakayama
Representative Director, General Partner
Shunsuke Hasegawa
Partner
Yuki Takeuchi
Tech Executive
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at ON & BOARD?
Co-founders Masato Shimodaira and Kosuke Nakayama serve as the General Partners and lead investment decisions. Shimodaira, a former lawyer and AI business developer at LINE, previously backed nine portfolio companies that exited at Dream Incubator. Nakayama led startup investments in Japan and India at Dream Incubator before a stint at Z Holdings (now LINE Yahoo), where he worked on group strategy and integration.
Is ON & BOARD a venture capital firm or a startup studio?
It operates as both. The firm makes direct pre-seed and seed investments through a venture capital vehicle while running Out of BOUNDS, a structured startup studio that takes participants from idea validation through incorporation, with the option of investment at the end of the program. Several portfolio companies have originated through the studio.
What check size and instrument does ON & BOARD use?
The firm writes pre-seed and seed checks using SAFE or J-KISS instruments with what it describes as fair valuation caps, explicitly avoiding discounted caps that it views as unfriendly to founders. It does not include buyback clauses or listing-obligation terms in its standard term sheets, and it caps stock option pool authorization at 20% to support global team building.
Does ON & BOARD lead rounds or co-invest?
The firm states it aims to lead seed rounds from the earliest stages and commits to fast decision-making — General Partners aim to communicate an investment decision as quickly as possible after the first in-person meeting. It also collaborates with overseas accelerators and local VCs for follow-on global fundraising.
What sectors or technologies does ON & BOARD explicitly invest in?
The firm is thesis-agnostic within its mandate of solving large societal problems, but its disclosed portfolio reveals concentrated bets on deep tech and AI, including autonomous driving, nuclear fusion, quadruped robotics, AI legal-tech, AI due-diligence SaaS, and generative AI applications. It does not publicly maintain a restricted sector list.
How does ON & BOARD source its deals?
A significant portion of deal flow is proprietary and comes through the Out of BOUNDS startup studio, where aspiring founders are mentored and refined over multi-month programs before demo days attended by 100-130 external investors. The firm also maintains a network of strategy advisors with deep government and banking relationships in regions like Nagano Prefecture, providing access to non-obvious founding teams.
Is ON & BOARD connected to a larger financial institution?
It is an independent venture firm. The team's prior institutional affiliations include Dream Incubator, LINE, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Z Holdings, but ON & BOARD operates independently, with disclosed LP relationships including E-Networks among other entities.
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