Secondment Spin-out Startup Capital

The firm relies heavily on in-bound consultations from corporate employees exploring a secondment-based startup path, often before a business plan exists. Because partner Keita Okuyama designed the original METI subsidy program and both partners have deep experience coaching internal corporate ventures, the firm receives referrals through legal counsels, HR departments, and innovation units inside large Japanese enterprises that view secondment entrepreneurship as a way to offload non-core projects.

Secondment Spin-out will invest in founders who have already left their corporate employer — the investment policy does not require that the founder be currently employed by a large company at the moment of investment. However, the firm's operations and support model are built around the secondment negotiation process, so its comparative advantage is strongest when a corporate affiliation and internal approval process are live.

The firm commits approximately ¥30 million at the pre-seed or seed stage. On follow-on, the website notes that post-investment support includes assistance with additional fundraising negotiations and capital policy planning, but specific reserve allocations or follow-on check sizes are not publicly disclosed.

The original subsidy, now succeeded by a 2025 certification-and-grant scheme, reimburses a portion of the large company's costs related to the employee's secondment — it does not flow through the fund. Secondment Spin-out benefits indirectly because the subsidy framework lowers the corporate parent's resistance to releasing talent, expanding the firm's origination funnel without diluting fund economics.

Investment decisions are led by representative partner Keita Okuyama and partner Yoshinori Koyama. Okuyama's background includes METI industrial policy and US MBA-level financial modeling experience; Koyama previously headed new-business creation support at Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support, having overseen more than 3,000 business-idea reviews and the creation of over five carve-out or spinout ventures at large Japanese corporations.

The firm is structured as a General Partnership managing a venture capital vehicle — Secondment Spin-out Startup Capital 1st Investment Business Limited Partnership — and functions as a sector-specialist VC backed by limited partners. It is categorized as an Asset Manager / Private Equity firm focused on early-stage venture.

No philanthropic foundation or adjacent non-profit vehicle is disclosed. The firm does provide unpaid advisory support to entrepreneurs who are not yet investment-ready, treating secondment-startup proliferation as a goal in itself, but this activity runs through the GP entity rather than a separate foundation.