Our Approach

We focus on early-stage startups. We are sector-agnostic and interested in industry-changing technology and innovation. We spend time fully understanding opportunities and business plans. Once we invest, we commit to maximizing startup success with meaningful support. We have invested in over 140 innovative startups across a range of sectors, including AI & robotics, climate tech, mobility, healthcare, deeptech, and sports & entertainment. In addition to funding, we support our portfolio companies by helping them grow their businesses, introducing them to investors, facilitating global expansion, and connecting them with potential business partners. 

If you are interested in working with us, warm introductions are encouraged.

All Consumer Enterprise Sports and Entertainment US Japan

IPO

  • FAST ACCOUNTING
  • Photosynth
  • ExaWizards

M&A

  • Fursure
  • Cake
  • CarIQ
  • IOTAS
  • Prodigy
  • Skip
  • Civil Maps
  • Origin
  • Second Measure
  • Apto
  • Chariot
  • Pantry
  • Focus Motion
  • Panna
  • Vidpresso
  • Boostable
  • Love With Food
  • Placemeter
  • Spire
  • Binpress
  • Aarki
  • Represent
  • Kidaptive
  • Chobolabs

Portfolio

  • Circulate Health
  • onWater
  • Athlete To Athlete
  • Eztia
  • GlobalComix
  • Alt Sports Data
  • Fanstake
  • Ozlo
  • Negosh
  • Lingopal
  • Habitto
  • Volo Sports
  • Volley
  • Dharma
  • Echo Group Holdings
  • Ixana
  • Earth AI
  • Titan Content
  • Bandit
  • Tradespace
  • Campus Ink
  • Spiral.AI
  • Olio Labs
  • Stellar Sleep
  • Athentic AI
  • Project Admission
  • Tappp
  • Boom Entertainment
  • 222
  • Truewind
  • Bloomo
  • SUN METALON
  • amptalk
  • Arcturus
  • CompScience
  • Array Labs
  • Hedgehog MedTech
  • Zero Acre Farms
  • Bobidi
  • Boomy
  • Algal Bio
  • TYPICA
  • Dr. Treat
  • atena
  • Marvin
  • SUPWAT
  • Pillar
  • Bipsee
  • Sequential Skin
  • MindPortal
  • Airtime
  • LegionFarm
  • FOODCODE
  • Smart Hospital
  • EMPOWERLY
  • LUUP
  • TeraWatt
  • Misapplied Sciences
  • P-Mind
  • Moved
  • Ambient.ai
  • Lob
  • DeepMotion
  • Coast App
  • Glowing
  • Owny
  • LemonBox
  • Realtime Robotics
  • BRCK
  • Dimension Labs
  • LiveLike
  • Rad
  • Any.do
  • Maestro
  • LeadGenius

IPO'd Voices

Photosynth

EXAWIZARDS

Fast Accounting

Founders' Voices

Learn how we help portfolio founders find key partners, enter the Japanese market, recruit talent, gain PR, and raise capital.

Keyan Kazemian

Keyan Kazemian
CEO at 222

Scrum has always been an incredibly thesis-aligned and supportive backer from day one. Michael Yan from their team took an early high conviction bet on us and is now always looking for any opportunity to add value and make helpful introductions. Highly recommend working with Michael and the Scrum team

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor
President & Co-Founder at Ozlo

Scrum has been a great partner to Ozlo. Mike Proman is always available for a call, shows up when it matters, and the fund consistently punches above their weight. We really value having them with us.”

Henrik Rydberg

Henrik Rydberg
CEO at GlobalComix

Scrum Ventures is the kind of active partner a founder dreams of. Their deep US-Japan expertise has been critical to our global expansion, opening strategic partnerships across the Japanese entertainment industry that would've taken us years to build alone. Beyond capital, Scrum brings immediate operational value.

Roman Teslyuk

Roman Teslyuk
Founder & CEO at Earth AI

Scrum is so far ahead of others that it is hard to explain why. Let me try. They help by doing, they don't hesitate to roll up their sleeves and jump into the trenches with their portfolio companies. It's a partnership like no other. They are deep, independent thinkers, yet they are polite, respectful and understanding communicators. This combination in an investment firm is as rare as diamonds (or germanium, nowadays). Michael Yan has a remarkable brain and personality! He has a memory of an elephant! He remembers the finest details of every conversation and can recall and quote people he spoke to years ago! He always digs deep and can dissect any problem at remarkable speed. Lastly, his personality is so friendly and joyful that I can discuss and debate the hardest issues with him while feeling safe and supported. It's a great pleasure and honour to work alongside Michael, Tak and the team.

Yumi Kawata

Yumi Kawata
CEO at Hedgehog MedTech

Scrum Ventures is an investor with a strong sense of integrity and leadership. From the first time I met with Partner Mr. Kuroda, I felt his range of knowledge, network, speed of response, and respect and sincerity for entrepreneurs. I was pleasantly surprised how he deepened his understanding of our specialized area of business that includes medical knowledge. Since the founding of our company, we have been faced with a series of important and difficult decisions, and I feel that being able to work with Scrum that I can trust has been a key factor in determining our growth. Scrum Ventures is one of the investors that I confidently recommend to entrepreneurs around me.

Ryoma Inose

Ryoma Inose
President and CEO at amptalk

We are careful when we consider investments and talk in depth with potential investors when considering a partnership. For our Series A financing, the questions I received from Scrum's Partner, Mr. Kuroda, gave me a sense that he has an entrepreneur's mind and is trustworthy. After the investment, he has become the first person I can talk to if I have any questions or concerns, so I was not mistaken in my judgment. Scrum Ventures, with its unique network in the U.S. and with corporations, has differentiated itself from other VC firms. I highly recommend them.

Keitaro Mori

Keitaro Mori
President and CEO at Fast Accounting

The support we have received from everyone at Scrum Ventures has been invaluable. It is not just the investment we received but looking back, without the support from Mr. Haruta and others, our business would have been much more difficult to grow. Whenever we had a problem, they immediately set up meetings for us and gave us advice that we could apply to the business. It is because of Scrum's support that we have been able to come this far.

Ryosuke Nishiyama

Ryosuke Nishiyama
CEO at FOODCODE

From introducing us to Japanese corporations as potential partners to finding new startup technology, Scrum has been very inspiring by providing what we need for our business growth. When we needed additional funding, Scrum worked with us to create an equity story, and they have been very helpful in our decision making process. We even had a Scrum member work with our team to sell our Tokyo Mix Curry! Thank you, Scrum Ventures, for everything you do.

Amane Kimura

Amane Kimura
CEO at Algal Bio

The relationship with investors is an important factor for startups as it can influence how successfully a business grows. Scrum Ventures has a proven track record in both the U.S. and Japanese markets, has raised our profile from a global perspective, and has advised on business strategy, capital policy, and human resources. Scrum Ventures is a great partner, coach, and mentor, and is indispensable to us.

Josh Butler

Josh Butler
Founder at CompScience

The Scrum Ventures team has been super strategic for us from the start. They get our business and have made countless solid connections to large clients and relevant founders. We've legitimately seen a boost in our pipeline from the interest that their corporate partners are showing in our business. If you are looking at the Japanese market, strongly consider partnering with them!

Jeff Nobbs

Jeff Nobbs
CEO & Co-Founder at Zero Acre Farms

We at Zero Acre Farms are incredibly happy to be part of the Scrum family. We love the Scrum team's passion for the food tech space, and their Japanese relationships give us a strong foothold as we look to expand internationally in the future and diversify our investor base. During their due diligence, we were impressed with their speed, efficiency, a depth. Since the investment, we have appreciated Scrum's interest in helping us achieve our goals and their introductions to firms that will accelerate our growth.

Edwin Olson

Edwin Olson
CEO, Founder at May Mobility

Scrum Ventures invested in May Mobility in our seed stage round almost three years ago and the team has been great to work with ever since. They've been there when we've wanted introductions, advice on working with companies and partners in Japan, or just to talk through the things going on at our company. One thing I particularly appreciate about Scrum is their many years of experience and expertise -- a new experience for me is a familiar experience for them!

Jasen Lew

Jasen Lew
CEO at Glowing

Scrum is one of the best investors I've had the fortune and pleasure working with. My partner and I met Tak through YCombinator, and the experience from then to now has been fantastic. The entire team is caring and supportive. They are proactive investors, yet not too much as to disrupt business, and consistently offer to guide and help overcome any challenges (even rolling up their sleeves to help with research and introductions). Beyond highly recommending, I would say if a company has the opportunity to work with Scrum, it will be a decision that will continually reap benefits during the life of the business.

Ko Ishiyama

Ko Ishiyama
Founder at ExaWizards Inc.

I discovered and have been following Scrum Ventures from when I previously worked at an AI research center in Silicon Valley. Now at Exawizards, Scrum Ventures provides us with business support, customer introductions, event and PR help, and introductions to partners through their large network in the United States. By far, Scrum Ventures is our most important partner.

Takanobu Kawano

Takanobu Kawano
CEO at Vacan, Inc.

After meeting Makoto Haruta, Partner at Scrum Ventures, I immediately felt that working with them would help me create a strong business and team. A key reason I decided to accept their investment was how they took the time to really understand Vacan. Beginning with Tak Miyata, General Partner, I could tell the Scrum Ventures team valued Vacan as much as I did and I could trust them. Scrum Ventures continues to support me with business planning, KPI creation, series A fundraising, hiring, PR, and more. Hiroki Tanaka, Venture Partner, even joined our offsite discussions and works closely with us for Vacan’s growth.

In Gudo

In Gudo
Representative Director at P-Mind

We were impressed by how the Scrum team evaluated our business model and assessed the risk-return in detail before making the decision to invest. Even after investment, they continue to support us with advice and insights to help our business. With their deep understanding of entrepreneurship, I highly recommend Scrum Ventures to any startups looking for funding.

Andre Lorenceau

Andre Lorenceau
Founder & CEO at LiveLike

Scrum Ventures is definitely one of my favorite investors. Not only did they believe in us from the start and helped us close our round, they were frequently prompt and clear in dealing with us which is the most anyone can ask from the fundraising process. Scrum Ventures stayed engaged, inviting me to present to executives at Japanese corporations and introducing me to key investors in Japan. Scrum Ventures is key when we need help in the region. I definitely will be coming back to knock on their door should I ever start another company.

Tony Mugavero

Tony Mugavero
CEO at Rad

Scrum Ventures has been an incredible partner to work with, and helpful in not only thinking through product and business strategy but also working together on growing our presence internationally in Japan and beyond. They are engaged in the process of building great businesses, which we really enjoy, and the connections and insight they bring to the table add substantial value beyond just capital. We could not be luckier to have them as investors and partners.

Peter Howard

Peter Howard
CEO at Realtime Robotics

The team at Scrum Ventures has been truly fantastic to work with. Starting with their speedy comprehension in our introductory meeting 7 months ago, through introducing us to stellar co-investors 6 months ago, to opening doors to anchor customers 5 months ago, they have been pleasant, supportive, efficient, and highly effective. They are a hugely productive asset to have on your team!

Scrum Ventures is a early-stage venture firm investing across a range of industries in the U.S. and Japan. Based in San Francisco with extensive experience and networks in both Silicon Valley and Japan, Scrum Ventures accelerates portfolio companies with global opportunities and helps corporations innovate. Scrum Studio is a platform that connects global corporations with startups.