Best Artificial Intelligence Companies in Japan
The 150 best Artificial Intelligence companies in Japan in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Sakana.
Japan's Artificial Intelligence sector is moving fast, and this directory ranks the best AI companies operating there by disclosed equity funding and recent momentum across 150 tracked firms. Total disclosed funding sits at $1.4B, with two unicorns already in the mix. That's a real signal.
Sakana leads the pack at $344M raised, well ahead of Preferred Infrastructure at $125M and LayerX at $59M. And if you're wondering where the capital concentration sits, those top names account for a disproportionate share of the $1.4B pool. Globally, the AI market was valued at roughly $235.3B in 2024 and is forecast to reach $1,811.8B by 2030 at a 34.3% CAGR, which puts Japan's funding figures in sharper relief. Hot themes driving coverage right now include AI hardware, AI research frameworks, and threat intelligence sharing. Backers like Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SBI Investment, and SMBC Venture Capital are the names I keep seeing anchor rounds here. Data privacy regulation adds a structural constraint worth watching, especially as AI democratization accelerates globally and domestic firms push deeper into healthcare and industrial pricing applications.
- Avnet Empowers the Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem with its Partners
Our analysis of 151 Artificial Intelligence companies
$81.0b in tracked funding; 96% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Artificial Intelligence companies in Japan
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Employees | Founder | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sakana 🦄 Provider of AI research laboratory services | $344M | 2 mo ago | Series B | — | Alex Yu Co-Founder & COO | VarnishGitHub Pagescore-js+6 | — | 2 job openings · 2 launchs |
| 2 | Preferred Infrastructure 🦄 Developer of AI infrastructure, foundation models, and product solutions | $125M | 13 mo ago | Series D | 205 | Daisuke Okanohara Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+19 | — | — |
| 3 | AI Medical Service AI-powered endoscopic software to detect early-stage gastrointestinal cancers | $122M | 49 mo ago | Series C | 40 | 智裕 多田 CEO and Representative Director | Apple iCloud MailGoogle WorkspacePHP+25 | 38 patents AI-powered analysis and assistance for endoscopic and diagnostic medical imaging | — |
| 4 | ThinkCyte Developer of cell sorting and single cell profiling platforms | $83M | 21 mo ago | Series C | 33 | Ryoichi Horisaki Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+28 | 95 patents Advanced flow cytometry and AI-driven cellular sample analysis technologies. | 3 launchs |
| 5 | LayerX Provider of AI, SaaS, and Fintech digital solutions and services | $59M | 9 mo ago | Series B | 107 | — | WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+19 | — | 2 job openings · 1 launch |
| 6 | Stockmark Developer of AI solutions for text data analysis and utilization | $59M | 19 mo ago | Series D | 54 | Kosuke Arima Co-Founder Cto | WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+29 | — | — |
| 7 | Metaps App Monetization Platform using AI & Big Data | $52M | 136 mo ago | Public | 199 | — | WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+28 | 3 patents Ad serving and distribution platforms for targeted online advertising. | — |
| 8 | Aiand Developer of artificial intelligence platform, frontier models, and optimized compute infrastructure | $50M | 2 mo ago | Seed | — | Shimpei Hara Co-Founder | Framer SitesReactPriority Hints+6 | — | — |
| 9 | LeapMind Provider of deep learning and compression solution | $46M | 80 mo ago | Series C | 46 | — | — | 43 patents Hardware-accelerated neural network inference and training for edge AI image processing | — |
| 10 | ABEJA Provider of digital platforms, AI solutions, and DX support services | $46M | 90 mo ago | Public | 81 | Yousuke Okada Founder & CEO | Apple iCloud MailGoogle WorkspaceNode.js+28 | 9 patents Patents concentrated in computing, sensing & instrumentation | — |
| 11 | Midokura Open source edge platform providing network virtualization solution | $45M | 120 mo ago | Acquired | 80 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+27 | — | 1 partnership |
| 12 | Cinnamon Provider of AI-powered intelligent document processing solutions | $36M | 47 mo ago | Series C | 122 | Hajime Hotta Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+20 | — | — |
| 13 | Cogent Developer of artificial intelligence solutions for data extraction and document processing | $36M | 32 mo ago | Series D | 47 | Eric Whiteway Founder & CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+26 | — | 1 launch |
| 14 | Turing Generative AI-based automated driving | $29M | 7 mo ago | Series A | — | Shunsuke Aoki Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+16 | — | — |
| 15 | EdgeCortix Developer of energy-efficient AI processors, accelerators, modules, cards, and systems | $28M | 2 mo ago | Series B | 37 | Sakya Dasgupta Founder & CEO | HubSpot CMS HubHubSpotcore-js+16 | 5 patents Hardware acceleration for AI/ML and communications: low‑precision MAC, LDPC decoding, streaming pipelines | — |
| 16 | Autify Provider of AI-powered platform for software testing lifecycle automation | $26M | 24 mo ago | Series B | 67 | Sam Yamashita Co-Founder | WebflowSalesforceThree.js+31 | 7 patents Automated software testing and test‑automation platform for web and mobile applications | — |
| 17 | Fairy Devices Enterprise solutions for remote working and assistance for industrial field workers | $25M | 36 mo ago | Series B | 16 | — | Node.jsNext.jsReact+14 | 80 patents Real-time session management and image processing for networked communication devices | 1 award |
| 18 | Fronteo Provider of AI solutions for legal, life science, and business | $22M | 114 mo ago | Public | 297 | — | WordPressApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+35 | 117 patents Computational biology platforms for pathway analysis, target search, and similarity indexing | — |
| 19 | Fast Label Provider of an AI-based annotation platform | $22M | 14 mo ago | Series B | 13 | — | STUDIOApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+16 | — | — |
| 20 | OPEN8 Developer of cloud software for automated video production and distribution | $21M | 28 mo ago | Series D | 104 | Yuko Takamatsu CEO | WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+19 | 7 patents Server-side multimedia content creation, processing, editing, and recommendation systems | — |
| 21 | Ubitus Provider of cloud gaming, metaverse streaming, and artificial intelligence solutions | $17M | 15 mo ago | Series D | 117 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+15 | 12 patents Patents concentrated in computing, sensing & instrumentation | — |
| 22 | Deepx Technologies Developer of autonomous operation technologies for heavy construction equipment machinery | $15M | 70 mo ago | Series B | 49 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+15 | 2 patents Advanced robotic control devices and 3D depth processing for precision manufacturing. | 1 partnership · 1 award |
| 23 | Hacarus Provider of AI based platform to manage clinical decisions | $12M | 28 mo ago | Series B | 42 | Takashi Someda Chief Executive Officer | WordPressMySQLPHP+28 | 4 patents Sparse machine learning algorithms for specialized data analysis applications | — |
| 24 | Kotoba Technologies Platform that provides translation and speech-to-text solutions | $12M | 11 mo ago | Seed | — | Noriyuki Kojima CO-Founder & CEO | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+15 | — | 3 job openings · 2 partnerships |
| 25 | Molcure Provider of AI-based platform for drug discovery and design | $12M | 58 mo ago | Series C | 33 | Yutaro Kyono Co-Founder & CTO | — | 10 patents Protein‑binding assay technologies and bubble‑generation systems for drug delivery | — |
| 26 | Notta AI-powered transcription and meeting notetaker platform | $10M | 6 mo ago | Series B | 7 | James Jason Founder & CEO | SentryUnbounceApple Sign-in+34 | — | — |
| 27 | EDGEMATRIX Developer of edge AI-based video surveillance solutions for smart cities | $9M | 81 mo ago | Series A | 14 | — | NginxAmazon Web Servicescore-js+8 | — | 1 job opening |
| 28 | Vegetalia Provider of agricultural IoT solutions and plant disease diagnostic services | $8M | 105 mo ago | Series B | 4 | — | VideoJSGSAPAmazon Web Services+7 | — | — |
| 29 | CoeFont AI voice platform that provides voice modulation for training voices | $7M | 12 mo ago | Series A | — | Shogo Hayakawa Founder & CEO | SentryNode.jsApple Sign-in+21 | — | — |
| 30 | Aww Developer of virtual human technologies, AI solutions, and virtual fashion brands | $6M | 48 mo ago | Seed | 21 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+11 | — | 2 launchs |
| 31 | Cacco Remittance fraud detection, settlement consulting and statistical analysis | $5M | 120 mo ago | Public | 49 | Hiroyuki Iwai Founder & CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+24 | — | — |
| 32 | ArchiTek Provider of AI-enabled vision processing unit system for multiple industries | $5M | 48 mo ago | Series C | 15 | Hassan Toorabally Managing Director | WordPressMySQLPHP+16 | 6 patents Edge computing hardware and parallel processing architectures for SIMD and vector operations | — |
| 33 | SOUNDRAW Provider of AI enabled music creation software | $5M | 27 mo ago | Series A | — | Daigo Kusunoki CEO | SentryRubyElement UI+26 | — | 1 launch |
| 34 | Citadel AI Software products and services to test, and monitor the quality and reliability of AI systems | $5M | 35 mo ago | Series A | — | Kenny Song Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+20 | 6 patents AI-driven data processing and machine learning inference acceleration hardware/software | — |
| 35 | PGV Provider of wearable brainwave measurement technology and AI-powered brainwave analysis | $4M | 57 mo ago | Series A | 49 | Osamu Oshirasawa CEO & President | HubSpot CMS HubHubSpotcore-js+10 | 2 patents Neurocognitive therapeutic compositions and sensory evaluation systems for itch/pain assessment | — |
| 36 | First Accounting Provider of AI solutions automating and streamlining accounting processes and workflows | $3M | 53 mo ago | Public | 65 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+29 | — | — |
| 37 | Ecumenopolis Developer of general-purpose conversational AI agent | $3M | 15 mo ago | Seed | — | Keita Miyamura Co-Founder | — | — | — |
| 38 | Studio Ousia Platform to improve customer targeting and recommendation using natural language processing | $3M | 112 mo ago | Series B | 9 | — | — | — | — |
| 39 | Thinker Developer of robotic hands | $3M | 10 mo ago | Series B | — | Hiromichi Fujimoto Co-Founder & CEO | — | — | — |
| 40 | Poetics Provider of solutions to create conversational AI with algorithms and machine learning | $3M | 20 mo ago | Series A | 15 | Hazumu Yamazaki Co-Founder & Co-CEO | WebflowApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+24 | — | — |
| 41 | empath Provides emotion analysis platform | $3M | 94 mo ago | Seed | — | Takaaki Shimoji CEO | — | — | — |
| 42 | MENOU Provider of an AI-based solution for automated visual inspection | $2M | 53 mo ago | Series A | 13 | — | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+15 | — | — |
| 43 | Ovomind Provider of a wearable device to manage neurological disorders | $2M | 44 mo ago | Seed | 2 | Yann Frachi Founder | Cart FunctionalityWooCommerceWordPress+29 | 17 patents Affective computing with electrodermal sensors for emotion detection and game experience prediction | — |
| 44 | Impute AI-based app providing personalized therapy for students with autism | $1M | 53 mo ago | Series A | 17 | — | — | 4 patents AI-powered autism therapy and diagnostic assistance devices for personalized treatment. | — |
| 45 | Interactive Solutions Content management solution for sales floor interaction | $1M | 139 mo ago | Seed | 50 | Kiyoshi Sekine CEO & President | Apple iCloud MailAmazon Web ServicesCloudflare+8 | 148 patents Real-time presentation and meeting collaboration software with keyword-driven slide control | — |
| 46 | EmbodyMe Developer of AI-driven technology for visual content generation and manipulation | $967K | 84 mo ago | Seed | 9 | Issei Yoshida CEO | YouTubeReactGatsby+11 | 8 patents Facial image synthesis and 2D graphics generation for visual content creation. | 1 launch |
| 47 | GAZAI Platform offering AI-powered tools to analyze, generate, and automate insights from visual and multimedia… | $697K | 21 mo ago | Seed | — | Takuya Kanda Co-Founder | STUDIOApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+11 | — | — |
| 48 | Data Grid Provider of solutions for creating digital content using AI | $359K | 54 mo ago | Seed | 13 | Yuki Okada CEO | — | — | — |
| 49 | VisionAI Developer of AI solutions for retail automation and operational efficiency | $334K | 18 mo ago | Seed | — | Yoshinobu Hirakawa Founder & CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+10 | — | — |
| 50 | DLeader Developer of an AI platform streamlining drug discovery and development | $120K | 10 mo ago | Seed | — | Qingwen Chen Co-Founder & CEO | — | — | — |
Top 12 Artificial Intelligence companies in Japan
#1
Sakana 🦄Series B · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2023$344Mraised▾
Sakana AI is a Tokyo-based R&D company founded by former Google AI engineers, David Ha and Llion Jones. Inspired by nature, Sakana AI aims to design collective artificial intelligence models.
- Mar 2026Series B—
- Feb 2026Series B—
- Jan 2026Series B—
- Nov 2025Series B$135M
#2
Seed · Yokohama, Kanagawa · founded 2026$50Mraised▾
Developer of artificial intelligence platform, frontier models, and optimized compute infrastructure. The company builds continual learning, developing models across language, video, and multimodal domains. Post-training focuses on enterprise deployment with attention to security and performance. The company builds infrastructure to scale artificial intelligence.
- Mar 2026Seed$50M
#3
Series B · Chuo, Tokyo · founded 2019 · 37 employees$28Mraised▾
Developer of energy-efficient AI processors, accelerators, modules, cards, and systems. The company offers a software platform facilitating AI inference across heterogeneous systems. Its technology includes a reconfigurable, highly-parallelized architecture. The company's products handle vision tasks and large language models in low-power environments.
- Apr 2026Series B—
- Nov 2025Series B$110M
- Aug 2025Series B—
- Jun 2025Grant (prize money)$21M
#4
Series A · Shinagawa, Tokyo · founded 2021$28.7Mraised▾
Generative AI-based automated driving. The platforms technology provides end cars perform driving operations to end driving instructions directly from camera images. It leverages sensors or precision maps to provide instructions.
- Nov 2025Conventional Debt$35.6M
- Nov 2025Series A$63.2M
- Dec 2024Conventional Debt$1.3M
- Dec 2024Seed$5.2M
#5
Series D · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2014 · 205 employees$124.9Mraised▾
Developer of AI infrastructure, foundation models, and product solutions. The company develops AI semiconductors, computing infrastructure, generative AI models, and AI product solutions. It researches and develops new technologies, applying them across industries. The company provides AI products and solutions for various sectors.
- Apr 2025Conventional Debt—
- Apr 2025Series D$35.1M
- Dec 2024Conventional Debt—
- Dec 2024Series D$120.8M
#6
Series B · Chuo City, Tokyo · founded 2018 · 107 employees$59Mraised▾
Provider of AI, SaaS, and Fintech digital solutions and services. The company researches advanced AI and data technologies to develop related products. It offers solutions for digital transformation and financial technology. The company aims to digitize economic activities and create user-friendly products.
- Sep 2025Series B$100M
- Jun 2023Series A$19.2M
- Feb 2023Series A—
- Feb 2020Series A$27.3M
#7
Series B · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2020 · 7 employees$10Mraised▾
AI-powered transcription and meeting notetaker platform. The platform transcribes audio and video recordings, face-to-face meetings, and presentation demos in real-time. It offers transcription, speaker identification, and integration with video conferencing platforms.
- Dec 2025Series B$15M
- May 2025Series A$6.8M
- Nov 2022Series A$10M
#8
Series C · Bunkyo, Tokyo · founded 2016 · 33 employees$83.2Mraised▾
Developer of cell sorting and single cell profiling platforms. The business provides tools for cell therapy, disease profiling, and drug discovery applications. The platforms combine fluorescence flow cytometry with morphological profiling and artificial intelligence. The business also offers related consumables and instrument services.
- Aug 2024Series C$14.9M
- Nov 2023Series C$24M
- Nov 2023Grant (prize money)—
- May 2021Series B$26M
#9
Series B · Shinagawa, Tokyo · founded 2020 · 13 employees$22Mraised▾
Provider of an AI-based annotation platform. It provides multiple annotation solutions that include images and videos, rectangles and segmentations, and key points. It also provides visualization, data analysis, collaboration, and extraction solutions. It has use cases for drones, robotics, self-driving cars, construction, sports, and medical applications.
- Mar 2025Conventional Debt$1.3M
- Sep 2024Series B$2.1M
- Sep 2024Series B$8.7M
- Nov 2023Series B$7.8M
#10
Seed · Chiyoda City, Tokyo · founded 2023$11.8Mraised▾
Platform that provides translation and speech-to-text solutions. It is a developer of speech AI technologies, including translation and speech-to-text. It offers end-to-end voice translation, dubbing, voice cloning, and speech generation. The company develops high-speed ASR models and provides bilingual versions with end-to-end bidirectional voice-to-text translation.
- Jun 2025Seed$11.8M
#11
Series D · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2016 · 54 employees$58.8Mraised▾
Developer of AI solutions for text data analysis and utilization. The company provides tools for transforming organizational text data into actionable insights. These solutions support decision-making and aim to enhance business processes. The company offers services including AI implementation and customized AI agent development.
- Oct 2024Series D$30.1M
- Aug 2022Seed—
- Mar 2021Seed—
#12
Series D · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2007 · 117 employees$17Mraised▾
Provider of cloud gaming, metaverse streaming, and artificial intelligence solutions. The company offers GPU virtualization technology and a cloud streaming platform. It converts titles to cloud versions for customized cloud gaming platforms. The company provides support for AI applications, including deployment of large language models and training of drawing models.
- Feb 2025Series D—
- Mar 2024Series D—
- Mar 2021Series C—
- May 2013Series B$15M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Artificial Intelligence coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Artificial Intelligence is moving in Japan
A read on the academic research around Artificial Intelligence — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 511 Japan-affiliated papers.
- The University of Tokyo36
- Korea University23
- Kyoto University23
- Keihin23
- Nagoya City University21
- Probabilistic logic1→13
- Architecture1→13
- Pattern recognition (psychology)5→16
- Reinforcement learning1→12
- Axiom1→10
- Feature (linguistics)1→10
- Pattern recognition (psychology)2→10
- Field (mathematics)1→5
- Artificial neural network1→5
- Benchmark (surveying)1→4
- Probabilistic logic5
- Robustness (evolution)4
- Generative grammar4
- Artificial neural network3
- Function (biology)3
Where artificial intelligence is researched across Japan
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing artificial intelligence patents in Japan
Japan artificial intelligence patent filing is accelerating — 35,502 filings from 2,667 assignees (2016–2025), led by NEC, Fujitsu, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone; annual filings 525→4871.
- NEC3546
- Fujitsu3490
- Nippon Telegraph & Telephone2272
- Mitsubishi Electric1756
- Hitachi1518
- SONY1441
- Canon KK1342
- SONY Group1328
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.