Best Chemicals and Materials Companies in Japan
The 500 best Chemicals and Materials companies in Japan in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: W-SCOPE.
W-Scope's $86M in disclosed funding accounts for the overwhelming majority of the $142M tracked across 500 Japan-based Chemicals and Materials companies in our directory — and that single figure tells you something real about how concentrated this sector is. The directory ranks the best Chemicals and Materials companies in Japan by disclosed equity funding and recent momentum, and the spread is stark. TopoLogic sits at $5M, EF Polymer at $4M, CrowdChem at $2M, and then Mechanocross and REMARE each at $1M. No unicorns. The capital hasn't pooled broadly — it's clustered around a handful of bets, with backers like Japan Industrial Solutions and Future Venture Capital doing the patient work of building positions in a sector that doesn't chase headlines.
So what's actually moving underneath the funding numbers? Across 32 chemicals and building materials apps, median install growth is running at roughly +18% year-over-year — not a trivial signal when you're watching where attention goes before capital follows. I'd flag that the hottest themes right now aren't legacy petrochemicals: they're urban sustainability, green infrastructure, and sustainable city planning, which is reshaping where product development dollars land. The sector's media coverage is flat, which means the companies quietly compounding here aren't fighting for airtime. If you're screening this list, the funding gap between W-Scope and everyone else is the first thing worth sitting with.
Our analysis of 234 Chemicals and Materials companies
$21.9b in tracked funding; 57% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Chemicals and Materials companies in Japan
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Employees | Founded | Founder | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Creative Coatings Provider of liquid and vapor phase coating technologies and related services | $16M | — | 87 | 2017 | — | — | 116 patents Coating and film formation on powder particles, especially metal oxide layers for electronic components | — |
| 2 | A&A Material A&A Material Corp is engaged in the manufacturing and sales of various industrial materials/equipment such as… | — | — | 1,036 | 1924 | Toru Toru President & CEO | Apple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365Bootstrap+4 | — | — |
| 3 | ACK Manufacturer of paints, surface equipment, chemical products and raw materials | — | — | — | 1952 | Yoshimasa Shamoto CEO | PHPBootstrapNginx+10 | — | — |
| 4 | Acrorad Manufacturer of CdTe semiconductor radiation detectors | — | — | 70 | 1984 | Ryoichi Ono President & CEO | Apache HTTP ServerAmazon Web ServicesUmami+10 | 9 patents Semiconductor radiation detectors for X‑ray/CT imaging systems | — |
| 5 | ADEKA Corporation Food ingredients processing company | — | — | 5,494 | 1917 | Hidetaka Shirozume President & Chief Executive Officer | Apple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365Salesforce+5 | 6,014 patents Advanced resin formulations and thin‑film coating technologies for electronics and composites | — |
| 6 | AGI Glassplant Provider of engineered glass systems for chemical processing, manufacturing, and laboratory applications | — | — | — | 1950 | Yasuyuki Ikeda Founder & CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+18 | — | 5 launchs |
| 7 | aica kogyo Aica Kogyo is a chemical manufacturing company. | — | — | 4,963 | 1936 | Yuji Ono CEO & President | Cart FunctionalityPHPCodeIgniter+20 | 187 patents Advanced photocurable coating resins for molding, decorative laminates, and ablative applications | — |
| 8 | aichi steel Aichi Steel manufactures and sells steel, forged products, and electro-magnetic products. | — | — | 5,363 | 1940 | Takahide Goto CEO | Apple iCloud MailApache HTTP ServerCloudflare+10 | 1,057 patents Magnetic sensing devices and magnetically bonded components for energy and industrial applications | — |
Top 12 Chemicals and Materials companies in Japan
#1
Series B · Okinawa, Okinawa · founded 2018 · 22 employees$4.5Mraised▾
Manufacturer of organic super-absorbent hydrogel for sustainable agriculture. This hydrogel, created from eco-waste, retains significant amounts of water, nourishes soil with micronutrients, and improves water retention capacity, boosting crop growth. The product is biodegradable and enhances fertilizer application, reducing water and fertilizer usage. It offers a sustainable solution for farmers seeking improved yields and resource conservation.
- Sep 2025Series B$17.8M
- Apr 2025Series B$6.6M
- May 2023Series A$4.1M
- Apr 2021Seed$359.7K
#2
Seed · Sapporo, Hokkaido · founded 2023$1.3Mraised▾
Provider of mechanochemical organic synthesis technologies and related functional materials. The company offers technologies to replace solution-based reactions with mechanochemical processes. It develops and provides highly functional materials obtained from insoluble compounds. The company also disseminates information related to mechanochemical organic synthesis.
- Sep 2025Seed$6.7M
- Jul 2024Seed$1.3M
#3
Series A · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2022$2Mraised▾
Provider of manufacturing services for chemical products
- Apr 2025Series A$7.8M
- Sep 2024Seed$2M
- Jul 2022Conventional Debt—
- Jul 2022Seed—
#4
Seed · Matsusaka, Mie · founded 2023$1.4Mraised▾
Provider of creative services, including product design, manufacturing, and development, to various industries and partners
#5
Public · Shinagawa, Tokyo · founded 2005 · 1391 employees$85.5Mraised▾
Manufacturer & supplier of tissue paper
- Sep 2021Post IPO$85.5M
#6
Seed · Bunkyo, Tokyo · founded 2021$4.6Mraised▾
Manufacturer and supplier of materials
- Feb 2024Seed$4.6M
#7
Seed · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2015 · 22 employees$2.9Mraised▾
Provider of SaaS solutions and DX consulting for manufacturing supply chains. The company offers digital optimization of business processes through SaaS and customized consulting services. It aims to solve supply chain issues by digitally connecting procurement, order management, and production control. The company delivers sustainable operation systems, supporting streamlined economic activities through digital services.
- Dec 2023Seed$2.9M
#8
Series A · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2017 · 42 employees$4.8Mraised▾
Provider of research, development, and consultation services intended to maximize the value of data and contribute to the hypothesis testing process. The company utilizes technology that combines MI and robots, enabling the research and development personnel in the materials industry to speed up the material search, reduce costs, and search for completely new materials.
- May 2023Series A$4.8M
#9
Series E · Kyoto, Kyoto · founded 2011$14.2Mraised▾
Developer of gallium oxide power semiconductors and thin film deposition solutions. It develops and manufactures power semiconductor devices using gallium oxide (Ga2O3), a material known for its low energy loss and cost-effectiveness. The company also offers thin film deposition services using its proprietary "Mist Dry®" technology, enabling high-quality film formation without vacuum equipment. This technology is applicable to various materials and applications, including electronic components and battery materials. The company supports clients with testing, material evaluation, and supply of materials produced using this method.
- Mar 2021Series E$9.2M
- Jan 2018Series C$7.1M
- 2017Series B—
- Mar 2017Series B$6.6M
#10
Series A · Shinjuku City, Tokyo · founded 2017 · 87 employees$16Mraised▾
Provider of liquid and vapor phase coating technologies and related services. They offer coating process development, equipment manufacturing, material development, and product development support. The company also provides coating research and development assistance, along with pilot production and mass production services. Their technologies support advancements in batteries, functional particles, communication systems, automotive, medical devices, and passive components.
- Series A$16M
#11
Seed · Kawaguchi, Saitama · founded 2009$669.6Kraised▾
It is a company that specializes in developing new materials using a combination of bio-derived cellulose nanofibers (CNF) and carbon nanotubes (CNT). They have successfully developed products such as a sponge that can absorb radioactive cesium and a 5% graphene water dispersion solution.
- Sep 2023Seed$669.6K
#12
Series A · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2017$3Mraised▾
Developer of form-finding technology and design solutions for manufacturing industries. They create design proposals and methodologies to tackle complex design challenges. The company integrates diverse fields of expertise with proprietary design methodologies and software. They enable the creation of novel designs previously difficult to achieve. The company offers technical articles covering topics from metamaterials and origami to numerical computation.
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Chemicals and Materials coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Advanced Materials is moving in Japan
A read on the academic research around Advanced Materials — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 249 Japan-affiliated papers.
- The University of Tokyo21
- National Institute for Materials Science18
- Hokkaido University18
- Kanazawa University17
- Yamagata University11
- Elastomer2→6
- Fabrication1→5
- Shape-memory polymer3→4
- Nanotechnology5→6
- Fabrication1→4
- Nanotechnology6→8
- Composite number3→4
- Smart material3
- Soft robotics2
- Nanotechnology2
- Morphing1
- Soft materials1
Where advanced materials 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 advanced materials patents in Japan
Japan advanced materials patent filing is cooling — 89,623 filings from 8,000 assignees (2016–2025), led by JFE Steel, Nippon Steel, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal; annual filings 9698→7690.
- JFE Steel15962
- Nippon Steel11876
- Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal7745
- KOBE Steel5678
- NGK Insulators5351
- Sumitomo Electric Industries3985
- Mitsubishi Materials3982
- TDK3820
Common questions
Riya reads income statements for fun. She covers the real money in a sector — revenue, growth, who actually earns — and never met a vague claim she didn't want a number for.