About
About Delight Ventures
About Us
Delight Ventures is a venture capital fund that aims to lower the barriers for entrepreneurship in Japan. It also supports entrepreneurs on the global stage. We want to create a world where entrepreneurship is a viable career path, and both those who succeed and those who fail continue to be given the chance to pursue new opportunities. Working together with entrepreneurs, investors, and companies, our goal is to contribute to the global presence of the Japanese innovation ecosystem.
What We Do
Venture Investment
Supporting Japanese startups to launch onto the global stage.
We invest in excellent startups mainly in the early stage, centered on pre-series A to series A, and assist their growth, including global expansion.
Venture Builder
Drawing on DeNA resources to continuously create new businesses.
In this program, DeNA and Delight Ventures are the main drivers, working with people both in the DeNA Group and outside it to create new businesses and quickly spin them out. We help entrepreneurs hit the ground running through support such as surveys to finalize business plans, assistance with establishing a company and capital policy, providing business advice from mentors such as experienced entrepreneurs.
Our Focus
Delight Ventures invests in various types of early-stage startups. However, it has three cross-industry investment themes, and particularly focuses on startups within those themes.
Businesses that resolve information asymmetry and empower the weak
There are many events and economic activities in a person’s life that are very important, although they may not occur frequently. Buying a car, a house, or another major asset, finding a job, getting married, having a child, changing jobs, and starting a company are all examples of such important life events. These events can also include minor problems that people end up facing. It is safe to say that almost always in these types of situations, there is information asymmetry between the person and their transaction partner. Consumers and companies, employees and employers, entrepreneurs and investors are all examples of pairs where there are differences in experience, knowledge, and resources, and this can lead to unfair transactional relationships. We believe that solving this information asymmetry and creating a healthier and fairer economic environment is an important role of innovation.
Businesses that dramatically improve social productivity
Even in a healthy and fair environment, the exchange of information can stagnate due to old habits or physical limitations, leading to inefficiency that is of benefit to no one. Japan’s labor productivity is unfortunately the lowest among the G7 countries. It’s not just a problem of out-of-date procedures relying on paper forms and faxes, unbalanced rules, or other oft-reported issues. Where information moves slower than the speed of light and is processed slower than the processing speed of a CPU, then there is always room for technological innovation. We support innovation that will dramatically increase social productivity.
Businesses that directly contribute to social sustainability
It is indisputable that capitalism has been of incredible benefit to the happiness of people around the world. However, with its emphasis on the paramount importance of shareholder interests, the structural weakness of capitalism is related to issues of the environment, health and benefits, equal opportunity, and other matters relevant for long term social sustainability. Now this weakness is coming to the fore, with a scale and breadth sufficient to become the main battleground for innovation. We believe in the specific type of capitalism that pursues the happiness of everyone in society, including partners and employees, and we aim to proactively invest in startups that are tackling sustainability challenges.
Code of Conduct
At Delight Ventures, we only consider ourselves successful if the startup succeeds. We aim to be a trusted partner that respects entrepreneurs and enables their success.
We respect entrepreneur time
Delight Ventures knows that for a startup, entrepreneur time is their most valuable asset. We make sure to not only use meeting time effectively, but also we will never ask for unnecessary documents to make an investment decision, and will never make entrepreneurs wait to hear from us even though we already made our decision.
We respect transparency
When we are given an opportunity to invest in a startup, we are open about communicating the possibility that we will invest (whether high or low) and our process and timeline to make an investment decision. If we have a potential competitor company in our investment portfolio already, we openly share that information. If we decide to not invest, we explain the reason to the entrepreneur.
We respect information
Delight Ventures will never share slides, materials, and other information provided by entrepreneurs with others without entrepreneur consent. This includes sharing information with DeNA itself.
We respect contract fairness
Delight Ventures understands that many entrepreneurs may not have the best grasp of legal and contract matters, and we take particular care that we never set up a contract that puts entrepreneurs at a disadvantage for not having legal expertise. For example, if we were to propose setting up preferred shares, co-sale rights, or other mechanisms that entrepreneurs may be unfamiliar with, we will first explain these mechanisms in more detail before making the proposal.
How We Work With DeNA
The "good parts" of CVC and independent VC
Delight Ventures is not your average corporate venture capital. We are a new type of venture capital that has taken the good parts from both corporate venture capital and independent venture capital. DeNA participates in Delight Ventures Fund No. 1 as a single Limited Partner, and is committed to its success
Delight Ventures can provide the following types of support to startups we invest in at the request of the entrepreneurs
- Delight Ventures can coordinate mentorships with DeNA business leaders and industry experts. Through these mentorships, entrepreneurs can gain access to DeNA's business know-how and various types of other business know-how and advice.
- Delight Ventures can assist in proposing partnerships with DeNA and DeNA business partners.
Activities prioritize startup success
Delight Ventures Fund No. 1 has an operating approach and investment decision-making process that is completely independent from DeNA, and we place top priority on startup success
- We have set up a firewall between Delight Ventures and the DeNA business departments, so there will be no unauthorized access to startups' confidential information.
- Delight Ventures stands on the side of the startup in discussions between startups and DeNA about strategic partnerships.
- We place the utmost priority on startup success, and we will not interfere with a partnership with a DeNA competitor.
- DeNA is a possible exit candidate for the startups that Delight Ventures invests in, but we always respect the will of the entrepreneurs and market principles.
Newsletter
Delight Ventures provides useful information for startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, and others through our newsletter, including the latest news as a venture capital firm, upcoming events, employment opportunities, blog information, and more. Please subscribe to our newsletter. (Newsletter available in Japanese language)