At "FIRST CVC," we regularly hold meetup events called "CVC Office Hour," where startups can meet with CVCs (Corporate Venture Capitals).

From the perspective of startups, there are often comments such as, "We don't know where we can meet CVCs or corporate venture people," and "It's hard to get appointments when we don't have a clear idea for collaboration yet." The lack of opportunities to meet is one of the barriers to open innovation in Japan.

As Japan's largest CVC community, FIRST CVC is working to solve this challenge by creating opportunities for startups to casually meet with CVCs before fully considering collaboration or investment. This is the goal of the "CVC Office Hour" meetup event series.

The event brings together multiple CVC capitalists and startup founders to engage in discussions about collaboration in an intimate setting—something unique that has never been seen before.

For the 5th session, we focused on "B2B CVCs" and on April 19, 2023, 15 B2B CVCs and 16 startups interested in CVCs gathered for lively discussions about collaboration.

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[Participating CVC Capitalists]

Chatwork Inc.
GMO Payment Gateway, Inc.
Canon Marketing Japan Inc.
GREE Ventures, Inc.
JALUX Inc.
NTT Docomo Ventures, Inc.
tb innovations Inc.
Zenrin Future Partners Inc.
Vector Inc.
Raccoon Holdings Inc.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.
Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.
Lotte Ventures Japan Inc.
Sazaby League, Inc.

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[Participating Startups]

VALT JAPAN Inc.
Laspy Inc.
PR Table Inc.
FairyDevices Inc.
TailorWorks Inc.
ElevationSpace Inc.
Sotas Inc.
SORABITO Inc.
Helpfeel Inc.
TouchSpot Inc.
APTO Inc.
kickflow Inc.
Osiro Inc.
SENRI Inc.
Qasee Inc.
Scene Inc.
Incubion Inc.

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The event was held at the "SOIL (Shibuya Open Innovation Lab)" in Shibuya, courtesy of Tokyu Corporation. This is an open innovation facility specializing in "social implementation," and it was the perfect space for discussions between CVCs and startups. A huge thanks to everyone at Tokyu for their support.

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Event Report

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As part of the office hour format, there were not only discussions between CVCs and startups but also deep conversations between CVCs and between startups themselves. This report provides a summary of the day's activities and feedback from participants.

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The program for the day was as follows:

• Part 1 - Roundtable session: Large Corporations x Startups
• Part 2 - Networking

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Part 1 - Roundtable Session: Large Corporations x Startups

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Once again, many CVCs and startups participated. The participants were divided into five tables, each with around three CVCs and three startups, and discussions took place at each table.

Since the theme was B2B, the discussions weren't just between startups and CVCs, but also among the startups themselves, which allowed for more in-depth conversations.

Because the theme was B2B, the businesses of the participating startups were not only considered as potential investment targets by corporate ventures but also as services that could be used by the corporations themselves. As a result, many conversations revolved around connecting startups with different departments of the corporate partners.

One interesting moment was when a corporate representative realized for the first time that they were already using a service from one of the startups in their daily operations—"Oh, we actually use this service!"

There were also lively discussions among the startups themselves, with some proposing to team up and approach business companies together for joint sales efforts.

This is one of the key attractions of the Office Hour event: it helps lead to concrete actions.

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Part 2 - Networking

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After Part 1, we had a networking session for about an hour.

It provided an opportunity for attendees to directly speak with multiple CVCs at once, and there were active greetings from those who wanted to continue conversations from Part 1. There were also lively discussions between startups and CVCs as well as among startups themselves.

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Feedback from Participating CVCs

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Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.
Takahiro Uchida

I attended with a venture we have invested in, and I received a report that they immediately had a sales meeting. I'm really glad we participated together.
Also, this time we were able to meet with ventures that could potentially be used within our company, and we have scheduled a follow-up meeting. Thank you, as always.

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Lotte Ventures Japan Inc.
Katsunori Kudo
Takahiro Nagamoto

It was a great opportunity to meet with multiple potential investment targets.
Regarding the challenge of involving skeptical business departments in venture investments, our meeting with a venture offering community management services was very valuable. We are considering moving forward with implementation.

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tb innovations Inc.
Reiji Hara

There were several ventures I would like to start initial discussions with right away, and I'm really glad I participated.
Among them, there was a venture in the manufacturing field where potential collaboration is possible, and we can proceed with discussions on both fronts.

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Feedback from Participating Startups

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Scene Inc.
CEO, Vijayan Swatynath

We received interest from both manufacturing business companies and CVCs regarding potential investment with a view toward actual field use.
Additionally, we had in-depth conversations with business companies about potential joint efforts for our upcoming service. I would love to participate in future events as well.

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PR Table Inc.
Co-CEO, Wataru Ohori
Director of Management, Yumi Tsuda

Our service attracted interest as a user, and we were able to arrange a connection with someone from the HR department. We also met with companies that are already using our service. Thank you for this valuable opportunity.

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SORABITO Inc.
Chairman, Takayuki Aoki

Opportunities to meet with multiple business companies and CVCs are rare, and we are very grateful for it.
Although we are in a niche field of construction machinery rentals, discussing our collaboration with financial institutions helped gain the interest of business companies. We also had discussions about the potential for joint sales with a venture in disaster prevention.

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Incubion Inc.
CEO, Shoko Takahashi

We had very lively discussions with both business companies and ventures.
Additionally, we had an exciting conversation with local government representatives about matching support for multiple DX needs. Thank you very much.

Thank you to all the participating CVCs and startups!
We will continue hosting these events, keeping in mind the creation of more collaborative synergies and making things clearer for startups. Future themes will be announced soon!

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May: Regional Economic CVC Special

July: Deep Tech Special

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↓↓↓ Applications are accepted through the following form ↓↓↓

Startups: https://zfrmz.com/BoBasvRmrSzpb3rQqRfj

CVCs: https://zfrmz.com/m0JBSku5WYiHSFod5UfM

* Please be aware that some sessions may be fully booked.

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