Delight Ventures

Delight Ventures is a Tokyo-based venture capital firm founded in July 2019 by Tomoko Namba, founder and chairperson of DeNA, one of Japan's leading internet companies. Originally spun out as a corporate venture unit with DeNA as its sole limited partner, the firm operates independently with investment decisions made by an autonomous team. Delight manages two funds — Fund I at approximately $100 million and Fund II at JPY 15 billion raised in 2023 — and has built a portfolio of 83 investments across Japan. The firm invests at pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages with average checks around $2 million and leads rounds. Focus sectors span AI, software, fintech, health tech, biotech, and climate tech. Portfolio companies include Matilda, Woodstock, EMLink, FundingBee, and A-SEEDS. Beyond direct investment, Delight operates a Venture Builder program that incubates companies from the ideation stage, often recruiting DeNA employees as founders and leveraging DeNA's business leaders as mentors — a structure unusual among Japanese VCs. A team of approximately 30, including seven partners, executes the firm's dual mandate across Japan and the United States. Managing Partners Tomoko Namba, Dai Watanabe, and Ryo Bando have structured the firm to pursue purely financial returns, ensuring portfolio companies maintain full optionality at exit with no obligation to align with a corporate parent's strategic agenda.