Dentsu Ventures

Dentsu Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Dentsu Group, one of the world's largest advertising and marketing conglomerates. Founded in April 2015 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the firm operates two funds totaling 20 billion yen (approximately $134 million): Global Fund I covering 2015 to 2025 and Fund II launched in 2021 with a ten-year life. Managing Partner Kotaro Sasamoto leads a team that includes General Partners Daiji Horibe, Kevin Hasegawa, and Daisuke Takemori. With 65 investments across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, Dentsu Ventures backs companies from Seed through late stage in AI, advertising and marketing technology, media and entertainment, biotech, data analytics, and VR/AR. The portfolio has produced three unicorns, two IPOs, and 12 acquisitions. Notable investments include Mysten Labs (blockchain), GRAIL (cancer detection, acquired by Illumina), Twist Bioscience (synthetic biology, IPO), Kognitos (enterprise AI automation), and Skyflow (data privacy). Dentsu Ventures differentiates from independent VCs by offering portfolio companies direct access to Dentsu Group's global marketing capabilities, client relationships, and co-creation resources. Startups gain the dual benefit of financial backing and commercial acceleration through one of the world's most extensive advertising networks, making the firm particularly valuable to companies building in consumer-facing and enterprise software categories.