LINE Ventures

LINE Ventures was the corporate venture capital arm of Line Corporation, creator of the LINE messaging app, founded in 2014 and headquartered in Tokyo. In April 2021, following the broader merger of LINE and Yahoo Japan under Z Holdings, LINE Ventures merged with YJ Capital — Yahoo Japan's CVC — to form Z Venture Capital (ZVC). ZVC now serves as the CVC arm of LY Corporation and operates from offices in Tokyo, Seoul, and San Francisco, investing across Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Southeast Asia. The combined entity has managed approximately 185 billion yen (over $1.2 billion) in investments since 2012, with the initial LINE Ventures Global fund launched at $100 million and ZVC's 2021 fund at 30 billion yen. Under the LINE Ventures brand, the firm made 42 investments and achieved 10 exits, including 6 acquisitions. Bear Robotics was acquired by LG in January 2025, and earlier exits included Syte and iPrice. The portfolio spanned software, AI, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, healthtech, and hardware and robotics sectors. ZVC leads rounds and backs startups at seed through Series B with typical checks of $500K to $10 million. ZVC president Shinichiro Hori leads the combined organization. The firm's primary value proposition beyond capital is access to LY Corporation's massive combined user base — the LINE app and Yahoo Japan together reach hundreds of millions of users across Asia. ZVC describes this as 'Value Beyond Capital,' helping portfolio founders rapidly validate products and scale through proprietary distribution channels, making it particularly compelling for consumer-facing startups with regional ambitions.