Voyage Ventures

Voyage Ventures, now operating under the name Carta Ventures, Inc., is the wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary of Tokyo-headquartered Carta Holdings, the publicly listed digital media and advertising technology group formerly known as Voyage Group and originally founded in the late 1990s as EC Navi. The venture vehicle itself was incorporated on March 25, 2011 as EC Navi Ventures Inc. to make minority-equity investments in internet and mobile-internet startups; it was rebranded to Voyage Ventures alongside the parent's Voyage Group rebrand, and subsequently to Carta Ventures when the parent became Carta Holdings. Carta Holdings has itself become part of a broader Japanese media ecosystem, operating under the influence of Japanese digital advertising and telecom strategic parents and with Dentsu in its ownership chain. The fund focuses on seed and early-stage Japan, China and other Asian internet and mobile-internet businesses, with adjacent activity in consumer, retail and enterprise software, generally as a co-investor. Ticket sizes are intentionally small at roughly JPY 1 million to JPY 10 million, consistent with a corporate seed program rather than a leading institutional fund. Across approximately 36 disclosed portfolio investments as of March 2020 the firm has produced 4 IPOs and 1 acquisition, with named exits including knowledge marketplace coconala, manga and IP platform TORICO, and Breaker. The investment team is intentionally small at three partners working closely with Carta Holdings' broader advertising-technology businesses for strategic alignment. As Carta Holdings' corporate seed program, Voyage Ventures backs early-stage Asian internet and mobile founders.