JapanPlatform
Asia · Pop. 124M · #15 startup ecosystem by EV
1 Overview
* C→Unicorn and Unicorn→Decacorn rates are derived from current counts (no founding-cohort data); the four mid-funnel rates use Dealroom's cohort tracking.
2 Largest rounds
Largest funding rounds in Japan
A live treemap of $40M+ rounds from the Dealroom API. Each cell is one round into a company headquartered in Japan, grouped by Dealroom sector.
Largest rounds in Japan - 2024–2026
3 Startup hubs
Inside Japan: 8 startup hubs, 900 universities
Hubs are sized by combined enterprise value; universities by the startup founders they produced. Hover any point for its numbers; the lists rank hubs by EV and universities by founders.
4 VC investment
How much venture capital flows into Japan
VC investment into Japan-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.
5 Founder origins
Where Japan's unicorn founders build
42 founders born in Japan are behind 21 unicorns; 19% of those were built in the US. Origins are resolved from biography and education history, not current address. Compare with the other origin countries in Asia, ranked by founders or per 1M inhabitants.
6 Location comparison
How Japan stacks up
Compare Japan with similarly sized ecosystems in Asia — switch between combined EV, 5-year EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.
Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.
Top ecosystems in Asia ranked by combined EV. Japan's row is highlighted (#6).
| # | Ecosystem | Combined EV | EV growth | Unicorns | VC invested | Tracked startups |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | $5.8T | 3.1× | 521 | $34.5B | 25.1K |
| 2 | India | $925B | 7.5× | 131 | $14.1B | 13.7K |
| 3 | Israel | $578B | 5.4× | 133 | $10.6B | 4,860 |
| 4 | South Korea | $433B | 15.4× | 48 | $8.3B | 8,131 |
| 5 | Singapore | $322B | 8.5× | 40 | $4B | 4,063 |
| 6 | Japan | $229B | 5.8× | 21 | $7B | 7,960 |
| 7 | Hong Kong | $178B | 12.4× | 21 | $3.1B | 1,280 |
| 8 | United Arab Emirates | $79.1B | 10.5× | 24 | $3.9B | 1,617 |
| 9 | Indonesia | $64.9B | 5.0× | 12 | $485.4M | 1,221 |
| 10 | Taiwan | $61.9B | 7.6× | 12 | $209.1M | 653 |
| 11 | Türkiye | $52.7B | 16.0× | 10 | $716.6M | 2,072 |
| 12 | Vietnam | $34.4B | 15.3× | 4 | $461.5M | 623 |
7 Patent intelligence
Japan startup IP portfolio: 1.5M patent families
Granted patent families assigned to startups headquartered in Japan. Aggregated across the country's hub-level filings — Bay Area, Boston, etc. roll up under the United States row, the same way Tokyo and Osaka roll up under Japan.
8 Sector concentration
Where Japan punches above its weight
Sectors in which Japan's share of the global unicorn pool is bigger than its overall share. A 5× over-index means Japan is 5× more represented in that sector than in the global average. Source: top-hub aggregation across the 18 simplified sectors.
More data
Explore Dealroom data →Get the full Japan ecosystem on Dealroom
Live company-by-company deal flow, full cap tables, founder pedigrees, hiring signals and revenue trajectories.