On September 14, 2022, Coral Capital, Japan's leading independent VC firm, announced that they are launching its new startup accelerator, “Coral Reef.”
Coral Capital is a venture capital firm with approximately 30 billion yen under management. The company invests in startups from pre-seed to Series A and B rounds, with initial investments ranging from 30 to 500 million yen and follow-on investments up to 2 billion yen, and provides hands-if style support to its portfolio companies, focusing on recruitment, fundraising, PR, and community.
Coral Capital began investing in February 2016 and has so far invested in about 100 startups in a diverse range of areas, from deep tech such as fusion engineering, robotics, and biotech to SaaS, Fintech, and cosmetics EC, regardless of whether they are BtoB or BtoC. The company’s seventh portfolio company, SmartHR, raised approximately 15.6 billion yen in June 2021 and became a unicorn company.
Coral Capital also continues to contribute to the development of the startup ecosystem in Japan by developing the standardized investment contract template "J-KISS," implementing Japan's first funding scheme using Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), and conducting vaccination for startups employees with the new coronavirus vaccine.
Coral Reef, a new startup accelerator announced by Coral Capital, is a comprehensive program that accelerates the growth of promising startups of their portfolio, as opposed to traditional Japanese accelerators for pre-funding team that focuses on open innovation. The program consists of several programs, including a six-month fundraising support program including a Demo Day, providing a co-working office, and recruitment support.
The company describes the iuntention of the launch of Coral Reef as follows:
“While many accelerators have emerged over the past decade in Japan, most have been supported by large companies, local governments, and universities in the context of open innovation and have focused on pre-seed funding startups. Coral Capital's accelerator, on the other hand, is designed to help promising startups that have already raised seed funding to accelerate their growth through series A and later funding and provides series of programs and a community of 100 portfolio company, where they can support each other. There have been few Japanese Y-Combinator-like accelerators where equity investment is the entry point and the community engages in friendly competition while venture capitalists and senior entrepreneurs provide support, except for programs of a few sector-specific VC firms. The main part of our program is the six-month funding support program seed-stage startup and the Demo Day. After the seed funding, founders who raised fund around the same time will join each other in the same batch and participate in the 6-month program like classmates or peers for the Demo Day. What differentiates Coral Reef from traditional accelerators in Japan is that the six-month funding support program is only a part of an overall program of Coral Reef. As a member of the Coral Reef community, you can participate in and take advantage of a variety of programs, including recruitment support, workshops, and community activities, even after the Demo Day and Series A funding.”
Coral Capital’s company profile is here:
https://protocol.ooo/en/companies/coralcapital