Japan’s Akatsuki to invest in Web3 startups with $20M funding

Akatsuki, a Japanese entertainment corporation, announced the launch of Emoote, a $20-million fund focusing on Web3 investing.

Emoote, based in Singapore, plans to invest in Asia, which is seen as a key market for Web3 companies.

The company, however, stated that it will maintain a “global perspective” and that it is searching for Web3 companies that can partner with Japanese entertainment and media organizations.

“We focus on early stage of investing that includes seed capital, mainly in Asia (50%) and the US (40%), with the remainder in other regions (10%),” the company said in a statement.

The company is focusing on three areas: Web3 token applications, Web3 IP development, as well as NFT, and digital fashion.

As people spend more time in the virtual world – not only with entertainment such as games but also with other digital activities such as social media and metaverses – where physical limits are removed, Akatsuki believes that digital fashion will likely overtake physical fashion as a company.

Emoote’s launch was not the company’s first effort into Web3. It has invested in startups in the US, India, and Japan through the AET Fund and Heart Driven Fund.

Akatsuki is a renowned smartphone game developer with offices in Japan and Taiwan. The studio has created games and other media such as comics and anime with a focus on characters and narrative.

The company added the incentive economy is an essential buzzword in Web3. This is an environment that rewards contributors, as demonstrated by the play-to-earn idea, in which users are contributors who earn money by playing games.

Akatsuki further explained that they “believe that NFT consumption, based on emotional values such as likes” and empathy is a very important mechanism that will provide the motivation upon which tokenomics can grow soundly in order to achieve sustainable growth of the token-centered economic zone.”