New Year Greetings and Our New Strategies for 2026
Powered by the new strategies unveiled at the Global Brain Alliance Forum, Global Brain is moving forward as one unified team to make 2026 another year of transformative growth.
Warmest greetings for the New Year. I am Yasuhiko Yurimoto, President & CEO of Global Brain Corporation, and I am pleased to open 2026 by reflecting on some of our key achievements from 2025 and outlining our new strategies for the year ahead.
In 2025, we successfully launched five new funds, bringing our fundraising amount for the year to JPY 55.6 billion and AUM to JPY 405.2 billion. With 160 investments made, we rank fourth
Our portfolio saw strong exit momentum, with five IPOs and 10 M&A deals. Notably, this included several major exits exceeding JPY 100 billion both in Japan and overseas.
To build on this success for another year of transformative growth in 2026, we will forge ahead centered on the following strategic pillars I presented at our annual conference, Global Brain Alliance Forum 2025 (GBAF 2025), held on December 5, 2025.
Promote GB AI agents
As an AI-driven VC firm, we are developing three AI agents focusing on human-AI collaboration based on three perspectives: exploration of investment sectors through sourcing, investment evaluation, and portfolio company support.
By integrating GenAI into VC operations, we aim to build an environment that empowers our team to focus on what humans do best and enhance fund performance through a scalable structure.
Establish our position as the top DeepTech VC firm in Japan
GB has invested in a number of promising DeepTech startups and helped them achieve exits.
I believe this is the result of establishing our unique DeepTech investment style—driven by various efforts, including expanding our team of DeepTech experts, building networks with universities and large corporations, and providing intellectual property (IP) and government relations (GR) teams.
Last year, we saw multiple DeepTech exits, including Axelspace’s IPO and Cognigy’s largest-ever AI M&A deal in Europe, cultivating our expertise in this field.
We are committed to further accelerate this momentum and solidify our position as the top DeepTech VC firm in Japan.
Launch CVC as a Service
While the winter in the startup investment landscape persists and global VC activity has seen a significant downturn, CVCs are emerging more prominently than ever. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for large corporations.
GB will fully leverage this chance and move forward with the roll out “CVC as a Service.”
Our new service will encompass CVC consulting, a dedicated platform for VC operations, AI-driven new business exploration, and support for founding companies.
We remain fully committed to contributing our assets to the fullest as we work together with large corporations to lead the startup ecosystem.
Expand into the PE business
In Japan, the Growth Market’s initial market capitalization has remained at around JPY 10 billion. It is anticipated that IPO will become more challenging due to the revision of continued listing criteria based on market capitalization.
Even after being listed on the Growth Market, companies face challenges in securing enough capital for growth. Only 5% of the companies held public offerings in less than 5 years after IPO
The US is also seeing the VC model transform due to the changing market environment. Top US VCs are embarking on businesses outside the existing VC model, such as public market investments as well as long-term and continued management after the IPO.
In an era of such volatile change, we will leverage our assets to the fullest, aiming to expand our reach beyond traditional VC business into the private equity (PE) space, such as providing post-IPO support.
Contribute to the startup ecosystem
In 2025, we hosted various events to provide our insights and contribute to the startup ecosystem’s sustainable growth, welcoming approximately 5,000 participants from startups and large corporations.
Since 2024, we have also been holding periodic “Yurimoto-juku” (CEO Academy) sessions, designed to nurture and empower the next generation of independent VC entrepreneurs. This initiative is dedicated to giving back to next-gen VC entrepreneurs by sharing the latest market trends—from industry outlook and expertise on fund design—leveraging GB’s wealth of data and experience.
In 2026, we will further accelerate our knowledge-sharing initiatives by expanding our video content. We look forward to sharing more with you, so please stay tuned.
Toward establishing our GB-X fund
As investment activity through our GB-IX fund is progressing steadily, we are now preparing for the launch of our GB-X fund. With unwavering dedication, the entire firm is working together to ensure global top-tier performance, including that of our existing flagship funds.
We are kicking off 2026 with a firm-wide commitment to becoming a global top-tier VC. We look forward to another successful year together.
According to GB’s research based on PitchBook data ↩︎
According to GB’s research based on PitchBook data ↩︎
According to GB’s data aggregation targeting 837 companies that went public on Mothers/Growth Markets in or after 2003 based on “1st Growth Market follow-up meeting secretariat materials” of the Listing Department, Tokyo Stock Exchange ↩︎