Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund hosts an event for global VCs, startups, and major firms in the entertainment industry
The 021 Fund hosted a side event during Tokyo Game Show on Friday, September 22nd titled the Japan & Global Entertainment Investors Event 2023. The event, held at the Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall, invited over 100 guests working in VCs, startups, and major firms in Japan and overseas.
A first-ever event organized by the the Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund (pronounced Zero-to-one Fund) was co-hosted by Galaxy Interactive, a leading VC in the interactive entertainment space, and featured panel discussions by investors and business development personnel from Sega Sammy Holdings, Sony Innovation Fund, Square Enix, Pix Capital, and Makers Fund. The event concluded with a well-attended networking party that saw participants pouring out into the lobby space to network.
Yoyo Yang and Ryan You represented the 021 Fund and Galaxy Interactive respectively as co-hosts and kicked things off with an opening talk that discussed the Japanese entertainment market from the investors’ perspectives.
This was followed by two panel discussions that discussed the Japanese entertainment industry and startup ecosystem from the eyes of investors and industry professionals in Japan and overseas.
Yoyo from the 021 Fund moderated the first session, which looked at Japanese entertainment startups from various angles.
The panel featured investors from VCs actively investing in entertainment content and related tech in Europe, North America, and Asia. The three panelists discussed topics such as the strengths of Japanese entertainment content, the necessary mindset for global expansion, and the challenges that Japanese startups must overcome in the future. The three experienced experts in the global investment space provided unique, inspiring insights and ideas for everyone working in the entertainment industry, and the 45-minute session quickly ran out of time.
The second session explored the various approaches in CVC investments and invited investors from four major gaming firms, including Marin from the 021 Fund.
The panelists discussed topics including each company’s criteria for investments and the future of generative AI for gaming CVCs. The session highlighted similarities and differences between the four firms that are all actively investing in the gaming/entertainment space.
The event was organized in order to share industry insights, strengthen the connection among the participants, and boost the Japanese entertainment industry. We believe the event and the networking party helped to support Japanese startups as we not only saw investors connecting with other investors, but also Japanese founders pitching their ideas to investors coming from overseas.
Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund will continue to invest in technologies, services, and content in areas such as UGC, CtoC, AI, Web3, and Phygital experiences in order to create new forms of entertainment.
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■Overview of Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund
Main Investment Targets
Startups in Japan and overseas that provide entertainment-related products, promote UGC and CtoC, or deliver services or technologies that engage the community, are AI-related, related to Web3 content, or seamlessly connect the digital and physical space.
Investment Stages
Pre-seed to later stages
Investment Size
Total of 1 billion JPY per year (3 billion JPY in 3 years)
Ticket Size per Investment
10 million to 500 million JPY
Official Website
https://021fund.bn-ent.net/（JP）
https://021fund.bn-ent.net/en/（EN）