Headline Asia, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Tokyo, has closed its fifth and largest fund to date at $145 million to support Asia’s cross-border startups.
The fifth fund—Headline Asia Fund V—is anchored by leading government and institutional LPs, including Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), National Development Fund of Taiwan (NDF), Korea Venture Investment Corporation (KVIC), and SME Support Japan.
“The fund will support a new generation of founders building in high-growth sectors including e-commerce, logistics, fintech, IP and artificial intelligence—domains where Asia is setting new global standards,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fund V is already deploying capital, with 17 startups backed to date. It will invest in Series A rounds, with cheque sizes ranging from $1-5 million.
Headline Asia (formerly Infinity Ventures) is a partner-led firm with long-standing operations in Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. It has dedicated teams in Tokyo, Taipei and Singapore.
Its predecessor fund, Fund IV, had a corpus of $100 million and closed in 2021. The National Development Fund of Taiwan, Abico Group, Otto Group of Germany, GREE Ventures, Tokyo-listed social media firm Mixi, and Kotaro Chiba invested in the fund.
The firm has backed over 100 startups and achieved nine IPOs or exits, including China-based technology platform Yeahka; WealthNavi, a platform for asset managers which uses risk management algorithm for asset management advice; and 17LIVE, a mobile application that offers live video streaming and real-time content sharing services.
Akio Tanaka, Partner, Headline Asia told DealStreetAsia that the VC’s core strategy—Japan plus Asia—has remained consistent. “There are some clear nuances that have evolved between Fund IV and Fund V. One of the most significant changes for us is the growing number of cross-border business development opportunities across Asia. This includes not only Japanese companies expanding abroad, but also startups and businesses from Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia entering the Japanese market,” Tanaka said.
This heightened level of cross-border activity, both inbound and outbound, is shaping up to be a defining theme for Fund V, the executive added.
While the firm remains focused on the early stage and won’t typically go deeper into Series C, D, or E rounds, it does intend to play a more active role in follow-ons, especially at the Series B stage.
Broadly speaking, Headline Asia’s portfolio is about 60% Japan and 40% outside the archipelago.
Within the non-Japan allocation, the focus remains firmly on Asia—with particular attention to markets like Taiwan, Korea, and the broader East Asia region.
“Our key consideration when investing outside Japan is identifying markets where we can add tangible value by helping startups build meaningful connections with Japan. This could involve facilitating market access, supporting fundraising from Japanese investors, or often a combination of both,” said Tanaka.
As Fund IV’s investment period aligned with the latter part of the fund cycle, the firm does not yet have meaningful DPI figures to report at this stage.
“However, for Fund II and Fund III, we have delivered exceptional DPI, reflecting strong realised returns. I’d like to emphasise that our track record on DPI is one of our key strengths and differentiators,” Tanaka added.
The firm is currently a little over one-third deployed, and still has a significant amount of dry powder remaining. It expects this year and next year to represent the core of the fund’s investment period, with a strong pipeline of opportunities ahead.
In May 2021, Infinity Ventures jointly rebranded as Headline Asia with e.ventures—a global VC with offices and teams in the US, Brazil, Germany and Japan. Infinity Ventures was founded in 2008.
