Kaoru Hayashi co-founded Japanese digital communications company Digital Garage in 1995, and has led the company’s corporate venturing unit DG Ventures since it was set up in 2017 under the name Digital Incubation.
The aim of DG Ventures’ investment and business support activity is to play a role of a technology incubator which can creating new media that can affect the world positively, both today and in the future.
Among its recent investments are participation in the $15m series A round for Limbix, a digital therapeutics platform for mental health issues, and a role in the venture round for Milize, a financial engineering specialist.
Other DG Ventures portfolio companies include fintech company MX Technologies, Playco, a cross-platform video games developer, and Sendo, an ecommerce platform based in Vietnam. The unit was an early investor in social media firm Twitter, and has also realised exits from website management tool Pocket and Wish, a digital shopping app.
The DG Ventures team embraces a philosophy developed by its parent company known as the “first penguin” spirit. According to the firm, this concept is inspired by penguins who dive into the sea for food despite the danger of being caught by predators. In each case, there is one particularly brave penguin which is willing to test the waters on behalf of the group – and which is known as the “first penguin”.
In investment terms, DG Ventures says, this means approaching challenges with courage and conviction, and supporting like-minded entrepreneurs who dare to be pioneers in their respective regions and industries.
