Yoshihiko Kinoshita

Yoshihiko Kinoshita was born December 29, 1985 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He attended Salesio Gakuin High School and graduated from Waseda University's Faculty of Science and Engineering (entering the workforce around 2009). He began his career in venture capital at Daiwa SMBC Capital (the VC arm of the Daiwa Securities Group, now Daiwa Corporate Investment), then joined the independent VC Incubate Fund in 2011.

In August 2012, at age 26, Kinoshita founded Skyland Ventures, becoming one of Japan's youngest VC fund founders at the time. He built the firm around a seed-stage thesis under the mission "The Seed Maker," deliberately backing very young founders — roughly half of early portfolio founders were student entrepreneurs. Skyland has raised a series of funds: a ¥500M 1st fund (2013), a ¥900M 2nd fund (2015), a ¥950M 3rd fund (2018), and a ¥5B 4th fund (2022) oriented toward Web3 and new-internet fields, with investors including the SBI Group.

The firm has invested in over 200 startups since its founding and has produced multiple IPOs and acquisitions. Its single most celebrated outcome is an early ("founding") investment in ANYCOLOR (the VTuber company behind Nijisanji) via its 2nd fund in 2017, which reportedly returned on the order of ~4,000x after the company's IPO. Kinoshita also operates community/incubation infrastructure around the firm, including the #HiveShibuya coworking space (opened 2015) and incubation programs such as "CryptoLand" and "荒波 (Aranami)."

• Stage: Seed and pre-seed — gets in at the earliest, "founding investment" point.
• Who he backs: Young, hands-on founders (historically students and people in their 20s); values founders deeply involved in their product and willing to accept mentorship.
• Sectors: Generative AI, Web3/crypto, entertainment, and consumer/inbound internet are the firm's current declared themes; from 2022 the fund leaned heavily into Web3 and AI.
• Active, hands-on capital: He argues VCs should provide more than money — hiring help, introductions, and organizational/business mentorship rather than passive capital.
• Global ambition: Drawn to startups with international expansion potential (e.g., his early backing of Translimit's "Brain Wars," which drew ~95% of users from overseas).
• In his own words: He emphasizes "drive" — the willingness to "jump into and seize opportunities rather than trying to anticipate when the next one will come. 'Just do it.'"