Building on 2023's Momentum
By Ryan Mendoza, Partner
As we settle into 2024 with new focuses and plans, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on last year to take stock of what our teams, both in the U.S. and Japan, accomplished. Scrum Ventures continues to evolve, and our approach to investing, incubating, and accelerating has resulted in exciting programs that build and connect our community.
I started 2023 with a blog post about my predictions, emphasizing value-driven innovation, and operational efficiency and productivity. As the year progressed, it became a transformational year for the technology sector for a variety of reasons. The proliferation of foundational models laid the groundwork for a platform technology shift toward the era of machine intelligence. These models bring excitement and hope for disruptive businesses, the creation of new markets, and the promise of profound impact across industries such as healthcare, education, manufacturing, enterprise operations, and more. Our investments in 2023 in the U.S. and Japan were focused on the application of AI particularly in finance, drug discovery, and business intelligence. In addition, we looked into and invested in consumer healthcare, content, and sports & entertainment.
Some investment highlights include:
- AI: Spiral AI, Tradespace
- Healthcare: Stellar Sleep
- Decarbonization: Sun Metalon
- Content: Fever, 222, Titan Contents
- Sports: Campus Ink, Project Admission, TAPPP, and Bandit (read our blog post on Bandit)
On our Studio side, we are excited about how we broadened our scope of services around open innovation that connects corporate partners in Japan with innovative global startups.
SCRUM CONNECT 2023
In February, we hosted Scrum Connect 2023, which coincided with Scrum Ventures’ 10th anniversary. We invited founders from our portfolio, and with our corporate partners and LPs, we hosted a day-long event of panel sessions, keynote speakers, and product demos. This video, while for a Japanese audience, highlights the event.
Sports and Innovation Studio
In July, we launched Sports and Innovation Studio to promote innovation in the sports sector. Building on our prior programs centered around connecting and information sharing, we are incorporating co-creation and implementation of technologies with key partners, such as Japan Futsal Top League (F-League) and the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF).
GreenX
In October, we launched a climate-tech focused studio program, GreenX. This multi-year program attracts global founders and Japanese partners to work together to create technology that will help solve climate challenges.
AgeTechX
We also launched a studio program, AgeTechX, focused on technologies supporting longevity, healthy aging, and independence for seniors. This is a 3-year program that will continue until 2026.
Open Innovation Day
In December, we held Scrum Open Innovation Day, a joint event between our SmartCityX, Well-BeingX, and GreenX studio programs, to highlight and demonstrate the products and services participating startups are creating in these categories.
Incubation
In 2023, we began our fifth incubation project, supporting Fever, a discovery platform for live events that operates in over 180 cities around the world. They create Fever Originals by partnering with IP holders to create live entertainment venues for well-known shows, movies, artists, and more. Scrum provided support to Fever to enable a successful launch in Japan.
We are excited about what 2024 will bring, and we will continue to connect startups and corporations to create an environment that realizes untapped value and potential that will solve big societal issues. We will look to thematically source and invest in entrepreneurs building technologies and products in the areas of healthcare, climate, enterprise, and commerce, that utilize advancements in technologies such as AI, robotics/automation, and spatial computation. We will continue to build open innovation programs and will look to work with more corporate partners in the U.S. and Japan. If you are a startup founder or work in innovation and technology strategy at a corporation, we welcome inquiries and look forward to connecting with more of you.
Thanks to all who are part of the community we are building!
