J-Seed Ventures, a Japan-based startup fund, this morning announced Venture Generation, a 180 square-meter startup incubator located in Tokyo. The space is set up for fledgling startups — both local and foreign — to enjoy a co-working space at an affordable monthly rate. Some of the facilities you can expect are WiFi, workstations, office equipment, and also three conference rooms for meetings.
More than 25 venture advisers have committed to support Venture Generation members on a voluntary basis. Two of those 25 are Michael Korver, co-founding partner of GVC, and Tetsuya Isozaki, founder of Femto Startup, a hands-on fund that focuses on helping entrepreneurs.
Most importantly, Venture Generation is a mixture of Japanese- and English-speaking environments. The advisers recruited have both Japanese (local) and overseas experience to help startups expand outside of Japan and also help foreign startups that are working in the country.
The man behind J-Seed is Jeff Char, a serial entrepreneur and also the founder of J-Seed. Rick and I spoke with him briefly in Tokyo last year where he explained that starting up in Japan is a tough process because of ridiculous rental fees and fixed deposits. Other entrepreneurs in Japan also highlighted the same problem. It’s great to see Jeff and company doing something about it, and hopefully more of such projects can mushroom over time. Other incubation spaces in Tokyo include Samurai Incubator and Crosscoop, the latter of which also has a big co-working space located in Singapore.
Venture Generation will be available from March 2012 onwards. For any aspiring startups out there who would like to apply for membership or an internship, you can get in touch via the J-Seed link up top.
Jeff Char pictured right, from our visit to J-seed, where we learned a little about piku.jp
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