Investors / Japan / Universal Materials Incubator
Universal Materials Incubator
Venture capital · Tokyo, Japan · Asia Pacific
Universal Materials Incubator is a Japanese investment firm focused on the materials and chemicals sector. It invests in and provides hands-on business support to startups, working with large corporations and academia to build partnerships and exit scenarios.
Invests inIndustrial & ManufacturingHealthcare & Biotech
In its own wordsmaterialschemicalsdeep techopen innovationgreen transformationindustry collaboration
Your fit with Universal Materials Incubator
Four questions about your startup
See how your round matches what it backs, point by point.
Or find every investor that fitsUniversal Materials Incubator lists 16 checked portfolio companies on its own site and is named in 2 funding rounds, 1 of them as lead. Its most frequent entry is Series A, 50% of the companies with a known first round. Its largest themes are Industrial & Manufacturing (29%), Healthcare & Biotech (21%) and AI & Machine Learning (14%). 87% of its companies are based in Japan. It invests most often alongside Beyond Next Ventures, Global Brain and OSAKA University Venture Capital.
Counts come from funding rounds that name Universal Materials Incubator, complete from mid-2025: earlier rounds appear only when they were reported later. Round amounts and full round histories are on Fundup AI.
Round figures show recent activity, not Universal Materials Incubator's whole history. Rounds on record name 2 companies; its own site lists 16. Funding rounds are complete from mid-2025, so counts and the yearly trend undercount a firm that invested before then. The portfolio, themes and places come from its own site and are not affected.
Entry stage
share of companies by the stage of its first roundUniversal Materials Incubator does not state its stages on its site, so only what it does is shown.
Show as a table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Pre-seed | 0% |
| Seed | 0% |
| Series A | 50% |
| Series B | 50% |
| Growth | 0% |
Activity by year
rounds it joined, last 10 yearsShow as a table
| Total | Rounds it led | |
|---|---|---|
| '17 | 0 | 0 |
| '18 | 0 | 0 |
| '19 | 0 | 0 |
| '20 | 0 | 0 |
| '21 | 0 | 0 |
| '22 | 0 | 0 |
| '23 | 0 | 0 |
| '24 | 0 | 0 |
| '25 | 2 | 1 |
| '26 | 0 | 0 |
Investor profile
percentile among all firmsShow as a table
| Measure | Percentile of all firms | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Portfolio size | 42th | 16 companies |
| Recent activity | 46th | 0 rounds in 12 months |
| Early stage | 54th | 0% of entries at pre-seed or seed |
| Evidence | 52th | 0% of companies confirmed by a round |
| Sector focus | 48th | 29% in its largest sector |
| Reach | 58th | 3 countries |
Investment themes
share of its checked companiesThis firmAll checked companies
Show as a table
| This firm | All checked companies | |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial & Manufacturing | 29% | 7% |
| Healthcare & Biotech | 21% | 15% |
| AI & Machine Learning | 14% | 18% |
| Space & Defense | 11% | 3% |
| Food & Agriculture | 7% | 3% |
| E-commerce & Marketplaces | 4% | 6% |
| Consumer | 4% | 3% |
| Climate & Energy | 4% | 1% |
Invests most often with
firms sharing its portfolio companiesShow as a table
| Share | |
|---|---|
| Beyond Next Ventures | 2 |
| Global Brain | 2 |
| OSAKA University Venture Capital | 2 |
| 3one4 Capital | 1 |
| Accel | 1 |
| AccelR8 | 1 |
| Angel Bridge | 1 |
| Bertelsmann India Investments | 1 |
Its portfolio companies
where they are based, and what their own sites showSite status
- Site answers16100%
- No longer answers00%
- Points to another company00%
- Parked or sold domain00%
A site that stops answering three checks in a row is counted as no longer answering; that is not proof of closure. A site that points to another company is often an acquisition.
Co-investor network
who it backs companies with, and who they back togetherAll co-investors or Compare portfolios with Beyond Next Ventures
Compare Universal Materials Incubator head to head
portfolio size, rounds, entry stages, themes and the companies both backThree or more firms at once: portfolio overlap.
Recent portfolio activity
when companies last raised with Universal Materials Incubator| Date | Company | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug 2025 | Series A Led | |
| 12 Mar 2025 | Series B |
Round details for Universal Materials Incubator
Amounts, full round histories and every co-investor in Universal Materials Incubator's rounds are on Fundup AI. VCinfo covers investors and their portfolios.
Portfolio
16 companies checked against their own sites| Company | What it does | Themes | First round with it | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andes incorporates beneficial microorganisms in agricultural fields to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere | AI & Machine LearningAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Arzeda designs proteins for various applications, including sweeteners, home care, advanced materials, and biologics. | Healthcare & BiotechFood & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| The company analyzes microbial genomes and develops bio-products | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| The company manufactures and researches next-generation batteries and energy storage systems. | Industrial & ManufacturingE-commerce & Marketplaces | Portfolio page | ||
| EF Polymer develops and manufactures a superabsorbent polymer made from upcycled crop waste | AI & Machine LearningAI & Machine Learning | Portfolio page | ||
| Fermelanta builds biomanufacturing platforms to produce rare natural ingredients through programmable fermentation | Healthcare & BiotechSpace & Defense | Aug 2025Series A | Funding round | |
| Goryo Chemical develops and manufactures fluorescent probes and navigation drugs for cancer diagnosis and treatment. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| The company develops and sells plant-based food products. | Food & Agriculture | Portfolio page | ||
| The company provides innovative water treatment solutions and technologies to improve wastewater processing efficiency and contribute to environmental sustainability. | Industrial & ManufacturingEnterprise Software | Portfolio page | ||
| The company aims to achieve carbon neutrality by manufacturing sustainable propylene and its derivatives from bioethanol using zeolite catalyst technology. | EducationIndustrial & Manufacturing | Portfolio page | ||
| The company engages in various businesses including commercial plant operations, technology licensing, apparel, bottle recycling, and chemical recycling. | ConsumerIndustrial & Manufacturing | Portfolio page | ||
| LiSTie is a company that collects and recovers lithium, a resource essential for electric vehicles, smartphones, and renewable energy storage. | Space & DefenseIndustrial & Manufacturing | Portfolio page | ||
| The company develops systems to measure pain using brain waves and provides services to medical institutions. | Healthcare & Biotech | Portfolio page | ||
| Polastech develops and sells functional adsorbent materials and heat pumps for industrial and data center applications | Industrial & ManufacturingClimate & Energy | Portfolio page | ||
| Scimplify develops and manufactures advanced materials and specialty chemicals | Industrial & ManufacturingHealthcare & Biotech | Mar 2025Series B | Funding round | |
| Tsubame BHB develops and provides on-site ammonia production technology using an electrolyte catalyst that enables ammonia synthesis at low temperatures and pressures. | Industrial & ManufacturingSpace & Defense | Portfolio page |
About this data
site last read 5 Nov 2026- Site
- umi.co.jp
- Last read
- 5 Nov 2026
- Watching since
- 5 Nov 2026
- Rounds since
- 12 Mar 2025
- Companies checked
- 16
Rates come from what VCinfo has observed since observation_start. Firms tend to remove companies that closed, so early rates understate reality. A company leaving a portfolio page does not mean it closed or exited. An unreachable site means our checks failed, nothing more.
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