LUCA Japan

Established in July 2021, LUCA Japan Co., Ltd. is a financial technology firm aiming to democratize access to alternative investments for Japanese investors. The company was co-founded by CEO Keiko Sydenham, Akio Tanaka, and Motoya Kitamura, who bring extensive experience from the global financial and technology sectors. Sydenham's career includes roles at Blackstone Group and JP Morgan Asset Management, focusing on alternative investments. Kitamura has a background in private equity fund management with firms like Macquarie Group, while Tanaka has experience in venture capital at Adobe and Headline Asia. This collective expertise underpins the company's mission to address the complexities that have traditionally limited access to this asset class.

LUCA operates a digital platform that streamlines the entire investment lifecycle for alternative assets, including private equity, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure, and private credit. The platform provides a one-stop solution for discovering, comparing, and investing in a curated selection of global and domestic funds. It digitizes historically complex processes such as onboarding, know-your-customer (KYC) procedures, document signing, and reporting, making them more efficient. LUCA's target clientele includes high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), family offices, and wealth managers like trust banks and securities firms. The platform is also designed to serve a younger, digitally savvy generation of affluent investors in their 20s to 50s.

The company's business model addresses several challenges in the Japanese market, such as non-digitized procedures and high minimum investment thresholds. By establishing feeder funds, LUCA significantly lowers the entry point for investors. Following the acquisition of a Type II Financial Instruments Business and Investment Advisory license in 2024, the company plans to reduce minimum investment sizes from around $100,000 to as low as $10,000-$50,000, enabling greater portfolio diversification. The platform provides robust reporting features, allowing investors to monitor their portfolio performance through a consolidated dashboard. Since its inception, LUCA has secured approximately $4.48 million in funding over multiple rounds from investors including Delight Ventures, Mizuho Financial Group, East Ventures, and Plug and Play Tech Center. A strategic partnership with Singapore-based Xen Technologies, initiated in 2022, was instrumental in developing the platform for the Japanese market.

Significant milestones include the launch of a beta version of the platform in November 2022, followed by the first fund product in April 2023. In 2024, the company launched its upgraded LUCA 1.0 platform and opened a Singapore office to expand its global reach, offering access to unlisted stocks of North American mega-ventures through partnerships with local private banks. The firm also gained recognition by winning two awards at the FINOPITCH 2023 startup contest.

Keywords: alternative investments, private equity, venture capital, private credit, real estate investment, infrastructure funds, high-net-worth individuals, family office, wealth management, financial technology, investment platform, digital onboarding, portfolio diversification, asset management, Japanese investors, feeder funds, cross-border investment, fintech startup, unlisted stocks, investment reporting