About This Fund
Kepple Liquidity Fund 2 is the second vintage of the Kepple Liquidity Fund series, a Japan-focused venture capital secondaries vehicle managed by Kepple, a Tokyo-based financial technology and venture support company. The fund targets mid- to late-stage private companies approaching IPO readiness within a two-to-three year horizon, acquiring existing shareholders' equity through direct secondary transactions without the company raising new primary capital. Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) committed ¥3 billion ($19.3 million) to the fund, continuing the institutional endorsement it extended to Kepple Liquidity Fund 1 — where JIC committed ¥4.9 billion — underscoring government-backed conviction in secondary liquidity as a solution to Japan's startup ecosystem bottlenecks.
Kepple Liquidity Fund 2 employs a direct secondary strategy, purchasing equity stakes from early investors, founders, or employees in high-growth Japanese startups. This approach provides liquidity to early backers while allowing portfolio companies to remain private longer and focus on sustainable growth rather than pursuing premature public listings driven by investor redemption pressure. The fund's thesis addresses a documented structural issue in Japan's startup ecosystem: over-reliance on small-cap IPOs as the primary exit route — a dynamic that constrains company development and produces exits at sub-optimal valuations before companies have reached their full potential scale. By creating alternative secondary liquidity pathways, Kepple Liquidity Fund 2 enables Japan's most promising startups to remain private long enough to execute transformative, mature IPOs comparable to global peers.
The Kepple Liquidity Fund series was among the first dedicated VC secondaries vehicles in Japan, pioneering the secondary liquidity model in an ecosystem where the asset class was nascent. JIC's repeat commitment to Fund 2 following its backing of Fund 1 signals institutional confidence in both the strategy's viability and its systemic impact on the Japanese startup ecosystem. Kepple operates within a broader group that also manages Kepple Africa Ventures and provides digital products and investor support services across its global platform, reflecting an ambition to build secondary liquidity solutions for venture ecosystems at different stages of maturity.