About This Fund
Minerva Growth Partners II LP is a Japanese growth equity fund established in 2025 and managed by Minerva Growth Partners Inc., a Tokyo-based investment firm co-founded in 2020 by Kei Nagasawa, former Chief Financial Officer of Mercari, Japan's first technology unicorn, and Kensuke Murashima, former Head of Japan and Global Internet Banking at Morgan Stanley. The fund operates in partnership with Pleiad Investment Advisors, a Hong Kong-based, SFC-regulated asset manager founded by former Soros Fund Management specialists Kenneth Lee and Michael Yoshino.
Fund II completed its first close on December 1, 2025, raising JPY 7 billion (approximately USD 44 million) against a target of approximately JPY 20 billion. Japan Investment Corporation committed JPY 3 billion at first close; approximately 60 percent or more of first-close capital came from overseas institutional investors including pension funds, family offices, and fund-of-funds gatekeepers. The fund maintains a 10-year duration with optional 2-year extension, targeting a final close in 2026.
The fund's investment strategy focuses on late-stage private technology companies in Japan with established product-market fit and a clear pathway to JPY 10 billion or more in annual revenue, with investment tickets ranging from JPY 1 to 3 billion per company. Target sectors include consumer internet, B2B software and SaaS, healthcare technology, and fintech. In addition to minority growth equity stakes, the fund executes crossover investments in listed equities, management buyouts in business succession situations, and take-private transactions, a differentiated mandate aimed at establishing growth equity as a distinct asset class within the Japanese private markets ecosystem.