Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup developing generative AI tuned specifically for Japanese language and culture, has raised a ¥20 billion (approximately $135 million) Series B round, valuing the company at $2.65 billion post-money.
The funding round, which lifts Sakana’s total capital raised to roughly $379 million, included both new and existing backers. Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) joined global investors such as Khosla Ventures, Macquarie Capital, NEA, Lux Capital, and In-Q-Tel.
Sakana AI was founded in 2023 by former Google researchers Llion Jones, Ren Ito, and CEO David Ha. The company is positioning itself as part of a growing wave of alternative model developers — alongside Mistral, DeepSeek, and AI21 Labs — offering regional or specialized AI systems instead of competing directly with U.S. giants like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
Funding focus: R&D and enterprise expansion
Ha told TechCrunch the new capital will support model R&D, hiring across engineering, sales, and distribution, and expansion within Japan’s enterprise sector. Sakana has recently partnered with major domestic companies including Daiwa and MUFG, and plans to broaden its enterprise footprint beyond finance into industrial, manufacturing, and government clients in 2026.
Ha previously led research at Stability AI and held roles at Google and Goldman Sachs.
Growing demand for sovereign AI
Sakana says global interest is rising for “sovereign AI” — models tailored to national values, cultural context, and localized datasets. Rather than racing to build ever-larger frontier models, the company focuses its R&D on post-training innovation to create smaller, cost-efficient systems optimized for Japanese use cases.
Strategic moves ahead
The startup said it plans to “actively pursue strategic investment, partnerships, and M&A” as part of its long-term global strategy. The new round follows a Series A roughly a year earlier, when Sakana raised ¥30 billion (about $214 million) at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Featured image credits: Wikemedia Commons
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