XTC Japan 2026
The seventh edition of XTC Japan was held on 3 March 2026 on the main stage of Japan Innovation Day 2026 (JID) an event drawing thousands of business leaders and held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho Hall. This year’s event included a record-breaking number of applications, 90% from university spin-offs and a growing collaboration with the Taiwanese startup community.
Technology knows no borders. Deep tech and technology startups tackling humanity’s greatest challenges have the potential to take on significant ventures with the global market as their stage. However, many international investors view Japan-originated deep tech and technology startups as “highly advanced and attractive investment opportunities, yet lacking a strong global business presence.”
XTC is an ecosystem that brings together approximately 80 global venture capital firms and major corporations with long-standing histories in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia. Our mission is to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities for global fundraising and business development networking through pitch contests co-hosted in over 20 regions worldwide.
Since 2020, we have held the annual Japan competition, “XTC JAPAN,” offering deep tech and technology startups mentoring and networking opportunities to thrive on a global scale. In 2025, we aim to further expand the scale of the event through collaborations with the startup exhibition “JID 2025 by ASCII STARTUP” and the accelerator “Plug and Play Japan.”
From the 10 Finalists announced in February who made live pitches at Hamamatsucho Hall, three companies received awards.
Showing the technological diversity and global reach that have become a hallmark of XTC Japan, the overall winner and runner-up in the Japan competition were
- Physiologus Technologies Co., Ltd. (Sagamihara)
Home hemodialysis machine that does not require a water supply - Dots For (Tokyo, Benin, Senegal)
Providing digital economic infrastructure to rural areas in Africa that lack electricity and communications.
(MOLCURE CEO/CSO Satoshi Tamaki)
MOLCURE, Kawasaki City, won the special Applied Intelligence Award with their AI antibody drug discovery platform with proprietary antibody language model and database; MOLCURE will be invited to present at XTC’s flagship AI:360 Conference to be held in California in November 2026, with Physiologus also in attendance.
AI drug discovery may seem like a very advanced field, but in reality it is still an industry with many challenges. In this context, we would like to create a reliable technology originating from Japan that will lead the industry in the future. We would like to use this award as an additional boost to spread our technology around the world.
Keynote by one of Europe’s largest VCs
(Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, Speedinvest)
The keynote speaker at XTC Japan 2026 was Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, general partner at Speedinvest, a major VC firm leading deep tech investment in Europe.
He advocated the importance of cooperation between Europe and Japan as a “neutral zone” in the Great Powers competition. In particular, he emphasized that the Japanese and European ecosystems are in a perfect complementary relationship, bridging the gap between each other, and stated emphatically:
“Europe has strong scientific roots and the speed of startups, but struggles with industrial-scale mass production. Japan, on the other hand, has exceptional industrial leadership and long-term capital. By combining the vitality of European startups with Japan’s industrial prowess, we can both create ‘global winners.'”
Speedinvest will be hosting an Extreme Tech Challenge AI:360 competition this Autumn as part of a global mobility/robotics conference TheAutonomous 2026 in Vienna.