Japan's Sakana AI secures $135 million in Series B funding
17 Nov 2025, 10:35 PMPart of the funds will also be used to make strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions.
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Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based artificial intelligence startup, said it has raised $135 million in its Series B funding round from new and existing investors including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Khosla Ventures, Factorial, Macquarie Capital, Fundomo, Mouro Capital and New Enterprise Associates.
Geodesic Capital, Lux Capital, Ora Global, MPower Partners, Shikoku Electric Power, and In-Q-Tel (IQT) also invested in the funding round, said Sakana AI in a statement.
The startup will use the fresh capital to boost its research and development (R&D) efforts, and strengthen its applied AI to deepen partnership in finance and expand in defense and manufacturing.
Part of the funds will also be used to make strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions.
Sakana AI, which was founded by David Ha, Llion Jones, and Ren Ito in July 2023, is engaged in developing innovative, energy efficient AI models using nature-inspired approaches. Ha is the CEO and has a background in AI research at Google, while Jones is also a former Google researcher. Ito is the COO and has previously worked at Stability AI.
This funding round comes just a little over a year after Sakana AI raised $200 million in its Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital, with participation from Translink Capital, 500 Global and Nvidia.
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