About our purpose

Creating industries to pass
on to future generations

Solution

Solving social problems

Solving social problems by pouring
capital, insight, and credit into growth companies

Creation

Creating new industries

Creating industries to pass on to future generations
through solving social problems

Accumulation

Sustainably accumulating assets

Sustainably accumulating capital, insight, and credit
through creating new industries

Creating new industries that can be passed on to future generations is what Signifiant aims to do, and our reason for being.

The startups that we work with through our management engagement, the investors who entrust their funds to Signifiant, the partner companies that support our activities, and many other stakeholders work together with Signifiant to help us achieve our goal of creating new industries.

Each of them are vital stakeholders for us, but we at Signifiant feel that we especially need to make sure to contribute to the people who will live in the society of the future.

Solving social problems, creating new industries, and sustainably accumulating assets are what we identified as the key elements when we broke down our methodology for creating new industries.

For startups to continue to grow and provide real impact to society, they need three key managerial resources: capital, insight, and credit. Also, if the business does not contribute to solving social problems, then it will not grow to be an enduring industry. Through the creation of these new industries, there will be sustainable accumulation of capital, insight, and credit that can be given to new startups, completing the cycle that we aim to achieve.

About our business

Industrial Finance

Industrial Finance Business

We provide risk money and insight into management strategy to later stage private startups, and support management to enable continued growth after the IPO

Management Advisory

Management Advisory Business

We provide fast-growing startups with management insight necessary to grow corporate value, regardless of whether they are pre-IPO or post-IPO

Public Equity Investment

Public Equity Investment Business

We conduct our own investments into the equity of publicly listed companies primarily in Japan

The above three businesses are closely and organically related for the purpose of achieving Signifiant's mission of "Creating industries to pass on to future generations."

We believe that the engine that will create new industries for the future is startups. To enable these startups to achieve long-term growth, we need to give them management insight, capital, and credit.

The three businesses at Signifiant may have different methods, but our activities aim to pour these managerial resources into startups both private and public, and this is precisely the role that Signifiant aims to fulfill to help the Japanese startup ecosystem to develop.

As we fulfill our roles at Signifiant, we are also prepared to pursue a variety of businesses, not limiting ourselves to our existing three businesses. All businesses that aim to solve social problems, create new industries, and sustainably accumulate assets are targets for Signifiant.

About our name

In the field of semiotics, the French Signifiant refers to the signifier.

In semiotics, everything in the world is captured in the set of concepts of the French Signifiant (signifier) and the French Signifié (signified).

Using an apple as an example, the red fruit that physically exists is the Signifié, while the letters for the word "apple" itself, and the sounds for that word are the Signifiant. Ordinarily, the red fruit (Signifié) and the sounds for the word apple (Signifiant) do not necessarily need to be linked.

Usually, we tend to think that if an object (Signifié) exists, then humans are able to recognize that object. However, in semiotics, the presence of the Signifiant is what allows humans to recognize objects and phenomenon (Signifié) from among all of the other phenomenon existing in the world.

The letters for the word apple and the sounds for the word apple are what allow us to recognize the red fruit. That is how semiotics interprets the world.

We aspire to allow companies to stand out from among the other companies by pouring managerial resources into them. For this reason, we chose the name Signifiant for our company.

About our company

Company name

Signifiant Inc.

Businesses

Industrial finance
Management advisory
Public equity investment

Established

July 2017

Founders

Yusuke Asakura
Kenji Kobayashi
Takafumi Murakami