Andreessen Horowitz, a leading US venture capital firm, said,
We have announced a seed investment in Shizuku AI. This Japanese startup will establish a new AI research base in Japan. The company aims to combine cutting-edge AI with Japanese character culture to develop the next generation of AI companions.
Shizuku AI originated from Shizuku, an AI VTuber who debuted in January 2023. It was originally a project started by AI VTuber developer Aki-sensei while he was a doctoral student at university. He can converse and sing in both Japanese and English, and is able to respond in real time thanks to Live2D, a technology that animates 2D illustrations. After a period of inactivity, he revamped his visuals in February of this year and began full-scale activities again. He is active on multiple platforms, including YouTube, Discord, and X.
Professor Aki is the lead author of the paper “StreamDiffusion,” which describes real-time image generation. It was presented at ICCV, an international conference on image recognition, in 2025. It has over 10,000 likes on GitHub. He has worked as a researcher at Meta and Luma AI.
Shizuku AI is currently recruiting engineers, designers, and other talent both domestically and internationally.
Shizuku AI has raised funds, the first for a Japanese startup, with a16z as the lead investor.
From Japan, we will do our best to create the world’s most beloved AI character, and an AI companion that will accompany and support you in your daily life!! https://t.co/FQ889k5eKN
— Aki Sensei (Aki) (@cumulo_autumn) February 10, 2026
reference
https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-shizuku-ai/
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