AnotherBall
16 known investors
AnotherBall is a Singapore-registered entertainment startup building the VTuber project IZUMO and virtual streaming apps.
Also known as AnotherBall Pte. Ltd. · AnotherBall株式会社 · IZUMO
Investors · 16
Also in the syndicate · 12
Company profile
researched Aug 2026AnotherBall Pte. Ltd. is an entertainment company established in May 2022 and registered in Singapore, led by CEO Shunsuke Oyu (known as "Captain") and CTO Tatsuro Shimada. Its stated purpose is "creating mutual understandings beyond boundaries," and its principal undertaking is IZUMO, a VTuber project launched in February 2023 with the mission "Live as you want to be." The company positions its strategy around taking Japanese cultural assets such as anime and VTubers to a global audience through technology.
Under IZUMO, AnotherBall has run projects including the avatar/character asset "Ailis" and the digital art project "SAI by IZUMO," produced with artists from the anime and gaming industries. Drawing on these, the company developed a platform intended to let creators worldwide build audiences and monetize content, with a beta scheduled for the first quarter of 2024 and a full public launch planned later that year. Subsequent products described in public listings include AniLive, a mobile streaming app for virtual creators, and Avvy, a VTuber avatar creation app.
The company operates with English as its official working language and a remote work setup, and has been publicly recruiting for roles spanning engineering, product, design and illustration.
Founding story
Before founding AnotherBall, CEO Shunsuke Oyu handed over leadership of his first company and travelled around the world with CTO Shimada. During that trip he attended a virtual idol concert in Shanghai, where a Chinese fan shouted a memorized Japanese phrase for Hatsune Miku; the experience convinced him that shared fandom can connect people across language and background. He describes this as an original experience behind founding AnotherBall as a "bridge" for delivering works and the feelings they inspire globally.
Business model
AnotherBall develops consumer virtual-entertainment products around the IZUMO project, including mobile streaming and avatar apps, aimed at enabling individual creators to acquire fans and monetize their activity on a platform the company operates.
Public material describes a creator-monetization platform and a planned mechanism under which a portion of royalties from sales of derivative works based on IZUMO characters would be returned to the project; detailed pricing terms are not disclosed.
Traction
Total disclosed funding of approximately $14.8 million as of November 2023 across an angel round and a seed round; IZUMO launched in February 2023 with the Ailis asset release in March 2023 and the SAI by IZUMO digital art project. Headcount is listed publicly in the 11-50 range.
Latest developments
In 2025 the company published a founding-story post on its official blog and continued recruiting, including for illustrators and animators on its Avvy product; a database entry notes Avvy, a VTuber avatar creation app, was set to exhibit at Anime Expo 2025.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
AnotherBall is an early-stage entrant in virtual entertainment, backed by Japanese and crypto-focused venture funds and by founders and executives from Twitch, Polygon, Mercari, Sony and other companies. One Japanese startup media profile cites third-party research valuing the global VTuber market at $448 million in 2022 with growth projected to $2.759 billion by 2029.
The company opened its Ailis avatar assets for free commercial and non-commercial use on the premise that characters should be held by a community rather than a single company, a departure from conventional IP licensing, and combines a Japanese otaku-culture foundation with an English-language, internationally oriented team.
Technology
The company works on avatar technology, VTuber-oriented mobile streaming applications and avatar creation tools, and has described IZUMO as a VTuber project of the AI and Web3 era; Ailis avatar assets are distributed openly for reuse.
Go-to-market
Products are taken directly to global anime and VTuber fans and creators through consumer apps, open release of character assets to encourage derivative creation and community ownership, social channels under the IZUMO brand, and event presence such as Anime Expo.
Individual virtual creators and VTubers seeking to build and monetize an audience, and the global anime, manga and VTuber fan community.
Geography
Registered and headquartered in Singapore, with a Tokyo presence noted in a Japanese tech-jobs listing and a fully remote work model; employees take national holidays of their country of residence.
History
AnotherBall was established in May 2022 by serial entrepreneurs who had previously created the family information site "mamari" and the multinational VTuber agency "PRISM Project," businesses reported as sold to KDDI and the Sony group respectively. The IZUMO project launched in February 2023, and the Ailis avatar assets were released freely for commercial and non-commercial use in March 2023. The company raised an angel round of about JPY 300 million in May 2023 and a $12.7M seed round announced in November 2023. Later public listings reference the AniLive mobile streaming app and the Avvy avatar creation app, the latter slated to exhibit at Anime Expo 2025.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsCompany profile describes AnotherBall as developing and operating AniLive, a mobile streaming app for virtual creators.
Seed round bringing total funding to approximately $14.8M, to be used to expand the team and development of the IZUMO creator platform.
$12.7M source ↗
Participants included Next Web Capital's Yusuke Obinata and Sota Watanabe, Sony CTO Hiroaki Kitano, Mistletoe's Taizo Son, Reijiro Hatoyama, Keisuke Honda's KSK Angel Fund, Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada, Polygon founder Jaynti Kanani, PlayCo founder Justin Waldron, former GoJek CEO Kevin Aluwi, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma, Mask Network CEO Suji Yan and Zeneca.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- AnotherBall, the Company Behind IZUMO, Secures $12.7M in Seed Funding, Surpassing $14.8M in Total Fundingprnewswire.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does AnotherBall do?
- AnotherBall is a Singapore-registered entertainment startup building the VTuber project IZUMO and virtual streaming apps.
- Who are AnotherBall's investors?
- AnotherBall's investors include Emoote, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Hashed.