Mouro Capital invests in Sakana AI, a Japanese frontier-AI company

Mouro Capital is proud to announce its investment in Sakana AI, a Japanese frontier-AI company redefining how artificial intelligence systems are built.

Sakana AI’s world-class team is pioneering a self-improving AI paradigm that aligns with Mouro Capital’s view of AI as a core driver of the future of financial services and the growing need for sovereign AI capabilities.

Currently, a record amount of capital is being directed towards AI computing at a pace that may not be sustainable, funding AI businesses without a clear path to profitability and consuming unprecedented levels of energy to develop AI models under the assumption of near-limitless resources.

However, is this really the future that should be built? As an AI R&D company based in Tokyo, Sakana AI also questions whether this is the right approach for Japan, a nation with limited resources, to develop its sovereign AI.

Sakana AI believes that intelligent life arises not from abundance, but from scarcity. Nature ultimately selects systems capable of doing more with less. While it is debatable whether such constraints are a requirement for intelligence to emerge, it is undeniable that human intelligence is a result of resource limitations. Sakana AI has always done things differently: from the beginning, its research has focused on developing AI technology efficiently and sustainably. Rather than reinventing the wheel by training yet another large foundation model from scratch, the company pioneered methods to combine existing open-source models through evolution, use tree search to combine closed models, and enable models to self-improve, pushing the frontier of AI capabilities.

Last year, Sakana AI also pioneered the use of LLM agents to automate AI science, allowing AI itself to discover more efficient algorithms. Energy-efficient language models were developed to run on edge devices, and the company is working on entirely new AI architectures that could usher in a vastly more efficient AI paradigm.

Sakana AI’s business model has been created with sustainability and profitability in mind. This year, the company has built a healthy and growing enterprise AI business, partnering with some of the largest companies in Japan to deploy AI-enabled applications capable of delivering real return on investment for clients.

For Japan, with a declining workforce and an aging population, the benefits of AI technology are clear. Sakana AI believes that the right path for Japan is to develop its AI ecosystem sustainably through innovation and collaboration, with a strong focus on societal implementation of technology.

Sakana AI Raised 20 Billion Yen to Build Sustainable AI in Japan

Sakana AI’s mission is to develop AI solutions tailored to Japan’s needs and democratize AI in the country. While much progress has been made this year, there is still more to do. For this reason, the company proudly announces that it has raised 20 billion yen (135 million US dollars) in its Series B to accelerate its mission: to develop AI sustainably and implement AI that benefits Japan.

Sakana AI receives support from new and existing investors, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Khosla Ventures, Factorial, Macquarie Capital, Fundomo, Mouro Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Geodesic Capital, Lux Capital, Ora Global, MPower Partners, Shikoku Electric Power, and In-Q-Tel (IQT).

Mouro capital invests in Sakana AI

This first investment in Japan marks a strategic entry into a fast-growing tech ecosystem with meaningful long-term potential — through a company with truly global ambitions.

Manuel Silva Martinez of Mouro Capital said: "We are excited to partner with Sakana AI as part of our commitment to shaping the future of global financial services through #technology. Through this investment, we look forward to learning from Sakana AI’s deep expertise in scalable AI #infrastructure, exploring new collaboration opportunities to transform how technology and finance intersect and, through our investors and stakeholders, supporting Sakana’s international expansion."