Animal Spirits LLC (Representative Partner: Yusuke Asakura), a venture capital firm, announced the establishment of its second fund, "Animal Spirits 26 Investment Limited Partnership," on April 30, 2026. Building on the insights gained from its first fund's investment activities, this second fund adopts an operational policy of a "disciplined mid-sized fund" suitable for the Japanese startup market. In its first fund, established in 2023, the company focused on "social transformation for future generations" as its investment theme, investing in 27 companies primarily in the seed and early stages. To date, it has achieved three exits, including the stock listing of Batonz Inc. and the M&A of Michivik Inc., supporting the growth of its portfolio companies. In recent years, venture capital firms have been increasing in size both domestically and internationally. However, the Japanese startup market has a unique structure compared to the US market in terms of market capitalization at the time of listing and the scale of publicly traded shares. Our goal is to create startups that generate major industries and drive "social transformation for future generations." To continuously fulfill this mission, it is essential for the fund to generate sustainable returns. Therefore, we believe it is important to maintain an appropriate size that balances investment discipline with support quality, rather than aiming for scale expansion. With this philosophy in mind, following our first fund (approximately 6.3 billion yen), we have set the target fund size for the second fund at 6 to 8 billion yen to maintain a disciplined mid-sized scale. While avoiding the dilution of investment discipline due to increased size, we will secure the capital supply capacity necessary for entrepreneurs to continue their challenges, maintain a system for continuous engagement with entrepreneurs, provide sufficient risk money at the necessary timing, and be deeply involved with each company. The investme