Singapore / London, September 28, 2026 : Japan has the scientific depth, engineering capability and industrial base to produce globally significant deep-tech companies, but founders need to think internationally much earlier if they want to translate strong technology into global scale, according to Jo Slota-Newson of Almanac Ventures.
Speaking to AsiaBizToday for the Asia Insights series ahead of Global Startup Expo 2026 in Osaka, Slota-Newson said she is seeing growing interest in Japanese technology companies, including startups looking towards Europe, but believes the transition from strong domestic opportunity to international expansion can still be difficult.
Almanac Ventures is an early-stage deep-tech fund investing at pre-seed and seed stage in technologies applied to industrial systems. Slota-Newson began her career as a scientist, completing a PhD in solar energy technology at Cambridge before working in research and later moving into startups and venture capital.
She said that transition was driven by a desire to understand why some technologies succeed outside the laboratory while others do not.
“It wasn’t always the best technologies fundamentally that made it outside the lab and had impact,” she said, adding that she became increasingly interested in how technologies could be moved from research into real-world application.
That experience eventually led her into deep-tech investment and, later, into establishing Almanac Ventures with a co-founder around what she saw as an underinvested opportunity in industrial deep tech.
Japan’s Technology Base Is Drawing More Attention
Slota-Newson said she has encountered a growing number of Japanese technology companies over the past year, including startups looking to expand into Europe.
She has also been building relationships with Japanese corporates and said GSE2026 offers an opportunity to better understand the breadth of technology being developed in Japan and explore possible collaboration with European investors and industrial partners.
Japan has long had world-class science and engineering, but its research strength has not always translated into globally scaled startups.
Slota-Newson said she sees a stronger willingness among Japanese startups to scale and adopt a more international outlook, but believes the domestic market can sometimes make it tempting for companies to remain focused primarily on Japan.
“My sense is because Japan itself is a good market for startups, maybe some of them focus there a little bit too much,” she said. The challenge then becomes moving into a more international, often English-speaking, business environment.
Commercialisation Needs to Start Earlier
For deep-tech startups, Slota-Newson said one of the most important steps is to engage with industry much earlier in the development process. Rather than spending too long perfecting technology in a laboratory, researchers should begin speaking to corporates and manufacturers as soon as they have proof of principle.
That helps them understand whether the market actually needs the technology in the form they are developing it, what technical specifications will be required, how customers operate and how the technology must fit into existing industrial systems.
“It’s getting that feedback loop at the very, very early stages that really hone the technology into a product that can end up being developed and really pulled into the industry,” she said.
That point is particularly relevant to Japan, where research institutions, large industrial companies and advanced manufacturing capabilities can potentially form a strong commercialisation ecosystem.
Asked which areas of Japanese deep tech she finds particularly interesting, Slota-Newson pointed to a broad range rather than a single sector. She said she had recently seen interesting measurement and analytical tools, engineering approaches to miniaturising and ruggedising systems, and promising developments in agritech, including technologies aimed at improving genetic variation in crops.
The breadth itself is part of Japan’s appeal. For an investor focused on industrial deep tech, Japan combines research, manufacturing and established corporate customers in a way that can be valuable if startups can connect those strengths to global markets.
Japan and Europe Share Similar Challenges
Slota-Newson also sees parallels between Japan and Europe. Both benefit from governments that are willing to support research and early commercialisation, including grant funding and ecosystem support. She said this type of public-sector involvement can create long-term economic value by helping technologies move through early stages that might otherwise be difficult to finance.
But Japan and Europe also share a structural challenge: their domestic markets are attractive, but do not offer the same scale as the United States. That means deep-tech companies need to look internationally earlier.
“We need to make sure that the companies we’re developing are looking very internationally, from the early stages,” she said. For international investors evaluating Japanese deep-tech companies, language can still be a practical obstacle.
Slota-Newson noted that European startups often maintain core corporate and investment documents in English alongside their local language.
She suggested Japanese companies could make it easier for overseas investors by doing the same. “If Japanese companies could look to do that more, that would just break down one of those practical barriers,” she said.
The point may seem administrative, but it speaks to a broader issue. International capital does not only evaluate technology. Investors need to understand company structures, contracts, governance, intellectual property, customer relationships and financial information. Reducing friction at that level can make cross-border investment easier.
Female Founders Need Investment, Not Special Treatment
The conversation also turned to the persistent funding gap facing women entrepreneurs. Slota-Newson said the issue remains deeply frustrating because the imbalance is clear in funding data and investor behaviour.
She referred to research showing that women entrepreneurs are often asked questions focused on downside protection, while male entrepreneurs are more likely to be questioned about growth and upside potential.
Having spent her career in science and finance, both fields where she was often in a minority as a woman, Slota-Newson said she had long hoped the imbalance would correct itself.
She no longer believes that is happening fast enough. Her view is that female founders do not need to be treated as a separate category requiring constant mentoring.
“Female entrepreneurs don’t really need mentorship, they don’t need special treatment, they just need to be treated fairly and given the investment,” she said. She also argued that directing more capital towards female fund managers could help improve how investment flows across the wider ecosystem.
GSE2026 Needs to Build Long-Term Connections
For Slota-Newson, the value of GSE2026 will go beyond individual meetings. She said she hopes the event can create longer-term connections between organisations, including universities, accelerators, startup ecosystems, corporates and investors.
Her goal is to build relationships that allow ideas and investment opportunities to be shared over time rather than ending when the event concludes.
That could be especially important for deep tech, where commercialisation cycles are longer and partnerships often matter as much as capital. The most direct advice she offered Japanese founders was also the simplest.
“Think internationally from day one,” Slota-Newson said. “Look at where the global market is, and step forth with ambition.” For Japan’s deep-tech ecosystem, that may be the critical next step: converting a strong domestic research and industrial base into companies designed for international markets from the beginning.