MetaProp launched the APAC Scout Program in 2023 to back early-stage technology companies reinventing the physical world across Asia Pacific. We saw founders with deep experience in real estate and construction building businesses around problems they knew firsthand. We had an opportunity to invest early and help them build for new markets, combining what MetaProp had seen work and fail in North America with our local knowledge and relationships.

Three years later, we’re working alongside these founders as they tackle some of the region’s most persistent problems: vacant homes that could house families, construction work slowed by manual processes, the difficulty of measuring industrial emissions, and more. Today, they are working with major Japanese institutions, attracting global investors and bringing their technology to customers overseas.

This week, Toggle Holdings listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, marking a major milestone for our APAC Scout Program.

The Opportunity We Saw in Japan

My own path to this work began with buildings. I studied architectural design at Keio University and worked at the architecture firm SANAA. At Sumitomo Corporation, I worked across the life of a real estate project, from acquiring a property through development, construction and its eventual sale. In 2018, I moved to the United States to work on Sumitomo’s venture investments, looking for startups whose technology could help its existing businesses. That meant understanding both the founder’s ambition and what it would take for a large company to put that technology to use.

When I joined MetaProp in 2022, I brought that experience and relationships with founders across the region. Our team had spent years evaluating companies serving real estate and construction, and we could use that knowledge to help founders here think through similar challenges. The Scout Program gave us a focused way to do that: back companies early and work with them as they grew.

We set out to invest in six to eight companies, with a reach beyond Japan into South Korea, Singapore and Australia. In the first year, we backed one company each quarter: Yamori, Toggle Holdings, Asuene and H2 Corporation.

Turning Persistent Problems into Ambitious Businesses

Yamori is tackling one of Japan’s most persistent housing problems: the growing number of empty homes, called “akiya”. The team uses technology to identify, restore, and manage these properties, bringing them back to life as affordable housing. Yamori is now bringing that experience to a new housing fund backed by the Tokyo government and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank, helping turn unused properties into places families can afford to call home.

Asuene is building a global platform to help manufacturers measure and cut emissions across their supply chains. Its acquisition of Secaro adds a network spanning more than 90 countries, serving companies including Toyota, Honda and GM.

H2 Corp is automating the painstaking work of turning construction drawings into material quantities, estimates and orders. Its platform already powers hundreds of thousands of takeoffs and quotes. Following a 2025 round led by NEA, with renewed backing from MetaProp, the company is expanding its business in the United States.

Our regional portfolio also includes TERASS, which helps experienced Japanese real estate agents work independently. Its platform supplies the brokerage support, mortgage tools and client management software they need to run their businesses.

Toggle’s IPO: A Full-Circle Moment

Toggle’s founder and CEO, Yoshimori Ito, previously founded ITANDI, a rental leasing software company. At Toggle, he has taken on another very practical real estate problem: finding land that can become a development site, even when none of it is for sale.

In and around Tokyo, neighboring plots can be worth more together because combining them allows a larger building. Toggle’s software brings together parcel maps, road widths, zoning and limits on building size to identify those opportunities. The company says an initial assessment that once took about two weeks can take as little as a minute.

Its people then do the work of turning that possibility into a site a developer can buy. They reach agreement with each owner, settle the property rights and clear the land. Toggle sells the assembled site for housing, hotels or offices. The technology helps the team find and evaluate opportunities; completing each project still depends on working with the people who own the land.

That land business accounts for nearly all of Toggle’s revenue, alongside a smaller business selling software to the industry. Its sales reached about 12.4 billion yen in the year to September 2025, a total it surpassed in the following nine months.

We’ve been fortunate to partner with Yoshimori Ito and the Toggle team since 2023. For us at MetaProp, their IPO is a proud full-circle moment and a defining milestone for our APAC Scout Program.

Congratulations to Yoshimori and the entire team. We’re thrilled to celebrate this achievement as we continue investing in and supporting founders across Asia Pacific.

Disclosure: Toggle Holdings, Yamori, Asuene, H2 Corporation and TERASS are MetaProp portfolio companies. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation of any security.