Kinish Inc. has raised JPY 490 million in the first close of its Series A round through a third-party allotment of shares. The round was subscribed by INSPiRE Mutualistic Symbiosis Fund 1, Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund (the corporate venture capital fund of Shimadzu Corporation), Obayashi Corporation, and Love Veggies Holding Ltd. (Canada).

The funds will be used to expand sales of our rice-based plant-based ice cream, The Rice Creamery, in Japan and the United States, to advance R&D in plant factories and molecular farming, and to strengthen hiring, including a head of corporate administration and business positions in Japan and the U.S.

Funding overview

• Round: Series A, first close
• Amount: JPY 490 million (third-party allotment of shares)
• Investors: INSPiRE Mutualistic Symbiosis Fund 1 / Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund (CVC of Shimadzu Corporation) / Obayashi Corporation / Love Veggies Holding Ltd. (Canada)
• Use of funds: expanding sales of The Rice Creamery in Japan and the U.S.; R&D in plant factories and molecular farming; hiring a head of corporate administration and business roles in Japan and the U.S.

Our progress so far

Starting from rice, a staple deeply familiar to people in Japan, Kinish develops dairy alternatives and the next-generation production technologies behind them.

• The Rice Creamery, a plant-based ice cream made with Japanese rice, is sold at about 500 stores in Japan. In October 2025, it was also sold at retail stores in Washington, D.C., and at Meta’s D.C. office.
• We have successfully expressed casein, one of the proteins in cow’s milk, in rice.
• Growing a dwarf rice plant about 20 cm tall in a plant factory, we harvested 2,079.7 g of brown rice per square meter in three months (for reference, the average open-field yield in Japan is 539 g per square meter with one crop per year).

* The Rice Creamery is made with conventionally field-grown Japanese rice and does not use Kinish’s proprietary rice.

What’s next

To accelerate our U.S. business, we have opened an office in New York. From there, we will expand local production and retail distribution and build brand awareness. We will also continue breeding to increase the casein content of our casein-expressing rice, and scale up our plant-factory trials to define a cultivation system for mass production while using data to refine our growing recipes.

Related links

Full press release, including investor comments (PR TIMES, October 20, 2026; Japanese)

The Rice Creamery brand site