Shizuku AI

Shizuku AI is a Japanese startup focused on creating AI companions and virtual characters by blending advanced research with Japanese character design. The company was founded by Akio Kodaira, who holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and has prior experience at Meta and Luma AI. The project initially began as a hobby in January 2023, when Kodaira launched an AI VTuber named Shizuku on YouTube. This AI could interact with viewers in multiple languages and respond in real-time with a Live2D avatar, quickly building a community.

The proof of concept evolved into Shizuku AI, a company formally established to develop AI live streamers and, ultimately, personal AI partners. In a significant milestone, Shizuku AI became the first Japanese startup to receive seed funding led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in February 2026. This investment is intended to build out an AI lab in Japan and expand the capabilities of its AI characters. The company's primary goal is to address the challenge of creating engaging and proactive conversations for AI companions, a problem Kodaira aims to solve through a community-driven feedback loop by deploying the AI across multiple platforms.

The initial focus is on enhancing the AI VTuber, Shizuku, with features like multilingual voice synthesis and more sophisticated conversational AI for deployment on platforms such as YouTube, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter). The company's vision, influenced by Japanese stories of humans coexisting with artificial life, is to create AI agents that people can form genuine connections with. The business was officially filed as Shizuku Ai, Inc. in California in August 2025, with Akio Kodaira as CEO and Taku Fujimoto as CFO.

Keywords: AI companion, AI characters, VTuber, Japanese character design, conversational AI, artificial intelligence, Live2D avatar, Andreessen Horowitz, Akio Kodaira, real-time interaction, community-driven AI, multilingual voice synthesis, AI live streamer, human-computer interaction, virtual beings, AI agents, StreamDiffusion, AIGC, seed funding, interactive entertainment