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About AnotherBall
AnotherBall is an entertainment tech company based in Japan, operating the VTuber app 'Avvy' and the creative studio 'Mayflower'. Avvy lets anyone become a VTuber with just a smartphone—users combine 2D illustration parts to create an original avatar, then livestream without showing their face or using special equipment. The app uses MediaPipe for face tracking and Unity as a Library for avatar rendering, with business logic shared across iOS and Android via Kotlin Multiplatform.
Its core strength lies in solving a unique technical challenge: unlike 3D character creators, 2D illustrations aren't designed to be combined. AnotherBall developed a proprietary format that makes 2D avatars fully customizable and animated—enabling outfit changes that don't break the artwork. The company's narrative centers on 'Japanese imagination power' (妄想力), aiming to bring Japan's creative content to global audiences.
The market pain point is clear: traditional VTuber setups require expensive equipment and technical skill, while existing avatar apps lack depth. Avvy's early demo attracted 200,000 registrations in just 10 days, mostly from overseas, proving strong demand. The company also improved customer support by migrating from Zendesk to Chatwoot with AI auto-replies, cutting first response time from 19.8 hours to about 1 minute, and automating weekly bilingual CS digests via Google Sheets and LLM classification.
In the past six months (March–September 2026), AnotherBall presented at DroidKaigi 2026 as a gold sponsor, sharing technical insights on MediaPipe face tracking accuracy and landmark geometry correction. The team upgraded to Kotlin 2.3.20, achieving a 47% faster iOS build time (14.3→7.7 minutes) though Android compile time increased ~30%. The company also secured 2.5 billion yen in debt financing from four major Japanese banks in May 2026, bringing cumulative funding to 4.7 billion yen, to support overseas expansion—over half of Avvy's users are already international. No major negative events were reported in the period.
Key progress: On May 18, 2026, AnotherBall announced JPY 2.5 billion (~USD 16 million) in debt financing from Shoko Chukin Bank, MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank, bringing cumulative funding to JPY 4.7 billion. The funds will be used to accelerate the global expansion of its VTuber platform "Avvy" and hiring. Avvy lets users become VTubers in one minute; its beta surpassed 200,000 registrations in 10 days, with overseas users already accounting for over half of users (as of end-May 2025).
Future focus: The company currently operates in 8 countries/regions including Japan and the U.S., and plans to expand to dozens more across Europe and Asia by end-2027. It will pursue global growth through proactive content collaborations, aligning with Japan's policy of designating content as a core national industry and targeting JPY 20 trillion in overseas revenue by 2033. AnotherBall aims to act as a bridge exporting Japanese content — its "mōsōryoku" (power of imagination) — to the world.
Captain Shunsuke Oyu (Founder & CEO): Former CEO of Connehito (acquired by KDDI) and PRISM Project (acquired by Sony); angel investor in ANYCOLOR. Founded AnotherBall in 2022.
Tatsuro Shimada (Co-founder & CTO): Oyu's long-time partner; ex-CTO of Connehito (KDDI) and PRISM Project (Sony); angel investor in ~25 startups; Ph.D.
Shoji Fukunaga (CCO): Game industry veteran; founded mobile game firm Grani in 2012 (100+ staff), exited 2018; later focused on XR/blockchain; joined AnotherBall in 2023.
Ryū Nakayama (CCO of Mayflower, AnotherBall's anime studio): Acclaimed director of "Chainsaw Man"; leads tech-meets-anime creation.