Building the onchain stack for finance, entertainment, and everyday users - and betting that Web3 belongs to billions, not a few.
Startale Group's brand symbol. The Singapore-headquartered company sits at the center of a Web3 portfolio spanning the Sony-backed Layer 2 Soneium, the Astar Network, the Strium blockchain, and the JPYSC and USDSC stablecoins.
In a corner of the crypto industry that prefers noise, Startale Group has spent its time building plumbing. The Singapore-headquartered company does not sell a single flagship token or a viral app. Instead it assembles the layers beneath onchain finance - blockchains, stablecoins, developer tools, and a consumer application - and stitches them into one integrated stack.
Founded in 2023 and led by chief executive Sota Watanabe, Startale describes its ambition in three words: "Web3 for Billions." The phrase is a slogan, but it is also a design brief. To reach billions, the company argues, someone has to build the rails that let ordinary money, securities, and applications move onchain without friction.
That is the work Startale has taken on. It co-operates Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2 launched with Sony. It runs the Astar Network, the Layer 1 ecosystem Watanabe founded years earlier. It is building Strium, a blockchain purpose-built for tokenized securities and real-world assets. And it issues stablecoins - JPYSC in Japanese yen and USDSC in US dollars - to serve as the settlement currency for all of it.
In March 2026, that thesis attracted serious money. Startale closed a $63 million Series A anchored by two of Japan's most consequential institutions: Sony, through its innovation fund, and SBI Group, a financial-services giant. For a company that avoids hype, the backing was a quiet signal that Asia's capital markets are beginning to move onchain - and that Startale intends to build the road.
Figures from company disclosures and public reporting, 2026. Team size approximate.
"The close reflects strong conviction from our partners." Sota Watanabe, Founder & CEO, on the $63M Series A
Startale serves three groups at once. Institutional financial firms - banks, brokerages, and asset managers - use its tokenized-securities rails and stablecoins. Web3 developers build on its cloud infrastructure and Layer 2 networks. And retail users, concentrated in Japan and across Asia, hold its stablecoins and open the Startale App.
That breadth is deliberate. By owning the layers from protocol to consumer interface, Startale can move value across the whole chain rather than depending on someone else's rails.
Traditional finance and blockchain still speak different languages. Securities are hard to tokenize under real regulation. Stablecoins often lack the institutional backing banks require. Consumer crypto apps are clunky, fragmented, and intimidating.
Startale's answer is integration: a bank-backed yen stablecoin, a blockchain designed for regulated real-world assets, developer tools that hide crypto's complexity, and a single app that folds payments, asset management, and social features together.
Startale's output reads less like a single product and more like the components of an onchain economy - each one a layer in the same stack.
An Ethereum Layer 2 co-developed with Sony via the Sony Block Solutions Labs joint venture, focused on entertainment and consumer experiences. Mainnet launched January 2025.
The public Layer 1 blockchain founded by Sota Watanabe, now operated inside the Startale portfolio, offering scalable and interoperable infrastructure.
A blockchain built specifically for tokenized securities and real-world asset trading - positioned as Asia's onchain capital markets infrastructure.
Described as Japan's first trust-bank-backed yen stablecoin, co-developed with SBI Group to bring compliant fiat settlement onchain.
A US dollar stablecoin enabling fiat-to-crypto integration, with functionality for onchain dividend and yield distribution.
A consumer SuperApp folding asset management, mini-apps, payments, and social features into one interface - "Play, Explore & be Rewarded Onchain."
Developer infrastructure - RPC nodes, SDKs, and account-abstraction tooling - that lets builders ship Web3 apps without wrestling the plumbing.
Startale earns across the value chain rather than from one product. Enterprise and developer infrastructure services generate one stream; blockchain protocol operation another; stablecoin issuance and financial products a third; and consumer app engagement a fourth. The model favors durable infrastructure revenue over short-term token speculation.
Most crypto companies specialize in one layer. Startale owns several - and its leadership has compared the approach to Tesla's control of both upstream and downstream of its value chain. Combined with formal joint ventures with Sony and Hakuhodo, that integration gives Startale a corporate credibility rare among Web3 startups.
Startale aims to bridge the traditional world and the onchain society - not chase small wins, but build the foundation. Company positioning
The round arrived in two closes and drew from Japan's corporate heavyweights. Funds are earmarked for scaling Strium, expanding the stablecoins, and growing the Startale App into a SuperApp.
Additional strategic backers named publicly include Samsung Next and UOB Venture Management.
Sota Watanabe launches Astar, a Layer 1 blockchain ecosystem that later joins the Startale portfolio.
Watanabe is named to Forbes Asia 30 Under 30.
The company is formed in Singapore as a strategic Web3 infrastructure entity; Watanabe is named to Newsweek's 100 Most Respected Japanese in the World.
The Sony-Startale joint venture launches the Soneium Ethereum Layer 2 in January.
Sony and SBI anchor the round to scale Strium, the stablecoins, and the Startale App.
Startale's roughly 50-person team spans more than 20 countries, with talent drawn from Binance, Polygon, Google, Microsoft, and Y Combinator. Its leadership includes CEO Sota Watanabe - a Japan Blockchain Association board member who has advised on national Web3 strategy - alongside COO Yuji Kumagai.
The company's credibility rests heavily on who it builds with: a Layer 2 joint venture with Sony (Sony Block Solutions Labs), a stablecoin partnership with SBI Group, and a Web3 marketing venture with advertising firm Hakuhodo (Hakuhodo Key3).
Startale operates at the intersection of two fast-moving markets: real-world asset tokenization and Web3 infrastructure. Its competitive field includes stablecoin issuers like Circle, RWA specialists such as Ondo Finance and Securitize, and Layer 1/Layer 2 ecosystems like Polygon - as well as traditional financial-market infrastructure now inching onchain.
What distinguishes Startale is its regional anchoring and corporate ties. Rooted in Japan and headquartered in Singapore, it is positioned to serve Asian institutions that want compliant, bank-grade onchain finance. The Sony and SBI relationships give it distribution and regulatory standing that pure-play crypto startups struggle to match.
The bet is that the next wave of crypto adoption comes not from speculation but from institutions moving securities, currencies, and payments onto shared ledgers. If that thesis holds, the companies that own the underlying rails stand to matter most. Startale is building to be one of them.
Startale builds vertically integrated Web3 infrastructure - Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains, stablecoins, tokenized-securities rails, developer tools, and a consumer app - to bring finance and everyday users onchain.
Sota Watanabe is the founder and CEO. He previously founded Astar Network and is a prominent figure in Japan's Web3 policy and industry.
Its $63M Series A was led by SBI Group and Sony Innovation Fund, with additional backing from investors including Samsung Next and UOB Venture Management. Startale co-operates the Soneium Layer 2 with Sony.
Soneium (Ethereum Layer 2), Astar Network, Strium (blockchain for tokenized securities and RWAs), the JPYSC and USDSC stablecoins, the consumer Startale App, and Startale Cloud Services for developers.
Startale Group is headquartered in Singapore, with strong roots and business in Japan and a team spanning more than 20 countries.
Reporting compiled from public sources, July 2026. Figures are as disclosed and may be approximate.