Sunnies, a Tokyo startup that makes the access-management software Privaco, has raised ¥50m (about $320,000) in a seed round. It announced the round on 20 October 2026.
The investors are HAKOBUNE and Hiroshima Venture Capital. The company did not name a lead or disclose a valuation.
BRIDGE reported that Sunnies previously raised ¥33m in November 2024.
What Sunnies does
Privaco lets companies manage in one place who can use which cloud services and what they are allowed to do in them. Sunnies is now extending that to AI agents, the software assistants that companies increasingly let act on their behalf inside business systems. At its core is a password manager that stores IDs, passwords and passkeys for individuals, families and companies. Business customers can also restrict what accounts may do, including privileged administrator accounts, and individuals can use a service for passing on digital assets after death. Sunnies also offers consulting on authentication systems, including identity checks with the My Number card through the Digital Agency's app.
The new tool registers AI agents as members of the workforce alongside employees and records who owns each agent, its role and how it is used. Administrators decide which services each agent can reach and what it may do there, and can require a person to approve an action before an agent touches sensitive information or carries out certain operations. Every access and action by staff or agents is logged, so companies can see who or which agent did what and when.
Its new product, AI Workforce Control, costs ¥3,980 per person a month, including 2,000 request slots for AI agents, and comes with a 30-day free trial, according to BRIDGE. Privaco began offering single sign-on integration with the identity service HENNGE One in August, BRIDGE reported. In April the company also opened a waitlist for a product called Privaco Account Manager, according to BRIDGE.
Sunnies was founded on 2 May 2024 and is based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its chief executive is Nozomu Nakazawa. The company won the grand prize at the Nikkei Impact Pitch at FIN/SUM 2026, according to the release.
Who invested
Masahiro Kimura, founding partner of HAKOBUNE, said in the release that AI is changing from a tool into a form of labour, which raises the question of how companies control what it can access. He said HAKOBUNE plans to support the company over the long term on product and business development.
Ken Nishioka, representative director of Hiroshima Venture Capital, said security is becoming a management issue for companies, not only a job for the IT department. Hiroshima Venture Capital said it is working with the Hirogin banking group to promote security measures at regional companies and plans to do so with Sunnies.
What the money is for
Sunnies said it will use the money for product development, sales and partnerships, with a focus on managing permissions for AI agents alongside human staff.
The company's argument, echoed by both investors, is that as companies give AI agents access to business software, they need to set and check what those agents can do in the same way they already manage employee access. Nakazawa said Sunnies plans to turn Privaco into a platform that manages people and AI agents as a single workforce.
Sunnies has not disclosed its headcount or revenue.
Company website: sunnies.co.jp