Collaboration brings together one of Japan's most established financial institutions with a
pioneer in AI-driven investment technology; AM-One to take minority equity stake in BFAI.
TOKYO, 29 September 2026 – Blue Fire AI (“BFAI”) today announced a strategic commercial agreement with Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (“Mizuho”) and Asset Management One Co., Ltd. (“AM-One”) to build a leadership position in the next era of active management.
This involves the development and distribution of institutional asset management products into Japan, the world’s third largest market. As part of the collaboration, AM-One will take a minority equity stake in BFAI, closing its most recent funding round with $9 million in aggregate commitments.
The partnership brings together one of Japan's most established financial institutions with BFAI, a technology company built over the past decade around advanced, AI-driven investment capabilities. AM-One, which manages over $500bn in assets, will offer new
equity investment products powered by BFAI’s proprietary neuro-symbolic AI decision engine to its institutional and retail clients. This will allow AM-One’s portfolio managers to perform bottom-up fundamental analysis at scale, identify overvalued securities and deliver
repeatable, informed alpha.
The collaboration comes as the asset management industry faces sustained pressure from fee compression and a shrinking pool of genuinely differentiated returns. Mizuho, AM-One and BFAI believe the firms that build real structural advantages now will define the industry's next generation of leaders.
“We are excited to leverage BFAI’s pioneering capabilities in AI-driven fundamental
research to further enhance our investment capabilities. We look forward to incorporating these advanced capabilities into our investment solutions and making them available to a broad range of clients through AM-One’s product platform.” –
Noriyuki Sugihara, President and CEO of AM-One.
“This partnership reflects a shared conviction that the next era of active
management will be built by firms willing to combine deep institutional expertise
with genuinely differentiated technology. Mizuho and AM-One are exactly that kind
of partner, and we're proud to build this alongside them.” – Luke Waddington, CEO of Blue Fire AI.”
BFAI has developed its technology over ten years, with seven years of live investment track record. AM-One's minority investment follows extensive due diligence by all three parties and reflects long-term confidence in BFAI's approach. Further details of the collaboration will be announced in due course.
“This partnership with Mizuho and AM One is a strong endorsement of Blue Fire
AI's technology, its business, and its team. At Round2, we are proud to support a
company that has built an impressive live track record in AI-driven investment
management and now brings that capability to the world's third-largest asset
management market. BFAI shows what international reach and real leadership in
this segment look like, and we look forward to the next chapter.” – Gerd Sumah, Round2 Capital.
About Mizuho Financial Group
Mizuho Financial Group is one of the world's largest financial institutions, combining global scale, deep expertise, and integrated capabilities to support clients across corporate and investment banking, global markets, treasury, and asset management. By bringing together regional insight and institutional strength, we help clients navigate complexity, pursue opportunities, and create long-term value for stakeholders and society.
About Asset Management One
Asset Management One is an asset management company established in 2016. With approximately JPY 80 trillion in assets under management across both its institutional and retail asset management businesses, the company is one of the largest asset managers in
Japan.* Its capabilities range from active management of traditional asset classes to cutting-
edge investment strategies utilizing advanced financial engineering techniques.
*Assets under management as of December 31, 2025
For more information about Asset Management One, please visit: Website | LinkedIn
Media Contact: Tomoko Hashimoto, Manager – ml-pr@am-one.co.jp
About Blue Fire AI
Blue Fire AI (BFAI) is a technology company founded to bring advanced, AI-driven capabilities to investment management. Since its founding ten years ago, BFAI has built a live investment track record spanning seven years, applying its technology at scale. BFAI
partners with leading institutional asset managers to build differentiated investment strategies.
For more information about Blue Fire AI, please visit: Website | LinkedIn
Media Contact: James Davey, Hawthorn Advisors – bluefireai@hawthornadvisors.com
About Round2
Round2 Capital is a fast-growing pan-European growth investment firm with around EUR 170m AuA. Based in Vienna, the firm is a strong partner for European scale-ups and companies with digital and sustainable business models. Since its foundation in 2017,
Round2 Capital has been pioneering revenue-based finance in Europe and is active in several European countries with both revenue-based finance and growth equity investments. To date, Round2 Capital has invested in 40+ software and technology scale-ups across 10
jurisdictions.
Round2 Capital is backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) to support technology companies in the European Union. Round2 Capital Partners II is partially funded under the “Mezzanin Dachfonds für Deutschland Fazilität 2”, a facility managed by EIF for the ERP
Sondervermögen, represented by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy, LfA-Gesellschaft für Vermögensverwaltung mbH and NRW.Bank Anstalt des
öffentlichen Rechts.
For more information about Round2 Capital, please visit: Website | LinkedIn
Media Contact: Gerd Sumah | gs@round2cap.com | +43 1 503 00 34
