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Ashley Grosh Breakthrough Energy
Vice President

Biography

Ashley has spent the entirety of her nearly two-decade career working at the intersection of finance and climate innovation. Prior to joining Breakthrough Energy as a Vice President to lead the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, she spent 15 years at Wells Fargo as a thought leader working across several business units, supporting overall ESG, Cleantech Commercial Banking, and Sustainable Finance strategies. At Wells she pioneered a $100 million impact fund the Innovation Incubator (IN2), focused on speeding up the path to market for early-stage clean technologies. IN2 program’s 72 portfolio companies have gone on to raise $2.3B in follow on funding from external sources.
Today, Ashley leads the BE Discovery and Fellows efforts, continuing to immerse herself among the clean tech ecosystem - working alongside capital partners, entrepreneurs, universities, incubators and national labs. This early-stage, global, effort focuses on funding pre venture stages of innovation, to fill critical scientific gaps where the discovery of new solutions can lead to significant impacts in the hardest to abate sectors. Grosh earned a B.A. degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as a student athlete on the CU NCAA Division One women’s soccer team.
https://www.breakthroughenergy.org/

Joanna Drake Magnify Ventures
Founder & Managing Partner

Biography

Joanna Drake has built and invested in next-generation technology companies from Silicon Valley for over 20 years. She was the Co-Founding COO of Current TV, then COO of DeNA West, before becoming a venture capitalist. As GP of Core Ventures Group, Joanna oversees global category leaders in fintech, big data and cybersecurity. As Founding Managing Partner of Magnify Ventures, she is pioneering a new category of venture startups bringing technology innovation to the $6 Trillion Care Economy, from pregnancy through to end of life.
https://www.magnify.vc/

Koichiro Nakamura Sozo Ventures
Managing Director

Koichiro Nakamura

Biography

Sozo Ventures are known for the investments global leading companies including Coinbase, Palantir, and Square, Zoom, Fastly, Insightly, MongoDB, Applied Intuition, Gramarly, and Chainalysis among others. He was the first Japanese to be ranked in the 2021 edition of the Midas List 100, a global ranking of venture capitalists (72nd), 2022 (63rd),
2023 (55th), 2024(45th).　He was an early pioneer in Japan’s IT scene as a member of the founding team of Yahoo Japan. Koh, a Waseda University Law and Chicago Booth MBA graduate, was a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 12, and was given the Jeff Timmons Memorial Award. He also serves as a Council Member at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at University of Chicago.
https://www.sozoventures.com/

Miwa Seki MPower Partners Fund L.P.
General Partner

Biography

Miwa is a former Japanese growth equity portfolio manager with Clay Finlay, and she previously worked in investment banking for Morgan Stanley. She has translated over 50 business/entrepreneurship publications, and is also an associate professor of Kyorin University. Miwa earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Keio University.
https://www.mpower-partners.com/

Murat Aktihanoglu Remarkable Ventures Climate
Managing Partner
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
Managing Partner

Murat Aktihanoglu

Biography

Murat Aktihanoglu is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Remarkable Ventures, Remarkable Ventures Climate and ERA. A venture capitalist since 2011, Murat has invested in over 350 early-stage tech and climate companies with a combined market cap of $10+ billion. He previously founded Centrl and the nonprofit Entrepreneurs Roundtable, fostering New York's startup community through monthly investor meetings. Murat co-authored Location-Aware Applications in 2011 and has held engineering roles at Sony and Silicon Graphics. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Bilkent University.
https://www.remarkable.vc/

Chunmei Huang Impact Capital Limited
Representative Director
Shinsei Impact Investment Limited
Representative Director

Biography

Ms. Huang has consistently engaged in private equity investments for more than 20 years, covering venture, buyout and impact investments. Ms. Huang currently operates 2 impact investment funds
She is also board member of GSG Impact JAPAN, vice-chair of the FSA’s “Impact Consortium Market Research & Formation Subcommittee”, board director of CFA Society of Japan, board director of CaiTech inc. etc..
Ms. Huang was awarded as “Woman of the Year 2019” by Nikkei Woman.
https://impactcapital.jp/

Jingqian Ma Plug and Play Japan
Head of Ventures

Biography

After graduating from university, Jingqian Ma began his career at EY, where he was involved in consulting services related to transfer pricing, international expansion, and M&A. He later joined Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities before moving to SBI Investment in 2019. At SBI, he focused on investing in fintech, AI, cybersecurity, and SaaS, both in domestic and international ventures. As a lead investor, he served as a board member for several portfolio companies, guiding them through hands-on support toward successful exits, including IPOs and M&A. He was also involved in managing multiple CVC funds. In 2021, he joined Plug and Play Ventures as the Head of Ventures, overseeing all venture investment activities at Plug and Play Japan.
https://japan.plugandplaytechcenter.com/about/our-team/jingqian-ma/

Mikio Kawahara UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd.
Chief Investment Officer

Biography

・25+ years’ experience in bio/medical (therapeutics/ medical devices / diagnostics) and deep technology (ICT/ AI/ hardware/ semiconductor / Robotics) industries with broad knowledge of science and technology.
Mikio has joined UTokyo IPC since 2016 and has led investment and business development.
・In 2007, he established RIKEN Genesis Co., Ltd., a spin-out startup from RIKEN Research Institute, and led its management as as COO. In this role of around 10 years, he pioneered the personalized medicine business in Japan. From 2014, he concurrently served as President and CEO of BNA Inc., a biotech startup incubated at Osaka University.
・Prior to that, he worked in research and development and corporate planning at Toppan Printing.
・Master of Mathematical Engineering, the University of Tokyo
　MBA at Kellogg School of Management and MEM at McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University
https://www.utokyo-ipc.co.jp/

Yukiko Kato SBI Investment Co., Ltd.
Director & Executive Officer, General Manager, Corporate Venture Capital Department

Biography

Yukiko Kato has 22 years of experience as a venture capitalist. Since 2016, she leads several CVC funds co-established with large Japanese enterprises at SBI Investment. She joined SBI Group where she involves in hand-on investment in 2002.
In 2015, she ranked first on the Forbes Japan Midas List(the most influential venture capitalist ranking in Japan). She is a committee member of the Industry-Academia Collaboration Subcommittee at the Japan Venture Capital Association.

SusHi Tech Challenge 2025 Pitch Contest

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SusHi Tech Challenge 2025 Pitch Contest

What is SusHi Tech Challenge 2025

At "SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, "SusHi Tech Challenge 2025, " a pitch contest for startups that tackle the global challenge of “realizing Sustainable cities with High Technology (SusHi Tech) will be held.

View the details

Date and time: ・Semi-Finals: Thursday, May 8, 2025
・Finals: Friday, May 9, 2025

Venue: Tokyo Big Sight, East Halls 4, 5, 6
3-11-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0063, Japan

Language: English (all materials, pitches, and communication must be in English)

Eligibility Criteria: ・Must have a product or service.
・The business content must be aligned with the concept of SusHi Tech Tokyo (Realize a sustainable city through high technology).
・Must be able to participate in the pitch contest in Tokyo for 2 days.
・Ability to exhibit at a booth during the event period.

Prize: ・First Prize : 10 million yen
・Supplementary prize

Judges

Judges for Finals Judges for Semi-Finals Judges for the 1st Screening

Judges for Finals

Judges for Semi-Finals

Judges for the 1st Screening