VCs/Investors

Anas Bataw Zacua Ventures
Partner, Middle East

■ Career

Dr. Anas Bataw is a seasoned ConTech leader, investor, and ecosystem builder. Playing a pivotal role in propelling Sustainability, Advanced Technology and Modern Methods within the MENA construction industry. His significant impact has contributed to the development and deployment of disruptive ventures and businesses across MENA, the UK, and Singapore. Demonstrates exceptional leadership in establishing and managing impactful open innovation programs and venture funds at both corporate and national levels. His unique ability to build robust business cases, develop ecosystems, and value realization has set him apart in the industry.

Dr. Anas has been recognised through numerous prestigious accolades that underscore his influence and expertise. His notable awards and recognitions include Global Innovations Leader (2022), Technology Strategist of the Year (2020), and Best Contribution to Global Innovations by the Singapore Government (2019). Beyond his corporate endeavors, Dr. Anas actively participates in non-profit task groups such as the United Nations and World Economic Forum driving innovations, technology, and sustainability. His commitment to these causes is complemented by his academic contributions at esteemed universities, where he engages in research and publications that further the field of technology and innovation in the built environment.

Ashley Grosh Breakthrough Energy
Vice President

■ Career

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.

Aya Spencer Chai Ventures
Investment Fellow

■ Career

Aya Spencer leads global startup programming for CTOs at AWS, where she builds communities and strategic initiatives to support early-stage technical founders. With a background in VC, including roles as an investor and board observer, she specializes in cross-border innovation between the U.S. and Japan. Aya is a Fellow at Chai Ventures and a contributor to Forbes, where she writes about the intersection of technology, policy, and personalized innovation. Bilingual in English and Japanese, she is passionate about building global ecosystems and supporting the next generation of unicorn CTOs.

Aya Stone Andreessen Horowitz
Partner VCs & Investors

■ Career

Aya focuses on expanding Andreessen Horowitz’s network across Asia. Collaborating with local investors and leaders, both in public and private sectors, she drives initiatives that strengthen innovation ecosystems throughout the region.

Previously, Aya worked at Blackstone Group and Wellington Management, where she served as a trusted investment adviser to some of the largest institutional asset owners in Asia, bringing over a decade of investment expertise.

She received an MBA from MIT and a BA in Economics from Kobe University and the CFA designation.

Barak Salomon Red Dot Capital
Managing Partner

■ Career

Barak has over 20 years of experience as an investor and operator, with significant expertise in the tech and industrial sectors.
Prior to joining Red Dot, Barak represented Japan-based NTT DoCoMo Ventures and the NTT group in Israel and led investing and business development activities on their behalf. Earlier, Barak was a Principal in Israeli-based an Israeli based growth stage fund, and Apax Partners, an international Private Equity firm.
Barak has held independent Board member positions at public and private Israeli companies, including Gaon Holdings Ltd., Amir Marketing Ltd., MaxQ.Ai and Albert.Ai.
Barak holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science (cum laude) from Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Brett Mock Nasdaq Private Market
Chairman

■ Career

Brett Mock is the Chairman of NPM International at Nasdaq Private Market, leading the company’s expansion efforts for its secondary liquidity solutions worldwide. He is responsible for creating new distribution partnerships with financial institutions in key strategic growth markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, Brett was a Senior Vice President and the Head of Global Capital Markets at Nasdaq Private Market (NPM), managing the broker-dealer, Capital Markets team, marketplace technology, and SPV product. He has 30 years of industry experience. Prior to NPM, Brett was a Senior Vice President and Head of Sales at Capital Markets Gateway (CMG), between 2017 and 2020. CMG completed a Series B funding round in 2020. Previously, he was a Partner and Managing Director at JonesTrading, where he covered large mutual funds and hedge funds. Earlier in his career, Brett was a Managing Director and Senior Institutional Equity Sales Trader for seven years at BTIG, where he helped build out the firm’s institutional business.

He was also a Director and Senior Institutional Sales Trader at Wachovia Securities, and a Principal Nasdaq Market Maker and Sales Trader at Banc of America Securities/Montgomery Securities. Brett began his career with Spear, Leeds and Kellogg (acquired by Goldman Sachs). He was the National Chairman of the Security Traders Association in 2010 and board member between 2005 and 2011. In 2005, Brett was President of the San Francisco Security Traders Association and a board member from 2002 to 2006. He earned his undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington.

Chandra Firmanto Indogen Capital
Founder & Managing Partner

■ Career

Chris Wade Isomer Capital
Co-Founder & Partner

■ Career

As the co-founder and Partner of Isomer Capital, he co-leads fund investments and leads Isomer's co-investment program. In addition, he leads Japanese and Korean LP relationships and Isomer's corporate investor program. Before Isomer, he was a venture partner at Octopus Ventures, leading Asian business development and during the inception of Entrepreneur First. He is an active value-added non-executive director and has mentored 20 companies to successful seed funding. Chris co-founded Cambridge Positioning Systems, which was sold to a global semiconductor firm in 2007, before which he worked for 15 years in technology operations at US-based DSC, where he assisted in its $4bn sale to Alcatel and 14 years at North American-based Nortel.

Chua Kee Lock Vertex Holdings
CEO

■ Career

Mr Chua Kee Lock is the Group President/CEO of Vertex Holdings (VH), a Singapore-headquartered venture capital investment holding company. VH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek with over US$6.9B asset under management focusing on IT and healthcare sector.
The Vertex Group is a global VC network comprising Vertex Ventures (VV) Japan, VV China, VV Israel, VV US, VV SEA & India, VV HC, and Vertex Growth. Each of these funds is managed by independent and separate General Partnerships and investment teams, with VH providing anchor funding alongside significant 3rd party capital commitments.

David Milstein Eight Roads Ventures
Managing Partner & Head of Japan

■ Career

David Milstein is the head of Eight Roads Ventures Japan, the venture capital and principle investment business for Fidelity in Japan. Early in his career, David worked for Asahi Glass and then was a founder of Japan Transaction Partners. He then joined Fidelity Ventures to set up the operations in Japan. In 2005, he joined the Walt Disney Company Japan where as VP of the Interactive Media Group, he was responsible for building and launching the Disney Mobile MVNO service. This business drove the division to its largest revenue and profit ever. He earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Diana Kam Venturebeam
CEO, Singapore Markets & APAC Region

■ Career

Ekaterina Almasque BlankPage Capital
Co-Founder and Managing Partner

■ Career

Ekaterina, a founding partner of BlankPage Capital, is one of Europe’s most experienced venture capitalists who has been investing in breakthrough technology companies in AI, cloud and data infrastructure, energy efficiency, quantum computing, and cybersecurity for almost two decades.

Previously, as a General Partner at OpenOcean VC and a Managing Director at Samsung Catalyst Fund, she has led investments and served on the boards of numerous companies such as GraphCore (acquired by SoftBank), IQM Quantum Computers, AIMotive (acquired by Stellantis), and Binalyze. In addition, she was deeply involved in strategic initiatives to create $20B+ business opportunities for Samsung, EMC/Dell and Siemens. Passionate about building a strong technology ecosystem, she has invested in other deep tech Venture Capital funds across Europe.

She has co-founded European Women in VC network, is serving as an expert at the European Commission since 2003, and is a Mentor at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) for the Next Generation Compute, AI and Quantum chapters since 2019. Ekaterina has been named among Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space.

Eric Anderson Scale Venture Partners
Partner

■ Career

Eric is a Partner at Scale Venture Partners, where he focuses on investments in cloud infrastructure and security. He is a Board member at Scale portfolio companies QA Wolf, Cortex, Datastax, Permit.io, and Upsolver, and a Board observer at AppOmni, BigID, Expel, Honeycomb, and Matillion.

Before Scale, Eric led early Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services product teams. At Google, he was a Product Manager in the Data Analytics and Machine Learning group. He led the team that launched Cloud Dataprep and key components of Cloud Dataflow. Previously, Eric built aircraft engines in General Electric’s Operation Management Leadership Program. He’s a contributor to open source projects including Alluxio, where he is on the Project Management Committee, and Apache Beam.

Eric holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Utah and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is the creator and host of Contributor, an interview series detailing the origin stories of open source projects.

Eyal Niv Pitango Venture Capital
Managing Partner

■ Career

Eyal joined Pitango in 2015 as a Managing Partner and currently serves on the board of directors of AI21 Labs, Komodor, Finout, Optibus, Lumigo, Graphcore, OpenEyes and Speedata. With a primary focus on AI, Eyal’s investments include: Logz.io, CallApp, XtremIO (acquired by EMC), CrossWise (acquired by Oracle), Pebbles (acquired by Facebook), Oplus (acquired by Intel), Cyota (acquired by RSA & later acquired by EMC), Odysii (acquired by Gilbarco Inc.), Altair Semiconductors (acquired by Sony), AdExtent, Lucid (acquired by Google) and Iguazio (acquired by McKinsey).

In addition to his role at Pitango, Eyal is co-founder of The Public Knowledge Workshop, a leading nonprofit for freedom of information.
Prior to Pitango, Eyal was Managing Partner at Giza VC, where he led the fund operations and focused mainly on IT infrastructure, semiconductors & internet.

Eyal holds a BCom in Corporate Finance from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Outside of work, he’s passionate about mountain biking, photography, basketball, snowboarding and gaming. When he's not chasing the next tech unicorn, Eyal is focused on his passion project, ICF—a nonprofit empowering Israeli children who have lost their parents to acts of terrorism.

Fernando Fabre Kauffman Fellows
CEO

■ Career

Fernando is the CEO of Kauffman Fellows, the venture capitalists' leading education and community platform.

He is a co-founder and partner (inactive) at Matterscale Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in Latin America. He also co-founded Columbia University's eLab, a fellowship for global entrepreneurs in edtech/workforce, and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

Before this, he was the president of Endeavor, a global organization that selects, supports, and invests in the world's top entrepreneurs.

He lives in New York with his family.

Ibrahim Neyazmuhammed National Technology Development Program (NTDP)
CEO

■ Career

Ivan Lopez Freedom Trail Capital
GP

■ Career

Jim Tamura ElevenLabs
General Manager

■ Career

Hajime (Jim) Tamura has over 35 years of experience helping companies enhance performance through business applications. A pioneer in Japan’s cloud computing landscape since the late 2000s, he has consistently led the advancement of operational efficiency through SaaS solutions.
His past roles include Vice President of Marketing at SAP Japan, President of NetSuite Japan, Director of Business Applications at Microsoft Japan, and General Manager of Asana Japan. After serving as COO of the virtual office platform ovice, he assumed his current role at ElevenLabs Japan in 2025.

Joanna Drake Magnify Ventures
Founder & Managing Partner

■ Career

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.

John Kojiro Moriwaka Silicon Valley Ventures
CEO

■ Career

John Kojiro Moriwaka, widely known as Crazy John, is a multi-faceted Japanese entrepreneur, columnist, visiting professor, public speaker, rapper, and painter — your trusted partner in innovation.

As CEO of Silicon Valley Ventures, he empowers fast-growing startups, multinational corporations, VCs, CVCs, accelerators, universities, and government agencies worldwide.

He serves as a strategic advisor to startups across diverse industries including fusion, space tech, quantum computing, fintech, Web3, blockchain, AI, healthcare, sales tech, and food tech, etc.

John collaborates closely with global venture capitals:
1. Advisor, Arka Venture Labs (AI, Deeptech | Silicon Valley–India)
2. Advisor, CV VC (Blockchain, Web3 | Switzerland–Africa)
3. Venture Partner, BE Health Ventures (MedTech, MedAI | Taiwan)
4. Venture Partner, Mendoza Ventures (AI, Cybersecurity, Fintech | US)
5. Operating Partner, 1982 Ventures (Fintech | Southeast Asia)

John is the Director of Startup Grind Tokyo, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, leading startup events across Japan.
Startup Grind is a global community in 600+ cities and 125 countries, connecting and empowering entrepreneurs worldwide.

He is a columnist for Forbes JAPAN, authoring the widely read series “Inside the Innovation Ecosystem.”

Jonathan Rezneck Geodesic Capital
General Partner & Head of Investment Team

■ Career

Jun Tosabayashi AT Partners
Co-Founder & GP

■ Career

Kay-Mok Ku Gobi Ventures
Senior Partner

■ Career

Kay Mok is Senior Partner at Gobi Singapore. He joined Gobi in 2010 and has led investment in over 30 tech startups, including Amity (unicorn), BaBe (acquired by TikTok) and Carsome (unicorn). Prior to his career with Gobi, Kay Mok was Vice President at Xinya Media and MediaCorp. He was also part of the team that managed a $500 million fund at the Media Development Authority, and co-founded Private Express, a cybersecurity startup based in Silicon Valley. He started his career with the Infocomm Development Authority, and has a Computer Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from San Jose State University.

Ken Yasunaga Global Hands-On VC
Founder & Managing Director

■ Career

Kengo Horiuchi Carbide Ventures
GP

■ Career

After working for a consulting firm and a securities company, he participated in the launch of Treasure Data's Japan business in 2013. As Marketing Director, he is in charge of everything from PR to project development for the customer data platform in the digital marketing field, which is Treasure Data's flagship service. He supports data collaboration in the marketing domain that connects the value chain from financial institutions and consumer goods manufacturers to major media outlets and retailers.
In August 2021, he founded Carbide Ventures with the founding members of Treasure Data and others. With offices in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, he is a partner in a venture capital firm that invests in enterprise SaaS and other startups, mainly in Japan and the United States.

Koichiro Nakamura Sozo Ventures
Managing Director

■ Career

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.

Lauren Nham MetaCap Ventures
Principal

■ Career

Lauren Nham is a Venture Investor and Product Leader focused on the Future of Work, Business Enablement and vertical solutions with a past life in Startups, Management Consulting & Banking. She currently runs Product Strategy on next-gen mobility solutions and smart cities for Woven by Toyota, a division of Toyota Motor Corporation.

She previously led new AI/ML product development and strategic partnerships for a global customer experience agency serving Fortune 500 clients. Prior to this, founded an online travel marketplace for direct air charter booking. She’s a firm believer in design thinking, jobs-to-be-done, agile and lean startup methodologies.

Ludwig Pierre Schulze Alumni Ventures
Managing Director

■ Career

Masashi Sato Beyond Next Ventures
Future Science Lab / Space Tech Advisor, Investment Division

■ Career

Future Science Lab / Space Tech Advisor, Investment Division, Beyond Next Ventures
Masashi Sato spent 16 years at Nomura Research Institute, providing wide-ranging consulting services from policy planning to corporate strategy in areas such as space business, startup support, and open innovation. In June 2019, he joined ispace, a space startup focused on lunar exploration, where he contributed to Japan’s first space startup IPO. He currently serves as Space Tech Advisor at Beyond Next Ventures.
He is also a Co-Founder, Director, and COO of SPACETIDE, Japan’s first private-sector-led space business conference.
He holds a B.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Physics (2001) and an M.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Science (2003) from the University of Tokyo, and an MPP (Master of Public Policy, 2013) from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Michael Philips Alumni Ventures
COO & Chief Legal Officer

■ Career

Murat Aktihanoglu Remarkable Ventures Climate
Managing Partner

■ Career

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.

Neil Cameron Emerald Technology Venture
Partner

■ Career

Noriya Tarutani JETRO
Head of JETRO Startup

■ Career

Oscar Moralez Boomerang Ventures
Founder & Managing Partner

■ Career

Oscar Moralez is the Founder and Managing Partner of Boomerang Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and venture studio based in Indianapolis, located in the Midwest United States, and focused on the “Connected Future of Healthcare”. He invests in AI- and tech-enabled solutions addressing global healthcare challenges—driven by an aging population, rising polychronic disease, increased mental health needs, and a growing shortage of healthcare professionals. With over two decades of experience in healthcare and venture capital, Oscar brings deep operational insight and a global perspective to the companies he supports. He previously founded BioStorage Technologies, a life sciences company acquired in 2015 by Brooks Life Sciences, now Azenta Life Sciences.

Paolo Gesess United Ventures
Co-Founder & Managing Director

■ Career

Paolo Gesess is the co-founder and managing partner of United Ventures, a Milan-based venture capital firm specializing in investments in innovative early-stage startups. With over two decades of experience originating, managing, and exiting venture capital deals across various industries, Paolo has a strong track record of transforming promising early-stage companies into international success stories.

He firmly believes that an organization's greatest asset is its people. Known for his trusted mentor and strategic partner role, he understands the challenges early-stage founders face and is committed to unlocking their long-term potential.

Paolo’s deep expertise in the early-stage sector, combined with his passion for technology, has led him to invest in companies that have shaped the digital landscape, including MutuiOnline, Moneyfarm, Musixmatch, Fiscozen, Futura, and Trustfull.

He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Turin and has served as an academic fellow at Politecnico di Milano. Additionally, he has lectured on venture capital and entrepreneurship at MIP and Bocconi University, sharing his insights with the next generation of innovators.

Phil Wickham Sozo Ventures
Executive Managing Director

■ Career

Phil Wickham is Co-Founder and Executive Managing Director of Sozo Ventures, a $1.7-billion venture fund with offices in Redwood City and Tokyo. Sozo has, for over 15 years, invested in disruptive data science start-ups with global ambitions, specifically supporting them with early, intelligent engagement with Japanese markets. Notable successes include Palantir, Twitter (X), Square, MongoDB, Coinbase and Zoom. Sozo is also an early investor in Applied Intuition, Anduril, Saronic, Grammarly, Deel, Chainalysis, Need and Carbon Robotics. Of the 78 companies in Sozo’s portfolio, 22 are unicorns.

Phillip Vincent Plug and Play
Managing Partner of APAC & CEO of Japan

■ Career

Phillip is serving as the Managing Partner of Plug and Play APAC and CEO of Plug and Play Japan. With a career spanning over a decade in the innovation space, Phillip has been instrumental in driving Plug and Play’s expansion and impact across the East Asia region.
Phillip’s journey with Plug and Play began in Silicon Valley in 2014, where he spearheaded the IoT and Mobility divisions before establishing Plug and Play Japan in 2017. Under his leadership, Plug and Play Japan has evolved into the premier innovation platform in Japan, connecting startups and corporations globally through hubs in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.
In his current role as co-head of the Asia Pacific region, Phillip leads strategic initiatives and management across all locations, with a particular focus on Japan and Korea.

Richard (Rickie) Koo DNX Venture Partners
Partner

■ Career

Rob Freelen Sozo Ventures
Managing Director & Investing Partner

■ Career

Rob Freelen is currently Managing Director and investing partner at Sozo Ventures. He is also a co-founder of LA-based FinTech company, Turbine Finance, a former SVB executive, and a Kauffman Fellow (Class 29).

Currently Rob serves on the boards of Carbon Robotics, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga, Mercy Bioanalytics, Turbine Finance, and Atomic Machines.

Immediately prior to joining Sozo Rob helped co-found Turbine Finance and before that was Silicon Valley Bank's Head of Venture Capital Relationship Management where he served as the bank's principal advisor to SVB Capital’s Fund-of-Funds and primary relationship manager for many of the top US Venture Capital firms. During his SVB career Rob led teams in both healthcare and technology, opened the Santa Monica office, led the Los Angeles region to record growth/profit, helped reorganize the sales organization as Chief of Staff, and did deals with hundreds of technology companies that accounted for hundreds of millions in loans and billions in deposits.

Rob has a B.A. in Psychology from Whitman College and has lectured at UCLA, USC, and Stanford on venture capital and venture lending.

Rob was born and raised on the Stanford University Campus and maintains his allegiance to the 49ers, Warriors, and Giants despite a decade long love affair with Southern California that began in 2015. On the weekends Rob and his wife can be found hiking and biking with their three daughters.

Roger Luo Embedding VC
Founder & Managing Director

■ Career

Roger Luo is the Founder and Managing Partner of Embedding VC, an early-stage venture fund based in Silicon Valley focused on backing Generative AI startups. A seasoned entrepreneur, he co-founded two AI SaaS startups and previously led machine learning teams at leading technology companies including Niantic, Snap, and Yahoo! Labs. He earned his PhD in machine learning from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 2011. Prior to founding Embedding VC, Roger was an active angel investor and venture scout/partner, with over 30 startup investments—resulting in 7 successful exits and 3 unicorns.

Ryuta Tosaki EY Tax
Associate Partner

■ Career

Sachiko Habu HABU PRO
CEO of HABU PRO, Author & Media Producer

■ Career

Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei xwoman（2019‐）, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei ARIA（2019‐20）, Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei DUAL（2013‐18）, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei MONEY(2005-12). Ms. HABU has creates many websites of the Women Carrier Sectors. Now in charge of a member of government experts meeting of ‘Selected Future2.0’ with Minister for Economic Revitalization, a member of the Cabinet Office’s Committee for Countermeasures against Declining Birthrate, and so on.She has many lectures about woman empowerment at Universities. Worked at the Editorial Engineering Research Institute with Mr. Matsuoka Seigow, edited “Senya-Sensatsu” Website. Graduated from Kyoto University (the Faculty of Agriculture and the Integrated Human Studies). In private, mother with 2kids.

Samuli Siren Redstone.vc
CEO & Founder

■ Career

Sayuri Nonaka Panagea Ventures
Director of Asia

■ Career

Shailesh Lakhani Peak XV Partners Investment
Managing Director

■ Career

Shuhong Chen Dondon Technologies
Founder

■ Career

Simon Hirtzel IQ Capital
GP & COO

■ Career

Simon is a General Partner and Chief Operating Officer of IQ Capital. He participates in the development and execution of strategy, responsible for the management of IQ Capital’s operations, and in communications with investors and providing deal-level support to IQ’s portfolio companies.

Simon has over 30 years of management and financial experience. Prior to joining IQ Capital, he was general partner and COO at Kreos Capital, the pioneer European growth debt provider which grew to over £1bn of assets under management, investing over €2.5bn in some 600 investments in 16 countries.

Previously he was group CFO of the PA Group, a $500m global consulting and technology business with strong focus on commercialising tech spin-offs. Before PA, Simon worked in professional services, including Arthur Andersen in London and Frankfurt. Simon has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.

Simon Lancaster Omni Ventures
Founder/General Partner

■ Career

Sonoko Harada HiJoJo Partners
Deputy Head of Investment Management Department

■ Career

Ms. Harada joined HiJoJo Partners in 2019 after working at Lehman Brothers and Mizuho Securities. The company focuses on the formation and management of funds that invest in overseas unicorn companies as well as domestic and international middle/later-stage private equity. It was the first in Japan to establish a fund that invests in U.S. unicorn companies like SpaceX, providing domestic investors with new investment opportunities. At the same time, the company offers hands-on support to its portfolio companies while assisting in their growth.

Spyridon Mentzas HiJoJo Partners
Founder & Co-CEO

■ Career

Takahiro Ito EY Legal
Partner

■ Career

Vincent Poizat Studio 2050 Ventures, Snowball Innovation Advisory
Head of Venture Investments / Partner

■ Career

Vincent’s areas of expertise are venture investments and acquisitions, and the strategic design of such functions. He currently leads Venture Investments for Studio 2050 Ventures, a global Climate Tech venture studio with a dedicated venture capital arm, and is a partner at Snowball Innovation Advisory, where he assists large corporations in their venture investment and acquisition efforts.

He previously worked for Mach49, a Silicon Valley-based company, where he designed and worked as Partner-in-Residence on several Corporate Venture Capital funds, with a focus on sustainability. Past clients include BHP Ventures, Vale Ventures, Anglo-American, Hines Global Ventures, Callon Petroleum, SLB, Xerox PARC, and Baker-Hughes.

Prior to this, Vincent spent 21 years in Asia (15 years in Japan and 6 years in Singapore), where he focused on investment banking and cross-border M&A advisory at outfits such as Shinsei Bank, ING Bank, and Deloitte, before focusing on corporate venture capital at Deloitte Japan. He worked across all sectors, with an emphasis on natural resources.

Vincent holds an MSc in Geological Engineering (Liege University, Belgium) and an MBA (Bayes Business School, London).

He is based in Barcelona.

Will Prendergast Frontline Ventures
General Partner

■ Career

Will is a General Partner at Frontline, and co-founded the firm in 2012 with an ambition to build a more collaborative approach to funding globally ambitious founders.

He has led over 30 investments at Frontline,backing founders in a range of industries and geographies
He was a director and first cheque investor in companies including Pointy (acquired by Google), Britebill (acq. Amdocs), and AMCS (>$2bn valuation). Will’s sectoral focus is on fintech and he represents Frontline on the boards of Finbourne and Appital.

Will is a Kauffman Fellow and a professionally trained chef.

Yoichi Morimoto HiJoJo Partners
Executive Officer & Head of Business Development

■ Career

At Goldman Sachs Securities, I oversaw three divisions: Institutional Investor Sales, Corporate Sales, and Corporate Access, directing strategies to enhance the corporate value of publicly listed companies and manage IPO and PO sales strategies. Since June 2024, I have been serving as the Executive Officer in charge of new business development, focusing on supporting the sustainable growth of our portfolio companies. Our company is involved in the formation and management of funds that invest in overseas unicorn companies as well as domestic and international middle/later-stage private equity, while simultaneously providing capital policy and business growth support to our portfolio companies. In 2024, we established a capital business partnership with Nasdaq Private Market, the world's largest secondary market. Additionally, I was involved in the relaxation of regulations as a member of the Japan Securities Dealers Association's Regulatory Relaxation Committee in 2021, contributing to the easing of the Type 1 Financial Instruments Business License requirements.

Yuki Shirato Techstars Tokyo
Managing Director

■ Career

Yuki Soga Penrose Japan
CEO

■ Career

Yuko Tomosue Makaira K.K.
Executive Officer

■ Career

Yumiko Oka Antler Japan
Program Manager

■ Career

Yumiko is a Program Manager at global venture capital firm Antler. Responsible for the design and execution of the Antler Residency in Japan. She focuses on portfolio management and building relationships with investors, with a mission to support early-stage
startups and help Japanese-born startups grow into globally impactful companies. Born in Thailand and raised in Japan, Switzerland, and the UK, she brings a unique multicultural perspective to guiding companies toward growth and success. She has over nine years of project management experience at global companies such as L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, and Rakuten.

Investor stage

Investor's Night

VCs, etc.*In Alphabetical Order

Interview

Investor Stage Timetable