Tom Kelley is the best-selling author of Creative Confidence, The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation as well as a partner at the renowned design and innovation consultancy IDEO. As a leading innovation speaker, Tom addresses scores of business audiences on how to foster a culture of innovation and tap into the creative potential of their organizations. Over the years, he has spoken in more than thirty countries and helped IDEO grow from 15 designers to a staff of more than 600, while leading diverse areas such as business development, marketing, human resources, and operations. Tom is an Executive Fellow at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and holds a similar role at the University of Tokyo.
Makoto Takano is CEO of atomixmedia, inc., Editor-in-Chief of Forbes JAPAN. Prior to joining atomixmedia, inc., he was Managing Director and President of PIMCO Japan Ltd. Before joining PIMCO in 2001, he was head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Mr. Takano’s prior experience also includes work at Daiwa Securities where he was head of the strategists team at Daiwa Institute of Research. He serves as Managing Director and Founder of Genuine Startups Ltd., Director of Nippon Finance Association, International School of Asia Karuizawa (ISAK), Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, Any times Inc., Editorial Board Member of Tokyo Financial Research Co., Ltd., Advisor of Japan Blue Energy Co., Ltd., as well as Board Member of Human Rights Watch.
Kengo Ito is the Managing Director and co-founder of Genuine Startups. He founded Genuine Startups Fund I in 2013 and invested more than 50 startups at seed stage. Prior to founding Genuine Startups, he served as Chief Accelerator at MOVIDA JAPAN. He established a Seed Acceleration Program and provided hands-on support with more than 300 startups. His prior experience also includes MetaCast, movie solution provider, as CEO for 3 years. He has a broad range of IT and electronics experiences covering from venture investment to business development at Mitsui Comtek Co. in the US. He also led venture investment and business developments in display and mobile at Mitsui & Co. He serves as committee members at NICT(National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) and NEDO(New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). He holds masters and bachelors degrees in engineering from the University of Tokyo.
Mamoru Taniya has a broad range of investment experiences covering from fixed-income derivatives to private equities. His early career is illustrated by his successful years at Salomon Brothers he joined in 1987 where he became the youngest managing director in Asia. He then joined Tudor Capital (Japan) as one of the founding partners, and led an MBO to found Asuka Asset Management where he is CEO to date and has made it a leading independent hedge fund in Japan. As a venture capitalist, he initiated the launch of Lifenet Insurance Company, the first online insurance company, and invested in the development of "studio yoggy," a pioneering yoga studio, which contributed to popularize Yoga widely in Japan. He started another venture company, Campus for H Inc., a health care company that develops and markets innovative corporate wellness programs, and Money Design Inc. which is the first Robo Advisor company as a founder. He also serves as Representative founder of International School of Asia, Karuizawa (ISAK), the first international boarding school in Japan, since its establishment. Mr. Taniya received his B.A. in law from the University of Tokyo in 1987.
Kanako Inoue started her career preparing documentation of memorandums for directors' meetings and shareholders' meetings, being responsible for 20+ clients, as Corporate Paralegal at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune. She led negotiations and acted as the lead advisor in cross-border deals, liaised with overseas contacts at investment banks and professional firms on a daily basis to exchange information about potential M&A opportunities, as M&A advisor at GCA Savvian. She then advised mainly industrial goods/automotive clients on various strategy projects, such as M&A/product development/mid-term/new business development strategy, as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. Kanako holds a Bachelor in Laws from Keio University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
Kenichi is the Director of Business Design and Development at IDEO Tokyo. His focus is to bridge creativity with business, and using the combination to generate successful change and innovation. Currently, Kenichi’s focus is around growing and developing IDEO Tokyo’s business. Kenichi meets organizations every year to explore various ways that IDEO may collaborate with them to create greater impact. With a passion in venture design, Kenichi is also helping create new offerings to help startups and entrepreneurs in Japan. Prior to joining IDEO, Kenichi worked as a Country Manager at Toyota Motor Corporation’s headquarters in Japan where he was in charge of Toyota’s product portfolio, pricing, supply and demand, and public relations in multiple Latin American countries. Kenichi holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, US, and a BA in Policy Management from Keio University, Japan. A globe trotter, Kenichi has lived in London, New York, Boston, and Singapore.
Michael (Mike) Peng is a Partner and Managing Director, and co-founder of IDEO Tokyo. In his role, Mike works with colleagues to set the strategic direction of the business in Japan, mentor designers, create new offerings, and lead client relationships and projects in Asia. Prior to Tokyo, Mike helped start-up IDEO’s New York office and lead its design research discipline. Mike has taught at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID). Mike graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in cognitive science and an emphasis in neuroscience.
Davide Agnelli is managing director of IDEO, Japan. He works with clients to drive business growth, tackle systemic challenges, design new offerings and launch new ventures. With a background in computer science and interaction design, Davide also works across the Asia region to develop IDEO’s digital design capabilities. Davide holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Pavia, Italy and a Master’s degree in Interaction Design from the Interaction Design Institute, Ivrea. He is regularly engaged with both corporate and educational institutions as mentor and design educator. On weekends, you can find him cooking for friends, exploring and photographing Tokyo’s backstreets on his bicycle.
Vincent Tan joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) after finishing graduate school in the United States. He worked at BCG for 5 years, reaching the position of Project Leader. As a Project Leader, he advised clients on strategic issues and was also responsible for managing project team members. He mainly advised pharmaceutical companies on their new business and product development, international business development, business optimization strategy, and has experience in cross border M&A transactions in the retail and energy sectors. He holds a BA from University of British Columbia (Canada) and a J.D. from the Columbia School of Law (NY, USA). He is a member of the New York State Bar.
Katsuya Hyodo joined The Boston Consulting Group after graduating university. At BCG, he was involved in advising financial, pharmaceutical, telecom, control equipment, and electrical companies with their new business development, strategic planning, organizational reforms, product pricing strategies, and due diligence on global transactions. In particular, he has extensive experience in data analysis (Excel and Alteryx). He holds a BA and MA in Science from Kyoto University. His master’s thesis on quantum physics was published in Nature Physics (DOI: 10.1038/ NPHYS4078)
Mr. Idei was a member of top management of Sony Corporation from 1995 for more than a decade, first as president and COO and then chairman and CEO. From 2007 to 2012, he served as chairman of Sony’s advisory board. During his tenure, Mr. Idei moved the company into the digital age by creating a vision where audio, visual, computer and telecommunication technologies would be seamlessly merged and connected with software content and services, much like the Internet world we know today. As CEO of Sony, he supported the launch of Monex Inc., DeNA and M3. Since 2006, Mr. Idei is Founder and CEO of Quantum Leaps Corporation. He holds a B.S. degree in economics and politics from Waseda University.
Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor Masi Oka burst onto the scene starring in NBC’s drama series “Heroes”, a role for which he received his nominations. Oka can now be seen in the role of the eccentric Coroner on the hit series “Hawaii 5-0”, a Coroner whose piano playing in the autopsy room helps him figure out how the people on his table died. No stranger to television, Oka has had recurring roles on NBC’s “Scrubs” and Fox’s “Luis” and has also guest starred on “Without a Trace,” “Joey,” “Reba,” “Still Standing,” “Will & Grace,” “Yes, Dear” and “The Gilmore Girls.” In addition to his very public roles, Oka works behind the scenes as an advisor to JETRO and a cultural envoy to the US Embassy, bringing the gaps between Japan and Hollywood in the arts and business. After graduating Brown University with degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science and a Theatre Arts minor, Oka pursued an acting career while taking his first job at George Lucas’ Oscar-winning special effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) providing technology for groundbreaking effects for more than 30 films.
After working at Brother Industries and Swarovski Japan, Ms. Ishiguro founded a high-tech specialty consulting firm in Silicon Valley and advised clients such as Yahoo!, Netscape, Panasonic, and Sony on US-Japan alliances and technology transfers. She is a founding member of Netyear Group in US and Japan, devising comprehensive digital marketing solutions for corporate clients that resolve fundamental business issues as CEO. The company was listed on the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2008. Ms. Ishiguro graduated the School of Economics at Nagoya University and received an MBA from Stanford University. She had been a member of Government committee for the past several years, such as Cabinet Office “The future to choose” Committee, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) “IoT” Committee, and so on.
Delivering the latest in women's clothing from boutique Japanese brands to your doorstep. AirCloset's subscription box service delivers on this mission by providing users with different garments every month based on customized preferences.
By combining their experience in AI, big data technologies and capital markets, the team at Alpaca is transforming the financial trading market by developing a scalable scientific solution for retail traders. Their product, Alpaca Algo, can be customized to any user - with or without programming experience - to develop unique trading algorithms utilizing Alpaca’s proprietary deep learning technology.
Campfire, one of the leading crowd funding platforms in Japan, is redefining the P2P space in Japan. In addition to the eponymously named CAMPFIRE platform, which has become one of the leading crowd funding platform’s in Japan, Campfire has also introduced FIREX (a cryptocurrency exchange) and Polca (a P2P payment service). Through this ecosystem, Campfire aims to democratize the future of funding and make it easier for anyone, anywhere to make their voices heard.
By providing a revolutionary machine learning indexing technology called Videogram, Cinemacraft is disrupting the way video is discovered, engaged with, and monetized. Videogram is a powerful tool that not only automatically breaks down and indexes video content, at almost live speeds, into its visual and audio components, but also learns its user preferences and adapts automatically. The technology is completely embeddable, compatible with any video server, and can live on third party websites within apps or on social networks.
Cocoa motors developed "Walkcar"; a personal hoverboard-like transporter aimed for commuters that is light enough to be carried in a shopping bag
A B2B platform aimed to help companies with cyber-domain security
Crevo is a crowdsourcing platorm for video production used in the advertising and marketing industries. The crowd sourcing platform matches users with over 3000 designers and creatives from over 100 countries. Crevo provides support from the initial planning to the final delivery of the video product.
A technology platform that analyzes visual data through A.I. to help educate and inform organizations, especially those focused on the aging society
A closed-loop digital communication tool for students to connect and collaborate
Emerada's platform provides a crowd-funding debt and equity finance service that enables individual investors to invest in growing ventures. Emerada's vision is to become a new form of financial institution that provides individual users with new alternative forms of investments and provide companies with new access to financing and allow them to accelerate their growth .
FAMZON creates high quality line of women's shoes with removable and adjustable heels. Combining a unique patented heel lock-release technology with design elegance, FAMZON shoes lets women look good and feel good no matter the occasion.
Using technology to enhance the sports watching experience for fans
HOMMA’s vision is to redefine "daily living", specifically by creating a stronger relationship between you and your home.
Infostellar's mission is to extend the internet into outer space and create the largest space communications infrastructure in history. With the StellarStation cloud-based software platform, Infostellar provides an innovative solution to reduce unused antenna idle time and address the issue of insufficient satellite access by connecting satellite operators with antenna owners.
Nana provides a music sharing platform that easily allows users to collaboratively create and share their own music.
Acquired by DMM, 2017
Planet Table operates an online food delivery platform called SEND to directly connect food producers and restaurant chefs directly. Planet Table is disrupting the previously fragmented Japanese agriculture space by creating a new consolidated digital marketplace where buyers and sellers can more efficiently understand when, where, and who requires or produces what kind of food products. Planet Table is unique in that they not only operate an online platform that utilizes big data analysis to continually understand demand and supply information but also boast their own logistics network.
PlusOne is redefining how humans interact with technology and each other. Their "HoloSapien" AI is currently utilized in the education space to help students practice English as a second language in AR/VR environments.
Principle provides a low cost home security system with a customizable sensor that is linked with the home owner's smart phone
REFUEL4 provides a pioneering that allows the order and delivery of ad produts online. REFUEL4's AI can develop an initial ad creative draft, and a matching system can then connect users to a designer from anywhere in the world to help finalize the final product. Many global companies including IBM, PayPal and China’s Cheetah Mobile have installed the service, and the number of creator registration has exceeded 10,000 across 93 countries.
Rising Asia's Tabinaka platform provides a matching service between travellers, travel activities and travel guides.
Sprocket offers web marketing tools that help improve user engagement (purchase rates, membership registration rates etc.), by analyzing user behavior and posting optimum pop-ups
Standing Ovation operates "XZ" , a fashion app that provides styling advice by visualizing one’s closet, and "XZ days" , a web media that produces original contents for female viewers.
Street Academy offers a platform that matchers "teachers" and "learners". A wide variety of classes are listed on Street Academy ranging, from backflips to excel training
STUDIO's tool enables even non-programmers to easily create their own customizable digital products. Bridging the gap between design and coding, STUDIO is an easy, intuitive and accesible tool that allows anyone to design and maintain their own customized websites.
THECOO's Fanicon app is a platform that connects influencers with their core fans.
Ubie's AI provides healthcare diagnosis that covers over 400 disease areas and over 1,300 symptoms - from non malignant to critical diseases. The mission of the team at Ubie is to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and empower doctors to be able to provide even better service and care.
One Financial's OnePay provides a digital card payment system.
Whatzmoney provides mortgage comparison search service as well as refinancing services.
Through their app LongShorts, the team at 96 Problems seek to turn fiction into bite-sized narratives tailored to the consumption habits of today’s youth. Unlike other offerings in the chat fiction space, LongShort stories exist both in app and on existing social media, thus stories not only unfold just like the real life stories that other users already follow, but also provides an unprecedented level of multi-channel user engagement at every point of the narrative.
We enable early stage Japanese ventures to create impact in the world through capital., insights., design., mentorship., connections.
For more information, please e-mail info@d4v.jp or call +81 3 6447 1334.
To keep up-to-date on all D4V news, please check out our D4V Facebook page.
2018/04/26
Group photo with Ideo Tokyo before the new office opening party and some photos from the event! #oneomotesando #ideotokyo ... See moreSee less
2018/04/26
Last Thursday, D4V and IDEO Tokyo hosted a housewarming party. Thank you for those made time for us! If you missed the party, please come to visit us!
先週の木曜日、D4VとIDEO Tokyoは移転記念パーティを開催いたしました。お越し下さった方ありがとうございます!パーティにはお越しいただけなかった方もぜひ今後お越しください!先週木曜日、IDEO TokyoとD4Vは共同で、表参道新オフィスの移転記念パーティーを開催しました!約250名近い様々なバックグラウンドのゲストに、私たちの新たな門出に立ち会っていただけたことを心から嬉しく思っております。ご参加いただいた皆様、お祝いをお送りいただいた皆様、本当にありがとうございました!今年はもっと多くの皆様との「クリエイティブな出会い」の場を作っていけるよう、イベントを企画していく予定です。
Last Thursday, IDEO Tokyo and D4V hosted a housewarming party at our new studio in Omotesando! We were thrilled to celebrate this new journey with over 250 guests from various industries, backgrounds, and walks of life. A big thank you to everyone who attended and brought us lovely gifts! We will surely have more creative gatherings in the upcoming year! ... See moreSee less
2018/04/25
D4V is pleased to announce the closure of its first fund raise at over 5B Yen! We look forward to supporting the Japanese startup community / environment
prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000003.000033616.html ... See moreSee less
Our mission is to be a catalyst for Japanese start-ups and unlock their potential to succeed on a global scale.
Great design creates great businesses. We see design as a powerful enabler and differentiator at all stages throughout a venture's lifecycle.
Constructive experiments and rapid prototypes are powerful tools. In our experience "talking less and doing more" enables quality at speed.
Our strengths lie in our differences, not similarities. We believe in bringing together a diverse group of talented and inspiring individuals from all backgrounds (beyond the business community) and geographies (beyond Japan).
We have the experience and committment to support Japanese ventures at all stages, from seed to exit.
We look to be a value adding investor for your startup, no matter what round or phase of the venture lifecycle you are in.
We bring together the latest insights, learnings, and emerging trends from all industries, all around the world, to help inform and inspire your venture.
We offer design reviews and design sprints from our resident designers to help kickstart or accelerate your venture.
We mentor, coach, and train all different types of people on your team, leveraging D4V and IDEO Tokyo leadership, advisors, and extended network.
We connect your team to a global network of entrepreneurs, industry experts, investors and media to help you grow and scale your venture.
Our team consists of professionals from IDEO and the fields of finance, venture, and consulting to provide hands-on design and business support, partner mentoring, and Japan/ global networking opportunities to our portfolio companies.
Genuine Startups contributes a vast experience in bridging between traditional large Japanese companies and startups, and can offer extensive support throughout a venture’s lifecycle.
With over 700 designers across 9 offices globally, IDEO is known as a pioneer of human-centered design and contributes 30 years of product and service innovation in a wide range of industries. IDEO’s designers in Japan will actively lend their experience and skills to D4V’s portfolio companies.
Our portfolio of companies span multiple industries and tackle different business challenges here in Japan as well as around the world. The following are a few companies that are a part of our ever-growing family.
D4V stands for Design for Ventures. We believe great design creates great businesses. We see design as a powerful enabler and differentiator at all stages throughout a venture’s lifecycle. As a collaboration with IDEO, D4V combines both the hands on support from our venture capitalists, that bring with them professional experience from various fields such as banking and management consulting, as well the design expertise from IDEO to provide our portfolio companies with a truly unique service offering.
D4V aims to provide capital, mentorship, design, and networks to startups looking to make impact in both local and international markets. Some of our service offerings from IDEO include design sprints, video sprints, brand sprints, UI/ UX assessment and many more.
D4V is a joint venture between Japanese venture capital firm Genuine Startups and world-renowned global design company IDEO. Both firms are represented on D4V’s managing board and take active part in all aspects of the fund.
At the moment D4V remains industry agnostic, and will solely focus on the quality and experience of the startups founders. Our focus will primarily be in the seed and early stage investments but also remain open to more mature collaborations as well.
For more information regarding D4V, please e-mail us at info@d4v.jp or call +81 3 6447 1334.
To learn more about D4V, please read the official press release.
© D4V (Design for Ventures), 2018