Profile

• 
  Katsuhiko Oizumi

  President and CEO

  President and CEO

  Katsuhiko Oizumi

  

  President and CEO

  Katsuhiko Oizumi

  B.S. in Urban Engineering at Faculty of , University of Tokyo
  Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard Business School

  Katsuhiko Oizumi founded UTokyo IPC in 2016. He has involved in overall management and investment judgment as CEO.　He joined Mitsui & Co., Ltd. in 1980 and, on behalf of the company, he lent his expertise for the IT related venture company as one of the founding members. He had been as CEO of Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Inc. for four years until 2015. After the preparation of a company formation at the University of Tokyo, he has involved in UTokyo IPC as CEO since 2016.

  
• 
  Akihiko Asami

  Partner

  Corporate alliance

  Partner

  Akihiko Asami

  

  Partner

  Akihiko Asami

  · B.S. in Economics at Waseda University, Master of Business Administration at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in US.

  Akihiko Asami joined UTokyo IPC in 2018. He has involved in overall business such as investment and business development, and cooperation with companies. He joined Fuji Bank, Ltd. in 1985 After he moved to investment banking division at Goldman Sachs, he experienced numerous large-scale M&A, self-investment projects and financing in communications, media and technology industries as a managing director for 15 years.
  In 2019 he joined investment banking division at Deutsche Securities and experienced numerous large-scale M&A as a general manager for telecommunications, media, technology and healthcare industries.
  In 2011 he moved to investment banking division at Barclays Securities and involved in services for almost all industries as a head of IBD and a vice chairman. Especially he poured his energy on building up a solid alliance between SMBC group.

  
• 
  Kosuke Ueda

  Partner (CFO)

  Fund Management /Corporate Department

  Partner (CFO)

  Kosuke Ueda

  

  Partner (CFO)

  Kosuke Ueda

  · Master of Law at Kansai University
  · Juris Doctor of Seikei University
  · Completed the training for government officials at Ministry of Finance.

  Kosuke Ueda joined UTokyo IPC in 2017 and involved in fund management and general corporate works. He worked at Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. (currently, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc.) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). He moved to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS CO., LTD as CFO, executive officer, and general manager of strategic subsidiary corporate planning division at SEGA SAMMY. Supervised the administration department and concurrently served as an executive officer at the overseas subsidiary. After the experience as assistant manager of global business unit at MISUMI Group Inc., he moved to UTokyo IPC.

  Kosuke has unique background from the fact that he had played as creative producer and also as the featured actor at the theatrical group, the “startup” in entertainment field, until he was 29 years old. He achieved to grow the theatrical group to the one that can gather a few thousands of audiences while touring many mini-theater in Kansai area. Kosuke is the self-claimed singer, dancer and multi-talented man who has the various experiences from business development and management at the both private and public sectors.

  
• 
  Makoto (Mark) Ohori, Ph.D

  Partner （Chief Investment Officer, Life Science）

  Investment Focus
  Life Science

  Partner （Chief Investment Officer, Life Science）

  Makoto (Mark) Ohori, Ph.D

  

  Partner （Chief Investment Officer, Life Science）

  Makoto (Mark) Ohori, Ph.D

  Makoto (Mark) Ohori, Ph.D joined UTokyo IPC in October 2020. Prior to UTokyo IPC, Mark was Executive Director, Head of Early-stage Partnering at Astellas Innovation Management LLC (Cambridge, MA), where he established and managed dozens of strategic partnerships with life science companies and academic institutions in the US, Europe, and Japan. Before that, he worked for Astellas Venture Management LLC (Menlo Park, CA) as Investment Director and made investments in around fifteen biotech ventures. More than half of them already achieved Exits (IPO or M&A). Mark also led the efforts of partnering and collaboration management with portfolio companies including build-to-buy NewCos. He was working in-residence at Potenza Therapeutics, where he served as Co-chair of the Joint Steering Committee. The company was successfully achieved Exit (M&A) with three clinical programs, which were discovered under the collaboration. Mark also has more than twenty years of experience of drug discovery research in Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma. Mark advanced his training as a molecular biologist in the Faculty and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokyo, where he received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.

  
• 
  Kazuhiko Kakehi

  Partner

  Collaboration with The University of Tokyo and government offices,
  networking with companies

  Partner

  Kazuhiko Kakehi

  

  Partner

  Kazuhiko Kakehi

  ·Ph.D. in Computer Science, Waseda University

  Kazuhiko Kakehi joined UTokyo IPC in 2016 as a founding member. He serves governmental and academic relations under the governmental initiative to promote venture investment of national universities. He is also responsible for the LP and public affairs.
  Starting his career as assistant professor of UTokyo in 2002, he served the same university as industry liaison from 2006. His primary role was international development, which gave him enlightenment how universities worldwide have been changing and evolving themselves.
  His passion is to vitalize UTokyo now that the startup is the key to make impact from academia into the society.
  He now lives in northern Kanto and is enjoying commuting using the “Shinkansen” bullet train. He also enjoys driving his AWD car; he belonged to an English debating team and a cricket team in his university days.

  
• 
  Mikio Kawahara

  Chief Investment Officer

  Major Investment Areas:
  Life Science / Deep Tech

  Chief Investment Officer

  Mikio Kawahara

  

  Chief Investment Officer

  Mikio Kawahara

  Master of Mathematical Engineering at University of Tokyo
  MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
  MEM at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering

  Mikio Kawahara has joined UTokyo IPC since 2016 and has led investment and business development. He joined Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. in 1997 and engaged in research and development of factory systems and image processing as IT engineer. His next roles at Corporate Planning Division were strategic business alliances and M&A transactions. 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.

  
• 
  Takayuki Kuwae

  Partner

  Corporate Department

  Partner

  Takayuki Kuwae

  

  Partner

  Takayuki Kuwae

  ・Joined the UTokyo IPC in 2022
  ・At the Corporate Advisory Division, SMBC’s strategic organization, worked as a sector banker in the electric power, airline, electric railway, transportation, and logistics industries, and oversaw several management support projects for listed companies.
  ・Served as a member of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s Administrative Reform Working Group on Regional Development.
  ・As Managing Executive Officer and General Manager of the Group Strategy Office of a Daiwa Securities Group-affiliated fund investee electric power company, established a business management system based on the premise that the company would be listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
  ・As a director and CFO of CrowdWorks, which is listed on the Growth Market (formerly TSE Mothers) index, promoted M&A and PMI utilizing turnarounds and debt finance.
  ・At Culture Convenience Club Co. Ltd., responsible for corporate planning for Holdings and was engaged in the planning and execution of the Revival Plan.
  ・As either a representative director or board member, involved in the management of companies in numerous industries and at various stages of growth – such as university management companies, library management companies, electronic payment companies, travel companies, and regional revitalization companies.
  ・B.A. in Human Sciences, Waseda University; M.B.A., Graduate School of Management, Globis University

  
• 
  Takahiro Mizumoto

  Partner - Investment and Incubation

  Major Investment Areas:
  General BtoB/BtoC services,
  Entrepreneur Support Program Manager

  Partner - Investment and Incubation

  Takahiro Mizumoto

  

  Partner - Investment and Incubation

  Takahiro Mizumoto

  · Master of Technical Management at Kyoto University
  · Passed the patent attorney final examination in 2004

  Takahiro Mizumoto has joined UTokyo IPC since 2017 and has involved in investment in IT / service ventures and support programs for entrepreneurs. He experienced venture investment in high-tech fields including IT and medical care at Daiwa SMBC Capital Co. Ltd. (currently, Daiwa Corporate Investment Co., Ltd.) After moving to Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K., as a task force leader, he led all processes from a new business planning to launching to markets in the various types of projects related to payment system, new electric power project, digital transformation for stores. He started investment activities again from January 2017 at UTokyo IPC. He launched the support program for entrepreneurs.

  Takahiro studied so hard to become patent attorney just because he wanted to work at his own pace. He successfully passed the examination for patent attorney but he changed his mind. Educations for entrepreneurship at Graduate School of Kyoto University made him to decide to enter into venture capital industry instead of working as a patent attorney. Takahiro selected his specialized area as a state-of-the-art technology field as he believes “I finally became a patent attorney and I should utilize my knowledge as much as possible…”. Due to the fact he is out of the direction and his first investment target was the startups whose service was related to GPS. After the Lehman Brother shock, he moved to the business company. He enjoyed a lot playing as planning staff for a while. Now he has just came back to investment world while keeping having his solid original objectives.

  
• 
  Suguru Mima

  Partner

  Investment Focus
  Carveout, Corporate Alliance

  Partner

  Suguru Mima

  

  Partner

  Suguru Mima

  Suguru Mima joined UTokyo IPC in January 2021. Prior to joining UTokyo IPC, he was Partner at Aspirant Group, Japanese PE fund, where he led variety of investments such as corporate carveout and business succession transactions in the industrial technology, healthcare, and business services sectors. Before that, he worked for Toyota Tsusho, focusing on strategy revisions and domestic/overseas M&A in the grain/food industry. He also worked at Ant Capital Partners from 2005 where he was in charge of investments in family-held businesses, management support and exit negotiations for portfolio companies, and fund raising activities. Prior to Ant Capital Partners, he worked at Accenture from 2000 where he was engaged in various types of projects including new business start-ups, R&D strategy restructuring and operational reforms for governmental agencies, financial institutions, chemical companies and IT carriers.
  He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Technology from Kyoto University and an M.B.A. in Financial Strategy from the School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University Business School.

  
• 
  Takashi Furukawa

  Venture Partner

  Main Responsibilities：
  Hands-on Management Support for Investees

  Venture Partner

  Takashi Furukawa

  

  Venture Partner

  Takashi Furukawa

  ・Takashi Furukawa joined UTokyo IPC in 2021. He provides hands-on management support to investees.
  ・Takashi joined the Bank of Japan in 1995. From July 2000, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group for about two years before starting his own business. He has been involved in the management of venture companies. From 2007 to 2015, he served as a director at Industrial Growth Platform, Inc., where he was involved in hands-on management reform.
  ・Since 2015, Takashi has served as Member of the Board of NEC Lighting Ltd., Corporate Officer of SanBio Co., Ltd., and President and Chairman of Innophys Co., Ltd.
  ・Currently, Takashi is the Cabinet Office’s SBIR Program Manager, and the Cabinet Office’s Chairperson of the PM Liaison Committee, he is also a member of the Expert Committee of the Program for Creating STart-ups from Advanced Research and Technology (START) at Japan Science and Technology Agency.
  ・Takashi graduated from the Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, and received a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Economics, Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo.
  ・His interests include sailing, fishing from a yacht, and camping.

  
• 
  Saori Ozawa

  Manager

  Alliance with Univ of Tokyo, governmental entities and corporate partners

  Manager

  Saori Ozawa

  

  Manager

  Saori Ozawa

  ·Education : Thai language, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

  Saori Ozawa joined UTokyo IPC in 2019 as a collaboration manager among University of Tokyo, Japanese governmental entities, foreign academic authorities and private companies which support ecosystem around the University of Tokyo. She started her career in financial field at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation from 2012 to 2015. She experienced sales activities for small-to-medium sized companies and provided marketing research and coordination services for collaborative stakeholders in growing industry such as robotics, IoT, AI and infrastructure development projects.
  From 2018 to 2019, she worked for Sojitz Europe plc and conducted research activities, analyzing and consulting services for newly developing industry in European countries.

  
• 
  Yayoi Takeuchi

  Secretary

  Secretary

  Yayoi Takeuchi

  

  Secretary

  Yayoi Takeuchi

  Yayoi Takeuchi joined UTokyo IPC in 2019 as a secretary to CEO. She has involved in corporate operations. She worked for the National Research and Development Agency as a secretary and supported facilitation of research. She worked as an assistant to the executive member at the foreign affiliated beverage manufacturer. Yayoi launched her own business in 2016 however the status is open but not doing business. She is now placing her hope for her unfulfilled dream as a business owner in potential global ventures which will be generated from around UTokyo and from Japan. She has kept this fact as secrecy but she is like an athletic type of person and she has been working on muscle training and enjoying sports activities with the belief that “Under any circumstances with full of stress, you must always perform your best both at your business and at sport world. She strongly believes it is the common way of thinking in business and also in sports”.

  
• 
  Atsuhiro Bingo

  Manager

  Investment and Business development

  Manager

  Atsuhiro Bingo

  

  Manager

  Atsuhiro Bingo

  ・Strategy planning and business development at Boston Consulting Group
  ・The University of Tokyo, College of Arts and Sciences
  ・The University of Tokyo, Medicine, Ph.D.

  
• 
  Kei Furukawa

  Manager

  Investment and Business development

  Manager

  Kei Furukawa

  

  Manager

  Kei Furukawa

  Keio University Law and Political Science B.A

  ・INSEAD MBA
  ・2019 – Present UTokyo IPC：Manager, investment and business development.
  ・2018 – 2019 Golden Whales Group：VP of sales. Involved in venture investment, new business development, and technology sales.
  ・2012 – 2016 Sony Russia：Manager, contributed to expansion of sales and market share at Sony Russia.
  ・2010 – 2012 Sony Corporation： Assigned to the EU marketing team at TV business head office.

  
• 
  Hideki Nagasaka

  Manager

  Business Development, Corporate Alliance, and Incubation Program Manager

  Manager

  Hideki Nagasaka

  

  Manager

  Hideki Nagasaka

  Hideki Nagasaka joined UTokyo-IPC in 2020 and leads 1stRound incubation program. Hideki holds a Bachelor Degree in Political Economy from University of California, Berkeley. He co-founded Spiral (Tokyo), an indoor drone solution. He also worked as Strategic Alliance Specialist at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting/Venture Support.

  
• 
  Hiroaki Sugita

  Senior Advisor

  Corporate alliance

  Senior Advisor

  Hiroaki Sugita

  

  Senior Advisor

  Hiroaki Sugita

  Hiroaki Sugita joined the UTokyo IPC in 2021 as a senior advisor. He gives advice on venture investments and collaborations with large corporations.
  He joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1994 after working for JTB Corp. He was promoted to a Partner position in 2001 and served as Japan Office General Manager for six and a half years from 2006 and as Japan Representative for four years from 2016.
  Since working for BCG, he has been involved in helping a wide range of industries realize their core management agendas, including fundamental corporate transformation for re-growth, new business creation, and digital transformation.
  Bachelor’s degree in Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  Master’s degree in Business Administration, Keio University.
  Director of Unicharm since March 2021
  Professor at Waseda University Business School since April 2021

  
• 
  高野泰朋

  客員研究員

  客員研究員

  高野泰朋

  

  客員研究員

  高野泰朋

  Sorry, this entry is only available in Japanese.

  
• 
  Outside Experts

  外部専門家ネットワーク

  外部専門家ネットワーク

  Outside Experts

  

  外部専門家ネットワーク

  Outside Experts

  We work with 15 outside experts (as of January,2019) in order that we can give startups professional network and knowledge.
  (biotechnology：7, device：3, chemical：1, space business：1, business developments：2, overseas market：1)