Team
Team
Managing Director
Takuya Takagi is an accomplished professional and currently serves as Senior Managing Director at NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. With a strong background in telecommunications and technology, he leads venture capital investments and plays a crucial role in driving strategic growth. Takuya's expertise spans 5G, IoT, and corporate sustainability activities. He gained valuable insights and leadership skills through the prestigious MIT MBA program and earned a Sustainability Certificate from MIT, further enhancing his ability to drive sustainable innovation. His appointment as Senior Managing Director further solidifies his reputation as a visionary leader, capable of guiding investments and fostering growth in cutting-edge startups.
Managing Director
Neil leads the team responsible for investments and business development. Neil focuses on stage agnostic investments in cloud, IOT, and e-commerce. Neil led Docomo’s investments in Centrify, Muzy, Nextbit, Anfacto, Influitive and Nok Nok Labs. His current investments also include Couchbase, Radar, and Zippin. He was also involved in Docomo’s prior investment in Mist Systems which was acquired by Juniper and Coinbase which completed a significant IPO in 2021.
Prior to Docomo, Neil spent 6 years building Bay Partners Software as a Service and digital media practices. As a General Partner he led the firm’s early investments in Eloqua which was acquired by Oracle after going public in 2012 and Cornerstone onDemand another IPO. Cornerstone (CSOD) is the leader and most valuable company in the talent management space. Neil served as a board director for Cornerstone onDemand, Like.com (acquired by Google), Eventful (acquired by CBS), LiveMedia and Hiplogic (acquired by Zynga).
Before venture capital, Neil spent 10 years as a product executive in technology companies of all sizes. Neil was part of the founding team of Afara Websystems which was acquired by Sun Microsystems. Afara's technology is the foundation of a multi-billion server product line at Oracle. Neil led product teams at Good Technology, RealNetworks and Sun Microsystems where he launched several new products. He began his career as a consultant with Accenture and IBM.
Neil has a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Stanford University.
Senior Director
He joined NTT DOCOMO as a graduate and experienced in an overseas office for new local business launch in the U.S. . After returning to Japan, he joined the team in charge of business negotiations with globally famous companies and launched a new business in the NTT DOCOMO HQ.
In 2016, he moved to NTT DOCOMO Ventures, where he was in charge of startup investments, mainly in Japan and Scandinavia. He led in deal sourcing, due diligence, negotiating investment terms and allocations, and executing several investments in early, middle, and later-stage startups. For this period, the highlights of his achievement include some EXIT through the IPO listing. He assisted NTT DOCOMO’s acquisition of a startup.
Since June 2020, he been working in the Silicon Valley office in the U.S. as a director. His current responsibility is managing the organization and leading an international in startup investments.
Director
Takashi Kadota, who currently serves as a Director of NTT DOCOMO Ventures Silicon Valley branch, has various experiences like business and service development, network optimization, and sales for both consumer and enterprise after joining NTT DOCOMO.
He also has strengths on building a relationship with global partners, through his proven contribution to several global projects such as i-mode global expansion, Facebook strategic alliance, and Magic Leap capital investment.
Director
Christina Ku is a venture capital professional investing in consumer internet, mobile, big data and cloud startups. She has evaluated, researched and assessed the viability of thousands of consumer internet businesses and new ventures for Intel, Vodafone and institutional capital firms. At her roles in investment research, corporate development and investment analysis, she has tracked public internet and mobile companies which provide her with a well-rounded perspective on emerging technologies (US, Europe), new markets, business models and financial diligence.
She started her career as an investment banker at Hambrecht & Quist, invested in emerging mobile companies such as Mobileway (sold to Sybase for $400 million) for Intel Capital and created new market development for Intel's Consumer Electronics Group. At Triplepoint Capital, she led the debt financing for 50 companies, primarily in the social networking space such as Facebook and Slide (sold to Google for $182 million). She also started one of the first online beauty social ecommerce startup at the Shimmer Group Inc.
Her most recent investments for Docomo were Netpulse, Elemental Technologies (acquired by Amazon) and Cyphort.
Christina received her MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Chicago Booth and BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Director
Christopher is a venture capital professional focused on investments in B2B, intelligent systems, big data, IoT and other related areas. He brings a mix of banking, venture capital, and operational experience working at several early-stage technology companies. Chris has spent his entire career in the venture capital ecosystem and has experience sourcing and evaluating investments in companies and funds, and in managing transactions and business development initiatives.
Chris started his career managing investments in venture capital and private equity for
Limited Partners like CalPERS and Oak Hill, and worked as a placement agent and secondary market advisor at Probitas Partners (closed $340m in secondary transactions and raised several funds for top-tier VCs). Chris was later a Co-founder and CEO of an enterprise communication and intelligent systems startup, and worked for several VC-backed, Y-Combinator and TechStars companies in Business Development, Sales and Product Strategy. He also worked at Morgan Stanley and Xpert Financial, sourcing and evaluating numerous technology companies for investment.
Chris has a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of California, Davis and a certificate from the National University of Singapore in East Asian Economic Studies.
Manager
Yurie is responsible for investments and business development in VR/XR, AI, workinnovation and entertainment.
She has nearly 10 years of experience in planning AI/chatbot/IoT/fintech consumer services from PoC to launch.
Prior to becoming an investor in the Bay Area, She was a product leader on a big 100+ person project where She planned and developed AI/chatbot services while collaborating with the planning and development teams. She had over 10 million users and were featured in the media and on television.
She also planned PFM and IoT services, which received media coverage and other attention.
Prior to that, she was a mobile application related to customer support and won a departmental award for increasing the number of users sevenfold.
She has worked as a planning specialist in various areas of services.
Yurie has a master's degree in Informatics from Tokyo Denki University.
Manager
TK has a passion for startups leveraging cutting-edge technologies to change industries and society. He focuses on investments in 5G/IoT, Cyber Security, Drones, Cloud, and Enterprise SaaS. He also helps the U.S startup entering Japanese market based on deep understanding of it. He led DOCOMO’s investment in TileDB.
TK started his career as a research engineer at NTT DOCOMO. He initiated and led a project to investigate the world’s first 5G mobile network, including a 1,000-times-higher data rate and 1 millisecond ultra-low latency as a highly knowledgeable cutting-edge technology specialist. He also pioneered an integration trial utilizing 5G with various partners from scratch and enable the use of innovative services planned for expanding new business opportunities.
TK received his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management (Class of 2020), ME in Electronic and Information Systems from the University of Tokyo, and BE in Information and Communication Systems from Tokyo Metropolitan University.
Manager
Masahiro Inoue is a Manager on the Business Development & Investment team in Silicon Valley Branch. He started his career as an AI software engineer in DOCOMO R&D and built a proactive support system based on Natural Language processing. Then he worked for Evernote corporation in Silicon Valley as a Marketing Data Analyst/Partnership&Community marketer. After one year of experience in Evernote, he joined us to help startup growth from his background knowledge and empowered the Japanese startup ecosystem by collaborating with startup ecosystem stakeholders. He also worked for a startup as a data analyst in parallel. He is now engaged in creating business collaboration with startups in the U.S and NTT Gr, and investing startups.
＜Current business＞
・ Creation of collaboration between startups and NTT Group
・ Startup investment
CEO
Jun Yasumoto joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. in 2023 as President & CEO.
Since joining Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in 1999, he was in charge of solution sales for corporate businesses for two years. Then, he was involved in the planning and development of Internet services, and the start-up for new businesses for 10 years. Since 2018, he was in charge of new business planning and development mainly in the sports and entertainment fields at NTT DOCOMO.
Investment Managing Director
He has an extensive track record of IPOs and M&A exits, while also specializing in investments with business alliances.
He has been in the VC industry for about 20 years and has invested in nearly 30 venture companies.
After that, he was in charge of new business and e-commerce business of Aeon Retail, where he reformed the business, and became Managing Director of NTT DOCOMO Ventures in June 2023.
Investment Director
Daichi joined NTT DOCOMO in 2010, and he has engaged in the development of voice solutions, medical / nursing care solutions.In 2016, he was seconded to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Returned to NTT DoCoMo in 2018, he has promoted measures for formulating medium-term business plans and realizing medium-term strategies in the Corporate Planning Department. He joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in July 2021.
Investment Director
Haruka joined NTT DOCOMO, worked in marketing research and data analysis, and was transferred to a food-related business company, where she worked in app service planning, business planning, and corporate planning. At NTT DOCOMO Ventures, have been in charge of creating collaborations between startups and NTT Group, and investment.
Investment Director
Miwa joined Docomo Ventures from August 2022. She is responsible for business management and fund management of DOCOMO Ventures.
Miwa joined NTT DOCOMO after graduating from 2008 in Japan and experienced in sales support operations for DOCOMO Shops. Her next post was in Global Business Department and she worked for about 11 years, mainly in charge of business management of DOCOMO subsidiaries in Europe, US, and Asia. She gained financial experience through a secondment to a subsidiary based in Italy. After returning to Japan, she was in charge of planning strategies for overseas subsidiaries.
Miwa holds an MBA from Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University (2022).
Investment Director
As a one of founding members of NTT Docomo Ventures (formerly NTT Investment Partners) since 2008, he was consistently involved in NTT's corporate venture capital activities. He led many investments in Israel, South East Asia, Europe, and Japan such as Riskified, Otonomo, and Wiliot. He helped these companies with their Japan market entry, and has built and facilitated the relationships between the portfolio startups and the NTT group. He has also handled all of front, middle, and back office operations for the organization, such as fund management and exit strategies. Currently he is exploring the next promising areas of technology and sustainability in Israel and Europe.
Investment Director
Yuma Kotake, just joined NDV in 2023, is responsible for investment and supports start-ups and portfolio companies in interaction with NTT Groups.
He has more than 10 years of experience as in-house lawyer in NTT DOCOMO and dealt with various domestic/cross border M&A and other strategic alliance.
Prior to joining NDV, he was the General Manager of Business Planning Dept of DOCOMO Insight Marketing Inc. in charge of business strategy and development since 2021.
He loves classic hard rock and heavy metal, such as Gun N Roses, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, MÖTLEY CRÜE. His interest in international business and the English language actually developed as a result of the passion for them.
Attorney at Law, N.Y.
University of Pennsylvania Law School, LL.M. class of 2014
Wharton Business & Law Certificate, 2014
Investment Manager
Yasutaka Imai is an Investment Manager at NTT DOCOMO Ventures, where he spearheads the creation of collaborations between startups and NTT Group.
Since joining NTT DOCOMO, INC in 2013, he served in the field of Corporate Communications as a PR Planner, where he was responsible for developing and executing external communication strategies for both Japanese and foreign media in areas such as business strategy, investment collaboration, new ventures, and advanced technologies. From 2016, he worked on a project for MWC Barcelona, the world's largest mobile-related exhibition, taking the lead to showcase DOCOMO’s technologies and global businesses.
Investment Manager
Joined a local bank and mainly engaged in corporate sales. In 2016, he was seconded to a regional bank-based VC and was in charge of startup investment. Later, with the establishment of the group's specialized investment subsidiary, he engaged in a wide range of fund operations, including buyout investment and fund raising, from the time of its establishment. To date, he has invested in more than 20 companies in a wide range of stages from startup to pre-IPO round. Participated in NTT Docomo Ventures from October 2023.
Investment Manager
Tomohiro joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in April 2018. Prior to NDV, he worked for NTT Communications, where he engaged in streaming sevice platform.
Investment Manager
After joining NTT docomo, Yoshiaki engaged in mobile network infrastructure business, and ,made a traffic model that is the source of network infrastructure investment of hundreds of billions a year.
After that, he worked on internet services in the early days of smartphones, and was seconded to Rakuten.
He engaged in service planning and operation of Web and applications, and in charge of services of various forms (subscription, commerce, B2C, C2C, etc..) and genres (information distribution, agent service, auction, shopping, fashion, travel, etc..) , and he also serves as an outside lecturer.
He is currently committed to using these experiences to create innovation at startups and the NTT Group.
＜Current business＞
・ Planning and operation of Docomo Ventures event
・ Planning and operation of SNS (TW, FB, note)
・ Creation of collaboration between startups and NTT Group
・ Startup investment
Investment Manager
Taiki joined NTT DOCOMO, INC after graduating from Tokyo Institute of Technology Graduate School of Management of Technology. After joining the company, he engaged in sales consulting for DOCOMO Shops. He later engaged in formulating medium-term strategies for the mobile communications business and launching new alliance services at the Marketing Department. He joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in April 2021 and has been in charge of investment in startups, creation of business collaboration and company management.
Co-Creation Director
Atsushi joined Docomo Ventures in September 2022. He is responsible for promoting collaboration between startups and NTT Group companies and supporting business development.
He started his career as a Software Engineer at NTT Internet and was engaged in the development of payment systems. At Future Architect, he was engaged in BPR projects as an IT consultant.
After that, he became a Digital Marketing Consultant. At Dentsu Digital (formerly Dentsu e-Marketing One) and Accenture, he was engaged in various projects such as marketing strategy formulation, new service planning, web/smartphone application development, campaign planning, marketing research, sales/marketing solution implementation, and promotion of open innovation activities between startups and client companies.
He later became engaged in new business development support. He worked for BCG Digital Ventures, an incubation firm, and Archetype, where he worked on various new business development projects for large companies.
Co-Creation Manager
Akiko is responsible for developing collaboration businesses between startups and NTT groups, especially with NTT Communications.
Akiko started her career as a network Engineer at NTT Communications.
She worked in the incubation development of Network Services and experience a development of Layer 2 and 3.
She joined the trainee program in 2016 and worked in Singapore as a network engineer.
After coming back to Japan, she was in the team of collaboration with NTT Communications and startups.
She was in charge of PoC support and pitch event, Meet Silicon Valley in Tokyo.
She joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in July 2022.