Team
Team
Senior Managing Director
・ Lead the long-histrical R&D Lab in Palo Alto (RAN/AI/DataAnalysis/Cloud/Open Innovaiton).
・ Develop collaboration businesses between startups in Sillicon Valley & enterprizes in Japan.
- Invest capital into cutting-edge startups as head of NTT Docomo Ventures Inc. Sillicon Volley branch.
In 2000, after graduating from Chiba University graduate school (Department of Intelligent Information Engineering and Science), Takashi joined NTT DOCOMO Co., Ltd. and developed Worldfs first 3G (W-CDMA) radio base stations in commercial and contributed in ensuring radio interoperability for international roaming with overseas carriers. Since 2005, he moved to Docomo Open Innovation management team, investing and leading the collaboration with cutting-edge ventures and partner companies of other industries.
In 2011, Sponsored by Docomo, Takashi obtained a MBA from the University of Southern California (USC) and he came back and took charge of the formulation of the mid-term vision and plan in the Corporate Strategy Department, including the design of USD 45 billion sales & USD 35 billion budget. In 2017, Takashi was the Senior Manager creating innovative business models with new technologies, such as machine learning, telemedicine, xR, drone etc. Especially he succeeded to initiate and expand Docomo’s drone business “Docomo Sky” in Japan & South-East Asia.
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
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
Manager
After joining NTT DOCOMO, he worked in the Information Systems Department as an IT consultant and played a key role in projects to develop Customer Management systems for managing more than 70 million customers.
He led and initiated a project team to gather users’ requirements for a system, document them in a specification, and manage the whole process of the development.
After that, he moved to the Corporate Sales Department. He created new services and new pricing plan of mobile management service, developed a new WEB channel and handled a system upgrading project to the call center.
Since April 2021, he has been working in the Silicon Valley office in the U.S. as a manager. He is responsible for investments and business development in SaaS, MDM, Martech, Security and IoT.
＜Current business＞
・ Startup investment
・ Business development between startups and NTT Group
・ Support of portfolio companies for growth
・ DX support for routine tasks
CEO
Yuko Joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. in 2021 as President & CEO. Prior to joining NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Yuko was responsible for co-creating new innovative businesses with entrepreneurs inside NTT DOCOMO group through the “39works” program. Previously, Yuko created product line portfolios for smartphones, tablets and feature phones in NTT DOCOMO, as a product and service design specialist and co-developed the concept and technical specifications of i-mode service, an internet based service for mobile phones launched in 1999.
Outside of DOCOMO, Yuko is supporting and working with social entrepreneurs as a partner of ETIC. and REEP Foundation. Yuko also works as a mentor for younger generation employees from variety of companies.
Yuko holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan Fellows Program (2013).
Investment ＆ Business Development Senior Director
Katsutoshi Nishida joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in 2018, and has been involved in the wide range of investments from deep techs like semiconductors and laser devices to AI, influensor marketing, B2C services. He covers startups not only in Japan but also Europe and Israel seeking for cutting edge technologies and business ideas that could bring transformation in the industry structure and people's daily life, He values communication with entrepreneurs and venture communities.
Investment ＆ Business Development 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 ＆ Business Development Director
Since joining NTT DOCOMO Ventures in 2021, Hiroki has focused on investment and collaborative development for startups utilizing his experience in corporate sales.
Investment ＆ Business Development Director
Since joining Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East) in 2006, Koshiro has been involved in promoting various forms of collaborations with clients such as building mutual customer delivery models for start-ups, developing APIs for the system connections with collaborating companies, and engaging in investment management. In addition, He has a job experience in promoting new products such as Wi-FiSPOT, B2C application delivery PF, and affiliate services.
In 2017, he became a manager and contributed to formulate the access line business strategy (fixed-line and wireless) under the company's mid-term plan, and to set up measures to achieve the plan. He served wide range of customers from individuals to corporations, and job categories from marketing to technical fields.
In 2021, he transferred to a new position in NTT DOCOMO Ventures. Currently, based on his job experience, he is encouraging collaboration and investment operations in order to create and expand business by taking advantage of synergy between NTT group companies and startups.
Investment ＆ Business Development 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 ＆ Business Development 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 ＆ Business Development Manager
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 ＆ Business Development Manager
After graduating from Doshisha University with a master's degree in science of environement and mathematical modeling, Yohei joined NTT DOCOMO and worked as a research engineer at the R&D Center, engaging in research and development related to AI and big data. He later developed a new web machine translation application as a product manager at Mirai Translate, a subsidiary company of NTT DOCOMO. In 2021, he graduated from China Europe International Business School with a master's degree in business administration. He joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in May 2021 and has been in charge of investment in startups, creation of business collaboration and fund operations.
Investment ＆ Business Development 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 ＆ Business Development 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.
Incubation Director
Joined NTT DOCOMO Ventures in July 2019.
・Lead incubation team (responsible for growth up seeds/early startups)
・Develop collaboration businesses between startups and NTT groups, especially with NTT DOCOMO HQ.
・Focused areas are AI, IoT, healthcare, smartcity, XR, Gov-tech and consumer-services.
IZUA joind NTTdocomo business team and R&D team for more than 10 yrs and cleating some innovate consumer business such as i-Apli ver2, i-concier, LTE app serivices, and IoT-tag based care services.
Incubation 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.
Incubation 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
Incubation 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.