Enhancing the
Future

Yuhei Yano

President & CEO / Managing Director

Yuhei Yano is the President & CEO and Managing Director at TGVP focused on investments in the areas of Manufacturing, Robotic, Material, Construction/Property, and technology-enabled SaaS. Yuhei has over 15 years of venture capital experience in the US and Japan. Prior to TGVP, Yuhei spent three years at Toppan Strategic Investment Group, focusing on startup investment activity where one of his portfolio companies went public and another acquired by Toppan Inc. Prior to Toppan, Yuhei worked at Future Venture Capital (FVC) where he focused on fundraising, and various advisory services as well as startup investment and exit. His past investment includes CRESTEC (TSE 7812) and 3D MATRIX (TSE 7777). Yuhei graduated with a B.A. in Commerce from Chuo University.

Ed Lau

Managing Director

Ed Lau is a Partner at Toppan Global Venture Partners (TGVP). Educated as a computer scientist, he has spent 20+ years inside venture funded startups including co-founding, Audible (NASDAQ: AMZN), the global leader in spoken audio on the internet today and New Moon Systems (NYSE: ORCL), an enterprise software company that pioneered technology for Software as a Service (SaaS). Over the past 15+ years as a venture capitalist, Ed has helped drive investments globally in numerous startups; helping guide startups / founders towards operating success. Co-author of 11 patents, Ed holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and an A.B. from New York University.

Yoji kawaguchi

Managing Director

Yoji Kawaguchi is the partner at TGVP. He has spent 11+ years in Venture Capital and 8+ years in business development connecting Silicon Valley startup companies with Asian partners. Yoji is the co-founder and CEO of Delta Pacific Partners where his efforts resulted in “win-win” strategic investments from Japanese corporations into a number of Silicon Valley startups. Furthermore, his efforts have enabled the successful entry of a number of startup companies into the Japanese market. Yoji holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

Yusaku Masunaga

CFO

Yusaku Masunaga is the CFO at TGVP focused on investments in the areas of Cybersecurity, Fintech, Enterprise SaaS and Retail Technology. Yusaku started his career as an embedded security software engineer at Toppan and has deep knowledge of cybersecurity and identification/authentication technologies. He has been working with startups for business development in the U.S. for over ten years. Yusaku studied nuclear physics and graduated with the Degree of Master of Engineering at Nagoya University.

Aleksandar Kostic

Principal

Aleks is a Principal at TGVP, focused on Healthcare technology and Life Sciences investments. Aleks has nearly 10 years of experience investing across a number of sectors including Fintech and Renewables and holds a deep interest in the Healthcare sector, particularly in the areas of Precision Medicine and application of AI. Prior to joining TGVP Aleks had a career spanning Healthcare, Fintech and Investment Banking. Aleks holds a Master of Commerce and a Bachelor of Business Management from the University of Queensland.

Jingjie (JJ) Li

Associate

JJ is an Associate at TGVP focused on investments in sustainability, manufacturing, supply chain, and security. She began her career at JFE Steel, spending 3 years as a production controller in the steel mill and 2 years in international trade negotiations. In 2018, she joined the Boston Consulting Group where she spent 3.5 years helping drive innovation in large corporations as well as advising and conducting due diligence for Fortune 500 companies on investments in AI and energy startups. JJ holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts from Fudan University.

Issei Kusano

Associate / Venture Partner

Issei Kusano is an Associate and Venture Partner at TGVP focused on investments in the areas of Food/Beverage, Supply Chain Management, Climate Tech, Smart City, and Agriculture. Issei started his career as a sales representative for packaging products at Toppan where he gained an expertise of the global packaging market. Most recently, he has focused his efforts and experience towards to new business development and strategic investment in US startups. Prior to coming to the US, he spent several years working with Japanese startups to develop new business in Japan. Issei graduated from Kyushu University and majored in Agriculture focused on fish immunity. Additionally, he is a Master of Business Administration from Waseda University.

Ryo Takei

Venture Partner

Ryo Takei is a Venture Partner at TGVP focused on investment and business development in the areas of material, packaging, plastic, recycling and technology-enabled sustainability. Ryo has been involved in the research and development of packaging materials and barrier films as a researcher at TOPPAN for 10 years. In the last few years, he contributed to the launch of mono-material packaging, TOPPAN’s sustainable global packaging. Ryo studied Chemical Engineering and graduated with a Masters of Engineering from Waseda University.

Hiroaki Kawada

Venture Partner

Hiroaki Kawada is a venture partner at TGVP, and is in charge of investments in the fields of semiconductor front-end and back-end processes, electronic organic materials, image sensors, and displays.　At Toppan Printing, Kawaida was in charge of research and development of photoresists and optical components for displays and image sensors, and gained expertise in the product launch process and electronics for products developed for Japanese and overseas customers. He has also worked in technical sales in the US and in strategic investment in Japan, and is now putting his experience to use in new business development at a venture company. Hiroaki graduated from the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, and also holds a master’s degree in engineering.

Hiroshi Tanaka

Venture Partner

Hiroshi Tanaka is an Associate and Venture Partner at TGVP focused on investments in the areas of Electronics, Robotic, Construction, Smart City and Automotive. Hiroshi has 15 years of experience in Engineering and Product planning in Display and Semiconductor industries at Toppan. He has been working with startups for business development in the U.S. for the past 3 years. Hiroshi studied Chemical Engineering and graduated with the Degree of Master of Engineering at Kyoto University.