'venture capital' Category
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Five fortuitous VC forecasts for 2025
January 10, 2025As is customary, I am honoured to be able to feature the voices of venture capitalists beyond the usual Silicon Valley household names and once again publish the wisdom of a fully-female cast of VCs for this season’s set of predictions. May the universe bring us cosmic clarity and enlightenment in 2025. Happy holidays ! […]
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Our year-end investor letter
December 29, 2024Every year-end at Shizen Capital, we craft a letter to the investors in our Funds. People tell us we should share this letter publicly. So, in a nod to some of this generation’s great fund managers, here is an excerpt of Shizen Capital’s 2024 investor letter. We have removed the confidential bits, but this is […]
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Disrupting Japan: Why Japan is looking to France for startup inspiration
December 10, 2024I consider Tim Romero to be the OG of podcasting on Japan’s digital renaissance and have personally benefited from the wisdom of his Disrupting Japan series since the day I arrived in Tokyo. Naturally, I leapt at the opportunity for Matt and I to join Tim for a winding audio journey together. It was a […]
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Giving thanks
November 28, 2024I think the last time I celebrated Thanksgiving was in the 1990s (it’s just not the same without college football); however, I still make this an annual day of reflection and gratitude. This past year has proven tumultuous for the world. Things have never felt this non-linear ever before during my time on this earth, […]
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Shizen Capital Workshop Series – Startup M&A
November 26, 2024Today’s Shizen Capital founder workshop covered an important topic: Startup M&A. Sam Inohara, Registered Foreign Lawyer, State Bar of California, led an introductory session on the basics of mergers and acquisitions for startups, the contrast between IPO and M&A exits, and how Japan’s founders should consider M&A not only as a superior exit avenue but […]
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Another veritable milestone for Japan’s investment ecosystem
November 18, 2024Today represents a significant milestone for Japan’s investment world. Eurazeo, France’s largest asset manager specializing in private equity, private debt, and venture capital, has announced the establishment of its presence in Japan. This represents an endorsement of Japan from a global fund with 13 offices around the world. Eurazeo holds a special place in my […]
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Decentralized prediction platforms
October 20, 2024I have to confess that I find this phenomenon of crypto-enabled decentralized prediction markets for the U.S. election intellectually fascinating. I recall watching an episode of a science fiction show as a kid in which citizens of some dystopian nation state would vote online in real-time to political speeches. The politicians would adjust their discourse […]
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Unicorns make M&A; M&A makes unicorns
September 11, 2024Last week Ecovadis announced its acquisition of Ulula, a human rights analytics platform. Ecovadis is an admirable company, one of France’s pioneering startups in sustainability analytics solutions, and now rapidly emerging as the gold standard for business ESG ratings. Ecovadis is also one of France’s 40+ tech unicorns. The purchase of Ulula represents Ecovadis’ second […]
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Our Sprout program in review
June 15, 2024One year ago we announced the Sprout initiative at Shizen Capital. Sprout is a GP-in-Training program for ambitious women in Japan who aspire to manage their own VC fund. The Sprout participant is first employed by Shizen Capital as Investment Director, during which she is exposed to all aspects of VC fund operations in a […]
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On the importance of agility in a VC
June 8, 2024One of the phenomena I witness so frequently among founders in Japan that it warrants a dedicated blog post is the topic of agility in a potential venture investor. This topic reared its head again the other day in a discussion with a local startup founder who was grappling with his VC investor base. The […]
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An open invitation to Japan’s VCs and CVCs
May 28, 2024Many of you are undoubtedly aware of last week’s Viva Technology conference (VivaTech) in Paris. Japan was featured as country of the year for VivaTech 2024. Hats off to the Japanese government officials at JETRO and METI for securing this honour for Japan ! The Country-of-the-Year selection was indeed a big deal for Japan, as […]
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VivaTech 2024
May 23, 2024It was an honour to host a delegation of investors and corporate executives from Japan at VivaTech this week. Japan was selected as the Country of the Year for VivaTech 2024. Part of the festivities included the Global50 event at Station F, a networking and pitch session with 16 European startups and scale-ups innovating in […]