The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its third Spring Career Forum, where alumni, current students, and prospective students* were able to hear from MBA graduates leading growing startups as Founders and C-Suite and VCs within the Japanese community. From this year, the speakers included graduates of Columbia Business School as well as alumni who have completed their MBA programs abroad such as Chicago Booth, IMD Business School, London Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford Graduate School of Business, UC Berkeley Haas, UCLA Anderson, and Wharton School.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Naka Imuta, Founder and CEO of Techtouch, Inc., a SaaS-based B2B platform with over 2 million users in Japan that enables companies to create and embed intuitive website user manuals into IT systems. In January 2023, Techtouch announced that they raised 1.78 billion yen (about 13.8 million USD) in a series B round from DNX Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, and others together with their plan on investing in 10 SaaS startups by the end of 2024 for the purpose of business collaborations. In this session, Naka as the Founder and CEO of the B2B SaaS startup shared lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey to date.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Hiroyuki Nebashi, an attorney and outside auditor at PROGRIT Inc., which provides English coaching services and got listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market in September, 2022. Hiroyuki joined one of the most prominent law firms in Japan, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, in 2011 and studied in Columbia University's LLM program in 2016. He is currently engaged in a wide range of legal activities including M&A, governance, and legal risk management at Panasonic Holdings Corporation as well as serving as an outside auditor at PROGRIT Inc.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) in collaboration with Columbia Business School Japan Business Association (CBS JBA) hosted a virtual session with Takayuki Nakagawa, Business Lead at ALGO ARTIS, an AI startup specializing in the area of planning optimization. Takayuki enrolled in Columbia Business School in 2020 after having worked at A.T. Kearney since 2017. During his two-year MBA program, he had a variety of academic and internship experiences including engaging with CVC Japan as a sub-lead and joined ALGO ARTIS after graduation in May, 2022.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Arudchelvan Krishnamoorthy, Co-Founder and CFO at Rapyuta Robotics. As a Co-Founder, he founded Rapyuta Robotics, a cloud robotics platform provider, in 2014 and the company raised Series C funding in 2022. Based on his experience, he shared with us 10 lessons he has learned along his entrepreneurial journey.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its second in-person Happy Hour in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Hiroaki Yamazaki, a student at Columbia Business School (Class of 2024) and formerly Vice President, IPO Division in Investment Banking Business Unit at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. He had been engaged in IPO consulting for startups in Japan for the last 4.5 years until he enrolled at Columbia Business School. Based on his previous work experience, he shared with us the basics and critical steps of the IPO process for startups in Japan.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Kenneth Jeng, a graduate of Columbia SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs). He started working as a Senior Program Manager at Moon Creative Lab, a designed-focused venture studio affiliated with Mitsui & Co., where he works to bring 0-1 ventures to life after working for a startup in Tokyo and a corporate venture advisory firm in Silicon Valley.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Yuichi Ando, Head of Silicon Valley and GM at Japan Post Co., Ltd. After working in Tokyo, New York, Singapore, and London with global financial service firms, Yuichi started leading innovation efforts in 2019 including startup partnerships, new business creation, and market research in Silicon Valley for Japan Post.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Benika Morokuma, a senior consultant at Nikken Sekkei Research Institute (NSRI). Her voluntary team at Nikken Sekkei Group has been studying innovation spaces globally and recently published articles about “Ingredients of Successful Innovation Spaces”. She shared with us their findings and insights arising from the recent project.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its first in-person Happy Hour in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Ryoichi Kaneko, Partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, and Ryo Muramatsu, Corporate Venturing Co-Lead at Tokio Marine Innovation Lab Silicon Valley to introduce the basics and tips on the startup funding from a legal perspective.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual talk with current Columbia Business School students to share the latest trends on Entrepreneurship & Analytics Programs and extracurricular activities at Columbia Business School (CBS) in New York City.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Akihiko Soyama, President and CEO at LINK-J. He shared his work experience to date and LINK-J’s efforts in generating life science innovations in Nihonbashi, Tokyo as well as innovation trends.

The Japan Chapter of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted its second Spring Career Forum, where current Columbia University students were able to hear from Columbia University alumni leading growing startups, VCs, and accelerators within the Japanese community who are looking to recruit graduate and undergraduate students and alumni interested in career opportunities in the venture space.

The Japan Chapter of Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual session with Sho Ito, a graduate of Columbia SIPA (School of International and Public Affairs), from the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. The Cabinet Office in collaboration with the World Bank Group recently published a report called “Boosting Japan’s Startup Ecosystem (in English)” “東京のスタートアップエコシステム（日本語）”. In this session, he shared findings and insights on Japan’s Startup Ecosystem presented in the recent report.

The Japan Chapter of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) hosted a virtual talk with Riku Sugie, President & CEO of Paidy. He shared his career and invaluable experience of large scale exit (M&A) as a top executive.

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Hitomi Kimura Pender, the Founder & CEO of Link Strollers. She shared her career and personal journey from a corporate professional in Tokyo to a startup founder & a mother in New York City.

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with the Co-Lead of CVC Japan and Director of Japan at 500 Startups who shared the overview of 500 Startups’ accelerator programs and the latest trends on startup ecosystem development in Japan as well as her own career development.

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with current and former Columbia Business School students who will share the latest trends on Entrepreneurship Programs and extracurricular activities at Columbia Business School (CBS) in New York City.

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Kunio Hara, Co-Founder and CEO of Beatrust. He shared his experience from working with Son Masayoshi at early stage of Softbank to being an executive at Microsoft and Google, which led him to launch his current startup, Beatrust.

CVC Japan hosted its first Spring Career Forum, where current Columbia University students were able to hear from Columbia University alumni leading growing startups, recently IPO’d companies, VCs, and accelerators within the Japanese community that were looking to recruit graduate and undergraduate students interested in career opportunities in the venture space.

CVC Japan hosted a virtual talk with Kiyoshi Matsuura, President and CEO of Premier Anti-Aging. He shared his entrepreneurial experience from founding a startup through an IPO.

CVC Japan hosted the Virtual Kickoff and first panel discussion of the Columbia Venture Community (CVC) Japan Chapter. This event marked the beginning of a series of initiatives, programs, and events organized by and for members of the Columbia community interested in entrepreneurship and innovation in Japan.