DNX

Interview

• Building Trust Through Mastery of the Basics — The Engine Behind Everything We Do as a Venture Capitalist
• A Career Built on Connecting Japan and the World — and the VC That Brought It Together I spent part of my early childhood in Saudi Arabia, and after returning to Japan, attended an American school through high school graduation. I was Japanese, but didn’t know Japan particularly well — that tension was something I carried quietly for years, always aware of the pull between my roots and the international identity I had grown up with. The desire to work at the intersection of Japan and the world came directly from that experience. Even after joining Canon, I found myself gravitating naturally toward that bridge — working on OEM business with HP in the United States. That eventually led to a posting at Canon USA’s New York headquarters, where I spent about ten years in corporate planning and new business development. It was there, working on initiatives to connect Canon with the startup ecosystem, that I first encountered venture capital — and understood, viscerally, what a central role it plays as a bridge to that world.
• Fundraising Is the Highest Form of Portfolio Support Working closely with startups across the U.S., centered on Silicon Valley, I found myself increasingly drawn to their pace and energy. When I returned to Japan, I joined Kakehashi — a DNX portfolio company — shortly after their Series B close. And yet even in those early days, the conversation was already about Series C. There was no celebratory exhale, no letting the guard down. Every day was about closing the distance to the next milestone. The systems and assumptions that exist almost invisibly inside large corporations simply don’t exist in a startup. Can we get one step closer today? One more tomorrow? That accumulation is the business, and it connects directly to the fundraising progress that keeps the company moving. It was a short stint, but it carried the weight of years. I’m still grateful for it. I joined DNX in 2020, at a moment of genuine transition — from a corporate venture model built around strategic partnerships, to a “real” venture capital firm pursuing financial returns as its core mandate. In that context, I was involved in building the Platform Team, focused on creating operational connections between portfolio companies and corporate partners to drive value. Over time, more than ninety percent of our LP base shifted to institutional investors, and my role evolved accordingly — today, IR sits at the center of what I do. But the underlying thread has stayed consistent: LP communication, in the broad sense. In our seed fund, we still work with strategic investors including corporate LPs, and I continue to support portfolio companies through business development with those partners. The work of helping startups grow hasn’t stopped. My core mission is fundraising — securing the capital that makes everything else DNX does possible — and building the trust and relationships that make fundraising sustainable. Without it, we can’t invest. Without investment, there’s nothing to support. That’s why I genuinely believe fundraising is the highest form of portfolio support. There’s something that means a lot to me about the fact that the first fund I helped raise after taking on IR responsibilities was the one that supported Akira’s next round.
• Mastering the Everyday — Building Trust One Interaction at a Time To be honest, I don’t come from a traditional finance background. But what I do carry — from years of bridging Japan and overseas, development and sales, hardware and software, large corporations and startups — is a conviction that what matters most, across all of those contexts, is connecting people and building the trust that makes those connections real. I try to be the kind of person LPs think of first when something is on their mind — even if they can’t quite articulate it yet. Someone they feel comfortable reaching out to before a question has fully formed. In fact, when markets moved sharply in February 2026, I heard from a number of LPs. That kind of relationship — where people feel free to reach out — is genuinely one of the most rewarding parts of this work. And because I stay in regular contact, I’m sometimes in a position to make introductions at exactly the right moment, creating connections between companies that might genuinely change what’s possible for both of them. The principle I come back to most in building trust is one I learned from a portfolio company CEO: bonji tettei — the total mastery of the ordinary. Replying to emails promptly. Responding when you hear someone’s voice. These are things that sound simple, maybe even obvious, for anyone who considers themselves a professional. But when you truly commit to them — not just as habits but as a standard you hold yourself to relentlessly — the difference it makes is significant. I want to keep building on those small, everyday accumulations, one trusted relationship at a time.