Investing globally has always been our instinct.
Since launching our Early Stage and Growth Funds in San Francisco, we’ve established Early Stage funds in Asia, Europe, and South America. We created these funds to lead rounds at every stage, in every geography.
We are actively on the ground across continents, seeing local trends up close, searching for top founders, and bringing them our world of resources. Once we commit to a team, we go to the ends of the earth – connecting entrepreneurs to each other, to customers, and to insights from distant markets – to help them become a global success.
Our Guiding Principles
Be different, together
Lift every low, and every high
Lead with generosity
Invest in the world
“So diverse in terms of the characters—there’s a German word, paradiesvögel.”—Christian Gaiser, Numa, Germany
“If I was kidnapped...he’d fly out and try to save the situation. He’s like an investing superhero.” —Noah Kerner, Acorns, US
“It feels like we are in control, and that’s how it should feel.” —Holger Seim, Blinkist, Germany
“I actually feel motivated to share candidly with them.” —Ashot Iskandarian, Shopmonkey, US
“I was flying home…so they met me at the Starbucks outside of security.” —Bianca Padilla, Carewell, US
“Other funds get panicky...they have a mentality of 'ah we'll fix it'.” —Hjalmar Ståhlberg Nordegren, Karma, Sweden
Our Team
Filter
Location
Asia
LatAm
Europe
US
Team
Investment - Growth
Investment - Early
Operations
Technology
Sector
Fintech
Consumer Tech
Infrastructure & Developer Tools
SaaS
Akio Tanaka
My Investment Philosophy
Invest in geeks who are obsessed with making change.
Sector(s)
Consumer Internet, Fintech, & SaaS
Headliners
Yeahka · freee · WealthNavi · OpenLogi · BuyandShip · PakPoBox · Zaiko
A Conversation with Akio
What’s your area of focus?
Consumer Internet (Media, Commerce) and Business Internet (Fintech, SaaS).
Summarize your career leading up to Headline in one sentence.
Entrepreneur who unintentionally became a VC.
The most important trait in an investor is well-informed intuition.”
What’s always in your travel bag?
Multi-purpose chargers.
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever met a founder?
Via the support chat box on a startup’s website.
Name one that got away.
Square, Musically, DiDi, Meituan.
What’s your proudest allegiance?
Going paperless.
What's the product you're most obsessed with and why?
I'm a big fan of music technology companies from Berlin, such as Ableton, Native Instruments, SoundCloud, and Adam Audio.