Kaz Kikuchi

Partner

Location:
Silicon Valley
Connect:

Investment Focus & Current Projects

Kaz invests in companies that are digitizing traditional industries using emerging technologies such as industrial IoT, robotics, AI, and cloud. He is excited to work with teams that are contributing to the sustainable development of industries. He also supports portfolio companies and investors, primarily in Japan.

Professional Journey

Prior to joining Translink, Kaz was a General Manager of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., a Japanese industrial conglomerate, where he led investment and business development in Foundry Networks (FDRY, ACQ: Brocade), A10 Networks (ATEN), BOX (BOX), Docusign (DOCU), Team8, CounterTack, Spire Global, OSIsoft, CloudEndure (ACQ: Amazon), Sight Machine, Peloton Technologies. For A10, Kaz established their Japanese office, A10 Networks K.K., where, as the first Country Manager, he hired 15 professionals, built their sales, marketing and customer support team and grew the business from scratch into a double-digit-million-USD company by revenue. Most recently, Kaz was a Principal at G2VP (as a secondee from Mitsui), which invests in companies applying emerging technologies to traditional industries. During his time there, he invested in Arcadia Power, Fictiv, Seegrid and Scandit.

Education

Kaz earned a B.A. in Economics from Keio University

Passion

Outside of work, Kaz enjoys playing golf, is an avid supporter of his son’s soccer and daughter’s tennis and enjoys hiking at national parks with his family.

Portfolio

Vertical:
Enterprise
Stage:
Series B

Cloud-based device security platform for modern distributed organizations

Active
Main
Vertical:
Robotics
Stage:
Series A

Advancing waste management using AI and robotics

Active
Main
Vertical:
Robotics
Mobility
Stage:
Series A

Autonomous Loading & Unloading Forklifts

Active
Affiliate
Vertical:
Robotics
Stage:
Seed

Smart loading dock platform using computer vision to provide supply chain visibility

Active
Affiliate
Vertical:
Robotics
Stage:
Series B

Leading provider of vision software for logistics robots,

Active
Main
Vertical:
AI
Enterprise
Stage:
Series A

Tokyo-based R&D company creating a new kind of foundation models based on nature-inspired intelligence.

Active
Affiliate
Vertical:
Enterprise
Stage:
Series A

Decarbonization intelligence platform for reducing carbon emissions

Active
Affiliate
Vertical:
Enterprise
Stage:
Series B

Kubernetes (K8s) management platform for enterprises

Active
Affiliate

Alumni Investments

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