Kaz Shimizu

Kaz is a manager of investment team at KDDI, Japan’s No.2 mobile carrier with 45MM wireless subscribers and 8MM cable TV and landline service subscribers. He is one of the founding members of San Francisco office which was established in 2011. After 5 years as a project manager of multiple mobile services in Japan, he moved to San Francisco to start his new role as a corporate strategic investor. He is one of the core member of KDDI Open Innovation Fund, which is the corporate venture capital of KDDI. KDDI Open Innovation Fund has invested in 11 companies in United States.

Kaz has been involved in KDDI’s investments into the robotics firm Jibo, and the home security firm August Home. And he also assisted KDDI’s $10m round into wireless power startup Ossia, an Index Ventures-led $30m series D financing round for education app startup Edmodo and a fund media firm Plumzi. His goal is to bring innovations back to Japan from United States through investment and business development with US Startups.