Team

Experience

Hajime was born in 1969 in Kobe, Japan and has over 20+ years of experience in the medical device industry, including venture capital and operating companies. He started medical device investment to U.S. venture companies from Tokyo in 1997 and then was hired by a VC in Silicon Valley in 2005 soon after successful exit of an investment to a U.S. venture company. Many portfolio companies achieved market capital over 1 billion dollars.
Innovative products developed by portfolio companies are saving patients worldwide such as Pipeline Stent, the first treatment device for giant intracranial aneurysms.

After 5 years of medical device investment in the U.S., he co-founded MedVenture Partners, Inc., with Dr. Ikeno in 2013, and established 1st investment fund (6 billion Yen) Japan and 2nd investment fund (99 billion Yen) in 2020. He holds number of board positions in portfolio companies and achieved multiple successful exits in Japan as well, such as Biomedical Solutions, Inc. 

Experience

Fumiaki was born in Hamamatsu, Japan. After graduating from Jichi Medical University, he began practicing general medicine in the rural areas of Japan and experienced firsthand the issues facing the medical field because of the aging population.

Fumiaki joined the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University in 2001, and over the next 14 years was closely involved with the R&D, animal studies, and clinical studies of many medical devices startups. He has experienced multiple successful exits of the startups that he was deeply involved with, such as Fox Hollow Technologies, Atheromed, KAI Pharmaceutical, CV Ingenuity, etc. He is not only heavily involved in the startup community, but because of his extensive experience in the medical device field in both the US and Japan, he serves as an advisor to many major medical device corporations. He is also actively involved in projects with the US and Japanese regulatory agencies working to create an effective cross-border medical device eco-system.

Fumiaki has also been an advisory faculty for the Stanford Biodesign Program since 2014. He is deeply involved with the development of the Japan Biodesign Program and is working diligently to establish a Silicon Valley-like medical device eco-system in Japan.

Experience

Tommy began his career at Olympus Co. in Japan where he developed image processing technologies at the Corporate Research and Development Center and filed multiple patents. He later was dispatched to Tokyo Institute of Technology as a collaborative researcher and experienced digital camera marketing in Europe.

Tommy made a career change after graduating from business school and became a venture capitalist at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital Co., Ltd. where he invested in early and middle-stage ventures in the technology field and served as a board member for Digital Media Professionals Inc. (went public in Sep.2011). Afterwards, he became a consultant and provided project management services to Johnson & Johnson Japan by supporting new product introduction (to the Japanese market) projects and post-merger integration projects of the Synthes and Micrus acquisitions.

Experience

Justin was born and raised in San Diego, California. While attending college in Los Angeles, he began working at a medical device startup as a regulatory affairs associate and experienced multiple 510(k) and CE Mark filings. After graduating, he joined Boston Scientific Corporation as a regulatory affairs professional and worked in both the US and Japan. During this time, he worked on nearly 20 submissions for products such as carotid artery stents, neurovascular embolization coils, and coronary stents.

Upon completing business school, Justin joined Johnson & Johnson in Japan as a part of the new business development team and was in charge of assessing new technologies, managing cross-company product portfolios, and leading new projects. He also gained experience as a sales representative for the Ethicon franchise where he was responsible for over 200 million Yen in revenue for surgical sutures, surgical drains and adhesion barriers across multiple specialties such as general surgery, gynecology, cardiology, and orthopedics.

Justin joined MedVenture Partners in March of 2014 and has led the firm’s US investments in Arrinex (acquired by Medtronic), C2 Therapeutics (acquired by Pentax Medical) and Companion Medical (acquired by Medtronic), and also sits on the Board of Directors for SonoMotion. Justin is currently located in San Jose and continues to lead the firm’s investment activities outside of Japan.

Experience

Kaz was born and raised in Tokyo but received high school education in Maryland, USA. He started his career at IBM Japan where he participated in proposal activities of IT outsourcing services and mission critical systems for large enterprises.

While pursuing MBA, he participated in a marketing summer internship program for a pharmaceutical company, where he successfully completed market analysis and expansion project for newly approved compound. Majored in Healthcare Enterprise Management and Marketing.

After MBA, he joined Johnson and Johnson where he first participated in a new product introduction / indication expansion project on products for hematopoietic malignancies. Then he joined new business development project for a gastrointestinal endoscopy business where he led market research, clinical trial training and new monetize scheme option assessment. He later managed marketing team for Codman business unit specialized in neurosurgical devices for craniotomy while participating in the post-merger integration project for Codman business divesture.

Kaz joined MPI in April 2020.

Experience

Oriha was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She began her career at the Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo where she worked on market analysis, sales and marketing strategy, and new business development. She then joined Zimmer Biomet (formerly Zimmer) where she was in charge of business strategy development, budget planning, and new product launch of knee implants within the strategic product marketing team.

In 2015, she participated in the Japan Biodesign fellowship, a global program of the Stanford Biodesign Program. As a member of the Tokyo University team, she was involved in the early phase market assessment and business planning of a new medical device for SAH patients.

Following the fellowship, Oriha returned to Zimmer Biomet as a business development specialist. She led multiple projects such as the startup of a neurosurgical business and business model transformation.

Oriha joined MPI in June 2020.

Experience

Saori was born in Tokyo, Japan. She joined Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company in 2014 and was assigned to the Investment Division, where she was in charge of the assessment and credit analysis of domestic companies. She also played an important role in the company’s first-ever effort for growth field financing.

Saori then moved to the International Business Division where she engaged in foreign stock management and English disclosure preparation.

Saori joined MPI in January 2018.

Experience

Satoru was born in Shiso City, Hyogo, Japan. He became a certified public accountant in 2002 and joined the Osaka branch of Shin Nihon & Co. (currently Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC). For six years, Satoru was in charge of statutory audits (Financial Instruments and Exchange Act audits, Companies Act audits, etc.) and voluntary audits (e.g. for Japanese branches of foreign corporations) for the International and Domestic Audit Division. He then moved to the Advisory Division and provided M&A advisory services and corporate restructuring services as an accounting consultant for the next 8 years.

In April 2016, Satoru joined one of MPI’s portfolio companies as a financial consultant. Afterwards, he returned to the Advisory Division, and in addition to advisory services, he also was in charge of IPO preparation services.