Slush Tokyo 2019 Volunteer Afterparty An exclusive afterparty for the team of 400 behind Slush Tokyo 2019! Please bring your ticket number ready and please bring a form of identification (ID or business card). Address: 2 Chome-6 Ōtemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tōkyō-to 100-0004 For more information on grabbing your official #slushtokyo19 badge, check out our Pre-registration Page! We only need a few hours to make you pitch like a winner. It's time to prep your decks for 2 days worth of pitching at Slush Tokyo 2019! We're bringing in industry experts, investors and the like to help you bring your A-game. Wait for our startup team's e-mail invite with the training's location and agenda. The pitch training is aimed at startups who will be a part of the Pitch Contest, Showtech Time and/or has a Demo Booth. Got a startup pass but not pitching on-stage or showcasing at a booth? Drop us an email at [email protected] Pre-registration @ X-Hub Tokyo Demo Day Grab your badge at X-Hub Tokyo Demo Day happening at Shibuya Stream (3 Chome-21-３ Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0002) Click me for more info. MEET THE SLUSH GLOBAL TEAM, LEARN ABOUT DIFFERENT TECH SCENES, GET EXCLUSIVE STORIES AND MORE. Don’t have a media pass? That’s ok! This event is open for everyone in the media space. Just show up and we’ll make sure you leave inspired, informed and excited for our next event. Contents : Open pitch, Networking, live music & drinks! Registration : https://slushtokyostartupday.splashthat.com/ AN EXCLUSIVE INVITE ONLY FOR INVESTOR PASS HOLDERS SOMEWHERE IN ROPPONGI Do Corporate VCs perform better than independent VCs? How does the future of work look like in Japan? Must we aim to scale globally from the beginning or not at all? Forget aimless networking - this year, Investor Day presents a series of panel sessions led by a diverse mix of experts. Come and join us as we exchange critical perspectives on these tech and business trends in venture capital. And of course, the food has never been greater. Location: For privacy purposes, please check your individual e-mail invites registered with Slush Tokyo. *Our Investor Team will contact you with specific information about the event. Slush Tokyo Speaker's Dinner -XR Nightclub Prototype Presentation by TheWaveVR- Supported by Avex Future of Music Our program team will contact you directly with further information. Pitch Contest: Social Media & Communication Track Cross Border Business Strategy: How to build your own brand in this society? Speaker: Techstars (Dennis List) × EY-Parthenon (Nobuko Kobayashi) × SoGal Ventures (Pocket Sun) Target:
Businessperson, Executives, those who wants to change company culture, you! Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, I have been in various roles across IT and Consumer Electronics for over 15 years. Prior to joining Techstars as Program Manager, I co-founded music hardware startup Rocki and participated in the 2014 Boston Techstars Accelerator Program. I specialize in helping founders work out challenges around the foundation of their company such as telling their story, building their product, finding the right funding strategy, putting together their team and leveraging their networks to bootstrap early stage growth.  Pocket Sun is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and global keynote speaker. She founded SoGal, one of the largest global entrepreneurship and venture capital networks for women, with 13 chapters worldwide. Together with her business partner Elizabeth Galbut, she founded SoGal Ventures, the world’s first millennial venture capital firm to invest in early stage companies in the US and Asia led by diverse teams. As millennials themselves, Pocket and Elizabeth invest in the future of how the next generation lives, works, and stays healthy. Since 2015, they have invested in 50 startups, of which two have been acquired. Nobuko is Partner with EY Japan with a focus on management consulting in consumer sector.    Outside consulting her career includes leading corporate development for a Japanese trading conglomerate out of New York as well as heading analyst team for a US activist fund out of Tokyo.  A multi-cultural thought leader with outside-in perspective on Japan, Nobuko shares her views on a wider range of topics from corporate governance to gender diversity on a number of prominent media outlets including Nikkei Asian Review and Bloomberg.  Pitch Contest: Financial & Insurance Track Jenny Lefcourt brings 20+ years of technology start-up experience to her role as General Partner at Freestyle, a $90M seed stage fund in San Francisco whose partners are all serial entrepreneurs. Freestyle has has led investments in companies such as Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, Narvar, Wag, and Digit. Jenny is also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit dedidcated to diversity in funders & founders. Prior to joining Freestyle, Jenny cofounded WeddingChannel.com (sold: XOXO) and Bella Pictures (sold: CPI). She was an angel investor and advisor in many technology companies including Discord, MainStreetHub, StyleSeat & Minted. Jenny earned her B.S. in economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She lives in Marin with her husband and three children. Alice Lloyd George loves working with entrepreneurs on the frontier of innovation and helps RRE invest in emerging technologies including blockchain, machine intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and NewSpace, as well as consumer and healthcare startups. She appears on Fox Business, was Forbes’ 30 under 30 (2016), and Marc Andreessen calls her “one of the unknown rockstars in tech.” Before joining RRE Alice worked in investments at Bridgewater Associates, and in a prior life lived in Beijing conducting research as a Brookings Institute fellow. Alice hails from the UK, graduated with a BA from Princeton, and began her career at The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, where she reported on business and politics across Asia. She is the founder and host of the hit podcast Flux, a series of conversations with founders at the frontier. You can follow her latest musings on Twitter @amlg23 Panasonic : Game Changer Catapult Intrepreneur Open Pitch & Talk Session It’s time to unveil Game Changer Catapult’s brilliant Intrepreneur teams who are excited to pitch their ideas and interact with you and as well as find future business partners. To startups who are interested in collaborating with Game Changer Catapult, come and join us for this session! Alexandre Bartholo, CEO at Assemblage and Emi Kusano, influencer and artist, will join to discuss about the future of social community of music and beauty care. Don’t miss it! Target: Startup company, involved social media or music industry, you! Graduated from Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. In addition to activities such as work production, writing, MC and CM appearance of radio and TV, she presides over Kayo Electro Unit "Satellite Young". Do singing, songwriting, and concept work. Sing on contemporary internet society such as artificial intelligence and online association and latest technology on the reconstructed 80's sound. In 2017 she appeared as the Satellite Young in the world's largest music festival "South by South West". In Santen PC "Sante PC" which CM is currently on air, she took over as the image character of 2018. She writes the music and words for songs. She leads sythpop sensation “ Satellite Young”. The unit performed at SXSW 017. She is focusing on cutting technology as motif of the songs. For over 15 years Alex has developed his passion for storytelling and design across film & television, advertising and events. Alex is an accomplished director, a skilled and knowledgable DP, and as head of the production team at Assemblage he is driven by the desire to deliver only content of the highest aesthetic quality that communicates client messages in ways that leave an impression Pitch Contest: Health & Wellbeing Track Prior to founding Sansan in 2007, Chika worked in IT at Mitsui & Co., where he was involved in importing computer equipment, developing systems, and working on joint ventures. In 2001, he was transferred to Silicon Valley, where he dealt with cutting-edge U.S. ventures as they developed their business links with Japan. Upon returning to Japan, he sold database software he brought back from the U.S., and then became a manager at Mitsui, handling corporate planning and management at security-related companies. In May 2007, Chika left Mitsui and together with four friends started Sansan, an IT venture providing business card-based contact management services. Sansan has now grown to over 7,000 corporate clients and over 2.5 million individual users, making it the largest database of its kind in Japan. In 2011, Chika received the U.S. Ambassador’s Award at the Entrepreneurs' Awards Japan. This honor recognizes entrepreneurs who start companies with high growth potential, and devote themselves to becoming market leaders. As a key member of Uber’s Japan Leadership Team, Yukiko is responsible for overseeing the Uber Eats business in Japan. Yukiko joins Uber from Google, where she was the Head of New Business Sales in Japan. Prior to Google, Yukiko was the President of OpenTable overseeing its operations in Japan. Previously Yukiko was the President of Travelzoo Japan and an Executive Officer of Travelzoo Asia Pacific for more than 6 years and also held various senior roles at Rakuten, including Managing Director for Rakuten Dining, where she was responsible for restructuring the business units and managing the special task force projects. Yukiko began her career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) before co-founding ProTrade. (ProTrade was acquired by Rakuten in 2000). Pitch Contest: Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Track The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback in a Global Context Good engineering leadership requires the ability to communicate clearly. It’s often difficult to deliver feedback in effective ways, especially in an international context. In this session, Code Chrysalis will cover strategies for giving and receiving constructive and compassionate feedback. Let’s improve your communication skills! Target: Engineers, people who want to learn and improve their communication and leadership skills, you! Yuki Kanayama is the founder of VASILY, the company behind Apple and Google’s award-winning fashion application, IQON. In October 2017, the company was acquired by ZOZO Inc. (former START TODAY CO.,LTD.), the owner of ZOZOTOWN, the largest fashion online shopping website in Japan. After the acquisition, he became the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of ZOZO Technologies Inc. He is now in charge of operations and new business development of “ZOZO Research”. He is also the author of the book “いちばんやさしいグロースハックの教本” (The Simplest Guide to Hack Growth). Pitch Contest: Social Entrepreneurship Track In early 2004, before Facebook and photo-sharing sites, Evgeny Tchebotarev created a community for photographers to meet, share photos and information. He initially developed this on top of a LiveJournal platform and then founded 500px as a company. As Founder and COO, Chief Product Officer, and later Chief Photography Officer (CPO), Evgeny was responsible for bringing the 500px vision to life through operational excellence, product innovation, community engagement and maintaining a strong link between photographers and 500px team. Originally from Moscow, Ev has earned a BA in Commerce and Finance from Ryerson University in Toronto, graduating with honours in 2007. He began photography in 2002 and immediately became a fascinated with it when he sold three photos to magazines from his first roll of film. Since then he has spent the entirety of his professional career dedicated to the betterment of visual creativity, focusing on photography and design. Ev remains an active photographer and community member, and has been honoured to judge many world class photo contests, including Red Bull Illume, Photo Life, and Sony World Photography Awards. Since 2016, after leaving 500px, Ev travelled to Asia to consult companies, where for 2 years he was focused on helping companies to build Silicon Valley-style product management expertise. In July 2018, Ev joined Skylum as VP of Growth Asia, applying years of hands-on expertise of working with Asian companies to expand Skylum’s award-winning products to Asian markets. Pitch Contest: AI, Analytics & Big Data Track Come See: French Tech's 9 Hottest Companies Curious about the tech scene in Europe? Come and check out the coolest startups flying all the way from France! These 9 companies are supported by La French Tech. Let’s build a worldwide startup ecosystem by learning more about startups from the global scene. In 2007, Hironao Kunimitsu founded gumi Inc. which is now a public company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 2015, he established Tokyo VR Startups Inc. Additionally, in 2016, he led the investment in VR-focused venture capital fund “The VR Fund, L.P.”, and gumi became a general partner. He continued to help nurture the global VR community through co-founding “Seoul VR Startups” in 2016 and “Nordic VR Startups” in 2017, incubation program in Seoul and Nordic respectively. Since mid of 2017, he started to pay attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency area, then founded Crypto Investment Fund – gumi Cryptos. Pitch Contest: Industrial Internet, IoT & Mobility Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play Maxim Mai leads Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play. His mission is to amplify the positive impact created by apps and games in communities around the world and to empower their developers to find success on Android and Google Play. He also helps NGOs tap into Google Play to raise awareness and funds for their causes. Part of the Google Play team, Maxim is an expert on app strategy, distribution and revenue models. He has consulted top developers and startups in Europe and North America on how to build and grow sustainable mobile businesses. Maxim has been with Google for six years. Prior to joining Google Play, he worked with strategic online publishers to grow their advertising businesses. Pre-Google, Maxim worked in strategy consulting. He is based in New York City and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours from The University of Sydney. Her inspiration to promote social investment emerged from her 10 years of experiences in Cambodia. Prior to establishing ARUN, she worked with NGOs and international aid agencies such as JICA and World Bank through which she gained critical knowledge and personal networks in social development in Asia and Africa. Through social investment, Satoko hopes to establish a new international cooperation scheme that contributes both to the empowerment of the people and sustainable development. She has a MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BA from International Christian University (ICU). She currently serves as ARUN’s president. Pocket Sun is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and global keynote speaker. She founded SoGal, one of the largest global entrepreneurship and venture capital networks for women, with 13 chapters worldwide. Together with her business partner Elizabeth Galbut, she founded SoGal Ventures, the world’s first millennial venture capital firm to invest in early stage companies in the US and Asia led by diverse teams. As millennials themselves, Pocket and Elizabeth invest in the future of how the next generation lives, works, and stays healthy. Since 2015, they have invested in 50 startups, of which two have been acquired. Decentralization: Why it is important in Blockchain and the Future of Web Viewing your friends' lives on Facebook, buying your daily items on Amazon, using Google Maps to get to where you want -- is this your life? Web services has become a dominant part of our lives to the point of dependency. We cannot live without them anymore. Meanwhile, these web services that we take for granted due to its free access could be achieved in exchange for our personal information. Blockchain technology could bring new kind of freedom against the current state of centralized web. This session reveals the negative side of daily used web services and how blockchain can achieve our privacy and future of web throughout the discussion with specialist from Neutrino, ALIS, and withID. Target: anyone who is concerned about their own freedom and interested in building the next generation of web services A new twist to the usual pitching event - at Showtech Time, startups will be pitching to those that truly matter: their customers! Maki Kaplinsky is a serial entrepreneur, Co Founder and CEO of NFT Inc. NFT is a Silicon Valley-based start-up with main R&D in Israel, developing a door-to-door, electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) flying car that drives like a car on the road, and flies like a plane. Maki's previous start-up IQP Corporation, was an early innovator in the Internet of Things and sold to GE in 2017. Liu Weichun, co-founder and COO of KKday, is in charge of KKday’s global product management and operational strategies. After graduating from New York University, Liu worked as an investment banker. Afterwards, she joined Dell and served as a supply chain manager. During her time at Dell, she had the opportunity to meet a lot of Taiwanese “invisible brand champions” who excelled technology-wise, but lacked brand management savvy. From this experience, she decided to play a leading role in helping Taiwanese brands establish highly visible positions in the global markets. Knowing that high quality products and good customer service are what make brands influential, Liu Weichun is dedicated to improving KKday’s product development, supply chain management, and user experience. Her goal is to facilitate the ease of booking complete travel itineraries which enable travelers to enjoy more local experiences. She hopes that one day, booking a complete, traveler-customized trip will be as easy as buying a movie ticket Workshop : Protect Yourself from Cyber Threats! Learn how to protect yourself from cyber threats and how to encrypt your own information. With social networking sites, our information is constantly available for hackers. To prevent your from getting hacked, this workshop will provide countermeasures for cyber threats. Time for some practical and useful cybersecurity knowledge. *Laptop or Cellphone required. Koichiro is the President and CEO of CrowdWorks. After his experience at a leading manufacturing company, has been a part of the listing of IT company as one of executives. Later on, founded Crowdworks Inc in 2011 which provides Japan’s largest crowdsourcing service and has taken the lead in crowdsourced equity offerings. The company was listed on TSE Mothers in 2014 and provides services to over 2.24 million crowd-workers which includes,12 government institutions and 290,000 companies as of October, 2018. In 2015, he was awarded the Workstyle Innovative Award in Japan’s Venture Company Award from the Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry proposed by Shinzo-Abe Prime Minister. In 2016, he has taken a position as a director of the Japan Association of New Economy which has membership of around 500 companies and is led by Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten). Joy Tang is the CEO and founder of Markable.ai, the leading AI computer vision company for the retail sector. It has raised over $5.2M and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion dollar clients on most continents. Before building Markable’s world class team, Joy won a Gold Medal in Math Olympics in China at age 16 and was the TV anchor of a Chinese television program for ten years. Joy then attended MIT on a full scholarship, with majors in math and economics. Joy sold her first start up, a social media platform for international students built together with Berkeley students to a Chinese company in her last year of college. After college, she worked as a lead machine learning quantitative scientist for seven years that built financial high frequency AI trading programs generating a daily six-figure profit while causing traditional wall street to crash in 2008. Joy left high frequency trading to create Markable.ai, upon noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and livestream content immediately shoppable. Markable.ai has a goal to deliver the ultimate shopping therapy for consumers; the future of AI driven fast e-commerce; and the future of AI driven green, user-engaged advertising. Mikko Ikola is CEO & Co-founder at Ambronite. Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through sustainable plant-based foods. Ambronite’s first product, Complete Meal Shake, contains 100% of everything the human body needs and quenches hunger for 4 hours using only real foods. Ambronite is used worldwide by top performers and has customers in over 30 countries. Ambronite has been featured in publications such as TIME Magazine, Wired, and Wallpaper. Ambronite has raised USD$1.5m in funding from investors such as Jawed Karim (Co-founder at YouTube) and Lifeline Ventures. Besides nutrition and healthy lifestyle, Mikko has a tech-background in computer science and is inspired by topics such as leadership (Scaling Up Methodology) and minimalism. The Secret of my Global Expansion: Growing your Business Outside your Hometown  James Chou is the Managing Director & CEO of Microsoft for Startups for Greater China, Japan & Korea, Chair of Technology and Innovation Committee of American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.  Within Microsoft, he leads the effort to scale up the business for some of the best and most innovative startups in China by providing unprecedented access to top Microsoft partners and customers, venture capitalists, and technical knowledge.  Through the acceleration, he helped his portfolio companies raising hundred of million dollars and increased their valuation more than 300% in average in only 4 months to 10+ billion dollars.  He is a frequent public speaker for Startups, Venture & Private Equity in China, Digital Transformation and Corporate Innovation.  He has more than 20 years experiences in TMT space in China and US.  He is also a mentor to several leading accelerators and an advisor to several leading VCs in China.  Before joining Microsoft, he was a serial entrepreneur and a venture investor.   He has founded or co-founded three high tech companies in China.   Previously, he served senior management positions at AsiaInfo and UTStarcom, the first 2 NASDAQ listed Chinese technology companies.  Prior to that, He worked product management, sales, and engineering roles at Hewlett Packard and NEC in Silicon Valley for 7 years.   James got his MBA from Santa Clara University.  Executive Officer of Global Business Division at DMM.com LLC Esther Imai is the Executive Officer of Global Business Division at DMM.com LLC, a privately-held Japanese media and technology corporation. Chairman and CEO of DMM.com LLC had entrusted her to manage 8 billion yen (US$73 million) fund for global investments. She serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Director of DMM.HeHe Ltd and as a Director of AC Group Ltd, where she brings the team together into a coherent whole, help them extend their thinking to drive material business advantage. She is also leading the Global Business team under CFO group of DG Holdings Co., Ltd. (DMM Group Holding Company) where she is responsible for the financial aspects of the overseas subsidiaries under DMM Group including M&A and starting up new businesses overseas. Esther is being respected as a credible voice in decision making and inspire action, she earns a seat at the table wherever she serves.  She has over 18 years of experience in banking & financial services industry, manufacturing, IT, insurance and public accounting firms. Prior to joining DMM Group, she spent about 8 years in the investment banking industry where she rose through the ranks of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd. responsible for Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis, leading business plan development, financial forecasting, financial analysis, and capital commitment planning, as well as competitive analysis. Esther drives on-going focus and efficiencies on cost optimization and expense management across the Asia Pacific segment of their Corporate Workplace Division. Born in Malaysia and migrated alone to Singapore at the age of 15. Esther receives her B.Sc. (Hons) with First Class Honors in Finance and Accounting from University of Salford in UK. She is also a Chartered Certified Accountant and now a fellow member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA. Teemu Suna is one of the founders, CEO and chairman of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. A passionate advocate for disruptive health solutions, Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growth company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. Since late 2015, Suna has raised over €40 million to bring Nightingale’s technology to global healthcare. Prior to Nightingale, Suna spearheaded pioneering business ventures in healthcare IT, serving as Chief Technology Officer at Fujitsu Finland. Immersed in the field of computational medicine, Suna has authored scientific articles on applying artificial neural networks in medical applications. Determined to make preventive medicine a concrete reality for all, at Nightingale, Suna has united expertise from a diverse range of different backgrounds to further push the boundaries of the health industry. Slush Tokyo and Recruit are bringing together big names from the Blockchain scene for an exclusive night by the Tokyo Bay. The speakers will cover diverse topics within blockchain with the panoramic Tokyo Bay skyline behind them. Get ready for compelling discussions as well as food, drinks and quality networking. Think beyond borders: why digital entrepreneurs from all over the world become e-residents of Estonia. Estonia is creating a borderless digital society for global citizens as the first country to offer e-Residency. In 4 years, the programme has attracted + 50,000 citizens from +160 countries and they have created +6,500 companies in Estonia that they can run fully online from anywhere in the world. If you’re already an e-resident and/or wish to know more about Estonia’s digital society, join this casual networking event with representatives of the programme and Japanese e-residents. Location : Jinnan Cafe (1 Chome-17-5 Jinnan Shibuya-ku Tokyo) Registration -56486857712 Executive Breakfast is a casual networking event with key thought leaders and decision makers across various industry sectors from all around the world. Free Entrance for all Slush Tokyo 2019 Executive Pass holders. Join us for good food, coffee, music and talks! Click me for more information. Art Session: Relax with the Art within You Art has the power to represent your life - come and have a fresh look at yourself. This session will allow attendees to experience art in a new way. It’s not about what other people think, it’s about what you feel about yourself and what you're doing. It’s about that moment of trying something -- if it looks good or sounds good, that is what art is all about. Let’s find out what the art world gives you in this one hour. Target: Those who are interested in art, those who want to enhance your creativity and self-consciousness, you! Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. MSc, in Artificial Intelligence, from Tokyo University. Engaged in research on Recommendation Engine, Complex Network, Clustering. Won the Innovative Software Creation Program (Super Creator Award) under Information-technology Promotion Agency Japan (IPA) in 2005 and 2006. Started her first business to create the middleware which enables to develop iOS / Android / Feature Phone simultaneously, and sold the company to mixi.inc. Chairman & Co-Founder, Animoca Brands and Founder & CEO, Outblaze A technology entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong, Yat Siu is the chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: AB1) that leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first Asian free web page and email provider. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s services business to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to digital entertainment services and products. Outblaze is now a conglomerate of companies focused on cloud, AI, blockchain, and smartphone software. Yat is the CEO of Outblaze, and he is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 Yat set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool lab environment that supplements Hong Kong students with skills not emphasized by the local education system, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is also the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology. Yat has earned numerous accolades including Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP Awards. A classically trained musician, Yat is a member of the advisory board of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Panasonic: Game Changer Catapult Business Creation Open Dialogue Session An interactive session focused on people interested in the startup scene as a whole. Masa Fukata, the director of Game Changer Catapult will welcome Masahiro Kotosaka, Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University, and Yuka Tanimoto, Senior Editor and Chief Producer of Event Production Group, Forbes Japan, to discuss innovation. We will also introduce the entrepreneur projects in collaboration with Avex and Keio SFC. Finally, we will demonstrate “cleaning as training” in order to share the new concept of housework. Target: startup company, involved health tech, electronic industry, you! Masa co-founded an internal innovation accelerator “Game Changer Catapult” in 2016, an initiative to transform ideas into reality to make the people’s wish through open innovation for a better life, a better world at the home tech division, Appliances Company in Panasonic Corporation. Also, he was appointed as Director in BeeEdge Co., Ltd. a joint-venture business incubation company with Panasonic, Scrum Ventures LLC, a US-based venture capital firm, and INCJ, Ltd.  He started his career in Panasonic, executed marketing communications for audio/video and digital imaging products, including launching of Lumix digital camera and DVD recorder with Hollywood film and music scene, after the participation of the international management program in Canada and the United States. Managed sports sponsorship contract including IOC and Organizing Committees of Olympic Games from 2004, technology operations and executing marketing strategy and communications, followed by a career as Director, Panasonic Canada Inc.  MBA, Kobe University, Japan. Associate Professor at Keio University, consultant and adviser to several start-up/multinational companies Masahiro Kotosaka is Associate Professor at Keio University. He is also a consultant and adviser to several start-up/multinational companies and was working for McKinsey & Company based in Frankfurt and Tokyo. He is an expert of strategic management of startups and international business of born global firms and spent four years running three profitable IT/Retail business before joining McKinsey. His recent publication includes The Element of Strategic Management (Toyo Keizai, 2018) and The Japanese Business in Evolution (Co-author, Routledge, 2017). Yuka Tanimoto earned an MBA in the U.S. in 2004 after gaining experience at a brokerage firm and serving as a financial and economic anchor for Bloomberg TV. She next worked as a newscaster for Nikkei CNBC and became the company's first-ever female commentator. After 2011, she became active as a freelance journalist. Through her career, Ms. Tanimoto has interviewed over 3000 VIPs from every corner of the globe including former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, Lynda Gratton, and founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz. She has also appeared on numerous television programs including“Vivit”（TBS TV）, "Sunday! Scramble" (TV Asahi), "Your Time" (Fuji TV), “Morning Cross” (Tokyo MX TV), and commentator work on "AbemaPrime" (Abema TV). She currently serves as a column contributor to the media, as moderator of the economic symposium, as a corporate advisor. In February 2016, she became Deputy Editor and Web Editor for Forbes Japan. In April of that same year, she also became a part-time lecturer at Atomi University. Yuka Tanimoto's literary works include “Active Listening The Art of Listening for Success”（Diamond, Ine.）,”Time Mastery of 1000 Top World Leaders”（Kadokawa/Chukei Publishing）, and “The Habits of Leaders Who Create Followers without Trying”（SB Creative）, “Why World Top Leader Get Partiality”(Discover 21) Aya originally became fascinated in the blockchain space for its potential to impact financial inclusion in emerging markets. In early 2013, she joined Kraken as Managing Director and has since worked to educate the public, VCs, and regulators on cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation globally. As the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya leads the Foundation’s teams and supports the Ethereum ecosystem through core development and research activities, and educational efforts aimed at further expanding the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem. In 2019, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Global Council. Jun is the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform that provides online operations with a full-featured payment gateway, security & fraud protection models and cash management services —the complete infrastructure required to enable and streamline online commerce. He is a deep thinker and is no stranger to the startup world. Prior to founding Omise, he was involved in founding a series of tech companies in Japan. He brings over 16 years of professional experience in the technological field and has previously held several managerial positions. Jun has led his payment company through dramatic growth to become one of SEA’s leading online payment platform. He is passionate about delivering online payments for everyone and works to influence his team to do the same. After receiving his M.S. in Planetary Science from both Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo on a full scholarship, Takahiro joined Accenture, where he spent 5 years as a management consultant, specializing in retail and high-tech industries. Joining Recruit Next (Japan’s largest information company) Takahiro launched 4 businesses – leading two of them – including SUMO, a moving service and business for elderly people. Takahiro joined ispace in 2011 after an initial volunteer role and is now the acting COO. With one startup exit already under his belt, Ishigame cofounded Infostellar, a satellite-antenna sharing platform for small, low-orbit satellites -- what he calls "an Airbnb for satellites." Infostellars' cloud-based service StellarStation helps ground stations to make money during their downtime. For satellite operators, it allows them to contact their satellites more frequently, without building more costly stations. In September 2017, investors led by Airbus Ventures put $7.3 million in Series A Funding into the company, which was established with two other cofounders, including aerospace engineer and CEO Naomi Kurahara. Ishigame was selected as one of the honourees of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018. Future experience with LEXUS: The Concept of Value Changes In a world full of AI and big data which has dramatically evolved our lives with efficient services, we want to hear your ideas. In this session, we will talk about value creation in this new era by providing experimental value with the guidance of industry experts. So come and share your ideas! Rika lives in Silicon Valley and recently transitioned from the role Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships at Atheer into a role as Atheer's Advisory Board Member, and joined the founding team of a new Silicon Valley startup delving into AI (Artificial Intelligence) on the Edge (edge-computing).  She also is the founder of a not-for-profit helping women advance on corporate boards.  Born in Japan to a German mother and Japanese father, and trilingual in Japanese, German and English, Rika graduated from International School of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo and went to the US to attend Princeton University, and has worked internationally over the past two decades. She is a technology industry veteran and serves on the Advisory Boards to ventures in the Extended Reality (VR/AR/MR) ecosystem as well as AI startups, and is an active advocate for advancing women's leadership in technology and business across industry verticals and global lines. At Atheer she forged go-to-market programs with technology, OEM, and Solution Integration partners that built and delivered best-of-class Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for the Enterprise.  Having held leadership positions in strategy and business development disciplines at hardware/software and services enterprises and startup ventures globally - from NVIDIA, Sony, Accenture, American Express, china.com among others - Rika embraces the opportunity we have to shape the next 50 years of computing, and her work focuses on driving innovative experiences where human, digital, and physical intersect. Global Head of Brand Management and Marketing of LEXUS As the Global Head of Brand Management and Marketing, Spiros leads the development and deployment of Lexus’ brand strategy, metrics and research, global marketing communications, partnerships and activities throughout the brands worldwide network covering over 90 countries. He is also responsible for defining the future vision of the luxury brand in a time of rapid industry change. Prior to his current role, Spiros was the Head of Brand, Marketing, Consumer Experience and the Lexus Academy for Lexus in Europe overseeing 40 markets. He helped guide the brand to record levels of awareness and consideration. In addition, he has served as Director of Marketing for Toyota & Lexus operations in Spain as well as Head of Brand & Communication Strategy for Toyota Europe. Spiros has a track record of marketing and digital innovation having received several awards such as the Marketing Rising Star by the industry’s leading publication. He also serves as a mentor and coach for the MIT Enterprise Forum which supports promising start-ups. In addition, he is a board advisor to two start-ups in the Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare areas. He also acts a mentor for the US Marketing Academy and was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the world’s most influential CMOs in 2018. In his free time, Spiros plays ice hockey, DJs, rides his motorcycle and cooks. Spiros has worked and lived in North America, Europe and Asia. He is currently based in Tokyo. Chief Business Development Officer of Axelspace Corporation Experienced Marketing, Branding and Corporate Access professional with extensive global financial sector exposure. At Daiwa Capital Markets, originated fundraising road shows, organised and hosted various corporate access initiatives. Prior to that, at Lehman Brothers, developed marketing solutions and worked as a strategic advisor to the business heads to increase revenue. Nurtured marketing and branding experiences at McCann-Erickon, Saatchi&Saatchi and Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Contributed in planning and executing integrated marketing communications to build Brand Equity for iconic brands, including P&G, Adidas, Levi’s, Unilever and Virgin Atlantic. Participated in Axelspace in August 2017 and serves as a Brand Manager. Tsune focuses on investment in mid/late stage venture investments in rapidly growing software companies. Tsune led WiL's investments in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise and actively worked on investments in Automation Anywhere and BirdEye. Prior to joining WiL, Tsune was VP of Business Operations and Strategy at Evernote. Tsune spearheaded analytics and was instrumental in improving the company’s revenue growth and financial stability through a series of monetization efforts. He has also worked for Blue Ridge Capital, analyzing publicly traded internet companies. Tsune holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Hajime is an AI technologist leading 65+ deep learning researchers to help corporates in Bank/Insurance/Manufacturer/Internet Services/Medical/Pharmacy sectors with AI solutions at Cinnamon. Active investor and community contributor in Asia: Organized Vietnam FrontierTech Summit with 1500+ delegates. Also Partner at Zeroth.ai (AI Investment Firm), Founder Institute KL Local Director. Fred is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, one of Japan's leading AI startups. Ascent develops autonomous robots and vehicles by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms inspired by theoretical neuroscience. The company raised $18M in Series A in 2018 and employs engineers and scientists from over 20 countries around the world. In addition to founding Ascent, Fred has also founded two other AI firms and chairs Decoded, a Tokyo collective of AI and machine learning experts. Zac’s experience includes leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies. He started initially in AdTech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. BlockFi provides crypto savings accounts and USD loans and the company has the most coverage of the US market, currently operating in 48 states and also the only lender to raise institutional capital – with a 50M credit facility from Galaxy Digital and investors including Fidelity, Galaxy Digital, Susquehanna, Akuna Capital, and ConsenSys Ventures. This stage is for everyone! If you have a cool idea or if you want to share some thoughts or a current project you're working on, this is your time to shine. Let’s take small actions here - an action that will give you a chance to explore infinite possibilities. A futurist with an artist's eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte prototypes culturally diverse, socially and environmentally engaged future world designs for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and cities/countries.  A large part of her time is devoted to research and strategy in the immersive media technology space (Augmented, Mixed, Virtual Reality and AI). Monika's work consists in connecting bleeding edge technological innovation with some of the world's most original creative visions. Mobile platforms such as Google Play and Android have reached global scale and are bringing billions of people online. They facilitate innumerable connections between users, developers and nonprofits that together create social impact around the world in areas such as health, education, financial inclusion and personal safety. Learn about the social impact needs and interests of global smartphone users to better understand this massive opportunity from a developer’s perspective. We will share best practices and real life examples that will help you build better social impact focussed apps and games. Let’s get creative! Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play Maxim Mai leads Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play. His mission is to amplify the positive impact created by apps and games in communities around the world and to empower their developers to find success on Android and Google Play. He also helps NGOs tap into Google Play to raise awareness and funds for their causes. Part of the Google Play team, Maxim is an expert on app strategy, distribution and revenue models. He has consulted top developers and startups in Europe and North America on how to build and grow sustainable mobile businesses. Maxim has been with Google for six years. Prior to joining Google Play, he worked with strategic online publishers to grow their advertising businesses. Pre-Google, Maxim worked in strategy consulting. He is based in New York City and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours from The University of Sydney. Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) / Marketing Expert at Life is Tech, Inc Global division Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. The birth-rate in Israel is 3.11, and records #1 on the OECD. Furthermore, women’s social advancement ranking reached 9th place in OECD, and Israel’s percentage of women in high-tech industries is 35.5%, which is 1.4 times that of America's. Moreover, Israel excels at developing start-ups around the world and acquired 2.3 times as many funds as Japan in 2018. She believes that Israel’s philosophy, as well as their business strategy, will be the motivation for young Japanese people. She became interested in Israel when she worked at an Israeli trading company and met many Israeli people. There, she worked for the marketing, sales, and PR department as a new business development manager of EdTech, Health Tech, Connected Cars, etc. While she was at the Israeli trading company, she surpassed the sales record by twelve times the previous. Alissa Miky has received awards; Forbes JAPAN "100 women shining on earth" youngest recipient. Businesses Insider JAPAN "Game Changer" One of 46 people. Jason Smith is the Vice President of Business Development at Fundbox. In this leadership role, Jason is responsible for identifying and creating global partnerships to help Fundbox achieve its vision of building the world’s first AI-enabled B2B business capital platform.  As a growth leader, Jason brings a strong background and experience e-commerce, fintech, and technology into Fundbox.  Prior to joining Fundbox, Jason spent 13 years at payments and credit giant PayPal in various leadership roles. Most recently Jason was the head of PayPal’s Global Channel Sales business group which, under his leadership, scaled the business globally and grew revenue over 4X.  In addition, Jason was also a founding member of PayPal’s omnichannel business and a key member of the corporate development team where he was responsible for numerous investments, acquisitions, business development and sales initiatives across the eBay Inc. and PayPal portfolio.  Jason is a graduate of Washington State University. Firat Isbecer is an entrepreneur and an angel investor. Isbecer co-founded Pozitron, one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile banking, mobile commerce and payments software companies which was acquired by London-based fintech star Monitise plc in 2014. After joining Monitise, Isbecer oversaw the company’s Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa operations as the Managing Director of Monitise MEA. In 2017, Monitise plc was acquired by US-based a Fortune 500 financial services tech giant Fiserv Inc. After the Monitise-Fiserv acquisition, he left the company and founded Commencis. Commencis helps leading brands to grow and scale in digital by building purposeful products, powered by its Big Data, Analytics and Cloud solutions. Isbecer is also an active seed investor, he is a member of Galata Business Angels, Turkey’s first angel investor group. He has made over 40 seed investments in 11 different countries to date making him one of the most active investors in Turkey. After studying at Robert College in İstanbul, Firat received his Bachelor’s Degree from Galatasaray University, and his Master’s Degree in Geopolitical Studies from a joint programme by the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Isbecer briefly worked at a Paris based independent Euro-Mediterranean Think Tank as a research associate. He has been recognised in Fortune Turkey’s 40 under 40 list numerous times. Special Guest Speech by Yuriko Koike (Governor of Tokyo) Yuriko Koike is the current Governor of Tokyo. Previously she served various roles in the government including Minister of the Environment and Minister of Defense. Click me for more info about Yuriko Koike. Governor of TOKYO, Former Minister of the Environment, Former Minister of Defense Yuriko Koike was inaugurated as Governor of Tokyo in August 2016. Koike served as Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2006. Later she held two other cabinet posts- Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Affairs, appointed in 2006, and Japan’s first female Defense Minister, in July 2007. In 2008, she ran for the head of Japan’s ruling party - the first female candidate to ever run for prime ministership. After graduating from Cairo University, Koike began her journalistic career as a TV Personality. She has written books and articles on Japanese politics and international affairs. Fireside Chat with Jenny Lefcourt (Freestyle) and Alice Lloyd George (RRE) Jenny Lefcourt is Partner at freestyle, one of the most successful SF based a seed-stage investor and mentor behind startups like Airtable, 9GAG, and Narvar. Alice Lloyd George is Partner at RRE, a New York-based venture capital behind companies like Venmo, BuzzFeed, and Business Insider. Jenny and Alice will share their experience working in the investment scene. Click for more information about Jenny Lefcourt and Alice Lloyd George Jenny Lefcourt brings 20+ years of technology start-up experience to her role as General Partner at Freestyle, a $90M seed stage fund in San Francisco whose partners are all serial entrepreneurs. Freestyle has has led investments in companies such as Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, Narvar, Wag, and Digit. Jenny is also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit dedidcated to diversity in funders & founders. Prior to joining Freestyle, Jenny cofounded WeddingChannel.com (sold: XOXO) and Bella Pictures (sold: CPI). She was an angel investor and advisor in many technology companies including Discord, MainStreetHub, StyleSeat & Minted. Jenny earned her B.S. in economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She lives in Marin with her husband and three children. Alice Lloyd George loves working with entrepreneurs on the frontier of innovation and helps RRE invest in emerging technologies including blockchain, machine intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and NewSpace, as well as consumer and healthcare startups. She appears on Fox Business, was Forbes’ 30 under 30 (2016), and Marc Andreessen calls her “one of the unknown rockstars in tech.” Before joining RRE Alice worked in investments at Bridgewater Associates, and in a prior life lived in Beijing conducting research as a Brookings Institute fellow. Alice hails from the UK, graduated with a BA from Princeton, and began her career at The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, where she reported on business and politics across Asia. She is the founder and host of the hit podcast Flux, a series of conversations with founders at the frontier. You can follow her latest musings on Twitter @amlg23 Chika Terada (Sansan): Be your own rival Chika is co-founder and CEO of Sansan, and IT venture to provide business card-based contact management services. Sansan has now grown to over 6,000 corporate clients and 2.5 million individual users, making it the largest database of its kind in Japan. In this session, Chika will talk about his concept of rivaling himself and how it has helped him to keep growing his business. Prior to founding Sansan in 2007, Chika worked in IT at Mitsui & Co., where he was involved in importing computer equipment, developing systems, and working on joint ventures. In 2001, he was transferred to Silicon Valley, where he dealt with cutting-edge U.S. ventures as they developed their business links with Japan. Upon returning to Japan, he sold database software he brought back from the U.S., and then became a manager at Mitsui, handling corporate planning and management at security-related companies. In May 2007, Chika left Mitsui and together with four friends started Sansan, an IT venture providing business card-based contact management services. Sansan has now grown to over 7,000 corporate clients and over 2.5 million individual users, making it the largest database of its kind in Japan. In 2011, Chika received the U.S. Ambassador’s Award at the Entrepreneurs' Awards Japan. This honor recognizes entrepreneurs who start companies with high growth potential, and devote themselves to becoming market leaders. Fireside Chat with Genki Shiota (Akatsuki) and Yuji Maeda (SHOWROOM) Change the world through the power of entertainment. Join our conversation with Genki Shiota, Co-founder of Akatsuki Japan's Leading Mobile Gaming Company Akatsuki Inc., and Yuji Maeda, the CEO of SHOWROOM Inc., a live streaming platform for hidden talents all over the globe. Click for more info about Genki Shiota and Yuji Maeda. Genki Shiota is the co-founder of Akatsuki, a global entertainment company producing a wide range of entertainment, including globally-popular mobile games, eSports, soccer, films, and VR/MR/AR. Located in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Taiwan and LA, Akatsuki strives to provide the best entertainment experience with excellence by combining digital and real elements and utilizing its knowledge of cutting edge technologies. Akatsuki's vision is to create "A Heart Driven World", or in other words, creating a world where everyone wants to make things which will bring happiness to all. Its mission is to "Make The World Colorful" by making the world shine with entertainment. These vision and mission statements were written and conceptualized by Mr. Shiota himself. Now enjoying its 8th year in business, Akatsuki accelerates investment to support the growth of next-generation start-ups through two CVCs: the AET Fund, and the Heart Driven Fund. Yuji Maeda joined UBS Securities Japan in 2010 after completing his bachelor degree in political science and economics at Waseda University. In July 2011 he was transferred to UBS Securities LLC in New York and began covering institutional investors who were based in the USA and Canada. After three years of his career as a Japanese equity salesperson, he met Tomoko Namba, the founder of DeNA (Japanese internet / social gaming company), which made him join DeNA afterward. He launched "SHOWROOM" in late 2013 as an internal corporate venture of DeNA, which ended up in being spun off into a separate company in 2015. Now he leads the whole business as the CEO of SHOWROOM Inc. Fireside Chat with Yukiko Muto (Uber Eats) and Slush Team Prior to joining Uber, Yukiko co-founded ProTrade (acquired by Rakuten in 2000). She led Japan's business in some of world's top startups including OpenTable and Travelzoo. She was the Head of New Business Sales in Japan before becoming President of Uber Eats, Japan. As a key member of Uber’s Japan Leadership Team, Yukiko is responsible for overseeing the Uber Eats business in Japan. Yukiko joins Uber from Google, where she was the Head of New Business Sales in Japan. Prior to Google, Yukiko was the President of OpenTable overseeing its operations in Japan. Previously Yukiko was the President of Travelzoo Japan and an Executive Officer of Travelzoo Asia Pacific for more than 6 years and also held various senior roles at Rakuten, including Managing Director for Rakuten Dining, where she was responsible for restructuring the business units and managing the special task force projects. Yukiko began her career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) before co-founding ProTrade. (ProTrade was acquired by Rakuten in 2000). Yuki Kanayama (ZOZO Technologies): What Comes After Exit ? Yuki Kaneyama founded VASILY and developed fashion application a named IQON in 2008 which was later acquired by ZOZO Inc. Now he is running ZOZO Technologies Inc. as Chief Innovation Officer. He will share his founding story, current challenges, and visions for the future. Yuki Kanayama is the founder of VASILY, the company behind Apple and Google’s award-winning fashion application, IQON. In October 2017, the company was acquired by ZOZO Inc. (former START TODAY CO.,LTD.), the owner of ZOZOTOWN, the largest fashion online shopping website in Japan. After the acquisition, he became the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) of ZOZO Technologies Inc. He is now in charge of operations and new business development of “ZOZO Research”. He is also the author of the book “いちばんやさしいグロースハックの教本” (The Simplest Guide to Hack Growth). Fireside Chat with Evgeny Tchebotarev (500px) and Masaru Ikeda Started from a passion in photography, Evgeny Tchebotarev created 500px, a photosharing community before Facebook and Flickr. After 500px's exit, Ev is now working as VP of Growth Asia at Skylum. Joining Evgeny on stage is Masaru Ikeda, a well-known editor in Japanese start up scene. Click me for more info about Evgeny Tchebotarev and Masaru Ikeda. In early 2004, before Facebook and photo-sharing sites, Evgeny Tchebotarev created a community for photographers to meet, share photos and information. He initially developed this on top of a LiveJournal platform and then founded 500px as a company. As Founder and COO, Chief Product Officer, and later Chief Photography Officer (CPO), Evgeny was responsible for bringing the 500px vision to life through operational excellence, product innovation, community engagement and maintaining a strong link between photographers and 500px team. Originally from Moscow, Ev has earned a BA in Commerce and Finance from Ryerson University in Toronto, graduating with honours in 2007. He began photography in 2002 and immediately became a fascinated with it when he sold three photos to magazines from his first roll of film. Since then he has spent the entirety of his professional career dedicated to the betterment of visual creativity, focusing on photography and design. Ev remains an active photographer and community member, and has been honoured to judge many world class photo contests, including Red Bull Illume, Photo Life, and Sony World Photography Awards. Since 2016, after leaving 500px, Ev travelled to Asia to consult companies, where for 2 years he was focused on helping companies to build Silicon Valley-style product management expertise. In July 2018, Ev joined Skylum as VP of Growth Asia, applying years of hands-on expertise of working with Asian companies to expand Skylum’s award-winning products to Asian markets. Masaru Ikeda writes for many publications and media outlets covering the startup scene in Japan and the rest of the world. He started his career as a programmer/engineer, and previously co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms. He’s been traveling around Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia exploring the IT industry and prominent startups. Fireside Chat with Hironao Kunimitsu (gumi) and Reed Stevenson (Bloomberg) Hironao Kunimitsu, founder, and CEO of gumi, Japan's leading gaming startup. He will share his experience running a business in various industries like gaming and blockchain. Joining his talk is Reed Stevenson, Deputy Technology Team Leader of Bloomberg. Click for more info about Hironao Kunimitsu and Reed Stevenson. In 2007, Hironao Kunimitsu founded gumi Inc. which is now a public company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In 2015, he established Tokyo VR Startups Inc. Additionally, in 2016, he led the investment in VR-focused venture capital fund “The VR Fund, L.P.”, and gumi became a general partner. He continued to help nurture the global VR community through co-founding “Seoul VR Startups” in 2016 and “Nordic VR Startups” in 2017, incubation program in Seoul and Nordic respectively. Since mid of 2017, he started to pay attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrency area, then founded Crypto Investment Fund – gumi Cryptos. Reed is a journalist with more than two decades of experience. He returned to Tokyo in 2016 as technology editor at Bloomberg. His previous stint in Japan was reporting for Reuters from 1996 to 2002. In between, Reed's bureau chief assignments with the news agency took him to Seattle, Amsterdam and Dubai. He joined Bloomberg in San Francisco four years ago. A graduate of an international school in Yokohama and the University of Pennsylvania, Reed has reported on business, politics, technology and a variety of stories for print, television and radio. Yoshiki Yasui (Origami): Pioneering a Cashless Society through an Open Platform Mindset With a vision to shape the future of money, payment, and commerce, Yoshiaki Yasui founded Origami. Since 2012, Origami developed Origami Pay, QR-code payment service to create a cashless society in Japan. Born in Toronto in 1985, Yoshiki spent his childhood in Toronto and New York until moving to Japan at the age of 10. For post-secondary education, Yoshiki studied at the University of Sydney and later graduated from Waseda University. Upon graduation, Yoshiki first began his work in the Investment Banking Division for Lehman Brothers. Later he worked at DCM Ventures, a major venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, where he was responsible for investments in the US, Japan and China. Yoshiki founded “Origami” in 2012. Currently, Yoshiki is also a committee member of the Payments Japan Association, as well as the New Industrial Structure Committee of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. Making Social Impact: Maxim Mai (Google Play) and Satoko Kono (ARUN) An enterprise and an investor discuss how to make the world a better place. At Google, Maxim helps app and game developers to create a positive impact. Leading ARUN, Satoko invests in social entrepreneurs in developing countries with capital funds from individuals and businesses in Japan. Click for more info about Maxim Mai and Satoko Kono. Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play Maxim Mai leads Social Impact and Accessibility Partnerships at Google Play. His mission is to amplify the positive impact created by apps and games in communities around the world and to empower their developers to find success on Android and Google Play. He also helps NGOs tap into Google Play to raise awareness and funds for their causes. Part of the Google Play team, Maxim is an expert on app strategy, distribution and revenue models. He has consulted top developers and startups in Europe and North America on how to build and grow sustainable mobile businesses. Maxim has been with Google for six years. Prior to joining Google Play, he worked with strategic online publishers to grow their advertising businesses. Pre-Google, Maxim worked in strategy consulting. He is based in New York City and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours from The University of Sydney. Her inspiration to promote social investment emerged from her 10 years of experiences in Cambodia. Prior to establishing ARUN, she worked with NGOs and international aid agencies such as JICA and World Bank through which she gained critical knowledge and personal networks in social development in Asia and Africa. Through social investment, Satoko hopes to establish a new international cooperation scheme that contributes both to the empowerment of the people and sustainable development. She has a MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BA from International Christian University (ICU). She currently serves as ARUN’s president. Pocket Sun: Redefining Next-Gen Women Entrepreneurs and Investors Pocket Sun is the founding partner at SoGal Ventures, one of the world’s largest communities of diverse entrepreneurs and investors. Sogal invested in 50+ startups with world-class founders in the US, Asia Pacific, and Europe. She will talk about a new approach to venture capitalist Pocket Sun is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and global keynote speaker. She founded SoGal, one of the largest global entrepreneurship and venture capital networks for women, with 13 chapters worldwide. Together with her business partner Elizabeth Galbut, she founded SoGal Ventures, the world’s first millennial venture capital firm to invest in early stage companies in the US and Asia led by diverse teams. As millennials themselves, Pocket and Elizabeth invest in the future of how the next generation lives, works, and stays healthy. Since 2015, they have invested in 50 startups, of which two have been acquired. From Israel and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystem Synergies: Alexander Zaidelson (Beam), Maki Kaplinsky (NFT) Maki Kaplinsky, a serial entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of NFT Inc, a Silicon Valley-based start-up, developing a door-to-door, electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing flying car. Her previous startup, IQP Corporation was acquired by GE. Prior to Beam, Mr. Zaidelson spent over 2 years in CIRTech Venture Capital Fund invests in growth and late-stage technology companies in Israel. They will be joining the stage talking about cutting edge technology and innovations and Israel startup scene. Click for more information about Alexander Zaidelson (BEAM) and Maki Kaplinsky (NFT). Alexander Zaidelson is the CEO of Beam. Prior to Beam, Mr. Zaidelson spent over 2 years in CIRTech Venture Capital Fund investing in growth- and late-stage technology companies in Israel. Before CIRTech, Mr. Zaidelson served as Vice President of Product Management at WeFi Inc., a network connectivity and customer behavior analytics company. While at WeFi, Mr. Zaidelson spearheaded the company’s pivot to customer behavior analytics, overseeing creation of leading data products that are unique in the industry. The products created by the team helped WeFi win major clients in mobile application space. WeFi was ultimately acquired by TruConnect Inc. Prior to WeFi, he co-founded Nareos, a mobile peer-to-peer file sharing company that pioneered content and video sharing on smartphone in the pre-iPhone era. Mr. Zaidelson also founded Wikitup, a visual desktop dictionary company that was acquired by iMesh. An entrepreneur at heart, in the course of his career he also served as co-founder or adviser to a number of start-up projects. Mr. Zaidelson holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from St. Petersburg State University and an MBA from Tel Aviv University. Maki Kaplinsky is a serial entrepreneur, Co Founder and CEO of NFT Inc. NFT is a Silicon Valley-based start-up with main R&D in Israel, developing a door-to-door, electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) flying car that drives like a car on the road, and flies like a plane. Maki's previous start-up IQP Corporation, was an early innovator in the Internet of Things and sold to GE in 2017. Fireside Chat with Liu Weichun (KKDay) and Phoebe Amoroso Liu Weichun, co-founder and COO of KKday: Asia’s leading tours, and activities e-commerce platform. Recently KKday closed Series B+ funding co-led by LINE Ventures and the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. Weichun will share her founding story in an interview with Phoebe Amoroso. Click for more info about Liu Weichun and Phoebe Amoroso. Liu Weichun, co-founder and COO of KKday, is in charge of KKday’s global product management and operational strategies. After graduating from New York University, Liu worked as an investment banker. Afterwards, she joined Dell and served as a supply chain manager. During her time at Dell, she had the opportunity to meet a lot of Taiwanese “invisible brand champions” who excelled technology-wise, but lacked brand management savvy. From this experience, she decided to play a leading role in helping Taiwanese brands establish highly visible positions in the global markets. Knowing that high quality products and good customer service are what make brands influential, Liu Weichun is dedicated to improving KKday’s product development, supply chain management, and user experience. Her goal is to facilitate the ease of booking complete travel itineraries which enable travelers to enjoy more local experiences. She hopes that one day, booking a complete, traveler-customized trip will be as easy as buying a movie ticket Phoebe Amoroso is a multimedia journalist and reporter hailing from the UK. After 2.5 years as a market reporter for NHK World’s Newsline, she joined the channel’s business show Biz Stream as a newscaster and director. In addition to assisting with documentary production, she travels around Japan as a journalist with a focus on cuisine, travel and human stories. A graduate from Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, she moved to Tokyo in 2014 on a Daiwa Scholarship, through which she studied Japanese and worked as a video journalist for Thomson Reuters, making a variety of news and features. Koichiro Yoshida (CrowdWorks): Why You Should Fail Learn from the story of Japan's biggest crowdsourcing service. Koichiro Yoshida, the founder, and CEO of CrowdWorks will share personal episodes and what he learned from his entrepreneurial journey. Koichiro is the President and CEO of CrowdWorks. After his experience at a leading manufacturing company, has been a part of the listing of IT company as one of executives. Later on, founded Crowdworks Inc in 2011 which provides Japan’s largest crowdsourcing service and has taken the lead in crowdsourced equity offerings. The company was listed on TSE Mothers in 2014 and provides services to over 2.24 million crowd-workers which includes,12 government institutions and 290,000 companies as of October, 2018. In 2015, he was awarded the Workstyle Innovative Award in Japan’s Venture Company Award from the Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry proposed by Shinzo-Abe Prime Minister. In 2016, he has taken a position as a director of the Japan Association of New Economy which has membership of around 500 companies and is led by Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten). Joy Tang (Markable.ai): AI Innovation for the New Generation Joy Tang is the founder and CEO of Markable.ai, the leading AI computer vision company for the retail sector. It has raised over $5.2M and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion-dollar clients on most continents. Joy created Markable.ai, after noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and live stream content immediately shoppable. In this session, Tang will share her view on the future of fashion with AI. Joy Tang is the CEO and founder of Markable.ai, the leading AI computer vision company for the retail sector. It has raised over $5.2M and closing another $6M round from tier one global VCs with billion dollar clients on most continents. Before building Markable’s world class team, Joy won a Gold Medal in Math Olympics in China at age 16 and was the TV anchor of a Chinese television program for ten years. Joy then attended MIT on a full scholarship, with majors in math and economics. Joy sold her first start up, a social media platform for international students built together with Berkeley students to a Chinese company in her last year of college. After college, she worked as a lead machine learning quantitative scientist for seven years that built financial high frequency AI trading programs generating a daily six-figure profit while causing traditional wall street to crash in 2008. Joy left high frequency trading to create Markable.ai, upon noticing a huge gap in the market between e-commerce and digital content. This gap inspired her to develop the AI technology to make all forms of visual digital content such as photos, videos and livestream content immediately shoppable. Markable.ai has a goal to deliver the ultimate shopping therapy for consumers; the future of AI driven fast e-commerce; and the future of AI driven green, user-engaged advertising. Mikko Ikola (Ambronite): Future of Food — Transforming Humans and Our Planet From Surviving to Thriving Mikko Ikola is CEO & Co-founder at Ambronite. Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through sustainable plant-based foods. In this keynote presentation, Mikko will take you on a journey through our broken food system, and presents a vision how we can turn it into a system that will make humans and our planet to thrive in the future Mikko Ikola is CEO & Co-founder at Ambronite. Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through sustainable plant-based foods. Ambronite’s first product, Complete Meal Shake, contains 100% of everything the human body needs and quenches hunger for 4 hours using only real foods. Ambronite is used worldwide by top performers and has customers in over 30 countries. Ambronite has been featured in publications such as TIME Magazine, Wired, and Wallpaper. Ambronite has raised USD$1.5m in funding from investors such as Jawed Karim (Co-founder at YouTube) and Lifeline Ventures. Besides nutrition and healthy lifestyle, Mikko has a tech-background in computer science and is inspired by topics such as leadership (Scaling Up Methodology) and minimalism. Teemu Suna (Nightingale Health): Founder Story of Nightingale Health Teemu Suna is CEO, chairman and one of the founders of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growing company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. In this session, Suna will share his story about how it all began. Teemu Suna is one of the founders, CEO and chairman of Nightingale Health, a blood testing company aiming to solve the global burden of chronic disease. A passionate advocate for disruptive health solutions, Suna has steered Nightingale into an established growth company with over 60 team members and customers in over 20 countries. Since late 2015, Suna has raised over €40 million to bring Nightingale’s technology to global healthcare. Prior to Nightingale, Suna spearheaded pioneering business ventures in healthcare IT, serving as Chief Technology Officer at Fujitsu Finland. Immersed in the field of computational medicine, Suna has authored scientific articles on applying artificial neural networks in medical applications. Determined to make preventive medicine a concrete reality for all, at Nightingale, Suna has united expertise from a diverse range of different backgrounds to further push the boundaries of the health industry. Fireside Chat with Danny Brown Wolf (Orbs) and Noah Sakamaki (COINPOST) Danny Brown Wolf is the Head of Strategy at Orbs, and on the founding team of Orbs Group USA. She was formerly the decentralization Director for Cool Cousin, a travel-tech start- crowned by the New York Times, L.A Times, The Guardian and National Geographic as a “must app for travelers”. Danny will be interviewed about his journey from Fintech to Blockchain by Noah Sakamaki. Click for more information about Danny brown Wolf and Noah Sakamaki. Noah is a News Manager and content writer for CoinPost, the leading Cryptocurrency media platform in Japan. Focusing on keeping Japanese viewers informed about what is going abroad with everything crypto-related, Noah frequently reports about the SEC and their decisions regarding Bitcoin ETFs and securities. Noah has also interviewed many key players in the industry such as Jed McCaleb, Max Kordek and Stefan Thomas. Born and raised in Tokyo as a Japanese American, Noah graduated from Abiline Christian University in 2017 while retaining his ability to read, speak and write in English & Japanese. Danny Brown Wolf is the Head of Strategy at Orbs, and on the founding team of Orbs Group USA. She was formerly the decentralisation Director for Cool Cousin, a travel-tech start- crowned by the New York Times, L.A Times, The Guardian and National Geographic as a “must app for travelers”. Her background is in Policy and International Affairs, having worked at the United Nations, the Israeli Parliament, as the Director of Policy at the IDC's Abba Eban Institute, and on projects dedicated to capacity-building of the Palestinian hi-tech industry and peace-building between Israelis and Palestinians through hi-tech initiatives. Building a Startup Community: Amarit Charoenphan (HUBBA), Tim Romero (Disrupting Japan), Paula Pärnaste (Lift99) Learn the secret of building a community from eco-system builders around the globe. Leading the discussion by Amarit Charoenphan co-founder of Techsauce media and Hubba, Thailand largest co-working space. Paula Pärnaste is on a mission of building a founders ecosystem across the Central and Eastern Europe at Lift99. Tim Romero is deeply involved in Japan's startup community as an investor, founder, mentor and host of the Disrupting Japan podcast. Click for more info about Amarit Charoenphan, Tim Romero, Paula Pärnaste CEO and Cofounder, HUBBA / Cofounder and Chief Connection Officer, Techsauce Amarit's passion and life's work is to create a better world where people work with passion, meaning, and purpose while actively supported by an inspiring community and ecosystem. He is the Group CEO & Cofounder of HUBBA, the Hub of Global Creators. HUBBA is Thailand’s 1st and largest coworking space and community. He is also the Co-founder of Techsauce Media, Thailand's leading tech media, which is best known for Techsauce Global Summit, Southeast Asia's 1st Global Scale conference. Tim Romero is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 25 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast, teaches corporate innovation and entrepreneurship at the NYU Shinagawa campus and is CTO of TEPCO Ventures. Tim is deeply involved in Japan's startup community as an investor, founder and mentor. Entrepreneur herself, Paula is part of LIFT99 team building a founders ecosystem across the Central and Eastern Europe, and the world. LIFT99 is creating opportunities for the most ambitious founders in CEE, providing them with the supportive community, global network, know-how, funding etc. The community comes alive in the LIFT99 Founders2Founders app, and in the startup hubs – one in Tallinn, known as the home of Estonian startup culture, and the second one opening soon in Ukraine. Paula’s current responsibility is leading the launch of the LIFT99 Kyiv Hub. It will become another key location in the company’s mission to bring more startup success stories into the area. Miku Hirano (Cinnamon): Update your dream Recently closed Series B funding at 13.5M USD, Cinnamon is the rising star of AI startups in Japan. In this session, Miku will share her entrepreneurial journey and the founding story of Cinnamon. Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. MSc, in Artificial Intelligence, from Tokyo University. Engaged in research on Recommendation Engine, Complex Network, Clustering. Won the Innovative Software Creation Program (Super Creator Award) under Information-technology Promotion Agency Japan (IPA) in 2005 and 2006. Started her first business to create the middleware which enables to develop iOS / Android / Feature Phone simultaneously, and sold the company to mixi.inc. Fireside Chat with Yat Siu (Outblaze) and Slush Team Yat Siu is deeply involved in Internet startup scene, he founded several internet and tech companies including Outblaze (acquired by IBM) and Animoca. In addition, he also launched Hong Kong's first internet provider. Yat will share his founding episodes on stage Chairman & Co-Founder, Animoca Brands and Founder & CEO, Outblaze A technology entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong, Yat Siu is the chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: AB1) that leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products. Yat began his career at Atari Germany in 1990. In 1995 he moved to Hong Kong to establish Hong Kong Cybercity/Freenation, the first Asian free web page and email provider. In 1998 he set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services. In 2009, he sold Outblaze’s services business to IBM, and pivoted Outblaze to digital entertainment services and products. Outblaze is now a conglomerate of companies focused on cloud, AI, blockchain, and smartphone software. Yat is the CEO of Outblaze, and he is a director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment that brought to prominence the hugely popular emoticon character Tuzki. In 2017 Yat set up the Dalton Learning Lab, an afterschool lab environment that supplements Hong Kong students with skills not emphasized by the local education system, including divergent thinking and design thinking. He is also the founder of ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze investigating socially meaningful issues in technology. Yat has earned numerous accolades including Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the DHL/SCMP Awards. A classically trained musician, Yat is a member of the advisory board of BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and a director of the Asian Youth Orchestra. Fireside Chat with Aya Miyaguchi (ETH) and Jun Hasegawa (Omise) The blockchain is now in action. Joining a conversation with Aya Miyaguchi, who leads educational and development efforts of Ethereum foundation and Jun Hasegawa, the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform. Click to find out more about Aya Miyaguchi and Jun Hasegawa. Aya originally became fascinated in the blockchain space for its potential to impact financial inclusion in emerging markets. In early 2013, she joined Kraken as Managing Director and has since worked to educate the public, VCs, and regulators on cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation globally. As the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya leads the Foundation’s teams and supports the Ethereum ecosystem through core development and research activities, and educational efforts aimed at further expanding the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem. In 2019, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Global Council. Jun is the CEO & Founder of Omise, an online payment platform that provides online operations with a full-featured payment gateway, security & fraud protection models and cash management services —the complete infrastructure required to enable and streamline online commerce. He is a deep thinker and is no stranger to the startup world. Prior to founding Omise, he was involved in founding a series of tech companies in Japan. He brings over 16 years of professional experience in the technological field and has previously held several managerial positions. Jun has led his payment company through dramatic growth to become one of SEA’s leading online payment platform. He is passionate about delivering online payments for everyone and works to influence his team to do the same. Operations in Space Business: Helen Tung (NewSpace2060), Takahiro Nakamura (ispace) , Kazuo Ishigame (Infostellar) How does space business work? What are the stories behind rockets and satellites? Listen to the episodes from people behind groundbreaking startups. Takahiro runs i-space, a micro lunar robotic satellite company. Kazuo is a Co-founder of Infostellar, an Airbnb for satellites. Moderating this session is Helen Tung, a space legal futurist. Click for more info about Helen Tung, Takahiro Nakamura, and Kazuo Ishigame. Emergent Tech advisor and MINERVA fellow at the EU - Japan Centre Helen is an Emergent Tech advisor and MINERVA fellow at the EU – Japan Centre. Helen works with NewSpace and emerging tech startups and trains and mentors entrepreneurs. Helen’s mission is to empower individuals to make better decisions and find their voices. She has spoken widely on topics including AI, Robotics, decision making, autonomous systems, law and ethics. Her areas of interest include space applications, blockchain, data protection, cyber security, smallsat constellations, space law and policy and mindfulness. Helen is currently the Founder & Convenor of EU-Japan NewSpace2060 International Poetry Manga Poster competition 2019 and Writer and Editor of EU- Japan NewSpace2060 blog (Summer 2019 coffee table mag TBC) as part of MINERVA Fellowship. After receiving his M.S. in Planetary Science from both Kyushu University and the University of Tokyo on a full scholarship, Takahiro joined Accenture, where he spent 5 years as a management consultant, specializing in retail and high-tech industries. Joining Recruit Next (Japan’s largest information company) Takahiro launched 4 businesses – leading two of them – including SUMO, a moving service and business for elderly people. Takahiro joined ispace in 2011 after an initial volunteer role and is now the acting COO. With one startup exit already under his belt, Ishigame cofounded Infostellar, a satellite-antenna sharing platform for small, low-orbit satellites -- what he calls "an Airbnb for satellites." Infostellars' cloud-based service StellarStation helps ground stations to make money during their downtime. For satellite operators, it allows them to contact their satellites more frequently, without building more costly stations. In September 2017, investors led by Airbus Ventures put $7.3 million in Series A Funding into the company, which was established with two other cofounders, including aerospace engineer and CEO Naomi Kurahara. Ishigame was selected as one of the honourees of Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018. Future of AI and Automation: Tsune Shirota (WiL), Hajime Hotta (Cinnamon, Zeroth.ai), Fred Almeida (Ascent Robotics) A conversation with investors and founders from AI and Automation. Tsune led WiL's investment in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise. Hajime is a partner at Zeroth.ai and CTO at Cinnamon. Fred Almeida is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, a company that develops autonomous robots and vehicles. Click for more info about Tsune Shirota, Hajime Hotta, and Fred Almeida. Tsune focuses on investment in mid/late stage venture investments in rapidly growing software companies. Tsune led WiL's investments in Auth0, Asana, and TransferWise and actively worked on investments in Automation Anywhere and BirdEye. Prior to joining WiL, Tsune was VP of Business Operations and Strategy at Evernote. Tsune spearheaded analytics and was instrumental in improving the company’s revenue growth and financial stability through a series of monetization efforts. He has also worked for Blue Ridge Capital, analyzing publicly traded internet companies. Tsune holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Hajime is an AI technologist leading 65+ deep learning researchers to help corporates in Bank/Insurance/Manufacturer/Internet Services/Medical/Pharmacy sectors with AI solutions at Cinnamon. Active investor and community contributor in Asia: Organized Vietnam FrontierTech Summit with 1500+ delegates. Also Partner at Zeroth.ai (AI Investment Firm), Founder Institute KL Local Director. Fred is the founder and chief architect of Ascent Robotics, one of Japan's leading AI startups. Ascent develops autonomous robots and vehicles by leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms inspired by theoretical neuroscience. The company raised $18M in Series A in 2018 and employs engineers and scientists from over 20 countries around the world. In addition to founding Ascent, Fred has also founded two other AI firms and chairs Decoded, a Tokyo collective of AI and machine learning experts. Zac Prince (BlockFi): Bringing Banking to Crypto Founder of BlockFi, a company that with the most coverage in US market for providing crypto savings accounts and USD loans, Zac has led companies which have been previously acquired by Google and DunnHumby. He has also led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. Zac’s experience includes leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies. He started initially in AdTech, where he was a part of two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to starting BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker-dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender. BlockFi provides crypto savings accounts and USD loans and the company has the most coverage of the US market, currently operating in 48 states and also the only lender to raise institutional capital – with a 50M credit facility from Galaxy Digital and investors including Fidelity, Galaxy Digital, Susquehanna, Akuna Capital, and ConsenSys Ventures. Let's talk about the future: Monika Bielskyte (ALLFUTUREEVERYTHING), Suzana Ilic (MLT), and Alissa Miky (JIWA) A futurist with an artist’s eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte will discuss how we see the future with Suzana Ilić, Founder of Machine Learning Tokyo who is leading efforts in creating a community for studying, teaching and building Artificial Intelligence projects with Deep Learning. Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. Click for more info about Monika Bielskyte, Suzana Ilic and Alissa Miky. A futurist with an artist's eye and an inventor’s mind, Monika Bielskyte prototypes culturally diverse, socially and environmentally engaged future world designs for the entertainment industry, technology companies, and cities/countries.  A large part of her time is devoted to research and strategy in the immersive media technology space (Augmented, Mixed, Virtual Reality and AI). Monika's work consists in connecting bleeding edge technological innovation with some of the world's most original creative visions. As the Head of MLT, a non-profit group of Machine Learning Engineers and Researchers and a community of 2000 people in Tokyo, Suzana has been leading efforts in creating an open and collaborative engineering space for studying, teaching and building Artificial Intelligence projects with Deep Learning at its core. Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) Co-Founder of Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA) / Marketing Expert at Life is Tech, Inc Global division Alissa Miky is the Co-founder of the Japan Israel Women’s Association (JIWA). JIWA is a volunteer group that supports young people who wish to devote their energy to both work and home. The birth-rate in Israel is 3.11, and records #1 on the OECD. Furthermore, women’s social advancement ranking reached 9th place in OECD, and Israel’s percentage of women in high-tech industries is 35.5%, which is 1.4 times that of America's. Moreover, Israel excels at developing start-ups around the world and acquired 2.3 times as many funds as Japan in 2018. She believes that Israel’s philosophy, as well as their business strategy, will be the motivation for young Japanese people. She became interested in Israel when she worked at an Israeli trading company and met many Israeli people. There, she worked for the marketing, sales, and PR department as a new business development manager of EdTech, Health Tech, Connected Cars, etc. While she was at the Israeli trading company, she surpassed the sales record by twelve times the previous. Alissa Miky has received awards; Forbes JAPAN "100 women shining on earth" youngest recipient. Businesses Insider JAPAN "Game Changer" One of 46 people. Fintech Fireside Chat with Firat Isbecer (Commencis) and Jason Smith (FundBox) A conversation about Fintech from two industry veterans. Firat is an entrepreneur and an angel investor from Turkey. After exiting his previous company, Positron is now a CEO of Commencis. Prior to joining Fundbox as VP of Business Development, Jason spent 13 years at PayPal and helped the company to grow globally. Click for more info about Firat Isbecer and Jason Smith. Firat Isbecer is an entrepreneur and an angel investor. Isbecer co-founded Pozitron, one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile banking, mobile commerce and payments software companies which was acquired by London-based fintech star Monitise plc in 2014. After joining Monitise, Isbecer oversaw the company’s Eastern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia and Africa operations as the Managing Director of Monitise MEA. In 2017, Monitise plc was acquired by US-based a Fortune 500 financial services tech giant Fiserv Inc. After the Monitise-Fiserv acquisition, he left the company and founded Commencis. Commencis helps leading brands to grow and scale in digital by building purposeful products, powered by its Big Data, Analytics and Cloud solutions. Isbecer is also an active seed investor, he is a member of Galata Business Angels, Turkey’s first angel investor group. He has made over 40 seed investments in 11 different countries to date making him one of the most active investors in Turkey. After studying at Robert College in İstanbul, Firat received his Bachelor’s Degree from Galatasaray University, and his Master’s Degree in Geopolitical Studies from a joint programme by the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Isbecer briefly worked at a Paris based independent Euro-Mediterranean Think Tank as a research associate. He has been recognised in Fortune Turkey’s 40 under 40 list numerous times. Jason Smith is the Vice President of Business Development at Fundbox. In this leadership role, Jason is responsible for identifying and creating global partnerships to help Fundbox achieve its vision of building the world’s first AI-enabled B2B business capital platform.  As a growth leader, Jason brings a strong background and experience e-commerce, fintech, and technology into Fundbox.  Prior to joining Fundbox, Jason spent 13 years at payments and credit giant PayPal in various leadership roles. Most recently Jason was the head of PayPal’s Global Channel Sales business group which, under his leadership, scaled the business globally and grew revenue over 4X.  In addition, Jason was also a founding member of PayPal’s omnichannel business and a key member of the corporate development team where he was responsible for numerous investments, acquisitions, business development and sales initiatives across the eBay Inc. and PayPal portfolio.  Jason is a graduate of Washington State University. Marvin Liao (500 Startups): The Future of Work: A Venture Capitalist's View Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, a global Seed Venture Capital Firm & Startup Accelerator based in Silicon Valley. He runs the Flagship Accelerator program & invests in Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Fintech, Adtech, Digital Health, Internet of Things & Mobile startups across the globe. Marvin is a Partner at 500 Startups, a global Seed Venture Capital Firm & Startup Accelerator based in Silicon Valley. He runs the Flagship Accelerator program & invests in Digital Media, Enterprise SAAS, Marketplace, Fintech, Adtech, Digital Health, Internet of Things & Mobile startups across the globe. Formerly of Yahoo! Inc. (10.5 years), Marvin Liao has held roles in the various departments of Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing & ran online marketing at a venture capital funded ecommerce start-up prior to that. He also serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies. Investment in Southeast Asia: Kay-Mok Ku (Gobi), Soo Boon Koh (i-Globe), Kaspar Hadiyat (Koru Partners), and Slush Team As one of the rising region in startup scene, learn more about investment landscape in Southeast Asia with top investors like Soo Boon Koh from iglobe, Kay Mok Ku from Gobi Southeast Asia and Kaspar Hidayat from Koru Partners. Click for more info about Kay-Mok Ku, Soo Boon Koh and Kaspar Hidayat. Kay-Mok Ku is Managing Partner for Gobi Southeast Asia. He joined Gobi in 2010 and has invested in over 30 companies, including Carsome, Deliveree, Eko, Hermo and Salestock. He is a board member of the Singapore Venture Capital Association (SVCA). Prior to his career with Gobi Partners, Mok held the Vice President position in both Xinya Media and MediaCorp (Singapore). He was also part of the team that managed a $500 million fund at the Media Development Authority in Singapore, and is co-founder of Private Express, a crypto startup based in Silicon Valley. He started his career with the Infocomm Development Authority, and has a Computer Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from San Jose State University. Soo Boon founded iGlobe in December 1999 when venture capital (VC) first began experiencing the onset of globalization. As a veteran in the global VC industry with a specialization in technology investing, she has achieved consistent top-quartile fund return for her investments. Working alongside prominent VCs such as Sequoia Capital, IVP, RRE, Tencent and Qualcomm Ventures, she has since established herself as a prominent leader in the investing community. Soo Boon led some of the notable exits, including u-blox AG (SWX: UBXN), Telenav Inc. (NASDAQ:TNAV), Celestry Inc. (sold to Cadence), Aicent Inc. (acquired by TA Associates) and Anacle Systems Ltd (HKGEM: 8353). Currently, Soo Boon serves as board observer of several VC-backed companies based in San Francisco. This includes Nerdwallet Inc and Matterport Inc. Soo Boon is also a board member of The Great Room (Singapore) and Reach Robotics (UK). In late 2018, she oversaw two portfolios which targeted public listing, despite volatile stock market conditions: Twist Bioscience was listed on the Nasdaq (TWST) on Oct 31, 2018, and ACSL was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mother’s Board (TSE:6232) on Dec 21, 2018. Kaspar Hidayat is a Principal at Koru Partners, an early stage venture capital firm in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Koru, he was part of the teams at 500 Startups and Venturra Capital that made Seed and Series A investments in many of Southeast Asia's leading companies in their respective verticals, including Grab, Bukalapak, Zilingo, Carro, Shopback and Carousell. Kaspar has also spent time as an operator as Country Manager and VP of Marketing at Pomelo, Southeast Asia's leading digitally native vertical fashion and apparel brand. Kaspar earned his B.A. in philosophy and economics at Amherst College. Going beyind the Pitch Contest: Tim Miskche (Artisense), Rumi Djalil (UltraCelsius), Wilson Chan (Buyandship) and Slush Team Three founders who were pitching last year will share advice for startups who wish to go overseas, challenges, and opportunity running early stage startups. Tim Miksche runs Artisense Japan, a 3D mapping startup. Wilson Chan is CEO of buyandship, providing an affordable international shipping service. Rumi Djalil is the CEO of Ultracelsius, a company developing sustainable freezing technology. More about Tim Miksche, Wilson Chan, and Rumi Djalil. More about Tim  Miksche, Wilson Chan, and Rumi Djalil. Tim is Representative Director and CEO of Artisense Japan K.K. and Winner of the SLUSH Tokyo 2018 pitch contest. Artisense is a deep-tech computer vision and AI startup specializing in dynamic 3D mapping and localization for autonomous vehicles and robots. The research-based company was founded in Palo Alto, USA and is using its proprietary know-how to build a new mapping standard that will enhance human life. Holding off competition in three consecutive pitching rounds, Tim took home the main prize of ¥ 5.000.000 to kick-start the foundation of Artisense in Tokyo. Having lived, studied and worked on three continents, Tim is an open- minded and self-motivated entrepreneur. With 20+ years of professional experience in automotive, digitalization and innovation management, he likes to build bridges and to foster creative exchange on the multinational level. Before joining Artisense, Tim was leading digital innovation and AR/VR within Audi Design at the carmaker’s headquarters in Germany. In 2017, he founded transferNET, a business consultancy supporting startups in market entry and business growth. Tim is co-ambassador and active startup mentor at World Innovation Forum Japan. Most recently, he was also nominated as representative for Japan of the German Startup Association. Rumi Djalil is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ultracelsius, a company focusing on creating cold chain technology in Indonesia. The company has developed a freezing technology that can keep food content cold even after 4 days without any power which saves energy and is perfect for remote areas. He was one of the finalists of Slush 2018. He has aspirations that Ultracelsius technology could one day solve important energy problems. He holds a law degree from the University of Indonesia and a Master of International Business from The Fletcher School, Tufts University. He started his career as an Investment banker at Citi during the verge of the 2008 sub-prime crisis. After that, he spent time as a Consultant at McKinsey where he got exposure to various industries. He was also heavily involved in corporate restructuring during the transformation of Indonesian Railways. Co-founder and CEO of buyandship, an integrated marketing and logistics platform for cross-border e-commerce connecting the world to Asia. Previously worked in private equity and management consulting in Hong Kong and Japan. W&W ✕ Kizuna AI ✕ TheWaveVR -XR Music Video Special Premier- Supported by Avex Future of Music TheWaveVR is unveiling their first digital concert for Japan, created in collaboration with Avex. Watch the world premier of Wave's XR video for W&W's new song - “The Light” featuring Kizuna AI - as a preview for live W&W concert in TheWaveVR in April. Wave is an an online music festival that never sleeps, allowing fans to view, host, and socialize in interactive concerts at anytime, from anywhere. TheWaveVR is based in Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX; available on Steam, Oculus and PC desktop. Slush Tokyo Pitch Contest Winner Announcement and Closing Out of the hundred applicants and 40 companies who made the cut - here we will officially announce who will bring home the title of Slush Tokyo 2019 Pitch Contest Winner! Slush Tokyo 2019 Official Afterparty Annual Slush Tokyo Afterparty where you can loosen up, dance to some live music and meet other attendees!