Fresco Capital

Heyu Huang is a Partner at Fresco Capital, working across investment and operations globally with a focus on ventures connecting data and humanity in sustainable cities, creator economy, and holistic wellness. She was previously an early team member of Airbnb China, handling cross-functional business strategy and local operations across the San Francisco, China, and Singapore offices. She holds a Master of Applied Economics from the National University of Singapore and was a founding class member of the Minerva Project, where she studied finance and computational science.

Stephen Forte is a Managing Partner at Fresco Capital. He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer of Telerik, where he oversaw international expansion, partnerships, and corporate development until its acquisition by Progress Software in 2014, and founded the Mach5 accelerator in Silicon Valley, AcceleratorHK in Hong Kong, and the Vatican's Laudato Si' Challenge Accelerator. He co-founded several startups including Chassis Finder, Triton Works, Corzen, and The Aurora Development Group, was the first CTO of Zagat Survey, and holds an MBA from the City University of New York with postgraduate work at LSE.

Tytus Michalski is a Managing Partner of Fresco Capital. He previously served as Chief Investment Officer of Equities at PMA Investment Advisors, an Asia Pacific hedge fund he co-founded in 2002, and earlier worked in equity investment at HSBC Asset Management across Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and London. He holds a Finance degree with Honours from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

Venture partner involved in investment and operations with specific focus on the Middle East and North Africa.

Devendra Deshmukh co-founded e-Zest, a global IT services company established in 2000 that focuses on product engineering for startups and ISVs and digital transformation for enterprises, where he serves as CEO overseeing strategy, alliances, and business development. He holds an engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from Amravati University and an MBA specializing in Information Systems from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (Mumbai University), and is a certified Gemba Kaizen expert from JMAM (Japan). He mentors entrepreneurs and startups and is a charter member of the TiE Pune Chapter and a committee member for the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

Eriko Suzuki is a Venture Partner at Fresco Capital based in Tokyo. She began her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and UBS after graduating cum laude from McGill University, later establishing the Japan office of a Silicon Valley drone startup in 2015 and serving as a Director at the impact-focused venture capital firm Mistletoe Inc. since 2016. She founded Future Females Japan and authored a book published in 2018.

Joel Semeniuk is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Imaginet, a Canadian Microsoft Gold Partner. He holds a degree in Computer Science, serves as a Corporate Microsoft Regional Director, and was previously a Microsoft Most Valued Professional in Application Lifecycle Management and Software Architecture. He has co-authored four books and numerous articles, helped found several startups across software, transportation, and healthcare, and advises companies on innovation strategy drawing on Customer Development, Lean Thinking, and Growth Hacking.

Sandra Miller is CEO of Runway Innovation Hub, a San Francisco workspace and innovation-services organization serving startups and corporates. She co-founded Stanford University's Biodesign Program, led Accenture's Open Innovation initiatives, served as the first Managing Director of the Singularity University startup accelerator, co-founded the Kauffman Foundation's Labs for Enterprise Creation accelerator, and was Managing Director of The Angels' Forum (now Mighty Capital). Her work focuses on connecting B2B startups with enterprise partners and advising entrepreneurs across many sectors.

Sandy Hill is a Venture Partner at Fresco Capital working at the intersection of culture and technology. Their background spans pixel art, AI tools including generative adversarial networks, and later blockchain and crypto, including research on digital asset trading velocity. Sandy is part of and supports the bitGAN community.

Taro Kodama began his career at Yahoo Japan Corp. in 1999, working on its social media businesses and partnerships, before joining Facebook in 2010 as its first Japan Country Manager, where he led platform localization, user growth, and corporate partnerships. In 2015 he founded Anchorstar, a platform and network connecting Japan to international sources of innovation, where he is Founder and CEO. He also serves as Country Manager for Kickstarter Japan.

Venture partner involved in investment operations with specific focus on digital health and health tech.

Abhishek Kant is a techno-marketing professional with 15 years of experience in IT services and products, with expertise in software development tools for scalable web and mobile platforms. He began his career in pre-sales at TechMahindra, then led Microsoft's community marketing for South Asia, and serves as Country Head managing Telerik's growth in India. He holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Panjab University, Chandigarh (1999) and an MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai (2001), and is a Certified Scrum Master, Standards Professional, and Microsoft Certified Application Developer.

Akira Hirata is Global Alliance Officer at Zoshinkai Holdings Inc. (Z-kai), a large Japanese education company, where he handles international partnerships, investments, and go-to-market strategies. He previously served as Managing Director of Triple Junction Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-based market entry advisory firm, and earlier worked in the M&A team at Dresdner Kleinwort in Tokyo covering sectors including retail, financial institutions, and energy. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the College of William and Mary and a BA in Business and Commerce from Keio University.

Allison Baum is a General Partner at SemperVirens, an early-stage fund focused on workplace, healthcare, and financial technology companies that sell to and through employers. She previously worked as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, was an early employee at General Assembly, co-founded Fresco Capital, and invested at Trinity Ventures. She holds a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Film Studies from Harvard University and has lived and worked in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

Director of Strategy at Anchorstar, supporting startups and organizations in entering and expanding in the Japanese market.

Angela Lee is an educator, investor, and entrepreneur who founded 37 Angels, a network that invests in early-stage startups and trains women to become angel investors. She serves as Assistant Dean of Teaching Excellence at Columbia Business School, where she teaches leadership, innovation, and strategy, and has prior experience in product development and innovation consulting as well as founding several companies. She holds a BA in Economics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Angie Lau is the founder of Narramur, a communications firm focused on narrative and technology, and co-founder and Head of Forkast.News, a digital news network covering blockchain and cryptocurrency. A former lead anchor at Bloomberg Television with over 20 years in journalism, she advises technology companies across the U.S. and Asia. She has advised organizations including the Li Ka Shing Foundation, Horizons Ventures, Driver, Antler, and Lane Crawford, and speaks on leadership, communications, and business.

Ari Horie founded and leads Women's Startup Lab, a Silicon Valley accelerator focused on supporting female-led startups through leadership development, networking, and innovation, drawing on the Japanese concept of Hito. She has received recognition including Silicon Valley Business Journal's "Women of Influence in Silicon Valley" (2015), CNN's 10 Visionary Women of 2014, and "40 over 40" Women to Watch (2015).

Digital media and e-commerce CTO, software developer, startup founder, technology consultant, and board advisor with angel investing experience.

Co-founder and executive director of FTA, an international architecture design firm with over 700 hi-tech projects across China, and active promoter of responsible building design standards.

David Eaves teaches digital transformation in government at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has advised local, provincial, and national governments on technology and open data policy, including the Office of the Mayor of Vancouver, the Canadian government, and Ontario's Open Government Engagement Team, and served as the first Director of Education for Code for America. With a negotiation background, he has advised non-profits and open source communities such as Drupal and Mozilla, and acted as a negotiation adviser during talks that led to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement.

David Kedwards is Managing Director of Pearson's English Direct Delivery Business, overseeing operations across multiple countries including Wall Street English – China. He joined Wall Street English as CEO in 2001 and grew the business from US$1m to US$200m by 2010, opening 60 learning centers in China and leading capital events with Carlyle (2006) and Pearson (2009). His background is largely in education, including founding and running children's nursery schools and learning centres in the UK and USA, and he holds an MBA in International Marketing, a BA in Politics and Economics, and a Diploma in Marketing Management.

Cory Kidd is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a patient care management company whose platform combines psychology and artificial intelligence to engage patients through mobile, web, and interactive robotic interfaces. He has worked in healthcare technology for nearly two decades. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in human-robot interaction at the MIT Media Lab.

Co-founder and advisor of Peatix.com, Japan's leading community event management platform, advocating for transformation in education toward creativity and deep learning.

Ian McFarland is an entrepreneur and technologist currently serving as CTO at Fruit Street Health, a telehealth company focused on diabetes prevention. His earlier career includes early web work at Wired Magazine's HotWired launch team, roles as Chief Architect at Friendster and VP of Technology at Pivotal Labs, and founding Neo Innovation. He co-founded Pear Therapeutics as CTO and later General Manager, where he led development of the first FDA-cleared Software as a Medical Device to treat disease.

Award-winning journalist and entrepreneur who co-founded and led News Deeply in 2012, a network of digital media platforms engaging stakeholders on global challenges.

Michele Li cofounded Talent Distillery, which works with leaders to build talent organizations, drawing on her decade of experience with early-stage and high-growth startups to advise founders and CEOs on attracting, developing, and retaining talent. She earned a BA in Economics and History from UC Berkeley and studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Fudan University in Shanghai. She focuses on talent-related work and exploring startup ecosystems across different geographies.

Human-centered innovation expert with 10+ years of experience and background in industrial design and design research, running a design consultancy in China.

Pascal Finette leads the startup initiatives at Singularity University, working with startups applying exponential technologies to major global problems. His earlier career includes founding technology startups, running eBay's Platform Solutions Group in Europe, running a consulting firm for entrepreneurs, leading Mozilla's Innovation Lab and its WebFWD accelerator, and investing in social impact organizations at Google.org. He has also founded several non-profit organizations and publishes The Heretic newsletter.

Co-founder of Main Hub, a co-working and incubation space in Lisbon, and co-founder of the IoT Portuguese Community.

Rachel Chan has worked across the private, public, and non-profit sectors, including roles in the Hong Kong government as a policy maker, a marketer at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and a senior consultant at the Hong Kong Design Centre. In 2007 she founded InnoFoco, a brand, design, and innovation consultancy, and she co-founded the non-profit programme Make a Difference. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong and was a Sloan Fellow at the London Business School.

Veteran of over 20 years in enterprise IT projects, programming, and software development methods, and co-founder of Knowledge21.

Remi Caron is an IT consultant with over 20 years of experience in technical leadership and business development, and holds an MBA in Business & IT. He has combined corporate roles with startup work, mentoring startups and taking part in incubators and accelerators in Hong Kong, Rome, San Francisco, and Amsterdam. He currently serves as Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at FastTrackCompany.com.

Sam Lee has more than 20 years of experience building businesses in the life sciences and chemicals sectors. He has overseen U.S. investments for a corporate venture arm focused on early-stage health tech, launched an electronic chemicals company in Asia for a family office, and helped a cardiologist develop a business plan and raise Series A financing. Earlier roles included senior director of early-stage drug discovery at a biotech company and research scientist at DuPont, and he holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Toronto.

Managing Director of SIGMAXYZ, leveraging expertise in consulting, digital transformation, and investment to support startups and enterprises in business creation.

Sophie Yifan Chan is a partner at JMDedu, a China-based edtech media and community platform, where she leads international partnerships and identifies edtech startups globally. She previously worked at New Oriental Education Group and Roland Berger Consultancy, and co-founded Seahire.me, a career marketplace for overseas students. She holds a master's degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education and has worked as an education specialist on rural education in Pakistan.

Steve Denning is an author of eight books on management, leadership, and storytelling, and has written more than 600 articles for a Forbes.com column covering radical management, innovation, and leadership storytelling. He previously served as Program Director for Knowledge Management at the World Bank from 1996 to 2000, and advises organizations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia on leadership, management, innovation, and business narrative. He sits on the board of the Scrum Alliance and leads its Learning Consortium for the Creative Economy.

Taru is a director of LEO Science & Tech Hub Japan/Korea, the external innovation arm of pharmaceutical company LEO Pharma. He began his career as an academic scientist with research roles at RIKEN, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, and Mie University Graduate School of Medicine before moving into the pharmaceutical industry at Bayer, where he worked in open innovation and specialized in cancer research and precision medicine. He holds B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in pharmaceutical sciences from Hokkaido University and is a licensed pharmacist.

Thomas Arend launched his own venture in 2014 after advising and mentoring numerous international startups. He previously led international product efforts at Airbnb and Twitter, headed mobile at Mozilla (launching Firefox on Android), worked on global products at Google, and held roles at SAP and IBM Research, later leading product teams at Facebook focused on next-billion users and AI-driven innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Technical University Berlin and works as a keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor, including as an executive product advisor to Singularity University.

Viresh Bhatia co-founded InstallShield Software Corporation and served as its founding CEO, growing it into a provider of software development tools for the PC platform before it was sold to the publicly traded company Macrovision. He has since focused on mentoring software technology entrepreneurs and has served on the boards of several software technology companies. He co-founded the Midwest chapter of TiE and served as its president, and has received recognition including Ernst & Young's Software Entrepreneur of the Year and Crain's Forty Under Forty.

Veteran technology entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Animoca Brands in 2014 out of his earlier company Outblaze. An early blockchain advocate, he has led the firm's expansion across gaming, RWA tokenization, and agentic AI.