Fundraising Fox

Koichiro Nakamura

Investor

Managing Director at Sozo Ventures

San Francisco Bay Area

Writes $100K – $5M checks · typically $1.5M

Midas 2025 · #53Midas 2024 · #45Midas 2023 · #55Midas 2022 · #63Midas 2021 · #72

About

Koichiro "Koh" Nakamura is a Founder and General Partner of Sozo Ventures who appeared on the 2021 Forbes Midas List for investments in Coinbase, Palantir, and Square. Before co-founding Sozo, he spent over 20 years building technology companies, was a member of the founding team of Yahoo Japan, and worked at Mitsubishi Corporation, where he created Japan's first Application Service Provider and founded Datastations (later acquired by ValueCommerce) and the Innovation Kitchen incubator. He holds a degree from Waseda University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a Kauffman Fellow (Class 12).

LinkedIn ↗Website ↗

Experience

  1. Sozo VenturesManaging Director & Co-Foundercurrent2012 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
  2. Kauffman FellowsKauffman Fellowcurrent2005 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
  3. Mitsubishi CorporationCOO - Innovation Kitchen Incubator2007 — 2011Tokyo, Japan
  4. Mitsubishi CorporationManager1997 — 2007Tokyo, Japan
  5. Yahoo! JAPANFounding Team1996 — 1997Tokyo, Japan

Education

  1. The University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessMaster of Business Administration - MBA
  2. Waseda UniversityBachelor's degree, Law

Skills & more

Investments1Portfolio ManagementBusiness StrategyInternational Expansion

From Koichiro's professional profile.

Same school

Also attended The University of Chicago Booth School of Business431

Prashant ShahPartner at Monta Vista CapitalNoorPartner at Clear VenturesTinaInvestments & Portfolio Services Team Member at Clear VenturesBill PescatelloInvestor at LightbankGlebFounder and Managing Partner at iTech CapitalRavi RajamonyVice President at March Capital Partners

+ 425 more

Also attended Waseda University47

Kaz TeradaVenture Advisor at Monta Vista CapitalAyaka MatsumotoCorporate Development Manager at TNBAuraShanti BergelManaging Director at TRANSCENDNatsuki TamuraInvestor at Inception Studio CapitalKosho SatoInvestment Partner at Joyance PartnersYuichiro SanoPrincipal at Beyond Next Ventures

+ 41 more

Shared employers

Also worked at Kauffman Fellows360

Jenny LeeSenior Managing Partner at Granite AsiaTobi CokerDeal Partner at Felicis VenturesRoi Bar-KatManaging Director at Intel CapitalAvi BharadwajInvestment Director at Intel CapitalNick WashburnSenior Managing Director, Intel Capital (North America)Vinnie LauriaFounding Partner at Golden Gate Ventures

+ 354 more

Also worked at Mitsubishi Corporation9

Ray HatoyamaVenture Partner at Sozo VenturesDovi FrancesFounding Partner at Group 11Teppei TsutsuiGeneral Partner at GFR FundShunsuke (Shawn) HasegawaPartner at ON&BOARDSamanta McGovernExecutive Assistant at Blumberg CapitalYohei HosokawaInvestment Associate at AP Ventures

+ 3 more

Also worked at Yahoo! JAPAN5

Taro KodamaVenture Partner at Fresco CapitalMasaki YudaPartner at Z Venture CapitalGeorge KellermanGeneral Partner at Yamaha Motor VenturesKohei OkuboPrincipal at Z Venture CapitalShinichiro HoriInvestor at Z Venture Capital

Deals · 1

SquareLed round

via Sozo Ventures

Attribution from SEC filings, press coverage, and firm rosters.

Colleagues at Sozo Ventures

Aantorik Ganguly
Associate at Sozo Ventures
Alaina N. Watts
Assistant Controller at Sozo Ventures
Bob Roe
VP, Narrative Development at Sozo Ventures
Clay Gary
Venture Partner at Sozo Ventures
Edwin Ong
Chief of Staff at Sozo Ventures
Elena Winefeld
CFO at Sozo Ventures
Hiroki Matsuda
Managing Director at Sozo Ventures
Janhavi Sawant
Accountant at Sozo Ventures

Network1

Tetsu Nomura
Principal at Sozo Ventures

Investors connected to Koichiro in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.