Soichi Tajima, president and CEO of CyberAgent Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based CyberAgent, has led a team investing in more than 100 companies in Japan, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Korea over the past decade.
To support such investment rates, CyberAgent Ventures manages regional funds, including those dedicated to Japan (the ¥5bn CA Startups Internet Fund 2), China (the $19m CA JAIC China Internet Fund II), Korea (the $5m CA Korea Fund 1) and Southeast Asia (the $20.1m CA Asia Internet Fund I).
Deals this year include Kyna, Medical Departures, GetLinks and StockRadars.
Tajima in his corporate message described his approach as existential, to impact next-generation internet businesses in Asia. He said: “Our investment policy is not simply to provide funds and to seek a return on the investment.
“We aggressively help maximise the value of outstanding and emerging internet services. We provide expertise on service planning and operations as well as hands-on management assistance based on our business experience in a wide range of internet services that we have been engaged in.
“We also support global deployment based on our overseas offices located mainly in Asia, where substantial mid – and long-term economic growth is expected in the future.”
Tajima joined CyberAgent Ventures in April 2006 as a director, following nearly eight years work at financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
He took over as CEO of CyberAgent Ventures in mid-2010 and in his AngelList profile said he had floated seven of his portfolio companies Japan’s Mothers stock exchange, and sold one, Unoh, to Zynga Game Networks.