TEL Venture Capital (TVC), the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based semiconductor and display equipment maker Tokyo Electron (TEL), appointed Keiichi ”Kay” Enjoji, as president in July 2011 and last year was a “great year”, he said.
In 2016, TVC made four strategic investments, including one follow-up, with disclosed deals such as Nantero in the US and Tsukuba-Seiko in Japan.
Enjoji manages a team of 13 in the US, Japan, France and Israel making strategic investments for TEL. Its 22 investments, such as Alberta Nano-Monitoring Systems, Particle-Monitoring Technologies and OPT Creation, cover a range of innovative technologies from those impacting TEL’s core semiconductor and advanced display, to photonics and optics, sensors, and life sciences, healthcare and medical electronics. TVC has had seven exits out of those 22 deals, while Enjoji is on the boards of Tsukuba-Seiko, ANMS, PML, Opt Creation, Liola, Crystal Solar, SBA, Q14 and an unnamed company.
Enjoji has a wider remit as a head of the innovative technology planning group to manage collaborations with startups. All its investments are expected to lead to joint business development projects, and as well as its four deals, Enjoji said two new products were also released.
He was previously a director of TEL’s microelectromechanical systems division, and has worked within the Japanese corporation for more than 25 years. Enjoji received an economics degree from Keio University.