Erin Keller is an associate at Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley (YMVSV), Japan-headquartered electronics and automotive manufacturer Yamaha’s corporate venture capital subsidiary which invests in robotics, artificial intelligence, advanced mobility, agriculture automation and other strategically significant verticals. She joined the US-based unit in early 2017, two years after its establishment.
As part of the investing team, Keller sources deals and conducts diligence, and has developed a medtech investment thesis. Hiroshi Saijou, chief executive and managing director of the unit, said Keller had also proposed and implemented the use of Navatar, a deal-tracking tool, to maximise the unit’s performance.
Keller’s group oversees white-space business development by working on several innovation projects. For instance, she evaluates opportunities for a medical robotics technology which has applications in areas such as personalised medicine and drug discovery.
Saijou said Keller had also managed an important financing round that YMVSV led for an undisclosed company in the medtech space in the last quarter of 2018.
Keller said: “I am proud of this one because it is our first in medtech and I played a major role in due diligence, getting to know the company, pitching it to our team, and even trying out the prototypes.”
Before this, Keller had been involved in tasks related to startups for more than five years. She worked for the Innovation Factory, an incubator for venture-backed medical device startups.
