AAA Ideo designs investment firm

Ideo designs investment firm

US-based design agency Ideo has partnered Japan-based VC firm Genuine Startups to establish a joint venture capital firm named D4V, The Bridge wrote today.

D4V will be located in Tokyo and headed by founding partners Tom Kelly, partner at Ideo and Kenichi Nonomura, director of Ideo Tokyo, as well as Makoto Takano, Kengo Ito and Mamoru Taniya from Genuine Startups.

Nobuyuki Idei, former president of entertainment company Sony, and Masi Oka, angel investor and TV actor, will serve as executive advisors.

Ideo Tokyo will own a 40% in D4V, with the remainder held by Genuine Startups, which had been raising a second fund since last year that will now be merged into D4V. The partners are hoping to receive up to $50m in funding by March 2017, with potential further capital raised form US-based investors.

Genuine Startups will source deals, while Ideo will offer its expertise about design thinking and venture design to portfolio companies. D4V will not focus solely on the design sector, but it will focus on early-stage Japanese startups that have the potential for global expansion.

Kelly said: “Steve Jobs met up with Steve Wozniak, and then they founded Apple. Prior to Apple, Wozniak was previously working at Hewlett Packard but he was digged up by Jobs. In Japan, I think many people like Wozniak are living and working in obscurity. I want to dig them up and nourish them.”

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