US-headquartered enterprise software producer Salesforce has hired Takuya Hosomura as a Japan-based principal for its corporate venturing unit, Salesforce Ventures.
Hosomura was previously at e-commerce firm Rakuten where he had spent nearly six years. The company had hired him for its marketing division in 2014 and he joined investment subsidiary Rakuten Capital two years later.
His senior manager role at Rakuten Capital from 2017 involved Hosomura investing in startups and building strategic partnerships between portfolio companies and the unit’s parent. It backed companies including Glovo, PremFina, Maxi Mobility and Simplesurance during his time there.
Hosomura also supported seed-stage startups through Rakuten’s Singapore-based accelerator scheme, Rakuten Accelerator, Powered by Techstars, which was formed in 2017. One of its graduates, customer data management platform Shoffr, was acquired by peer Affle in March 2019, enabling Rakuten to exit.
Rakuten Capital did not name a successor, and Hosomura has not responded to a request for comment concerning his new position at Salesforce Ventures.
Photo of Takuya Hosomura courtesy of LinkedIn.
