Kenyu (Ken) Sobajima, senior director of investments at Japan-based telecoms operator KDDI and its Open Innovation Fund, has left to set up Tomorrow Access.
Sobajima, a GCV Emerging Leaders 2021 award winner, had worked at KDDI for 25 years and for its corporate venturing unit since 2014. Following his relocation from Japan to the US in 2015, his deals had included Swift Navigation, Mojo Vision, Secret Double Octopus, Mad Street Den, Allganize, Jibo, August Home, Monohm, Ossia, Pogoseat, Issuu, Edmodo and VentureBeat.
KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture capital (CVC) vehicle for Japan-headquartered telecommunications firm KDDI that is jointly run by venture capital firm Global Brain (GB).
KDDI Open Innovation Fund was launched in 2012 with two initial capital of $50m each, and it expanded again in April 2018 with a third fund of roughly $200m. In 2019, KDDI and GB formed KDDI Regional Initiatives Fund, which invests in local companies in Japan to promote regional economic revitalisation.
