Former Zeon Ventures president Yoshi Kagawa will run corporate VC operations for the mining and metals group, which launched its second fund in December.
Japanese mining and materials processing group Mitsui Mining and Smelting has appointed Yoshi Kagawa to lead its corporate venture capital efforts as general manager.
Kagawa comes to the company – also known as Mitsui Kinzoku – after nearly four years as president of Zeon Ventures, the strategic investment arm chemicals producer Zeon. He has been succeeded as president by Kazuhiro Takahashi, formerly manager of Zeon’s Japanese R&D centre.
The move comes six months after Mitsui Mining and Smelting launched a ¥5bn ($33m) venture fund with VC fund manager SBI Investment, dubbed Mitsui Kinzoku-SBI Material Innovation Fund II, a successor to a ¥5bn formed in 2017.
The corporate has roughly a dozen startups in its portfolio. Recent investments include nano-coating technology developer Forge Nano and lithium extraction technology provider Summit Nanotech.
In addition to heading up CVC for the company, Kagawa has also been named CEO of American subsidiary Mitsui Kinzoku USA.
