Hidehiro Yamaki, head at Sumisho Venture Partners, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2026 Powerlist.
Sumitomo Corporation established Sumisho Venture Partners in Tokyo in 2022 under the leadership of Hidehiro Yamaki, creating the fifth regional base in its global venturing network. It is a substantial remit.
The company had already built a long track record in corporate venture capital through Doug Kuribayashi’s Presidio Ventures in Silicon Valley, launched in 1998 and responsible for investments in around 300 startups over more than two decades. This was followed by Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia in China and Southeast Asia in 2002, IN Venture in Israel in 2019 under Eitan Naor and Eyal Rosner, and Presidio Europe in the UK in 2021 led by Kunihito Kawase.
As one of Japan’s major sogo shosha — diversified trading houses spanning metals, transportation, media, real estate and more — Sumitomo has long used its balance sheet to acquire, build and divest businesses. Its insurance operations now sit under MS&AD, a separate company, but the corporation continues to operate across a vast industrial footprint.
Yamaki is well suited to navigating this complexity. Before entering venture capital, he spent 12 years at rival sogo shosha Mitsubishi. His VC career began at the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) in 2013, after which he joined Sumitomo in 2019, becoming investment development team leader in the new business investment department before launching SVP.
Last year, Yamaki expanded his team, bringing in director Yasuaki Taniguchi — a former INCJ colleague — hiring Hideya Takatsu from Mixi’s CVC unit and promoting Yugo Saeki. The strengthened team has not slowed dealmaking. SVP backed Fager and Rocketlink Technologies in Japan over the past year, while Presidio Ventures invested in Phoenix Tailings and Realm Security.
Sectorally, the portfolio reflects Sumitomo’s capital expenditure priorities: decarbonisation, next‑generation mobility, industrial digitisation and resilient supply chains. The group’s distinctive advantage lies not only in capital but in its commercialisation capabilities — project finance, distribution networks and market‑entry support. For founders, this can be the difference between a promising pilot and meaningful scale.
Under Yamaki, SVP is becoming a more integrated part of Sumitomo’s global innovation engine, aligning venture investment with the corporation’s long‑term industrial ambitions while giving startups access to one of Japan’s most powerful commercial platforms.
The GCV Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
Here’s a snapshot of their recent deals:
