Tomonori Nishina, head of the Silicon Valley office of KDDI Open Innovation Fund, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2026 Powerlist.
Tomonori Nishina is the head of the Silicon Valley office of the KDDI Open Innovation Fund (KOIF), the corporate VC unit of Japanese telecommunications group KDDI.
Nishina helps the unit invest out of its new ¥5bn ($34m) Fund V which is managed by Japanese VC firm Global Brain. He has played a pivotal role in connecting the US startup ecosystem with the Japanese market and KDDI’s business assets. His leadership has driven the fund’s access to top deals such as Groq or Bounce and accelerated partnership and investment decisions, substantially raising KDDI’s profile in the global startup landscape.
Since its inception in 2012, KDDI’s Innovation Funds have invested approximately $275m across more than 150 startups, including its most recent deals, such as Recho, a voice AI platform provider that closed its series A round with ¥300m.
Where earlier iterations of the fund leaned heavily into Japan-based innovation, Nishina has doubled down on cross-border deal flow, particularly in the US, including Resemble AI as one of the first investments from fund V. This reflects a broader recognition that the next generation of telecoms value, including AI-native services, edge computing and physical AI, is being defined outside Japan. KDDI’s response has been to embed itself within those ecosystems rather than import innovation after the fact.
Each deal, therefore, reflects a bet not on applications per se, but on infrastructure layers that could reshape how connectivity is provisioned, monetised and experienced.
What distinguishes KOIF today is not just where it invests, but how.
Nishina has emphasised collaboration with global VCs, with KDDI’s operating divisions and with other corporates. The fund increasingly acts as a conduit, bringing startups into KDDI’s commercial orbit via partnerships, pilots and distribution channels.
The strategic logic is clear. Telecoms operators face structural pressure on margins and growth. Owning optionality across adjacent innovation layers, such as identity, payments and decentralised connectivity, offers a path to relevance beyond core network services.
Against this backdrop, exploring new AI-era business opportunities through collaboration with leading Silicon Valley startups would be highly significant. KOIF under Nishina is effectively underwriting that option portfolio.
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:
