Atsushi Suzuki, director, ventures and partnerships at Nikon Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2026.
Launching Nikon’s first US-based fund – and completing its first investment – is the defining achievement of Atsushi Suzuki’s past year. As a member of Nikon Ventures, Suzuki played a central role in establishing the $50m NFocus Fund, a joint initiative with Geodesic Capital.
Bringing the fund from concept to execution required extensive cross-functional collaboration and persistence, making its successful launch in August 2024 a milestone both for Suzuki and for Nikon’s strategy. With a 10-12 year investing period, the fund will focus on mid-stage startups mainly in the US, but also globally.
Suzuki enjoys working directly with startup founders. Engaging with entrepreneurs at the forefront of technology, he says, is energising and instructive. Nikon’s global brand opens doors to high-quality conversations with founders working on technologies in optics, sensing, AI, robotics, healthcare, computational imaging and industrial AI.
“Stay curious. The startup environment changes quickly and you will constantly encounter things you do not know. Maintaining a willingness to learn and explore is essential.”
The challenges of the role have included navigating differences in business culture, tax filing rules, timelines and internal policy changes at the Japanese parent company. Suzuki works on maintaining deep and current knowledge across Nikon’s diverse portfolio of businesses and technologies. Staying informed, adaptable and strategically aligned is a constant demand.
For those starting their CVC journey, Suzuki says: “Stay curious. The startup environment changes quickly and you will constantly encounter things you do not know. Maintaining a willingness to learn and explore is essential.”
Suzuki’s path to corporate venturing began in optical engineering, designing lenses for Nikon’s digital cameras. After moving to New York in 2017 as a technical liaison for Nikon’s imaging business, he gained first-hand exposure to the US open innovation market. That experience, combined with more than three years focused on CVC, made him a natural bridge between Nikon’s Japanese headquarters, its global business units and startups in North America.
The Rising Stars are early-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2026 here.
