Yan Yan, investment associate at TDK Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2026.
Last year marked a big inflection point for Yan Yan, who has spent the past few years of her career at TDK Ventures engaged in investments in the climate tech space.
Her focus has shifted to photonics, the science of generating, controlling and manipulating light for practical applications. It is a complicated industry that required her to do a deep dive into the sector to understand its specific terminology and market dynamics. But her tenacity ultimately led to an investment in a startup producing data centre chips for network infrastructure. The experience reinforced the importance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone to follow new technology trends.
Yan first encountered TDK Ventures while at her previous role at a small consulting firm where she worked with startups and federal agencies. There, she supported a company searching for a strategic investor in the grid electronics sector. That search led her to TDK Ventures, which was recruiting analysts at the time. She found that many members of the investment team had similar technical backgrounds, closely aligning with her own experience and interests and ultimately prompting her transition.
“The greatest challenge is learning how to process missed investment opportunities. Yan views these moments as essential feedback that sharpen pattern recognition and decision-making.”
Yan is energised by the constant learning she has in her role. No two days – or technologies – are the same. She appreciates the opportunity to research new technical domains as they approach inflection points.
She is especially motivated by her interactions with founders who possess deep conviction and long-term vision. The greatest challenge, she says, is learning how to process missed investment opportunities. Yan views these moments as essential feedback that sharpen pattern recognition and decision-making.
TDK Ventures is the CVC arm of TDK Corporation, a Japanese multinational electronics company. The unit has $500m in assets under management and almost 50 portfolio companies across four funds. The preferred investment stage is between seed and series B.
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.
