Global Brain

Yasuhiko Yurimoto founded the firm in 1998 and serves as CEO, holding final authority on fund strategy and key investment committee decisions. The partnership includes Naoki Kamimeguri as CFO and investment partners based in Tokyo, Seoul, San Francisco, and London who lead sourcing and diligence within their respective regions. The structure is partnership-driven with regional autonomy for early-stage decisions and firm-wide IC review for growth-stage commitments.

Global Brain's corporate LP base — which has included KDDI, Mitsui Fudosan, and other Japanese industrials — functions as a proprietary sourcing channel. Portfolio companies frequently emerge from the R&D labs, supplier networks, and strategic priorities of those corporate partners. The firm also runs corporate venture programs where it scouts startups on behalf of specific corporate partners, generating deal flow that competing financial-only VCs rarely see in Japan or Korea.

Global Brain operates both. The firm manages its own flagship venture funds investing across seed to growth stages, while simultaneously running dedicated corporate venture capital vehicles — most notably the KDDI Open Innovation Fund — where a single corporate LP provides the capital and Global Brain executes the investment strategy. This dual structure is core to its identity and gives portfolio companies access to corporate distribution and R&D partnerships.

Yes. Global Brain maintains active offices in Seoul, San Francisco, and London, with portfolio exposure split across Japan, Korea, the United States, and Europe. The firm has invested in US-headquartered companies like SmartNews (which has major Japanese operations) and Chinese-founded but globally operating companies like warehouse robotics firm Geek+. Cross-border execution is a stated differentiator.

The firm is stage-agnostic in its venture practice, writing initial checks from seed rounds of under $500,000 up to growth-stage investments of $10 million or more. Its flagship funds maintain reserve capital for follow-on investments, and the corporate venture vehicles often participate alongside the main funds at multiple stages. This allows continuity from a company's earliest institutional round through later private growth rounds.

The firm does not publicly maintain an exclusion list, but its investment history shows no participation in sectors such as weapons manufacturing, gambling, tobacco, or extractive fossil fuel industries. Its focus remains on technology sectors where its corporate strategic partners — telecommunications, real estate, industrial automation, and consumer technology — have operational alignment.

The firm operates as an independent venture capital manager, not a captive unit of any single corporation. Its corporate partners are limited partners in its funds and participants in dedicated CVC programs, but Global Brain retains full investment discretion and operates its own partnership governance. This independence distinguishes it from in-house corporate venture arms and is designed to avoid conflicts when portfolio companies engage with multiple strategic partners.