Miyako Capital

Miyako Capital

Miyako Capital launched in September 2013 as an independent venture capital firm, spearheaded by founder Satoshi Yamaguchi alongside partners Hiroyuki Misawa and Tsunesaburo Sugaya. Its model is built on a formalized collaboration with Kyoto University, co-managing a series of university-linked venture funds. The firm does not manage a family's wealth; it operates a multi-fund platform drawing institutional limited partners into Japan's university-originated technology pipeline. The strategy spans seed through late-stage, with heavy concentration at seed and early-stage. Its three sequential funds — Miyako-Kyodai Innovation Fund I (JPY 73.3 billion, 2015), Fund II (JPY 142.1 billion, 2019), and Fund III (JPY 93.6 billion, 2023) — target six broad technology domains: life sciences and biotech, IT and electronics (including AI and IoT), agri-food, environment and energy, chemicals and materials, and mobility. The firm operates from three offices: its headquarters inside Kyoto University's International Science Innovation Building, a Tokyo office in Azabudai Hills, and a Silicon Valley outpost on West San Carlos Street in San Jose. General Partner Tsunesaburo Sugaya, the former CEO of JAFCO USA, leads the US-based global expansion support. Portfolio companies gain post-investment access to Kyoto University labs and researchers even if the startup's original technology came from outside the university. Total disclosed commitments reach JPY 309 billion. The team is led by four general partners: Yamaguchi, a 30-year venture veteran who directed over JPY 1 trillion in funds at JAFCO; Misawa, a former academic researcher who won the Japan Venture Awards 2020 VC of Encouragement prize for life-science investing; Sugaya, who rebuilt JAFCO's US arm into a top-25 firm and was named a Top 100 global venture capitalist by AlwaysOn in 2013; and He Rui, a cross-border specialist with deal experience spanning Japan, China, and the US. Miyako Capital also runs a harassment reporting and consultation counter jointly with outside counsel at Hibiya Ave. Law Office, disclosed in March 2025, as part of a public anti-harassment stance unusual for a Japanese venture firm. Miyako Capital's structural edge lies in its exclusive, long-term fund partnership with a single top-tier research university. Unlike a standard VC that screens broadly, it operates a captive origination channel inside Kyoto University — one of Japan's densest clusters of Nobel laureates and patent filings. The firm combines that privileged deal flow with a direct Silicon Valley presence and hands-on company-building support from a partnership with deep cross-border operating history.