Miraise Adds Ex-SmartNews Executive Yuichi Kawasaki as Growth Advisor

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TLDR

  • Miraise, a seed VC that invests in engineer-founders, has appointed angel investor Yuichi Kawasaki as Growth Architect to strengthen portfolio mentoring.

Key Takeaways

  • Kawasaki sold his own startup to Mixi, then as COO grew Mixi’s market cap from ¥16B to ¥500B during its corporate turnaround.
  • At SmartNews from 2014, he built the ads business from zero to revenue in four months; the company later reached unicorn status.
  • Earlier in his career, Kawasaki co-founded the ad business at Hatena from scratch; Hatena subsequently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on that model.
  • In his new role, Kawasaki will contribute via regular study sessions and one-on-one mentoring for Miraise portfolio companies.
  • Miraise CEO Shinichi Iwata and Kawasaki have known each other for roughly 20 years, reconnecting when Iwata was an Atomico investor in SmartNews.

Why It Matters

  • Miraise has backed 56 companies since its 2018 founding and focuses on seed-stage engineer-founders where risk capital is relatively scarce in Japan.
  • Adding an operator with two proven zero-to-revenue builds (Hatena ads, SmartNews ads) and one turnaround (Mixi) gives portfolio founders a rare operational playbook.
  • The appointment signals that Miraise is investing in post-investment support infrastructure, not just check-writing, to differentiate its seed platform.

Miraise (合同会社Miraise) via PR TIMES · 2024-05-21 · Read on PR TIMES

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