AICxSozo Ventures: The Current State of Venture Capital in Silicon Valley

【Summary】

On September 28, 2023, Sozo Ventures and Keio AIC collaborated to host a lecture titled “The Current State of Venture Capital in Silicon Valley.”

The recent rapid development of AI has led to the remarkable rise of AI-based startups. We invited Sozo Ventures, a VC (venture capital) firm familiar with the situation in Silicon Valley, the center of such IT startups, to give a lecture. It was an in-person event held at the Shin-Marunouchi Building where Sozo Ventures is based, and was attended by 26 students.

【Program Rundown】

Let’s visit the Shin-Marunouchi Building!
Thanks to the cooperation of Mitsubishi Estate, we were able to tour the EGG facility in the Shin-Marunouchi Building, where Sozo Ventures has its offices!

【Conversation with Two Representatives of Sozo Ventures】

Phil Wickham and Koichiro Nakamura, co-founders of Sozo Ventures, delivered a lecture in which they spoke on the general misconceptions and prevailing view about VCs, the impact VCs has had on innovation, as well as recent VC success stories, among other topics.

【Ice Cream Tasting Session】

We had the opportunity to sample ice cream from Eclipse, one of Sozo Ventures’ portfolio companies.
Eclipse is a Silicon Valley-based food tech company that uses new technology to produce plant-based milk. It is a novel ice cream ingredient that is scheduled to make its first appearance in Japan around next spring. It was so delicious, and you would not be able to tell the difference from conventional ice cream by its texture. We are eagerly looking forward to its launch next year!

【Round-table Discussion】

After the lecture, each student had a chance to interact directly with Sozo Ventures employees in the form of a round-table discussion.

“I went to Silicon Valley for training just last week, so I was able to talk in detail about VC and entrepreneurship based on that experience. I also appreciated the opportunity to speak directly with Mr. Nakamura.”
“There was a wide variety of content, and I learned a lot.”
“I found all the topics very meaningful, from the misconceptions about VC, to the difference in values between Japan and other countries. The ice cream tasting session and the round-table discussion were also very interesting. It was a truly invaluable experience.”
“The course was interesting, and the individual Q&A sessions afterwards provided some interesting insights!”

【Acknowledgements】

We would like to thank the employees of Sozo Ventures for their tremendous support.

Keio AIC Representative, Faculty and Administrative Office
Takahiro Yakoh, Mari Kobayashi, Fumio Kohno

Student Administrators
Yuna Ichikawa, Takeru Kaji, Shunpei Hatanaka