Akira Minakuchi

Akira Minakuchi is a Japanese venture capitalist and operator who, in 2015, co-founded Kyulux, Inc. in Fukuoka alongside Chihaya Adachi (the Kyushu University professor behind the company's TADF/"Hyperfluorescence" OLED emitter technology) and Christopher Savoie. He serves as the company's Director and Chief Financial Officer, a role formally reaffirmed at Kyulux's January 2021 shareholder meeting. Kyulux develops and manufactures next-generation organic electroluminescence (OLED) emitter materials and has raised roughly $85.7M across multiple rounds from investors such as Samsung Venture Investment, LG Display, Japan Display, JOLED, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital and NAGASE.

Before Kyulux, Minakuchi built a long career as a professional investor. He served as President of Kyushu Venture Partners, where he managed an approximately ¥3 billion startup fund; his portfolio companies went on to a combined IPO market capitalization exceeding ¥100 billion. His broader work history also spans roles connected to GNI Group and Nippon Enterprise Development, giving him extensive investment and board experience across Silicon Valley, Asian and Japanese startups.

He holds a B.A. in Law from Meiji University. His stated skill set emphasizes due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and entrepreneurship/startup formation — reflecting a career spent bridging capital and early-stage technology companies. He is an active voice in Japan's regional startup ecosystem: at the JASVE Annual Academic Meeting 2017 ("Technology Startups and Regional Ecosystem"), he delivered a keynote on commercializing advanced research and joined a panel on developing regional high-tech clusters.

As an angel investor, Minakuchi combines an institutional VC track record with hands-on operating experience as a co-founder and CFO, which shapes both how he evaluates companies (finance and fundability) and where he looks (research-heavy, deep-tech ventures, especially in Kyushu).

• Stage: Seed / early stage — backing companies at or near formation, consistent with his co-founder and early-VC background.
• Sector: Deep tech and advanced materials — his own company, Kyulux, commercializes university OLED-materials research, and his VC track record centers on technology-driven ventures.
• Origin of companies: Strong affinity for university spinouts and "results of advanced research" being turned into businesses — the explicit theme of his 2017 JASVE keynote, "A Process for Starting Business utilizing Results of Advanced Researches."
• Geography: A regional-ecosystem thesis focused on Kyushu/Fukuoka and Japan, informed by cross-border exposure to Silicon Valley and Asia.
• What makes him say yes: Rigorous due diligence and a clear path to fundability and eventual exit — his Kyushu Venture Partners fund produced investees with 100B+ yen in aggregate IPO market cap, signaling a focus on companies that can scale to public-market outcomes.