Curtis Freeze

Curtis Rudolf Freeze is the founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Prospect Asset Management, Inc. (PAMI), a Japan-focused investment firm he established in 1994. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii with operations in Tokyo since inception, the firm built a reputation for identifying Japanese companies offering long-term capital growth for both Japanese and global investors. Freeze earned a BA in economics from the University of Utah (1984) and an MBA from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (1987), where he was later named a 2014 Hall of Honor inductee for his career achievements and support of the college.

A New Yorker and former missionary — his time in Japan as a young missionary gave him the language and cultural fluency that later underpinned his investing career — Freeze became one of the best-known foreign investors specializing in Japanese small-cap stocks. Over the years he has overseen roughly $352 million as CIO across vehicles including the Prospect Japan closed-end fund, the Japan Smaller Companies mutual fund, and a long-short hedge fund. His flagship strategy posted strong long-term numbers, and his hedge fund reportedly returned around 210% in 2010, ranking among the world's best performers that year.

Prospect's corporate structure evolved through Japanese markets: in 2006 PAMI was acquired by Prospect Co., Ltd., a licensed Japanese real estate investment advisor (a transaction financed by Goldman Sachs and Permal). In 2013 Prospect Co., Ltd. was acquired in a share swap by Gro-Bels Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-listed real estate developer; the entities later merged under the Prospect Co., Ltd. name (Tokyo Stock Exchange ticker 3528), a company of nearly 200 employees. Freeze has also served as president of Gro-Bels Co., Ltd.

Freeze drew wider attention around 2016 when he described himself as "the biggest institutional investor in Fukushima," taking large stakes in the prefecture's regional banks as a contrarian bet on the region's recovery following the 2011 disaster.

• Specializes in Japanese small- and mid-cap equities, an area he calls "unchartered territory for many global investors."
• Seeks undervalued, high-quality companies with strong earnings growth, favoring domestically-focused firms over exporters when the yen is strong.
• Emphasizes patience and early entry: *"The trick is to find them early, buy them and wait for the market to discover them."*
• Contrarian, region- and recovery-driven convictions — e.g., building major stakes in Fukushima's regional banks as a long-term bet on the prefecture's rehabilitation.
• Note: while startup databases classify him under "Angel Investors / Seed Round," the verifiable public record centers on public-market and regional-bank investing rather than documented startup seed deals.