Stephanie Morimoto

Stephanie Morimoto is the owner and CEO of Asutra, a Chicago-based wellness brand. Public sources consistently describe her as an operator and entrepreneur, not as a verified partner at Proximity Capital Partners or as a public angel investor. I could not verify the stubbed Proximity Capital Partners role, email, phone number, seed-stage mandate, check size, or portfolio from public sources.

Morimoto bought Asutra in 2015 after first being a customer of the brand. She told InStyle that the original company sold organic yoga mat cleaning sprays and other wellness products, mostly through Amazon, and that she saw an opportunity to build a broader brand, story, community, and retail/channel presence.

Before Asutra, Morimoto spent about a dozen years in fundraising and partnerships for national education nonprofits. She has described leaving that nonprofit career after severe burnout and shifting into wellness because she wanted to help people practice intentional self-care.

Asutra gained broader public attention through Venus Williams, who joined the company in 2019 as part owner and chief brand officer after using the brand’s pain-relief and sleep-support products. Oprah Daily also featured Morimoto and Asutra in 2022 as part of a roundup of AAPI entrepreneurs behind products selected for Oprah’s Favorite Things.

• No public, source-supported angel-investing thesis, fund mandate, check size, or Proximity Capital Partners affiliation was found.
• As an operator, Morimoto’s stated focus is “active self-care,” which Asutra describes as helping people take care of themselves “mind, body, and soul” on purpose.
• Her public founder advice stresses product-market fit: she told InStyle that founders should look at data and key metrics to confirm organic growth, customer need, and repeat purchasing.
• She also emphasizes purpose in wellness, saying founders should ask whether they are doing something that makes the world better, not only whether it makes money.
• Based on public interviews, her strongest domain expertise is consumer wellness: natural remedies for pain relief, sleep, mood, stress, skincare, and daily self-care rituals.