Yasuhiko Yurimoto

Yasuhiko Yurimoto founded Global Brain in 1998 and has led it as Founder, President and CEO ever since. A graduate of the Faculty of Law at Kyoto University, he began his career in banking, working at Fuji Bank (now Mizuho Bank) and later serving as a Vice President at Citibank N.A. Before building Global Brain into a venture capital firm, he provided professional services including strategy consulting, business development, M&A financial advisory, due diligence, IPO consulting, and the revitalization of companies acquired by public corporations.

He has since focused on hands-on, early-stage-oriented venture capital, steering the firm through the collapse of the dot-com bubble and the 2008 global financial crisis to make Global Brain one of Japan's leading independent VCs. Under his leadership the firm has grown substantially — reporting roughly JPY 405.2 billion in assets under management (2025), multiple active funds, and a portfolio of 400+ companies including several unicorns.

Beyond investing, Yurimoto is active in entrepreneurship education. He has taught entrepreneurship at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and participated in a social-entrepreneur working group at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). More recently he has run a CEO-training program informally known as "Yurimoto-juku" (Yurimoto Academy) to share venture-building and VC-management knowledge with the next generation of founders and investors.

• Backs companies from seed through growth stage, with Global Brain historically known for "hands-on," early-stage-oriented investing that pairs capital with active operational support.
• Emphasizes DeepTech as a firm priority — aiming to be "Japan's top DeepTech VC" — alongside AI, SaaS, fintech, space, mobility, and energy.
• Runs one of the world's largest CVC (corporate venture capital) practices; Global Brain reported 102 investments via CVC funds in a single year, which it describes as the highest number globally, and is launching a "CVC as a Service" consulting/operations platform.
• Increasingly stresses that in an era where "even VCs get disintermediated," pure capital is not a differentiator — the firm competes on post-investment support (business development, follow-on, exit support) rather than money alone.
• Ties investing to a "sustainable society" theme, having spoken about the responsibility of VCs to support long-term social value, not just returns.
• For 2026, the stated strategy centers on: (1) building AI agents for sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio support; (2) DeepTech leadership; (3) CVC-as-a-Service; (4) expansion into private equity / post-IPO support to fill Japan's growth-stage funding gap; and (5) ecosystem contribution through education and content.