Team

Scope of Responsibility

Decision of investment
Global operation management

Profile

Kay Enjoji has been President of TEL Venture Capital since 2011, and he has been overseeing its global operations, strategic direction, investment deals, investment decisions and deal approval process. He managed over 50 investments in 10 countries with more than 10 successful outcomes for Tokyo Electron (TEL). Kay is also Vice President of Corporate Innovation at TEL, charged with creating the corporate strategy.
 
Kay has over 30 years of semiconductor industry experience with career highlights as a senior manager in device and process technology businesses. In addition, he has knowledge of materials, AI, sensors, industrial intelligence and metaverse/advanced displays.
Before joining TEL Venture Capital, Kay held various senior management roles at TEL, including VP / Director of corporate development, corporate marketing and product marketing in business unit, where he guided new product development and new business expansion of semiconductor equipment such as CVD and diffusion furnace. Kay received his B.A. in economics from Keio University.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in US
US operation management

Profile

Ted joined TEL in 1997 and has been assigned to TEL Venture Capital since 2007. He brings 20 years of experience in venture investment, strategic alliance, corporate planning, new business planning, and various business analysis. Before joining TEL Venture Capital, he held various initiative roles at both TEL Japan and US headquarters. Currently based in Silicon Valley, Ted leads start-ups scouting, due-diligence, venture investment execution as well as portfolio management in many core focused areas such as semiconductor process technologies, new display technologies, advanced materials, AI, industrial tech, and med tech. Ted is passionate about supporting startups, especially when combining the best of both worlds – US entrepreneurship spirit and detailed craftsmanship from TEL Japan.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in US

Profile

Brent joined TEL Venture Capital in 2021. He has 40 years of experience founding, funding, growing, and selling technology companies, primarily in front-end semiconductor capital equipment.He has a broad background in technologies required for leading edge equipment, subsystems, and components, and holds over 100 U.S. and International patents. Brent is passionate about identifying high-value opportunities to develop and apply new technologies to growing markets, and about helping grow teams, capabilities, and relationships needed for world-class business success.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in EU
EU operation management

Profile

Jacques Berg joined TEL Venture Capital in 2015. He has over 30 years of experience working in the semiconductor industry. He has been with Tokyo Electron since the opening of its European Operation in 1994 and has, since then, held numerous management positions mostly in Sales, Marketing and Business Development. Prior joining TEL Venture Capital his last assignment within TEL, Jacques was the Head of the WW Sales, Marketing and Business Team of TEL Solar operating from its HQ in Switzerland. Within his career Jacques has been a member of various SEMI Committees including Semi Europe Strategic Technology Committee and Semi Europe Russia Committee. He is based in Grenoble France and has an Electronic Engineering Background.

Scope of Responsibility

Technical staff

Profile

Takenao (Takee) Nemoto, Ph.D., joined TEL Venture Capital in 2016 with over 10 years of experience in marketing and business development in CVD. He has an additional 9 years thereafter in management roles in CVD and etching systems related to process and semiconductor equipment development for Tokyo Electron and its subsidiaries. During his career, he was also assigned as an associate professor for semiconductor process integration at Tohoku University, Japan, where he had also received his Ph.D. in engineering. He is chair of Admta Plus 2016 and a session chair of the IEEE NANO 2016 conference. Takee is eager to create innovation by cooperating with startups and he hopes to bring value to this industry.

Scope of Responsibility

Accelerator
Marketing staff

Profile

Ken Matsuse has joined TEL Venture Capital in 2013 as senior researcher. He researches startups and their market/application from a technology point of view. According to his experience, he is familiar with PV, including energy storage and semiconductors. He was in charge of a director of PV business development at TEL. He has more than 20 years of semiconductor industry experience as sales director, marketing manager and process engineer, especially for CVD. He received the TEL excellent employee award for best sales lead in Korea.. He also received a master’s degree in fluidics simulation at Osaka university.

Scope of Responsibility

Technical staff

Profile

Neo Harada joined TEL Venture Capital in 2016 as senior researcher. He has more than 20 years semiconductor industry experience. He has worked in TEL since 2003, and was previously in charge of director and project leader of new equipment developments including active thermal test system, dielectric liner film deposition tool and wafer/chip bonders. He has extensive technical experience from R&D to products development including CCD, CMOS and MEMS devices and process, materials and semiconductor equipment for TSV/3D interconnection. As his carrier highlights he was appointed to a member of industry-academic-government investigation committee lead by METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan) as MEMS field specialist. Neo received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Osaka University, Osaka, Japan, in 1986.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in EU　　 

Profile

Dave Hurley joined TEL Venture Capital as a Senior Venture Partner in 2023. He is in charge of investments, portfolio management and startup engagement in Europe. He also supports Tokyo Electron Europe’s publicly funded R&D and advocacy activities, related to the EU Chips Act.
 
Prior to joining TEL Venture Capital, Dave spent 10 years as General Manager of TEL Magnetic Solutions, a company he founded as a university spin-out and embarked on his technology entrepreneur journey as CEO over 15 years. Dave has served as advisor, mentor and board member to several start-up companies in the semiconductor space during his career.
 
Dave received PhD and undergraduate degrees in Physics from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and has held research fellowships at the Humboldt University in Berlin and Tohoku University, in Japan.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in Asia and Israel

Profile

Todd Mihara has joined TEL Venture Capital in 2012. He is currently based in Silicon Valley and passionate about creating innovation in collaboration with start-ups. He has wide experience of investment in Israel, Canada, Japan and U.S. as venture capitalist and management of the collaboration with start-ups for business development. He has more than ten years of experience in business planning, sales and marketing in semiconductor industry, for the lithography process in TEL. He received the B.A in economics from Sophia University.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in Japan
Controller

Profile

Kobe joined TEL Venture Capital in 2017 and has been working on exploring startups with technical synergies with TEL and supporting growth and looking for new business possibilities. Previously he was engaged in Tokyo Electron's IR activities for 4 years and before that he has over 10 years' experience in the Information Systems Division. Master's degree in electronic information engineering was acquired at Yokohama National University.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in US

Profile

Sergey has 10 years of experience growing, fundraising and acquiring startup technology companies in the advanced displays, optical and electronics materials segments as a finance executive and board of directors member.
Sergey joined TEL Venture Capital in 2023 to pursue his passion for learning about new technologies and bringing them from drawing board to profitability. As a Venture Partner, Sergey uses his broad background in senior finance roles, management consulting, coupled with a B.Sc. in Economics from London School of Economics, to help portfolio companies　and to perform due-diligence and venture investment execution at TEL Venture Capital in the Silicon Valley.

Scope of Responsibility

Technical staff

Profile

Mariko Ozawa joined TEL Venture Capital in 2024, after gaining experience in roles such as Product Marketing, Technical Sales, and Technical Research in SPE Equipment in her 20 years in TEL.
She has extensive experience in semiconductor technology and markets, including technical research, consortium engagement, strategy development in corporate marketing, and sales experience with Wet Cleaning Systems, Etch Systems, etc.
She received a Master’s degree in Management of Technology from Tokyo University of Science, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Aoyama Gakuin University.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in Japan
Technical staff

Profile

Akira Tanihara joined TEL Venture Capital in 2019.
He has more than 20 years semiconductor industry experience. Since he joined TEL, he was in charge of development of μ-wave plasma CVD equipment, film treatment equipment etc.
He has extensive technical experience of mainly hardware design including mechanical design, vacuum equipment, μ-wave, gases and materials.
He received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan in 1987.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in Japan
Technical staff

Profile

Tomohiko Niizeki joined TEL Venture Capital in 2022.
He has more than 10 years research experience in academia. Since he joined TEL, he was in charge of development of high-density plasma HARC etching equipment.
He has extensive technical experience including vacuum equipment, deposition and microfabrication of ultrathin film of metal/oxide/semiconductor, and analysis of electron-/spin-/crystal-/nano- structure.
He received the Ph.D degree in applied physics from Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan in 2005.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment Israel

Profile

Eyal is a thirty years veteran in the Semiconductors industry after graduating a mechanical engineering from the Technion (Israel technical institute).
After he joined TEL, he served as regional service manager and general manager of Israel, then senior management and Senior Vice President (SVP) for service and support operations for TEL Europe.
Since 2019, he is SVP for service strategy and excellence with global challenges in TEL including the sustainability group.
During such period, Eyal has been supporting TEL Venture Capital activity in Israel and in Oct 2023, he has officially joined TEL Venture Capital team as senior researcher.

Scope of Responsibility

Investment in Korea

Profile

Alan Park joined TEL Venture Capital in 2024 as researcher in Korea, after 7 years’ experience in TEL Korea with new technologies and collaborating with TEL engineering.
He has more than 20 years of experience as an expert in equipment, parts, and materials at a major semiconductor chip maker in Korea.
He has extensive experience not only in equipment, but also in subsystems, parts, and software, and has been passionate about identifying and growing high value-added markets.
He majored in mechanical design at Hanyang University in Korea.

Profile

Douglas R. (“Doug”) Vreeland and his team assist the TEL Venture Capital with the due diligence, CFIUS reviews and other legal work related to their investment activity.
He has 25 years’ experience as a practicing attorney including as an associate at one of the country’s largest law firms,as an IP litigator in a Fortune 50 corporate law department, and as in-house counsel for a “unicorn” startup tech company.
He also leads the U.S. Legal Department for Tokyo Electron, and oversees a team of experienced technology lawyers, and professionals who are responsible for managing the legal needs.

Profile

Maria Alonso counsels the TEL Venture Capital on due diligence and potential national security risks of investment transactions and seeking clearances from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States(CFIUS).
She is also an international trade and compliance attorney for Tokyo Electron U.S. Holdings, Inc. She advises TEL on a broad range of international trade and national security matters, including those governed by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), economic sanctions, U.S. customs laws and regulations, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Profile

She has made a career of consulting for startups in the greater Boston area spanning multiple industries including sensors, biotech, advanced materials and electronics.  She has considerable experience in supporting companies in their commercialization journeys as a technology and market intelligence specialist. 
Sandra was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT after receiving her PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Ottawa.

Profile

Hideki Shibata joined TEL Venture Capital in 2021. He has about 40 years of experience in the research and development of a semiconductor device manufacturer.
For several generations, he has overseen the development of back-end processes for high-performance logic devices and large-capacity NAND flash memory, and the development of innovative new function devices in the More than Moore area with the aim of creating added value without chip scaling.
He covers a wide range of specialized technical fields, such as semiconductor device and design, multi-layer wiring formation,3D integration, MEMS sensor, Nano biotechnology, and optical transmission. In that regard, he has served as internal managers of public-private projects and outside committee members of the consortium. In addition, he is currently a visiting professor at Nagoya University, Keio University, and Shibaura Institute of Technology.