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The firm was founded by former US Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos, Ashvin Bachireddy, and Mitsubishi Corporation

Independent growth stage VC firm Geodesic Capital today announced the close of its first fund Geodesic Capital Fund I with the total amount of US$335 million to help Silicon Valley-based companies enter Japanese market, and to help “establish a window” to Silicon Valley for Japanese tech companies.

It also announced the opening of its local arm Geodesic Japan GK, which will be led by Marcus Otsuji, a former senior executive at Apple Japan and Country Manager at Omniture Japan.

Geodesic Capital was founded by former US Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos (previously CEO of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a US law firm representing tech, life sciences, and emerging growth companies); Ashvin Bachireddy (previously a growth stage partner at Andreessen Horowitz); and Japanese trading and investment company Mitsubishi Corporation, which is also the anchor investor.

Other investors in Geodesic Capital Fund I include Limited Partners Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd; The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.; Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation; Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance, Inc.; Nikon Corporation; Development Bank of Japan, Inc.; and The Toho Bank, Ltd.

Also Read: Japan’s TAGCAST bags US$457K Series A from angel group Gukuedo

“During my time as Ambassador, I travelled all over Japan talking about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to Japan’s economy,” said Roos in an official statement.

“After returning to Silicon Valley, I found this to be the most deeply disruptive and innovative period in technology I have seen in my career and came to believe that Japan needed a much greater presence here. At the same time I saw a surging interest in Japan among the very best technology companies in the US,” he explained.

Geodesic Capital aims to help its portfolio companies expand globally into key markets in Asia, with Japan as starting point.

Several companies that Geodesic Capital Fund I has already invested in include software product Tanium, mobile app Snapchat, CDN platform Instart Logic, and Bitcoin software and hardware support 21 Inc.

Apart from funding, Geodesic Capital also assists its portfolio companies in finding employees, customers, partners and developing go-to-market strategies.

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Image Credit: Akram Shehadi on Unsplash

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