FI Japan/Korea/Taiwan 2025 Fall Cohort In-Person Graduation Party @ Venture
Join us in celebrating the next generation of startup founders!
This special in-person gathering will be an evening of celebration, founder pitches, and informal networking, bringing together entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors, investors, VCs, and ecosystem builders from across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and beyond.
Come meet the graduating founders, connect with the FI community, and raise a toast to the next generation of globally-minded startups emerging from Asia.
Key highlights from this cohort include:
📌 𝟏𝟑 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝟑𝟐 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝟏𝟐 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.
📌 𝟔𝟎+ 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝, 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟐𝟒 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲.
📌 𝟐𝟐 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 (𝟏𝟑 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 + 𝟗 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩-𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬).
📌 𝟒𝟎+ 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐭𝐨-𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝟏𝟑+ 𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫.
📌 𝟑𝟎+ 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟏𝟎𝟎+ 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦.
You can check our Founder’s Testimonial from previous cohorts here- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPkRPOjzO2Swodw0a8TUIfOcDSK6h7MhM&si=1m2MsiiXvOG0950A
Venue: Venture Café Tokyo
Agenda
4 PM: Reception opens
5 PM: Introduction of Organization
5:15 PM: Keynote Speakers
5:30 PM: Founder Pitch and Insights (2 min)
6:00 PM: Investor & Mentor Introduction and Insights ( 1 min each)
7:00 PM: Networking
9:00 PM: Closing
Keynote Speaker
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Ryutaro(Ryan) Nakata - General Manager, Representative Director of Japan, Alumni Ventures
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TBD
Featured Investors
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Chinh Q. Tran - Founder & Managing Member at 3P Ventures
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Ben Hartwright -Founder at Hartwright Group
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TBD
Featured Alumni
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Ibrahim Orhan - CEO & Co-founder at Kanaria Tech
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Richard Orman - CEO & Founder at Nakatomi
Mentors who will attend:
Karin Jork Wellbrock - Partner at Kay Group K.K
Steve Sidhu - Official Member at Asia CEO COMMUNITY
Francisco Soares - Founder at Furious Green
Mahesh Kasar - Managing Director at Aavya Inc. Japan
Yasuchika Wakayama - CEO at Breakpoint Co., Ltd.
Jan Kaiser - Group Financial Controller at SCALE GREATER HEIGHTS
Rosario B Casas - CTO & AI Leader at BCPartners Tech
Tunc Berkman - Seed Investor at QMindLab
Walied Albasheer - Founder & Managing partner at Intuitio Ventures
Cenk Baladura - CEO at NAMCEBAWON GROUP
Timothy Connor - Founder & CEO at Synnovate
Hany Sayed - CIO & MENA Partner at GEM DiCom
Cenk Bayrakdar - Founding Partner & Managing Director at Revo Capital
Moderators:
- Erdinc Ekinci - Founder, Investment Lead of Co-capital.vc, Co-Founder, CEO of Openfor.co, Managing Director of Founder Institute Japan/Korea/Taiwan
- Yu Li Shein, Co-Director, Founder Institute Korea/Japan & /Taiwan Co-founder, COO, Openfor.co, inc
Who Should Attend?
- Startup founders exploring acceleration and global expansion
- Investors, VCs, and corporate innovation leaders
- Mentors, advisors, and ecosystem builders
- Anyone interested in supporting early-stage founders and meeting emerging startups
Graduating founders:
1. Leonid Posadskov- Founder at Luminari Inc- Luminari Inc. is a Tokyo-based security-first advisory bureau developing Siminari, a gamified security training simulator for enterprises, universities, and government organizations.
2. John Heinemann- Founder at flixfluent - Flixfluent is the world's first browser extension that enables every beginner to learn a language while watching their favorite TV show by deconstructing the subtitles.
3. Maryana Stefuryn- Founder & CEO at Unwind Minds- Unwind Minds | Creators of ElephAi - Elephant Intelligence for Mental Health. The first AI companion that combines biometrics, psychology, and human oversight in one continuous care loop.
4. Paul Conversy- Founder at InsightMatches- InsightMatches is a platform that lowers barriers of entry to Global R&D funding by automating grant proposals and connecting research teams.
5. Ray Ma- Founder at Kevoes- KEVOES is an AI-powered cultural brick brand that turns stories, emotions, and landmarks into collectible experiences. We offer three core services: personalized brick kits for consumers, limited-edition designer drops inspired by global culture, and co-branded collaborations with museums and tourism partners.
6. Alican Yildizalp- Founder at Miriel AI- Miriel provides the first hyper-personalized holistic solution for the $126B child health and wellness market, by putting a PhD-level AI nutritionist in parent’s pocket to help them engineer their child's optimal development and build lifelong healthy habits.
7. Jade Liao-CEO & Co-Founder at Mishkan Limited- Mishkan is building an omni-channel social CRM that empowers entertainment companies and influencer agencies to better manage artist/ influencer online presence, know their fans, and further act on fan data.
8. Prumsodun Ok- Founder at Bodhikara Ventures- Bodhikara Ventures is buddhist wisdom, made for everyone.
9. Brenda Naiyumi Wang- Founder at ZENYA- Optimizing wellness for gym-goers through freshly brewed drinks
10. Jeffrey Graves- Founder at P4k International, Inc
11. Mingyun Guan- Founder & CEO at Atolla Ocean- Atolla Ocean builds underwater visual intelligence — starting with divers by turning raw dive footage into structured species insights, and expanding toward marine monitoring and operations.
12. Hanna Jaff- Founder at FamLink
13. Julio Calanche- Founder at Sales Done Right Japan- SABI (by Sales Done Right Japan) is an AI thinking companion that helps creatives turn confusion into clarity and clarity into income by structuring their decisions in real time.
About Organiser:
-Founder Institute: Founder Institute, which originated in Silicon Valley, is a founder and idea stage accelerator, and with its Founder Capital, backs the best performing FI alumni as early as the angel stage. FI has over 8K+ startup portfolio (Including leading e-learning platform Udemy, IPO in Nasdaq $3,8B) across 200 cities in 100 countries around the world.) We are also the largest mentor network in the world, with over 35,000 mentors, and our alumni have already raised over $2 billion in US dollars and have recently exceeded the 10K mark of investors network as the FI-Venture-Network.
-FI’s sister program, called VC Lab, helps launch aspiring investors into launching VC firms. As an accelerator that allows both sides of the table, 70% of the activities we do are advocacy of entrepreneurship and ecosystem creation, which means we do way more activity than the accelerator to promote entrepreneurship to solve real-world problems with entrepreneurship in an economically feasible way, build a company that grows into a venture-scale.
-Openfor.co: A “Global Partnership Accelerator” originated in Silicon Valley that combined with an online platform and marketplace for learning, building, launching, monetizing, and growing partner ecosystems and a collaborative community around you for achieving effective marketing, sales, community building, GTM, fundraising, and many more.
-Co-Capital: Pre-seed & Seed stage new firm that focuses on hands-on GTM, sales, and partnership support, focusing on English-speaking Asian founders who have global ambitions from day ONE. Domiciled in the USA, with regional appearances in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Utilizes partnerships with the GTM expert network and the venture partner network across 20 major hubs and a network of 35 other VC networks who are willing to co-back our founders!
- Venture Cafe Tokyo: A community where various innovators, including entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and students, gather, connect, and create innovation in society through a variety of programs
Speakers
Platinum Partners
Local Partners
Related Events
The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. Since 2009, our structured accelerator programs have helped over 8,900 entrepreneurs raise over 2BN in funding. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 100 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide.
