The Founder Institute, the world’s leading pre-seed accelerator, continues its mission of empowering entrepreneurs worldwide. Our Japan, Korea, Taiwan 2025 cohort has completed its journey this spring, marking yet another milestone in helping founders build impactful businesses.
On August 5th, 2025, the graduation was celebrated with a virtual event, highlighting the incredible achievements of the founders. It was an intensive yet rewarding journey for all graduate founders with the support of our local and global mentors, partners, and local leaders.
Program Overview: A Journey of Growth
Over the past three years, under the guidance of Erdinc and Yuli, Directors of Founder Institute Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, has successfully conducted 4 cohorts. These programs have not only been a platform for entrepreneurial development but also a gathering of innovators and visionaries.
With over 100 local events held, we have engaged more than 5,000 attendees with a thriving community of 60+ alumni companies so far. Each cohort has been a transformative experience as we equip founders with the necessary tools and knowledge to turn their startup ideas into scalable businesses. This journey has been marked by substantial learning opportunities, networking, and significant strides in building a supportive ecosystem for up-and-coming entrepreneurs across Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
Meet the 2025 Japan, Korea, and Taiwan Cohort Graduate Founders
The 2025 Japan, Korea, and Taiwan cohort began a demanding yet rewarding journey on May 12th, 2025, guided by a curriculum designed to equip founders with the knowledge and skills necessary to launch and grow their companies. Over the course of the 14-week intensive program, the founders were immersed in an intense learning experience, covering business model validation, product-market fit, customer discovery, growth strategies, and fundraising.
Out of 122 applicants and 19 enrolled founders from diverse backgrounds and industries, such as CyberSecurity, AI Virtual Assistant SAAS, Ed Tech, HR Tech, TravelTech, RetailTech, IoT,
Clean Tech and many more innovative, change-making startups, a total of 7 founders successfully graduated.
From pitch practice sessions to market analysis workshops, founders were pushed beyond their limits to tackle real-world startup challenges and refine their ideas into viable businesses. Moreover, the founders survived weekly ratings and feedback from more than 30 mentors in our network who personally built, grown, and led successful high-growth companies. With expert mentorship, hands-on assignments, and peer feedback, the program hones each founder's entrepreneurial skills to build a sustainable business.
We proudly recognize the achievements of the following graduates, whose hard work and dedication have brought them to this momentous occasion. Congratulations to:
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Jamiel Hampton, CEO & Founder at NAKA Industries (NAKA Industries- create significant positive impact across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. By converting plastic waste into valuable oil with near-zero emissions and no toxic byproducts, our technology reduces global plastic pollution, lowers reliance on fossil fuels, and helps mitigate climate change.)
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Richard Orman, Founder at Nakatomi (Nakatomi- Empower every founder to launch secure and world-class security programs.)
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Del, CEO & Co-Founder at ProdMind AI -(ProdMind AI offers a unified solution for managing product updates, reports, and stakeholder communications. By integrating with tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Figma, Jira, and Windows tasks, it helps teams reduce manual work and streamline their workflow, saving significant time.)
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Sydney Seekford, CEO & Co-Founder at Menuwiz (MENUWIZ, we want to revolutionize the dining experience for travelers and the places they visit. By providing a user-friendly interface and enterprise tech. We pair our data with the latest technology to translate menus, aiming to bridge the language gap and enhance convenience for our users and the staff who serve them.)
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Timothy, Founder at Lyvios, Inc (Lyvios modular IoT and AI framework empowers key industries, starting with logistics, to automate asset tracking, route optimization, and predictive maintenance, driving both cost and carbon emission reductions while guaranteeing end-to-end product quality and traceability. Its industry-agnostic design can be rapidly repurposed for mission-critical applications such as vaccine cold chain monitoring in Sub-Saharan Africa, where real-time temperature and location insights translate directly into higher immunization rates, saved lives, and stronger communities.)
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Sandrine Monette, Co-Founder at LemonBoost (Lemon-Boost is a women-led boutique consulting firm in Tokyo that helps organizations become business hubs, supporting APAC leaders to adapt their leadership, stay relevant, and build resilience.)
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Marie-Solange VOTTERO, Co-Founder at LemonBoost (Lemon-Boost is a women-led boutique consulting firm in Tokyo that helps organizations become business hubs, supporting APAC leaders to adapt their leadership, stay relevant, and build resilience.)
A Virtual Graduation to Remember
On August 5th, 2025, the Founder Institute celebrated the accomplishments of our latest cohort with a virtual graduation event that brought an audience of over 180 participants, including a vibrant mix of more than 25 global and local mentors from our network, as well as an enthusiastic crowd from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and beyond.
Agenda Highlights included:
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The event kicked off with warm welcome messages followed by an overview of the Founder Institute's mission and impact.
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Jun Kojima, Venture Capitalist at Golden Egg Ventures / Egg FORWARD Inc., delivered a powerful keynote speech. His insights on resilience and leadership in the VC landscape left a lasting impression, emphasizing the need for adaptability and vision in the VC ecosystem.
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The graduate founders presented 5-minute pitches each outlining their business models and future plans. Founders also shared their personal experiences and growth within the FI program regarding how the Founder Institute shaped their entrepreneurial paths.
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The ceremony concluded with closing remarks from local leaders and final messages that celebrated the graduates' future endeavors.
This graduation marks a significant milestone for our chapters in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Our current graduate founders now have a fast-growing company, a solid business plan, a clear path for future growth, and are ready to take their companies to new heights. The founders now joined our global alumni network of over 8,000 companies and more than 35,000 mentors across 200+ cities in 6 continents, gaining access to resources and connections that will help them further grow their startups. With ongoing support from the Founder Institute, including continuous mentorship and networking opportunities, these founders are now well-positioned to make impactful contributions to the global startup ecosystem. As we look forward, we are excited to see these founders continue their journeys and make impactful contributions in the vibrant world of startups.
We extend our special thanks to Jun Kojiam for his inspiring speech and to all the mentors who contributed to the event with their encouraging words. Our appreciation also goes to Erdinç Ekinci and Yu Li Shein, Co-Founders of Openfor.Co., Inc. and Co-Capital, whose relentless support and guidance have been pivotal throughout the cohort's journey.
For a full replay of the speeches and to see more from the event, please view the graduation video here- https://youtu.be/FZEGJoNbXk4
A Special Thank You to Our Proud Local Leaders, Partners, and Mentors
The success of the 2025 Founder Institute Japan, Korea and Taiwan cohort would not have been possible without the incredible support of our mentors, partners, and supporters. We would like to thank each and every of our mentors, partners and to everyone who believed in this cohort’s potential.
Our Proud Local Directors
We would first like to appreciate the hard work and support of the Local Directors of the Founder Institute Japan , Korea and Taiwan : Erdinc Ekinci (Founder, Investment Lead of Co-capital, Co-Founder, CEO of Openfor.co, Managing Director of Founder Institute Japan/Korea/Taiwan), YuLi Shein (Venture Partner of Co-capital,Co-Founder, COO of Openfor.co, Director of Founder Institute Japan / Korea / Taiwan). Our Local Leaders play an incredibly important role in building the local Founder Institute program and creating an environment and network in Japan that is conducive to building great companies.
Our Proud Partners
In addition, the FI program was supported by some of Japan, Korea & Taiwan’s top technology organizations, including:
Our Proud Mentors
A heartfelt thank you to all our mentors for their dedication, expertise, and time throughout this journey. Your invaluable knowledge, thoughtful feedback, and hands-on guidance have been essential in helping founders refine their pitches, develop strategic insights, and scale their startups. Special thanks to some of our top startup mentors, including:
Tyson Batino, Roger Do, Kiyotake Sugita, Joe Hug, Yuichi Terada, Karin Wellbrock, Arcui Usoara, Franklin Kamnang Ngansop, Tunc Berkman, Jan Kaiser, Jennifer Lin, Todor Panev, Michael Lee, Anna Leshchuk, Jet Son Tan, Jonathan Nguyen, Sanjaykumar Patel, Jason Everaert, Mahesh Kasar, Timothy Connor, Jatin Kataria, Jihun Yeon, Gaurav Malhotra, Ippei Takushima, So Yeon Kim, Raphael Hodé, Walied Albasheer, Rancho Lee, Serkan Toso, Evan Burkosky, Schyler Alexandra Cole, Hany Sayed
Join our Upcoming 2025 FI Joint Global Cohort
Leaders of some of the world’s fastest-growing startups have leveraged the Founder Institute to raise funding, build co-founding teams, gain entry into seed accelerators, generate traction, recruit talent, and transition from employee to entrepreneur. As a global program based in Silicon Valley with chapters in over 200 cities and 100+ countries, the Founder Institute's mission is to globalize Silicon Valley and empower entrepreneurs to build companies that create one million new jobs.
If you're ready to turn your idea into a global business, applications for the next Founder Institute Japan, Korea, and Taiwan cohorts are now open. Apply for upcoming cohorts-
Once again, congratulations to all our graduate founders and special thanks to our local directors, partners, and mentors for being part of the Founder Institute family! Let’s continue building on these strong relationships and creating even more opportunities to support founders on their journey to success!
Alumni of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over 1.9BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/graduates.
