Adrianna Alterman
Principal
Salesforce Ventures
Principal investing in energy, climate tech, and workforce resilience.
Bio
Professional summary
Ken Asada is Partner and Head of Japan at Salesforce Ventures, based in Tokyo. He focuses on investments in Japan and Korea and has more than a decade of venture capital experience backing technology startups across AI, communication technology, crowdsourcing, enterprise software, and security. Before Salesforce Ventures, he was Managing Director at NTT DoCoMo Ventures and Investment Director at Intel Capital. Earlier, he worked as a Systems Engineer and Strategy Consultant at IBM Japan. He holds an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor of Economics from Keio University.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
venturegrowthunspecified
Sector
AIcommunication technologycrowdsourcingenterprise softwaresecurityJapanKorea
Thesis
Japan and Korea investmentsAIEnterprise softwareSecurityCommunication technology and crowdsourcing
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
Sakana AIMujinMarqVisionDatumo
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Best fit for companies with clear Japan/Korea relevance, enterprise adoption potential, or AI/security/industrial automation angles that can scale in Asian enterprise markets.
Personalization hooks
- 1Has prior investment leadership roles at NTT DoCoMo Ventures and Intel Capital.
- 2Technical and strategy background at IBM Japan.
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Authored or co-authored Salesforce Ventures posts on Sakana AI, Mujin, MarqVision, and Datumo.
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- Salesforce VenturesPartner & Head of JapanPresent
- NTT DoCoMo VenturesManaging DirectorPrior
- Intel CapitalInvestment DirectorPrior
- IBM JapanSystems Engineer & Strategy ConsultantPrior
Education
- Keio UniversityBachelor of Economics
- London Business SchoolMBA (Finance concentration)
- Stanford University Graduate School of BusinessLEAD Professional Certificate
Skills
Japan/Korea VCEnterprise SoftwareAI InvestingSecurityCVC
Languages
EnglishJapanese
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