Ken Asada

Partner & Head of Japan·Salesforce Ventures

Tokyo, Japan

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.

Partneralization 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

Other partners at Salesforce Ventures

12 more profiles

View firm →

Adrianna Alterman

Principal

Salesforce Ventures

Principal investing in energy, climate tech, and workforce resilience.

Climate techEnergyGrowth-stage investingImpact investingWorkforce resilience

Alex Quie

Principal

Salesforce Ventures

Principal at Salesforce Ventures in London investing across all stages and sectors in EMEA cloud software companies.

AIAll stagesCloud softwareEMEAEnterprise softwareFuture of work

Claudine Emeott

Partner

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures Partner investing in mission-driven enterprise tech and impact companies.

EducationEnterprise technologyFinancial inclusionImpact investingSustainabilityWorkforce development

Dom Pusateri

Investor

Salesforce Ventures

Investor focused on early-stage AI and developer-experience startups.

AI applicationsAI infrastructureDeveloper experiencePre-seedSeries A

Emily Zhao

Managing Director

Salesforce Ventures

Managing Director at Salesforce Ventures focused on AI infrastructure, robotics, developer tooling, and cybersecurity.

AI infrastructurecybersecuritydeveloper toolingrobotics

Enki Toto

Principal

Salesforce Ventures

Principal investing in impact-focused edtech, fintech, and climate technology.

Climate technologyEducation technologyEnergyFinancial inclusionImpact investing

Kartik Gupta

Principal

Salesforce Ventures

Principal investing in enterprise software across Europe, Israel, India, and the US.

AICybersecurityEnterprise softwareEuropeIndiaIsrael

Katie Schwartz Thiry

Managing Director

Salesforce Ventures

Managing Director at Salesforce Ventures focused on SaaS, healthcare, and fintech companies.

fintechhealthcareSaaS

Kevin Wu

Investor

Salesforce Ventures

Investor focused on cybersecurity, defense technology, and enterprise software.

CybersecurityDefense technologyEnterprise softwareGrowth equityMulti-stage investing

Laura Rowson

Principal

Salesforce Ventures

Principal investing in application software, vertical SaaS, and data infrastructure.

Application layerData stackEMEAUSVertical SaaS

Nathan Ho

Investor

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures investor focused on AI infrastructure and vertical applications.

AI infrastructureEnterprise softwareGrowth-stage technologyVertical applications

Nowi Kallen

Partner

Salesforce Ventures

Partner investing in cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, cloud software, and vertical AI.

AI infrastructureCloud infrastructureCybersecurityEnterprise automationVertical AI

See something out of date?

Suggest a correction — our team reviews every edit.

Improve this profile