100X Portfolio Summit Track

Nicolas Sauvage (SEP2018) is the President of TDK Ventures, with $350M AUM. TDK Ventures has invested in 37 startups, including unicorns like Groq, Ascend Elements and Silicon Box. Recognized on the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist for five consecutive years, Nicolas has authored articles on Corporate Venturing and hosts the Corporate Venturing Insider podcast. Nicolas serves on the boards of Analog Inference, AutoFlight, Faction, Mach49, Metalenz, Virewirx, and TDK Ventures. Nicolas has been awarded the Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School.

Geetha Dholakia is a Portfolio Program Manager at TDK Ventures. She is responsible for strategic engagements between Portfolio Companies and global TDK business groups. She is committed to identifying, enabling and nurturing nascent technical ideas to grow into successful business collaborations that improve lives and build a sustainable world.

She brings many years of scientific, technical program management and business development experience. In prior technology management roles, she has worked at NASA Ames Research Center, supporting NASA’s $200 million SBIR/STTR program and in enabling partnerships, business development and technology transfer of NASA Ames’ vast technology landscape. As a scientist, her deep research focus was in two areas, one at the cross-section of physics, materials science and electrical engineering in studying nanoscale systems and another in instrumentation for space missions.

She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science and a Masters in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, driven by a lifelong curiosity to understand how nature works.

Shigeki Sato is a Corporate Officer, Senior Vice President, and Director of TDK Corporation. He is also TDK’s General Manager of Technology & Intellectual Property HQ and Chief Technology Officer. He has been with TDK since 1989, holding key leadership positions across various business and technology divisions, including General Manager of the Advanced Process Technology Center, Senior Manager of Multilayer Product Business Unit of Magnetics Business Group, and General Manager of the Ceramic Capacitors Business Group. In 2019, Shigeki-san was appointed Corporate Officer and CEO of the Electronic Components Business Company, later becoming Senior Vice President and Director of TDK Corporation in 2021.

Sato-san is currently in charge of promoting the Company’s research and development as well as planning and implementing the Company’s intellectual property strategies as Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of Technology and Intellectual Property HQ.

Igor Arsovski is the Chief Architect, Fellow and Head of Hardware at Groq. He is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) implementation expert. Previously at Google, Igor was responsible for the SoC technology strategy for Google Cloud, leading the custom physical design effort for the TPU. Prior to Google, Igor was CTO of the IBM/GF/Marvell ASIC Business Unit, responsible for setting ASIC strategy for a 900+ person team, and personally optimizing 500+ of today’s best-known enterprise networking and machine learning ASICs. Igor is an IBM Master Inventor with over 100 patents, 30 IEEE papers and presentations at premier system (AI HW Summit, Linley Conference, ML and AI Dev Com) and circuit (ISSCC, VLSI, CICC, ECTC) conferences, and currently serves on the VLSI Technology Program Committee.

Geetha Dholakia is a Portfolio Program Manager at TDK Ventures. She is responsible for strategic engagements between Portfolio Companies and global TDK business groups. She is committed to identifying, enabling and nurturing nascent technical ideas to grow into successful business collaborations that improve lives and build a sustainable world.

She brings many years of scientific, technical program management and business development experience. In prior technology management roles, she has worked at NASA Ames Research Center, supporting NASA’s $200 million SBIR/STTR program and in enabling partnerships, business development and technology transfer of NASA Ames’ vast technology landscape. As a scientist, her deep research focus was in two areas, one at the cross-section of physics, materials science and electrical engineering in studying nanoscale systems and another in instrumentation for space missions.

She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science and a Masters in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, driven by a lifelong curiosity to understand how nature works.

Shuichi Hashiyama is a TDK Corporate Officer and General Manager of Corporate Strategy HQ. Hashiyama-san has been an integral part of TDK Corporation since 1990, building a diverse career across multiple strategic functions within the company. With over three decades of experience, he has played pivotal roles in research and development, sales, marketing, and corporate strategy.

Before becoming a Corporate Officer, Hashiyama-san served as General Manager of the Energy Systems Business Group, a group within the Energy Solutions Business Company, from 2019 to 2021. Prior to that, he led the Automotive Sales Department within the Electronic Components Sales & Marketing Group from 2015 to 2019. His earlier roles included positions in the New Business Promotion Group, Europe Sales & Marketing Group, and Corporate R&D Center.

Michael Pocsatko is a Corporate Officer, Senior Vice President, and serves as the General Manager of Corporate Marketing & Incubation at TDK Corporation in Tokyo, Japan. As the GM of CM&I, he leads business development in collaboration with internal and external partners and innovators, by incubating ideas, developing new products, and deploying solutions to enhance TDK’s global portfolio, and creating internal startups. Michael also serves as the Managing Director at TDK Management Services GmbH in Munich, Germany, to provide essential HR, Corporate Communications, Management System, and Corporate Marketing & Incubation services to TDK Corporation, Japan.

With his leadership skills, strategic insight, and unwavering commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, Michael plays a pivotal role in shaping TDK’s reputation as a pioneering force in the industry, driving the company towards a future marked by growth and positive social impact.

Shigeki Sato is a Corporate Officer, Senior Vice President, and Director of TDK Corporation. He is also TDK’s General Manager of Technology & Intellectual Property HQ and Chief Technology Officer. He has been with TDK since 1989, holding key leadership positions across various business and technology divisions, including General Manager of the Advanced Process Technology Center, Senior Manager of Multilayer Product Business Unit of Magnetics Business Group, and General Manager of the Ceramic Capacitors Business Group. In 2019, Shigeki-san was appointed Corporate Officer and CEO of the Electronic Components Business Company, later becoming Senior Vice President and Director of TDK Corporation in 2021.

Sato-san is currently in charge of promoting the Company’s research and development as well as planning and implementing the Company’s intellectual property strategies as Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of Technology and Intellectual Property HQ.

Nicolas Sauvage (SEP2018) is the President of TDK Ventures, with $350M AUM. TDK Ventures has invested in 37 startups, including unicorns like Groq, Ascend Elements and Silicon Box. Recognized on the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist for five consecutive years, Nicolas has authored articles on Corporate Venturing and hosts the Corporate Venturing Insider podcast. Nicolas serves on the boards of Analog Inference, AutoFlight, Faction, Mach49, Metalenz, Virewirx, and TDK Ventures. Nicolas has been awarded the Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School.

Elena Watts is a Portfolio Programme Associate with TDK Ventures. She is focused on exploring and facilitating collaborative synergies between TDK Ventures portfolio companies and global TDK teams with the aim of building mutual value partnerships.

Prior to working at TDK Ventures, Elena worked at the bridge of academia and industry at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office for the University of Cambridge. Here she helped academics to achieve positive impact from their research through commercialisation.

Elena has a number of passions, one of which is a deep curiosity for how the world works. She has a master’s degree in chemistry with nanotechnology, and a PhD in Materials Science from Imperial College London.

Chiaki Yoshikawa, the Startup Liaison at TDK Ventures, embodies a pivotal link between startups and TDK Corporation. With a rich background spanning 12 years in sales and marketing across TDK’s Tokyo and United Kingdom offices, Chiaki brings a wealth of experience to her role. Her dedication to fostering synergy between startups and TDK is evident through her proactive approach in advocating for these emerging ventures within the corporation.

At the heart of Chiaki’s role lies a commitment to creating an “equal-win” scenario for both startups and TDK Corporation. By continuously exploring new opportunities, Chiaki ensures that startups not only benefit from TDK’s expertise and resources but also contribute to the innovation ecosystem within the corporation. Her efforts extend beyond mere promotion, as she actively engages various teams within TDK, encouraging collaboration and partnership with portfolio companies.

Through regular presentations highlighting the progress and achievements of ongoing synergy projects, Chiaki reinforces the value derived from the collaboration between startups and TDK Ventures teams. This transparent approach not only keeps stakeholders informed but also fosters a culture of innovation and mutual growth.

Chiaki’s background in economics from Gakushuin University equips her with a strategic mindset, enabling her to identify opportunities that maximize the value for both startups and TDK Corporation. Her passion for promoting innovation extends beyond the workplace, as evidenced by her interests in camping and snowboarding with her family, reflecting a balanced approach to life.

Chiaki Yoshikawa serves as the catalyst for fostering collaboration and driving mutual success between startups and TDK Corporation, embodying the spirit of a true advocate for innovation and growth.

Tal Murthy graduated with a doctorate, pursued research fellowship at Harvard University in cancer science/technology and studied business. He developed and led the robotics pipeline for biodefense programs as a part of Harvard center of excellence for homeland security. Tal has over fifteen years of industrial and business experience. He managed multiple projects with cross functional groups in technology, business, M&A and held different roles at corporate organizations including fortune 500 companies. In the last four years he has been working at TDK in the Industrial sector of Global Segment Development division managing the Healthtech, Robotics and emerging markets.

Anirban Roy began his career in 1995 with ABB, and then joining the passive components division of Siemens in 1997, a company that later became EPCOS, before its merger with TDK in 2008. Over the years, he has lived and worked in five different countries across three continents, contributing to TDK’s global success. For the past two decades at TDK UK, Mr. Roy has held diverse roles, leading product marketing initiatives across multiple business groups, including empowered role of Product Marketing of Temperature and Pressure Sensors to Capacitors, Magnetics, Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors and Piezo & Protection Devices Business Groups. More recently, over the past two years while he was in the UK, he focused on New Business Development, which gave him an opportunity to promote all TDK products. Currently, as part of the Global Sales Development team at TDK Corporation, Mr. Roy oversees Industrial & Home Appliances markets.

Thao is a Portfolio Program Associate at TDK Ventures, where she is working closely with the Portfolio Program Manager to enable strategic engagements between Portfolio Companies and global TDK business groups. Thao is dedicated to identifying and building the bridge between deep-tech entrepreneurs with industry experts at TDK to create a collaborative ecosystem that fosters creativity and accelerates breakthrough solutions.

Prior to TDK Ventures, Thao was a Technology Manager at Clark Street Associates, where she led deep tech clients in pursuing non-dilutive government funding. In this role, Thao leveraged her technical background to dive into clients’ core technology and develop approaches to address critical defense and commercial needs. Her most impactful project resulted in $30M in federal funding for a healthcare client to commercialize a COVID-19 testing platform.

Thao holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BSE in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, foraging, hiking, and spending time with her family.

Michael Chinn is Deputy General Manager of Electronic Components Sales and Marketing at TDK Corporation. He qualified with a Master’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from The Queen’s University of Belfast, is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and is certified as a company director by the Institute of Directors. Michael has held various positions throughout TDK’s global organization during his 30+ year career with the company in engineering, marketing and sales. In recent years, Michael headed TDK’s global sales development activities in the ICT market segment. He currently oversees TDK’s electronic components global sales development activities as well as sales and marketing in the Americas, India and with TDK’s global distribution channel partners.

Janaki is a Portfolio Program Associate at TDK Ventures. She works with the TDK Ventures Team on strategic engagements and building partnerships between Portfolio Companies and TDK business groups. She strongly believes in the potential of deep tech to transform lives and in supporting founders towards creating a sustainable future.

Prior to TDK Ventures, Janaki has worked at the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, in both scientific research and technical program management roles. She also volunteered with and advocated for a community of early career researcher peers during this time. Through these experiences, she developed a better understanding of the research and development ecosystem and the importance of building partnerships at all levels.

Janaki holds a DPhil (PhD) in Materials Science from the University of Oxford, UK, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the National University of Singapore. Outside of work, she has been learning Indian classical music (performing as a vocalist) and enjoys piecing together puzzles, sketching and graphic design.

Elena Watts is a Portfolio Programme Associate with TDK Ventures. She is focused on exploring and facilitating collaborative synergies between TDK Ventures portfolio companies and global TDK teams with the aim of building mutual value partnerships.

Prior to working at TDK Ventures, Elena worked at the bridge of academia and industry at Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer office for the University of Cambridge. Here she helped academics to achieve positive impact from their research through commercialisation.

Elena has a number of passions, one of which is a deep curiosity for how the world works. She has a master’s degree in chemistry with nanotechnology, and a PhD in Materials Science from Imperial College London.

As Senior Product Manager at Metalenz, Janet leads a team of engineers focused on working with customer specifications, market, and technical knowledge to develop meta-optic solutions across consumer device, automotive, and robotics markets.

She has a demonstrated history of developing disruptive technologies for mass markets in major international companies. After beginning her career working on display optics R&D at Panasonic, she then worked for 10+ years at Osram Sylvania as Development Engineer for the light engines in LED light bulbs for the consumer market, taking the technology from the early stage of market disruption to commoditization. She then pivoted to Technical Product Manager of the Sylvania IoT portfolio before joining Metalenz.

Janet holds a master’s degree in physics from Télécom Physique Strasbourg, France, and a Ph.D. in optics from the College of Optics and Photonics/CREOL at the University of Central Florida.

Jeff Herman is the CEO and co-founder of Fabric8Labs. He founded the company with the goal to enable high-volume manufacturing through a novel electrochemical process. Fabric8Labs’ Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing (ECAM) process produces complex, dense metal parts without post-processing at the atomic level, enabling micron-scale feature resolution, complex internal features, high-purity materials, and rapid scalability to support mass manufacturing. Jeff holds over 20 patents, was selected for Forbes 30 under 30, and is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Lie Shi has been the CEO of AM Batteries since July 2023. Prior, Shi served as President of Celgard, a world-renowned battery separator company that invented and commercialized a solvent-free process to produce microporous membranes for lithium-ion batteries. Over his twenty-six-year stint at the company, he worked his way from technical manager, leading its lithium battery material development, to Vice President of R&D, to Chief Technology Officer, to Chief Operations Officer, and ultimately, ascending to President. He also served as the Global Head of Separator Business Development for Asahi Kasei Corporation, Celgard’s parent company. Shi received his B.S. in Physics from Kyoto University, Japan, M.S. in Physics from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte.

Geetha Dholakia is a Portfolio Program Manager at TDK Ventures. She is responsible for strategic engagements between Portfolio Companies and global TDK business groups. She is committed to identifying, enabling and nurturing nascent technical ideas to grow into successful business collaborations that improve lives and build a sustainable world.

She brings many years of scientific, technical program management and business development experience. In prior technology management roles, she has worked at NASA Ames Research Center, supporting NASA’s $200 million SBIR/STTR program and in enabling partnerships, business development and technology transfer of NASA Ames’ vast technology landscape. As a scientist, her deep research focus was in two areas, one at the cross-section of physics, materials science and electrical engineering in studying nanoscale systems and another in instrumentation for space missions.

She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science and a Masters in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, driven by a lifelong curiosity to understand how nature works.

Cameron Dales is president and co-founder of sodium-ion grid storage company, Peak Energy. Prior to Peak, Cam was an operating partner at Eclipse Ventures and was CCO of lithium-ion battery company, Enovix, where he led commercial strategy and execution from founding to public offering.

His first start-up was Symyx Technologies, which became a public company that developed high throughput robotic tools for the discovery of advanced materials. He started his career at Lockheed, where he developed spaceflight qualified hardware for several satellite programs.

Cam holds engineering degrees from Cornell and Stanford and is a named inventor on over 100 patents.

Steven is the founder and CEO of Novalith Technologies, a lithium chemicals production company, which is leveraging cutting-edge technologies to address critical challenges facing the lithium industry. By reducing the environmental impact and cost of lithium chemicals production, Novalith will both enable and accelerate the transition to an electric future and contribute towards the fight against climate change.

Over his career, Steven has worked in the oil & gas, mining & minerals, and clean-technologies sectors. He founded and operated a global chemical engineering company, which specialised in the design & supply of process plant and equipment, including equipment for the lithium and battery chemicals industries. Steven specialises in commercialisation and scale-up of novel technologies and has worked with several clean tech start-ups to develop and commercialise their novel technologies in battery materials, hydrogen and other sustainable technologies.

Arun Vinayak has been at the forefront of India’s EV sector for over a decade. As Ather Energy’s co-founder and Chief Product Officer, he helped create and launch one of India’s best electric 2W company that’s set to IPO in India.

After spending 7 years at Ather, he realised while EVs matched ICE vehicles in driving experience, issues on the energy side such as long charging times, poor charging infrastructure, and short battery life persisted, and focused on solving these challenges with his next venture: Exponent Energy.

Exponent is a full-stack energy company that delivers 15 minute rapid charging through its battery packs and charging network. Exponent’s vision is to simplify energy for EVs, making them seamless and accessible to all.

Exponent’s rapid charging is affordable & scalable as it uses commercial grade LFP cells, enabled by innovation in the BMS, charging algorithms, thermal management and charging network.

Geetha Dholakia is a Portfolio Program Manager at TDK Ventures. She is responsible for strategic engagements between Portfolio Companies and global TDK business groups. She is committed to identifying, enabling and nurturing nascent technical ideas to grow into successful business collaborations that improve lives and build a sustainable world.

She brings many years of scientific, technical program management and business development experience. In prior technology management roles, she has worked at NASA Ames Research Center, supporting NASA’s $200 million SBIR/STTR program and in enabling partnerships, business development and technology transfer of NASA Ames’ vast technology landscape. As a scientist, her deep research focus was in two areas, one at the cross-section of physics, materials science and electrical engineering in studying nanoscale systems and another in instrumentation for space missions.

She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science and a Masters in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, driven by a lifelong curiosity to understand how nature works.

Anil Achyuta is the Investment Managing Director at TDK Ventures, and also Investment Director for Fund EX1. He is passionate about the energy and healthcare sectors. He believes these are the most impactful areas in building a sustainable future, a mission that is directly in line with TDK Ventures’ goals.

Of his eleven investments, he has secured two exits: GenCell IPO’d on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (GNCL:IT), and Origin, which was acquired by the #1 3-D printing company in the world, Stratasys, for $100M.

Prior to TDK Ventures, Anil held leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies including L’Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Draper.

Anil was voted one of the Rising Stars in 2021 by Venture Capital Journal and was ranked the #2 Rising Star in 2021 out of 20,000 corporate venture managers globally. He was also voted as one of the Emerging Leaders of 2022 by Global Corporate Venturing. He is a published author in polymer science, neural engineering, microfluidics, and tissue engineering with 11 peer-reviewed publications, two book chapters, and six US patents.

He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University and received his M.B.A. from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business.

Anil was born and raised in Bangalore, India in a family of teachers, and speaks fluent Kannada, Hindi. He loves sports and music. He was a former cricket player, and currently plays tennis, table tennis, racquetball, and cricket occasionally. He loves playing guitar and listening to classic rock.

Nicolas Sauvage (SEP2018) is the President of TDK Ventures, with $350M AUM. TDK Ventures has invested in 37 startups, including unicorns like Groq, Ascend Elements and Silicon Box. Recognized on the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist for five consecutive years, Nicolas has authored articles on Corporate Venturing and hosts the Corporate Venturing Insider podcast. Nicolas serves on the boards of Analog Inference, AutoFlight, Faction, Mach49, Metalenz, Virewirx, and TDK Ventures. Nicolas has been awarded the Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School.