TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announced today that subsidiary TDK Ventures Inc. President Nicolas Sauvage has been recognized for the third consecutive year on the Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Powerlist, featured on the Top 20 at #17. The annual listing recognizes the top 150 heads of corporate venture capital units (CVCs) out of more than 4,000 active CVCs that the firm tracks around the world. TDK Ventures invests globally in early-stage tech startups to bolster innovation in materials science, energy and power, and related areas typically underrepresented in venture capital portfolios.
Since its establishment in 2019, TDK Ventures, under the leadership of Sauvage, has made it their mission to be ‘impact scalers’ driving a new era of sustainability and social value through accelerating and investing in early-stage hard-tech start-ups. More than an investor, though, the company prioritizes entrepreneurs first and brings the full measure of ‘TDK Goodness’ to each portfolio member. Through the greater TDK network, portfolio members gain access to support through every stage of their process from early product validation to pilot program setup, as well as customer connections, industry expertise, branding, and even market mentorship.
“When we launched TDK Ventures, I never expected so many learnings and strategic value,” said Shigenao Ishiguro, TDK Chairman. “Nicolas, with his team, has completely surpassed my highest expectations, bringing actionable learnings in very important topics for TDK, such as cleantech, mobility, advanced materials, and distributed manufacturing. TDK is just getting started with corporate venture capital activities. With Nicolas’ guidance, we will continue to play our part in contributing to technologies that will create a sustainable and attractive future for the world.”
To date, TDK Ventures has invested in 26 early-stage tech startups – all are Impact Scaling entrepreneurs who are creating a new era of sustainability and social value.
“Nicolas brings a unique combination of traits that separates him from other CVC leaders and makes him one of the top players,” said Paul Holland, venture capital group Mach49’s VC-in-residence and managing director, and former general partner at Foundation Capital. “He has recruited and coached an incredible team and based on the results of TDK Fund 1, he has presided over one of the best starts in the history of CVC, and already launched a second fund, Fund 2, in 2021, three times the size of Fund 1. In addition, nearly 25% of TDK’s investments have already or soon will become unicorns. Simply put, he is on the way to becoming one of the top global venture capitalists.”
To make their selections, GCV uses advanced data analytics, drawn from their insights-as-a-service data platform, in comparing each CVC. Additionally, it looks at strategy and leadership metrics, thought-leadership, vision, and even motivation abilities.
“I firmly believe raising the bar of the whole CVC ecosystem is essential to improve the value we bring to entrepreneurs, to our partners, to our respective parent companies, and ultimately grow our contribution to society,” Sauvage commented. “I am truly honored to be joining the ranks of such an amazing and accomplished group of CVC leaders who have brought so much to our community.”
GCV is the media publication and data provider for the corporate venture capital industry. It has a unique database, GCV Analytics, to which many Fortune 1000 companies subscribe. It runs multiple global events, with flagship conferences in Silicon Valley and London. Learn more about the award, and read Nicolas’ profile, here on GCV.
To learn more about TDK Ventures, interested startups or investment partners should visit www.tdk-ventures.com or reach out at contact@tdk-ventures.com.
