Yohei Sawayama

Yohei Sawayama is a Founding Partner at Coral Capital and the former co-founder of 500 Startups Japan, where he directed investments into more than eighty early-stage technology companies across the country. Before entering venture capital, he covered the technology, media, and telecom sectors as an investment banker at JP Morgan, advising on major transactions like Sony’s $785 million acquisition of So-Net and Toshiba’s multibillion-dollar purchase of Landis+Gyr. He also worked as a researcher at Nomura Securities focusing on technology initial public offerings, including the highly successful $300 million listing of Gunosy. Sawayama holds a bachelor's degree in computer simulation and a master's degree in nuclear engineering from the prestigious University of Tokyo. Drawing on his prior experience as an engineer and hackathon winner, he successfully bridges technical expertise with institutional finance to support the growing Japanese startup ecosystem.