Looking Back
Tech for Impact Summit 2025
Our second summit brought together 2,910 attendees from 57 countries in Tokyo. From AI governance to fusion energy, the conversations that started here are still shaping the industry.
2,910
Attendees
100+
Speakers & Mentors
200+
Startups
57
Countries
78
Partner Orgs
$4B+
Investor AUM
2025 Aftermovie
Highlights
Moments from 2025
2025 Speakers & Mentors
100+ Speakers & Mentors
CEOs, investors, researchers, policymakers, and founders who spoke at Tech for Impact Summit 2025.
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Audrey Tang
Accelerator Fellow, Institute for Ethics in AI at University of Oxford, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador-at-large, 1st Digital Minister, and Digital Democracy Pioneer
Charles Hoskinson
CEO and co-founder of Input Output Global (formerly IOHK)
Kathy Matsui
General Partner at MPower Partners
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Ken Shibusawa
CEO of Shibusawa and Company Inc., CEO of & Capital, CEO of Commons Asset Management, Senior Advisor of Brunswick Group
Michael Levin
Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology at Tufts University
John Donoghue
Professor of Neuroscience, Engineering and Cognitive and Psychological Sciences Brown University
Rika Nakazawa
Chief Commercial Innovation, NTT
Jesper Koll
Expert Director for the Monex Group and the Japan Catalyst Fund
Takuya Kitagawa
President at QuEra Computing
Arisa Koyama
Gates Foundation, Japan Head
Yoshiko Tsuwaki
Director of Innovation Policy, Cabinet Secretariat of Japan
Saeda Makimoto
Japan International Cooperation Agency, Senior Deputy Director General
Ken Asada
Japan Head, Partner at Salesforce Ventures
Haruka Mera
CEO of READYFOR
Hajime Hotta
Empathic AI Researcher / Cinnamon AI Founder / Nexus FrontierTech Founder
Emi Tamaki
CEO, Co-founder, H2L, Inc., Professor at University of the Ryukyus and the University of Tokyo (Graduate School)
Phillip Pon
CEO of EMURGO
Ken Kodama
Chairman at EMURGO
Hideaki Sone
COO of Heralbony
Scarlett Chen
Managing Partner - Verge HealthTech Fund
Ian Huang
General Partner at Good People Ventures
Matthew Romaine
Shizen Capital Founding Partner
Robin Takashi Lewis
Co-Founder of mymizu and Social Innovation Japan
David Freiberg
Impact Investing and Accounting Lead, Climate Change and Sustainability Solutions, EY
Christelle Ciari
Voice Actress and Television Host
Anna Ciaunica
Principal Investigator, INESC_ID, Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Alex Zapesochny
Co-founder and CEO of Clerio Vision, Chairman of Turbett Surgical
Patrick Yuji Wakabayashi
Managing Partner at RiskTaker Ventures
Masataka Uo
Ecosystem builder for impact economy and philanthropy
Donald Eubank
Co-founder of Read the Air, the sustainable business advisory firm, and co-author of "Leading Sustainably-The path to sustainable business and how the SDGs changed everything"
Seira Yun
Founder & CEO of Socious / Impact Angel Investor
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Mariko Nishimura
HEART CATCH Inc. CEO
Sandeep Casi
Partner at Antler | Head of Antler Ibex, Japan
Kohei Yamamoto
Managing Partner at X&KSK
Masaki Yamamoto
CEO of kubell
Kozo Takei
Management Thinker/ Social Activist/ Social Systems Designer
Hector Zenil
Founder of Oxford Immune Algorithmics and Associate Professor at King's College London
Fumiko Inada
CEO of Bee Informatica
Mariko McTier
Co-CEO of Social Innovation Japan
Sayaka Takatsuka
Impact Capital CEO
Shumpei Tatebayashi
Deputy General Manager, Open Innovation Promotion Division / General Manager, Business Co-Creation Promotion Office at KDDI Corporation
Shion Kubota
Owen Chamberlain Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Kohei Katada
CFO at Gojo & Company
Eriko Suzuki
Kind Capital CEO
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Masami Takahashi
Scrum Ventures, General Partner & COO
Shigeru Handa
AAIC Investment, Director
Kiyoshi Seko
Kyoto Fusion Engineering Co., Ltd. Director and COO
Shogo Ishida
CEO- EMURGO Middle East & Africa
Naoto Tomono
Principal at Keio Innovation Initiative
Shunsuke Murasaki
Chief of Staff at EMURGO
Keigo Shimada
Associate at Coral Capital
Hirofumi Miyoshi
Senior Associate at Angel Bridge
Koshu Kunii
General Partner at Lifetime Ventures
Ken Suzuki
Project Researcher - The University of Tokyo
Yuki Shirato
Managing Director at Techstars
Fuyuki Yamaguchi
Abies Ventures Managing Partner
Yuki Tsuchioka
Investment Manager at Genesia Ventures
Shu Sokabe
Investment Manager at Genesia Ventures
Naotaka Ueda
NISSAY CAPITAL General Manager
Yurie Kibi
株式会社日建設計/PYNT イノベーションデザインセンター アソシエイト
Sera Tsutsumi
DG Incubation Senior Principal
Satoshi Obata
United, Capitalist manager
Akitomo Naoi
Spiral Capital Principal
Tatsuro Koyama
Hero Zen Capital General Partner / Venture Partner
Atsushi Nishida
JAFCO Principal
Tomoko Matsuoka
Contemporary Artist
Yoram Ben-Zvi
Thought Leader / 5am.earth
Jack Briggs
Executive Director (interim) - Intersect
Nathaniel Acton
VP- Global Marketing at EMURGO
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Itsuki Kanda
Co-Founder & COO at Pedal
Takaya Taguchi
Helical Fusion, Co-Founder, CEO
Jingles K.
Founder - Mesh SDK and UTXOS
Alexandre Maaza
Sustainability and Innovation Lead at the Cardano Foundation
Aya Shimada
CULTURELABS Founder
Hinson Wong
Co-founder & CEO of DeltaDeFi
Hinza Asif
Founder and CEO of Blockza
Tatsunori Sato
Spurcle, Venture Capitalist
Mai Thanh Binh
Co-founder and CEO of BTCGrow
Kohjiro Akiyama
Forbes Japan Columnist, Representative director of Kodomo Shokudo Support Center
Peter MacMillan
The Moon is a Boat, Representative Director
Ken Komatsu
CEO of Wonder Wall Co.,Ltd. / GOLFIN
Mari Sekino
CEO/Founder of QERA
Dave Dionisio
Chief of Staff to the COO
Manuel Gimenez
Eryx cooperativa de trabajo, Partner/ Business development
Ranket
Cardano DRep, Asst. Prof. in Japan (Ph.D)
Jet Son Tan
TrendRider Co-Founder & CEO
Colin Magne
Inovexus, Investor
Santiago Carmuega
TxPipe CEO
Mai Katagiri
Novartis Pharma, Head of Business Excellence & Execution Ecosystem & Healthcare Solutions
Yosuke Tamura
Harvard University / Investment Professional
Kazumasa Yamada
BIOTOPE Managing Partner
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Alex Pestchanker
Token Allies CTO & CoFounder
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Shantnoo Saxsena
Anzens Inc. CEO
Masayuki Iga
Honda R&D Staff Engineer
Mario Larangeira
IOG/Institute of Science Tokyo Researcher/Specially Appointed Associate Professor
BTBF
SPO JAPAN GUILD Founder
Momoko Imamura
BIOTOPE Business Designer / Sustainability Strategist
Ruiki Kaneyasu
BIOTOPE Managing Partner / Business Designer
Takumi Kubo
Scrum Inc./ Impact Cube Fund CEO
Alexandru Dochioiu
Founder and CEO- Vespr
Clark Alesna
Chief Executive Officer of SAIB Inc.
Fionna De Rosa
Hideki Shiiki
Investment Manager - Colopl Next
Carlos Oba
CEO & CIO / Founder - Dots for Inc.
Navjit Dhaliwal
CEO of Iagon
Philip DiSarro
CEO - Anastasia Labs
Zach Taub
New Town Inc., Zach of all Trades
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Arisa Chelsea Ueno
Investor / Accelerator Director - DraperU Ventures
Ahmed M Amer
CEO of EMURGO Labs
Kriss Baird
Project Catalyst General Manager
Giorgio Zinetti
Cardano Foundation Chief Technology Officer
Nathan Barkell
CEO and Co-founder - Olympus Insights
Taichi Yokoyama
Japan Community Manager - Input Output Global
Kotaro Motoshima
Co-Founder of Co-Create DAO
Danielle Stanko
IOG Governance
Kyle Solomon
CEO - Drip Dropz
Phillip Gillespie
Managing Partner - AWR Capital
Harry Plumstead
Senior Credit Analyst - RealFi
Tatsuo Ogura
Venture Café Tokyo, Global Gathering 2026 Co-lead
Margarida Mendes da Maia
Catalyst Head of Product
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Bilal Kharouni
CEO of ekei labs
Ikuo Hiraishi
Founder and CEO of DreamVision Inc.
Sou Miyake
Corundum Systems Biology, Head of Venture Investments
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Jeffrey Char
Founder & CEO of SOGO Energy
Mohamed A. Haggag
Founder, Agentis Labs
Christine Bagarino
Founder and CEO - Social AI
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Beatrice Anihiri
Co-founder - Konsensis
Hiraku Iwashita
Representative Director - Japan Web3 Tourism Association
Scott Collen
Midnight Foundation - VP, Ecosystem
Shiho Watabe
Chair, Shibuya Startups KK
Mayumi Wakebe
Founding Managing Partner – Africa-focused Fund
Daniel Sampson
CEO of Metera Protocol
John Kojiro Moriwaka
CEO, Silicon Valley Ventures
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Tarh Joshua Abonghe
Product Manager at Socious
Chrisanne Yee
Socious, Head of Marketing
Junayeed Matin
Head of Partnerships - Tech for Impact Summit (Socious)
Teruyo Koda
Head of Administration - Socious
2025 Schedule
Program
Three stages running simultaneously with English-Japanese interpretation.
Main Stage
–
Tech as a Force for Peace: Let's Build the Bright Future
09:00 –
Arrival and Registration
09:50 – 10:00
Opening Ceremony
10:00 – 10:20
Bioelectricity as Interface to Cellular Intelligence: Toward Definitive Regenerative Medicine of Injury, Cancer, and Aging (virtual)
10:25 – 11:05
Triple I for GH: Unlocking Universal Health Coverage Through Impact-Driven Financing and Tech Innovation
11:10 – 11:50
The Road Ahead for DEI: Politics, Pushback, and Possibilities
11:55 – 12:05
Project Catalyst: A model for an impactful society
11:55 – 12:35
Beyond Biology's Boundaries: Will We Live to 120 by 2050?
12:05 – 12:15
Next-Gen Donor: Scaling the SDGs with Blockchain Treasuries
12:15 – 12:25
RWA Tokenization: The $450 Trillion Opportunity
12:15 – 12:25
RWA Tokenization: The $450 Trillion Opportunity
12:25 – 12:35
One Click to On-Chain: Making Bitcoin & Cardano Feel Like Web2 with UTXOS
12:35 – 12:45
From Pilots to Production: Driving Web3 Enterprise Adoption
12:40 – 12:50
Next-Gen Donor: Scaling the SDGs with Blockchain Treasuries
12:45 – 12:55
Preparing Finance for Autonomous, Audit-Ready AI Transactions
12:45 – 14:00
Networking Lunch
12:55 – 13:05
Privacy as a common good
13:00 – 13:45
The Future of Work: Human Talent, AI Agents, or Post-Work Society?
13:05 – 13:15
DeFi for impact - Build the infrastructure for wider financial accessibility
13:15 – 13:30
Rebuilding and Reimagining Haiti: A Tech-Driven Blueprint for Resilient Infrastructure
13:15 – 13:35
Minds Connected: The Promise and Perils of Brain-Computer Interfaces
14:05 – 15:05
Plurality: How Collaborative Technology Will Transform Democracy
15:10 – 15:50
What Motivates Social Entrepreneurs? The Psychology Behind Founding and Growing an Impact Startup
15:55 – 16:35
Architecting Dignity: Cardano's Blueprint for a Private and Inclusive Financial World
16:40 – 17:00
The No Body Problem: Intelligence and Selfhood in Biological and Artificial Systems
17:05 – 17:25
How Superintelligence Will Eradicate World Disease and Suffering
17:30 – 18:00
Charles Hoskinson Keynote Speech
18:00 – 18:10
The Socious Fund Awards Ceremony
18:10 – 18:15
Closing Ceremony
18:15 –
Networking
Impact Stage
10:00 – 10:40
Socious Fund Impact Pitch (English) - Commentators
10:00 – 10:40
Socious Fund Proposers Impact Pitch - EN
10:40 – 11:20
Socious Fund Proposers Impact Pitch (Japanese) - Commentators
10:40 – 11:20
Socious Fund Proposers Impact Pitch - Japanese
11:25 – 11:30
Biomarkers of Ageing Platform to Advance Longevity Research
11:30 – 11:40
When Diversity Becomes Strength: AI, Quantum, and the Next Platforms of Society
11:40 – 11:50
“Beyond Labels" for the Future- Redefining Social Impact Together
11:50 – 12:00
Connecting Innovators to Make Things Happen: Collective Impact Through the Venture Café Global Gathering
12:00 – 12:05
Stablecoin for Settlements and Beyond - Anzens
12:05 – 12:15
Inheriting L1 Security: Midgard and the Future of Optimistic Rollups
12:15 – 12:25
How Cardano is Redefining Coordination
12:30 – 13:10
The Impact Unicorn: Investing in Tech with Real Impact
13:15 – 13:55
Cardano Vision for Impact - Input Output Research
14:00 – 15:30
Open Mic
15:30 – 15:35
Architecture-First Agentic Workflows: The Path to Mass AI Adoption
15:40 – 16:05
Blockchain Philanthropy in Action: WRFGS, UNHCR’s Flagship for Impact Staking
16:10 – 16:50
Potential Impact of Enterprise Adoption: Cardano's Next Frontier
16:55 – 17:25
The Leapfrog Ledger: Can Blockchain Unlock the Potential of the Global South?
17:30 – 18:00
Fionna De Rosa Live Vocal Performance
Workshops
10:00 – 10:50
Vision Design: A Method for Prototyping the Future of 2050 (Japanese)
10:55 – 11:40
Sigil - Multisig for teams, businesses, and enterprises (English)
11:45 – 00:30
VESPR Wallet - Path to adoption and Cardano's missing puzzle pieces (English)
12:30 – 13:15
Emurgo Workshop on Governance (English)
13:25 – 14:15
VC-LP Connect (For Investor / Corporate Pass Holders; Bilingual)
14:20 – 14:50
International Investment Opportunities from Japan (English)
14:55 – 15:40
DeFi Master Class – Opportunities and Risks on Bitcoin & Cardano DeFi (English)
15:45 – 16:30
Project Catalyst: Funding Models for Impact Futures (English)
16:35 – 17:20
Designing the Future: Co-Creating the Cardano x UNDP Programme (English)
17:25 – 18:00
Emergent Strategy Thinking: Imagining a World Beyond ‘Impact Startups,’ - A fun interactive Workshop guided by Investor / Coach (Japanese)
2025 Sponsors
Partners & Sponsors
78 organizations supported Tech for Impact Summit 2025.
Co-Host
Gold
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Silver
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Bronze
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VC Partners
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Media Partners
Community & Student Partners
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2025 Partner Events
Partner Events
Ready for 2026?
The third Tech for Impact Summit returns to Tokyo on April 26, 2026. Bigger stages, more investors, and AI-powered matchmaking.