#Pitch2Tokyo 2026

Learn More: https://venturecafeglobal.org/sessions/gg26-pitch2tokyo-2026/?type=session
Pitch2Tokyo 2026 Cohort: https://venturecafeglobal.org/global-gathering-2026/pitch2tokyo-2026-finalists/

Date: February 19th, 2026
Session Location: Toranomon Hills Forum Hall-B – Main Room
Session Organizer: Venture Café Tokyo
Language: English
Session Description:
18 Cities. 18 Founders. One Global Winner. The road to Tokyo has been long, but the destination is finally here. We’ve scoured the Venture Café global network to find the most audacious founders building for the future, and on February 19th, the “Final 18” take the main stage. This is #Pitch2Tokyo: where global winners from Tokyo, Cambridge, Warsaw, Phoenix, London and beyond collide for the chance to scale their business globally from Japan. No fluff, just high-growth startups pitching to a panel of distinguished judges, to win access to CIC for the upcoming year*
*Prizes subject to change.

EVENT FLOW:
4:50pm - Welcome and Judge Introduction(s)
5:00pm - Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge University Pitch Winner - Hey Ho
5:05pm - Pitch2Tokyo Group 1
5:58pm - Pitch2Tokyo Group 2
6:51pm - Pitch2Tokyo Group 3
7:40pm - Judge Time**
**Sessions will be going taking place during this time
8:30pm - Pitch2Tokyo Winner Announcement

Pitch Run-Order:
Block 1 – ACCESSIBILITY
5:05pm: Precious Adeyemi - Beeva AI (Berlin)
5:11pm: Ayan Sakenov - LOOQ (Yokohama)
5:17pm: Hyeongseok Jeon - Morai (Seoul)
5:23pm: Shota Imamura - Nefront (Tokyo)
5:29pm: Travis Ralph-Donaldson - Niter Ltd (Speech Labs) (Manchester)
5:35pm: Jeremy Chow - Tactus (Cambridge)
Followed by 12 minutes of Q&A

Block 2 – SUSTAINABILITY
5:58pm: Ryo Sasamoto - AirMembrane (Tsukuba)
6:04pm: Anaut Patterson Mendiola - Blue Reef Algae (San Sebastian)
6:10pm: Xiaoyan Ma - Danu Robotics Ltd (Edinburgh)
6:16pm: Monika Radomska - EcoBean (Warsaw)
6:22pm: Dennis Ilic - eMotion Fleet (Fukuoka)
6:28pm: Seishiro Tsukuda - Wada Food Tech (Osaka)
Followed by 12 minutes of Q&A

Block 3 – Well-being
6:51pm: Yasmin Baba - Amilis (London)
6:57pm: Bianca Wang - Earthling BioMed (Hualien)
7:03pm: Kira Burns - Gravitrex (Phoenix)
7:09pm: Yo Amakusa - iBody (Nagoya)
7:15pm: Keisuke Ito - nonat (Gifu)
7:21pm: Dan Cabral - XiA'H (Monterrey)
Followed by 12 minutes of Q&A

JUDGES for Pitch2Tokyo 2026
Takaaki Umezawa, Japan Chairperson at Cambridge Innovation Center
Chase Changhee Seon, Co-Founder at umoh.io
Daiki Sato, Partner at KPMG Japan
Keiichiro Nishi, Senior Vice President at Fujitsu
Mikiya Endo, Principal at D4V
Ryan Nakata, General Manager at Alumni Ventures
Schyler Alexandra Cole, Entrepreneur in Residence at Value Create Ventures
Taisuke "Alex" Odajima, CEO at EDGEof INNOVATION LLC
Will Horyn, Principal at Geodesic Capital
Yu Li Shein, Director, Founders Institute Japan