Sakae Asanuma

Sakae Asanuma established Taiho Ventures as the founding President in 2016.

Prior to joining Taiho, he was President and CEO at Astellas Venture Management and US Head of Astellas Innovation Management in 2011-2015. Prior to Astellas, he worked for Yasuda Enterprise, a Japan/US-based VC firm in 2000-2011.

He has invested in more than 50 biotech companies since 2000 and half of them achieved IPOs or M&As. During his days at Taiho and Astellas, he closed dozens of research collaborations with academia and biotech ventures, including several build-to-buy or spin-out deals.