Masashi Kiyomine
Managing Partner
Superpower: Investment & Logic
With more than 20 years of experience investing at the intersection of healthcare and technology globally, he brings a global outlook, long-term venture capital perspective and strategic vision to Kicker grounded in breadth of experience and knowledge of this field.
Prior to founding Kicker Ventures, Masashi spent 13 years at Mitsui Global Investment and served as the Head of Global Life Sciences Venture Investment where he led investment activities in the US, Europe, Israel, Japan, China, and India
Masashi holds a dual B.A. in Engineering and Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. He is also involved in academia as a Specially Appointed Professor at Tohoku University and contributes as a columnist for Nikkei Beyond Health.
Outside of work, Masashi enjoys cooking for family and friends, discovering new craft beers, and tackling everyday problems with a practical, creative mindset. Whether in the kitchen or in venture, he finds joy in building, refining, and figuring things out—one thoughtful step at a time.
Tomoko Saeki
Managing Partner
Superpower: Connection & Cross-Cultural Partnerships
Tomoko has extensive experience across many different sectors of healthcare, in many different countries and business cultures. From startups, to consulting, to major global corporations, Tomoko has a deep understanding of the different stakeholders across the healthcare industry and brings them together to create greater impact.
Tomoko is a trained pharmacist and molecular biologist, and she holds an MBA from INSEAD. Before founding Kicker Ventures, she served as Business Development Advisor to Nipro, worked for Axios International in France, UNICEF in Rwanda, consulted for PwC's PRTM, and worked as project manager for Aqumen Biopharmaceutical—a biotech startup in Japan.
With her experience, Tomoko specializes in building community and fostering cross-cultural partnerships, helping to create a supportive ecosystem for Kicker’s portfolio companies and the industry as a whole.
In addition to her role at Kicker Ventures, Tomoko teaches meditation classes in San Francisco and brings thoughtful and practical approaches back to her work in fostering a valuable, authentic community in the healthcare industry. She is deeply involved in the US female VC community, and is regularly invited to speak at conferences around the world. Tomoko is also a mentor in several important accelerator programs, supporting the next generation of healthcare entrepreneurs and investors.
Samantha Young
Advisor
Superpower: Finance
Samantha is a strategic finance leader with broad experience in the healthcare space. She currently serves as Chief Financial Officer for Bicycle Health, a Series B telemedicine startup focussed on serving patients with opioid use disorder, which is backed by Questa Capital, Frist Cressey Ventures, Interalpen Partners and City Light Capital.
Samantha brings financial reporting, FP&A, M&A, investor relations, fundraising and commercial expertise from her roles at Cerebral, CloudCath, Medtronic, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Lighthouse Capital Partners. She holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Oregon, an MBA from the The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is a CPA (inactive) in the State of California.
Swati Reichmuth
Advisor
Superpower: Operations, Finance & Strategy
Swati is an Operating Executive focused on scaling companies in hyper growth. At BrightInsight, she joined as employee number 10 and has scaled the company to over 400 people from Seed to Series C. She built key corporate functions including Professional Services, Maintenance and Support, had P&L responsibilities, launched international operations in the EU and India, diversified the financial strategy and more. Currently Swati is the SVP of Corporate Strategy, Operations and Finance.
Before joining BrightInsight, Swati was head of Business Operations at the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center’s Digital Health team. As an Engagement Manager at Deloitte Consulting, Swati specialized in strategy and operations. Swati’s career began in Silicon Valley at Cisco, launching flagship products and delivering on international business transformations. Swati is passionate about building the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem and is an advisor to early-stage startups and venture funds. Swati holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering also from UC Berkeley.
Jessica Chao
Advisor
Superpower: Investment & Hospital Integration
Jessica is a healthcare entrepreneur, investor and complex care delivery system expert with more than 15 years of experience. She is a venture partner at Silicon Valley Latam Capital, and visiting partner at Iterative VC accelerator. Jessica studied pharmacy, pharmacoeconomics and health system administration at the University of Washington, where she got her Pharm D. She completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Medicine and got an MBA in Health Services Management from Johns Hopkins University.
Jessica co-founded a venture-backed consumer health information company, and led product design in various digital health companies. As director of the UCSF Clinical Innovation Center, she heads up new initiatives such as new care models that create both ROI for the health system as well as for our patients. Jessica also works closely with faculty to accelerate discovery, conduct service design research and product development through industry partnerships.
Julia Coelho
Advisor
Superpower: Product, Scale Strategy & Fundraising
Julia has a 20-year track record of building high impact businesses around cutting-edge healthcare products at the confluence of patient unmet needs and technology, including AI/ML. Julia is currently the Chief Business Officer at Quantum Insights, a company revolutionizing biomarker discovery. Recently, Julia was the Chief Commercial Officer at Unlearn.ai, which uses the power of AI/ML data predictions to design innovative clinical trials.
Previously, Julia served as Vice President of Corporate Development at CardioDx, leading market expansion and operational initiatives. At Carl Zeiss Meditec, Julia launched imaging+data diagnostics aimed at early detection of eye diseases. Earlier in her career, Julia worked at Abbott Vascular, launching five medical devices. At the start of her career, Julia worked in investing at Agência de Inovação in Portugal, launching its first seed fund. Julia has advised healthtech and diagnostic startups on fundraising, product, go-to-market and scale strategies. Julia holds a MBA from INSEAD and an MS in Chemical Engineering from University of Porto, Portugal.
New Latthivongskorn MD
Advisor
Superpower: Health Equity
New is a board-certified Family Medicine physician, health equity advocate, and systems thinker dedicated to transforming healthcare. He has provided care across diverse settings—including community health centers, public county hospitals, private practice, academic institutions, and telemedicine—giving him a comprehensive perspective on the challenges and opportunities within the healthcare system. He is passionate about bridging the gap between healthcare delivery and innovation, ensuring that emerging solutions are grounded in real-world clinical insights and responsive to the needs of diverse communities.
Beyond his clinical work, New is a recognized leader in immigrant rights and healthcare access for immigrant communities in the United States. He co-founded Pre-Health Dreamers, a nonprofit supporting undocumented students pursuing health careers, and has played a pivotal role in shifting national conversations around immigration and healthcare. His advocacy and leadership have earned him recognition from Forbes’ 30 Under 30, the UCSF Gold-Headed Cane Society, and the Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare.
New holds an MD from UCSF’s Program in Medical Education for the Urban Underserved (PRIME-US) and a Master of Public Health in Policy from Harvard University. He is also an alumnus of UC Berkeley. He calls both the San Francisco Bay Area and Thailand home.
Matthew Lungren
Advisor
Superpower: Healthcare AI Technical Innovation
Dr. Lungren is Chief Scientific Officer for Microsoft Health & Life Sciences where he focuses on translating cutting edge technology, including generative AI and cloud services, into innovative healthcare applications. As a physician and clinical machine learning researcher, he maintains collaborative research and teaching roles as adjunct professor at Stanford University.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Lungren was a clinical interventional radiologist and research faculty at Stanford University Medical School where he led the Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI). He later served as Principal for Clinical AI/ML at Amazon Web Services in World Wide Public Sector Healthcare, focusing on business development for clinical machine learning technologies in the public cloud.
His scientific work has led to more than 200 publications with 30k citations, including work on multi-modal data fusion models for healthcare applications, new computer vision and natural language processing approaches for healthcare specific domains, opportunistic screening with machine learning for public health applications, open medical data as public good, prospective clinical trials for clinical AI translation, and application of generative AI in healthcare.
He has served as advisor for early stage startups and large fortune-500 companies on healthcare AI technology development and go-to-market strategy. Dr. Lungren's work has been featured in national news outlets such as NPR, Vice News, Scientific American, and he regularly speaks at national and international scientific meetings on the topic of AI in healthcare.
Brian Han
Advisor
Superpower: Clinical Strategy and Implementation
Brian Han is a double board-certified Pediatric Cardiologist and Critical Care physician and full-time faculty at Stanford University. Outside of his clinical work, Brian focuses on evaluating and translating emerging technology into actionable clinical practice. He currently serves as the Cardiovascular Innovation and Digital Health Lead for Impact1, a maternal and pediatric-focused incubator within the Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign, where he guides digital health projects and portfolio companies.
During his time as a Stanford Biodesign Faculty Fellow, Brian led the development of a digital platform that integrates physiological data from EHR systems with consumer home devices to enhance remote patient monitoring in the outpatient setting. He continues to be the clinical lead for several projects, bridging technologies developed by talented founders and engineers and bringing it to bedside. Brian maintains a robust advisory practice focused on digital health and AI in medicine, serving as a clinical advisor for multiple early stage startups and accelerators and is actively involved with both local and national groups focused on digital health, health informatics, and healthcare AI.
Brian earned his B.A./M.D. from Northwestern University and completed his residency and dual fellowships in Pediatric Cardiology and Critical Care at Stanford University.
Hiroshi Otake MD
Advisor
Superpower: Critical thinking & Clinical operations
Hiro is a board-certified Anesthesiologist and Critical care physician with more than 20 years of experience, who has practiced in Japan, the US and Australia. He is an expert in clinical implementation of tele-medicine and digital health. Hiro served as Vice President of Showa University Hospital and as a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology. There, he launched the first Asian tele-ICU program, which connects 100 ICU beds in four hospitals and conducts machine learning analysis to estimate future vital signs of critical care patients.
Hiro worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, engaging in projects such as developing the marketing strategy of new drugs for pharmaceutical companies, standardizing the drug inspection processes for PMDA and supervising municipal governments to build local policy to improve efficiency of community care. He holds an MD from University of Tokyo, an MBA from University of Chicago and an MS in Clinical Informatics Management from Stanford University.
Gregg Shibata
Advisor
Superpower: Health plan sherpa
Gregg is a healthcare veteran with unique experiences and expertise—particularly in understanding and navigating the payer channel and landscape. He currently leads the strategic venture investment program for Blue Shield of California, building collaborative and commercial partnerships between internal business stakeholders and innovative startups. As an investor, the program has $150AUM between funds and direct investments. As a partnership enabler, he curates new opportunities and accelerates healthcare transformation for Blue Shield of California’s 4.9M members.
Previously, Gregg was a market development executive for an IBX/Comcast joint venture—developing the payor strategy for new consumer engagement products and services. Prior to that, he was a leader at Echo Health Ventures, shaping and executing a new model for strategic corporate venture investment and partnership. He also implemented value-based care programs for Cambia Health Solutions. Gregg graduated from UC Berkeley and spent four years teaching English in Kitadaito, Okinawa, Japan.
Ethan Goh MD
Advisor (Former Fellow)
Superpower: Organization
Dr. Ethan Goh is an experienced healthcare executive with a background in informatics, digital health transformation, and strategic innovation. His research at Stanford focuses on leading multi-site, grant-funded evaluation of Large Language Model applications within healthcare. As a cited healthcare AI expert, Dr. Goh's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other leading publications.
Prior to academic research, he was an Internal Medicine clinician, startup founder, and technology consultant, working with partners like Google, OpenAI, Roche, Samsung, and the NHS in the development, validation and commercialization of digital health products and AI technology. He holds a medical degree from Imperial College London, and a Masters in Clinical Informatics and Management from Stanford University. Ethan was a Fellow at Kicker Ventures from 2021 to 2022.
Tamay Aykut
Advisor
Superpower: AI Innovation
Tamay received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Munich in 2019, where he was honored with the Nokia Bell Lab’s Best Student Award and the Kurt-Fischer Doctorate Award. He was selected for the Junior Research Group Program at the Max Planck Center for Visual Computing and Communication at Stanford University, becoming the youngest visiting assistant professor since 2002. His work includes significant contributions to peer-reviewed publications.
In 2020, Tamay co-founded our portfolio company CareX.ai as CTO. He served on the AI Subcommittee at Harvard University's Wyss Institute from 2021 to 2022 and was CTO at Snowcrash, where he spearheaded a team in building an AI/Blockchain tech platform vetted by Sony Music, Universal Studios, and NatGeo (Disney). In 2022, Tamay founded Sureel Inc., a venture at the forefront of explainable AI technology, distinguished by four patents pending and his contributions to research papers, showcasing his ongoing dedication to AI innovation.
Tamay is passionate about staying active, immersing himself in reading, and advancing technology to create meaningful impact.
Kosuke Mori
Advisor
Superpower: Curiosity & Product Growth
Kosuke is a seasoned product manager with over eight years of experience driving growth in consumer subscription businesses. He brings a sharp focus on experimentation, behavioral science, and business growth—shaped by his work across diverse industries.
Kosuke served as Senior Product Manager, Growth at Noom, a leading digital health and wellness platform focused on behavior change. There, he led more than 300 A/B tests across key surfaces including the conversion funnel, upsells, referrals, new products, and customer engagement touchpoints. His work directly contributed to eight-figure incremental annual revenue and helped shape Noom’s approach to product-led growth.
Before Noom, Kosuke held roles in adtech, telecom, and system integration—adjacent sectors in internet and technology—working internationally and bringing cross-cultural fluency while consistently driving business impact.
Kosuke holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan.
Dave Samuelson
Advisor
Superpower: Life Science Partnerships & Commercial Strategy
Dave Samuelson is a commercial leader, passionate about using technology and data to expedite drug development. He has worked in business development roles at various health tech companies, driving large partnerships with life science companies.
At Rune Labs, he was the first commercial hire and built a clinical trials business, getting Rune’s wearable technology used in multiple large interventional trials. At Evidation, he led software and data deals with large biopharma companies and foundations, including a large multiyear partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He is currently advising a range of startups on life science strategy with a focus on neurology.
Shrey Singh
Fellow
Superpower: Strategy & Implementation
Shrey is passionate about solving wicked problems in healthcare. He started off in the medtech space and co-founded a venture to improve diagnostics for glaucoma patients. He transitioned to corporate to build bridges between healthcare startups and strategics.
Currently he leads strategy at a major diagnostics firm to unearth opportunities in digital health and biotech. He leads due-diligence, works with startups for identifying go-to-market pathways and aligning with clinical KOLs, launching programs in hypertension, dementia and stroke. He is also an incoming student at UC Berkeley and UCSF's masters of translational medicine program.
Shrey is a third-culture kid, having grown up in Singapore, and lived in Hong Kong, Japan and the US. He is an avid foodie and loves football(soccer)!
Pomai Yamaguchi
Fellow
Superpower: Cross-Discipline Communication & Collaboration
Pomai Yamaguchi is passionate about translating cutting-edge research into real-world impact. As a Ph.D. candidate in Biotechnology Engineering at Tufts University, her work centers on using metabolomics for bioprocess optimization in both the pharma and food tech sectors. Prior to joining Kicker, Pomai was a Venture Fellow at Corundum Systems Biology, where she evaluated and supported early-stage innovation focused on the microbiome.
Pomai is originally from Hawaii but is currently located in Boston. Outside of the lab, she is experienced in several combat sports and can typically be found in the boxing gym. She also consults on product and strategy for an early-stage startup building a platform for women in the fight sport space.
Adeola Fagunloye
Fellow
Superpower: Bench-to-market translation, Regulatory strategy, Cross-functional execution
Adeola Fagunloye is driven to turn rigorous science into products that matter. Trained as a pharmacist in Nigeria, he earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked across the full research-to-market spectrum as a management consultant, FDA regulatory fellow, medical writer, and commercialization fellow at the Penn Center for Innovation, building fluency in evidence generation, regulation, and go-to-market strategy. He currently serves as an Entrepreneurial Lead in Penn’s ELITE Fellowship, where he evaluates and advances early-stage technologies with clinicians, scientists, and investors. Adeola also supports Kicker Ventures as a fellow by developing its investment thesis in AI-driven drug discovery in oncology, contributing market maps, technical diligence, and sourcing.
Originally from Nigeria and now based in Philadelphia, he thrives at the interface of deep science and real-world adoption, distilling complex mechanisms into crisp narratives, designing regulatory-ready evidence plans, and coaching potential new generation leaders. Outside of work, he mentors students, builds clean data visualizations, and hunts down excellent coffee while sketching the next idea.
Debbie Huang
Fellow
Superpower: AI Innovation; Business Development
Debbie supports the development of Kicker Ventures’ investment thesis in AI-driven drug discovery, with a focus on oncology and Alzheimer’s disease. She believes in the power of data science to unravel complex healthcare challenges.
Debbie began her career as a data scientist across multiple industries. Among her achievements, Debbie led the creation of a Government data platform during the pandemic, which enabled rapid containment of potential COVID-19 cases with a 94% model accuracy. As a founding member in Garena's data team, she enjoyed building genAI agents with engineers to significantly reduce internal data requests. After interning at Zuellig Pharma, Debbie transitioned into strategy and business development. Her experience and expertise span from marketing medical devices, precision medicine, machine learning product to digital health.
Debbie holds a BSc in Clinical Medical Biotechnology from National Taiwan University. She is currently an MBA candidate at INSEAD and Kellogg School of Management. She spends her free time consulting on those who want to pivot their early career into data science. She also enjoys hiking, camping, and brewing coffee or a good cup of tea.
Elena Piotter
Fellow
Superpower: Interdisciplinary Outlooks and Gene Therapy
Elena is driven by a commitment to improving healthcare outcomes through scientific innovation, therapeutic advancement, and expanded access to care. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Oxford in the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, where she explored the application of CRISPR-based editors for treating Stargardt disease, the most common inherited macular degeneration.
Before her doctoral work, she gained diverse research experience ranging from unearthing soil-derived biopesticides to protein engineering. Elena holds dual degrees in International Relations (health emphasis) and Global Disease Biology from UC Davis, as well as a Masters in Molecular Biology from the University of Groningen. Beyond research, she enjoys the outdoors, concerts, adventuring, and trying new things.
Rumi Yokota
Assosciate
Superpower: Networking & Execution
Rumi is a healthcare investor, operator, and clinician with a unique perspective at the intersection of medicine, innovation, and venture capital. She began her career in pediatric cardiology at Stanford and UCSF/SFGH, where she also contributed to Stanford’s digital health and clinical informatics committees.
As an investor, Rumi has evaluated and supported companies across medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, and biotechnology through her work with UCSF Innovation Ventures, Life Science Angels, and DigitalDx Ventures. She currently serves as a Venture Partner at Joyance Partners, where she focuses on consumer health.
She earned an MBA from Johns Hopkins with a concentration in Healthcare Management, Technology, and Innovation, and completed the Stanford Biodesign program in parallel. She also holds a Family Nurse Practitioner degree from Samuel Merritt University and a BS in Management Science from UC San Diego.
Kaori Rupnow
Executive Assistant
Superpower: Operations
Kaori is our Executive assistant. She manages various operational initiatives and is an integral part of our team. Prior to Kicker, she spent Eight years as an Executive Assistant and Business Development Associate at Icon Ventures (Formerly Jafco Ventures). Early in her career, she worked for Tokyo-based PRAP Japan, a top-ranked PR consulting firm as an Account Executive.
Kaori attended Nanzan University where she earned a BA. She holds an accounting certificate from University of California Santa Cruz.
Justyn Myers
Designer & Editor
Superpower: Branding and Storytelling
Justyn is a freelance creative, specializing in graphic design, writing & editing, and brand development. He has worked with a wide variety of small businesses and companies—from wine bars, to engineering consultancies, to professional coaches, and beyond—helping them share their unique stories and connect with their customers. Justyn designed and built the Kicker Ventures website, our quarterly newsletter, and he continues to help us with content and marketing projects.
Justyn holds a BS in Journalism and Mass Communications from San Jose State University. He spends most of his free time collecting records and DJing.