NANYANG MBA

Nanyang MBA participants’ visit to Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.

Contributed by Nanyang MBA participant, Tanmay Patkeshwar

As part of our week-long Business Study Mission (BSM) to Japan, the Nanyang MBA participants visited Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. (MUCAP), the venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). MUCAP is one of the leading venture capital companies in Japan.  Set up in 1974, MUCAP has since invested in several companies and played an integral role in the growth story of Japan.

This was the second time that Mr Kotaro Shinra, Head of Business Administration Department and Investment Planning for MUCAP had invited MBA participants from NBS to visit MUCAP. The previous Nanyang MBA cohort found their visit to MUCAP to be the highlight of the BSM, so we were all looking forward to this visit!

Upon arriving at MUFG, we were introduced to several senior executives from MUFG, including Mr Shinsuke Sakamoto, President of MUCAP, and the management team of AuB Inc – CEO, Mr Keita Suzuki, CTO, Mr Rintaro Fujikawa, and CFO, Mr Tomohisa Tanaka. A start-up that MUCAP has invested in, AuB aims to use data harvested from human faeces to help improve the overall health and performance of athletes.

This visit also included an engaging session where we discussed how AuB could refine their business model. Working in teams, we analysed current business issues faced by the company, interacted with Mr Shinra and the AuB management team to gain more insights on the company and the industry, and then presented our ideas after 15 minutes of brainstorming. The AuB team was quite impressed by our ideas and shared that they may implement some of these ideas. They also invited us to work with them on the implementation in future.

In his closing remarks, Mr Shinra shared about the decision-making methodologies of venture capital companies and other aspects they consider when making investments. His insights were very useful in helping us understand the complex and competitive world of venture capitalism.

In conclusion, this visit to MUCAP was exceptionally interesting and the opportunity to deal with a real-life business scenario was an excellent learning experience for all of us. We are very grateful to MUFG, especially to MUCAP for hosting us and providing this rare opportunity. ありがとうございます[Thank you] from Nanyang Business School, Singapore!!