TDK Ventures

What does it take for VCs to move beyond platitudes and genuinely support the entrepreneurs they fund? In a recent Harvard Business Review article, our own President ?????? Nicolas Sauvage explores how the Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology has proven invaluable over the past five years. At TDK Ventures, NPS has guided and empowered us to serve our entrepreneurs more effectively as customers. Nicolas details a practical four-step approach for implementing NPS in a VC fund, demonstrating how it can unlock untapped ideas from entrepreneurs and ensure a mutually beneficial experience for both VCs and founders. Read the full article to explore these insights and more: https://lnkd.in/g2pbPtHf #VentureCapital #NetPromoterScore #NPS #startups #VC #entrepreneurs

Achieving net zero by 2050 is no small task — it will require a staggering $4.5 trillion in investment per year. At TDK Ventures' recent 100X Energy Track, Meghan Sharp, PhD MBA, Global Head at Decarbonization Partners, emphasized that 50% of this investment must focus on emerging technologies. “This is the investment opportunity of our lifetime,” Sharp said, highlighting Decarbonization Partners’ role in supporting climate tech and energy startups with capital from Series C through IPO. She explained that Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture of BlackRock and Temasek, along with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), aims to support energy transformation startups throughout their lifetimes, creating valuable deal flow for GIP and other infrastructure investors. The energy transition needs bold vision, and it’s happening now. ?? Read more about this exciting journey and investment strategy: https://lnkd.in/gQTTTQa3 #EnergyTransition #Decarbonization #ClimateTech #100X

Next week, TDK Ventures' Chiaki Yoshikawa and ?????? Nicolas Sauvage will be part of an inspiring lineup of speakers at GCV Asia in Tokyo. This gathering brings together corporate venture leaders to share insights on the Japanese and APAC venture ecosystems through keynotes, fireside chats, and open discussions. Covering AI, CVC and M&A partnerships, LP investment, energy transition, dual-use technologies, and the Southeast Asia market, the event promises a valuable exchange of ideas across the industry. Learn more about what’s on the agenda: https://www.gcvasia.com/ #VentureCapital #CVC #VC #GCVAsia Global Corporate Venturing

TDK Ventures' ?????? Anil Achyuta highlights the groundbreaking innovations of our portfolio companies, Peak Energy and AM Batteries, in two must-read articles on the future of energy and battery technology: In Energy-Storage.news, Anil discusses Peak Energy’s advancements in sodium-ion technology, showcasing its potential for grid-scale energy storage and the opportunities and challenges in scaling sodium-ion. https://lnkd.in/gF88eVVQ Featured in Carbon Pulse, Anil explores AM Batteries' revolutionary dry process for lithium-ion production, which promises to reduce costs and environmental impact. CEO Lie Shi shares insights into this game-changing technology. https://lnkd.in/epHXs34k #EnergyStorage #BatteryTechnology #LithiumIon #SodiumIon

The rising power consumption of data centers has been making headlines this year. Currently, data centers account for 4% of global energy consumption, and with AI projected to double that by 2030, the demand for energy-efficient data center technologies is growing. Our team at TDK Ventures has been actively exploring solutions to reduce power consumption and enhance energy efficiency across various areas of data center operations. (See the comments below for our full updated graphic of the ecosystem.) ?? Cooling is one of the biggest energy drains in today's data centers, consuming up to 50% of total power. Most data centers still rely on air cooling, but more efficient solutions—such as direct-to-chip and immersion cooling, along with advanced thermal interface materials—are emerging to reduce energy consumption while maintaining chip performance and reliability. Fabric8Labs leverages electrochemical additive manufacturing to produce cold plates with intricate, high-resolution features for data center liquid cooling. ??? Servers and storage consume an additional 26% of data center energy. Many companies are focusing on next-gen processors to address this. Two of our portfolio companies are leading the way: Our portfolio company Groq is developing its LPU compute architecture, which is up to 10x more energy-efficient than traditional GPUs, while another portfolio company, Analog Inference, takes an analog approach, performing in-memory computing and converting signals with over 90% power reduction, without compromising performance. ?? Network infrastructure accounts for 10% of energy use in data centers. Advances in optical interconnects and switches are helping reduce power consumption. For example, Nubis Communications offers a platform with a power consumption of under 4 pJ per bit, delivering 4x the power savings compared to today’s technology. ?? Some companies are designing full-stack data centers that integrate various technologies to enhance energy efficiency and, in some cases, increase the load flexibility of the facility—making it a flexible grid asset. With all the innovations at play, it will be interesting to see how the future of data centers continues to evolve. #DataCenter #EnergyEfficiency #AdvancedCooling #AIAccelerators #optical ?????? Nicolas Sauvage ?????? Anil Achyuta Tina Tosukhowong Yan Yan Qianran (Katherine) He, PhD Jeff Herman Ian Winfield Jonathan Ross Sunny Madra Igor Arsovski Vishal Sarin Richard Terrill Dan Harding Peter Winzer

At TDK Ventures’ #100X Conference in Boston, Olympic medalist and Harpoon Ventures founder Larsen Jensen shared how top entrepreneurs embody the "champion mindset"—a drive to break boundaries and rally world-class teams to reshape industries. Like elite athletes, visionary founders push past doubt and grind every day for excellence. A memorable reminder that investing in the right founders means backing both skill and mental toughness to navigate big challenges and create lasting impact. ?? https://lnkd.in/gvPfYZ6z #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #100XConference

As we approach the U.S. elections, venture capital and the tech industry face pivotal shifts that will affect startups across AI, energy, crypto, and beyond. In our latest article with 6Pages, we examine the policies and strategies both candidates bring to the table—and how founders and investors can get ahead of these changes. Explore how this historic election could shape the future of venture capital and the tech ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/g2k4w93u #VentureCapital #Startups #Election2024 #TechPolicy

Congratulations to our amazing portfolio companies Agility Robotics and AM Batteries whose innovative technologies are honored in TIME's Best Inventions of 2024.? - Agility Robotics: Their humanoid robot, Digit, combines AI-driven capabilities to handle complex tasks across manufacturing and logistics, transforming efficiency and adaptability in industrial environments. - AM Batteries: Working to revolutionize the lithium-ion battery manufacturing process, AM Batteries pioneered a new technique that has the potential to reduce energy usage and CO2 emissions by 40%, setting new sustainability standards in battery production. Check out the list:?https://lnkd.in/ekZTJCpd? #TIMEBestInventions #AI #Robotics #BatteryTechnology

Semiconductor chip development continues to advance rapidly, with transistors getting smaller and more densely packed onto increasingly larger dies. However, this progress also leads to a growing challenge: more heat generation. For instance, the thermal design power of Nvidia’s Blackwell system has tripled compared to its previous generation. (See the comments below for our full updated graphic of the ecosystem.) To ensure chip reliability, advanced cooling solutions are being developed, which include both passive and active methods. Passive cooling refers to solutions that remove heat from the chip without the need for energy input. A key example is thermal interface materials (TIMs), which are used to transfer heat from the die to the chip package and then to the external heat sink. As heat sink designs become more advanced—like the products from our portfolio company Fabric8Labs—thermal interface materials could become the bottleneck in cooling chips. This is why many startups are innovating in high thermal conductivity and low thermal resistance materials for better transferring heat away from the die. NovoLINC, Boston Materials, Arieca Inc., apheros, Maxwell Labs, Carbice. Active cooling uses energy to extract heat, either in a direct-to-chip manner like JETCOOL Technologies Inc., NEXALUS, Chilldyne, DCX LIQUID COOLING SYSTEMS, ZutaCore, Accelsius, SEGUENTE are working on, or through immersion cooling like Submer, LiquidStack, Green Revolution Cooling, Iceotope Technologies Limited, and Ferveret, Arctic impulse Oy, Asperitas, GREENTECH Technologies AG. Our investment director, Tina Tosukhowong, takes a deep into these active cooling solutions in her recent “King of Hill in Data Center Cooling” article in DatacenterDynamics. https://lnkd.in/gqk6Dfhx We believe both passive and active cooling technologies are crucial for effectively managing the heat generated by the next generation chips and would love to exchange notes with anyone who is also diving into this space. Yan Yan, Tina Tosukhowong, and Qianran (Katherine) He, PhD continue to explore this market and welcome any additional insights. #ChipCooling #DataCenterEnergy #NextGenChip

Navigating India's Legal Landscape for Venture Firms: Key Lessons Learned As U.S.-based VC and corporate venture capital groups seek to tap into India’s startup scene, establishing a local legal presence becomes critical for success. In his latest article, “Establishing a Legal Presence in India,” Bill Graves, General Counsel at TDK Ventures, shares insights from TDK’s journey of incorporating in India. With India’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, rapid digital transformation, and government initiatives like #startupindia, foreign investors are drawn to the market. But navigating India's regulatory environment, from FDI requirements to incorporation processes, requires careful planning and local expertise. For venture firms, this article offers essential lessons, from securing FDI approvals to understanding India's corporate governance framework. ?? Read the full article to learn how your venture firm can successfully establish a foothold in India: https://bit.ly/4f70jUg #VC #CorporateVentureCapital #IndiaStartups #TDKVentures #GlobalInvesting #FDI #LegalCompliance