Six months into her role as an analyst at Pangaea, Helen Sun's work had mostly taken place behind a screen: pitch decks, financial models, investment theses. That changed when she traveled to Vancouver to visit the pH7 Technologies facility alongside Partner Sarah Applebaum, who serves on the company's board.

Recently, we were fortunate to have hosted an LP-only webinar with Michael in which he shared some of his biggest learnings from a career in innovation. Michael's career runs in the opposite direction of most people who end up running corporate venture: he started as a startup operator trying to get a corporate to take a chance on unproven technology, then spent years on the other side deciding which startups Henkel should bet on. That vantage point, from both the smaller and the (much) larger side of the table, is part of what makes his take so valuable.

Pangaeaは今回、マイケル氏をお迎えしてLP限定のウェビナーを開催し、Henkel社でのイノベーション活動で経験した重要な学びの数々を共有して頂きました。マイケル氏は、多くのコーポレートベンチャーの責任者とは異なるキャリアを辿っており、まずスタートアップ側として早期開発段階の技術を大企業が如何にして協業を走らせてくれるか模索することからスタートし、その後は逆の立場で、Henkel社がどのスタートアップにBetするべきかを判断する側で長年キャリアを過ごしました。スタートアップ側からも、そして大企業側からも見てきたこの視点こそが、彼の見解を非常に価値あるものにしている理由の一つです。

Startup-corporate collaboration is one of the hardest, and most valuable, things to get right in hard tech. We've been talking with corporates and startups a lot lately about what helps these partnerships work, and three themes keep coming up on both sides of the table. We heard frequently about testing a relationship before committing capital, judging success by how the partnership runs, and winning over the business unit on its own terms rather than from the top down.

日本は半導体・AIインフラ市場において、世界の高品質フォトレジストの約95%、有機基板用絶縁フィルムのほぼ100%を供給しています。問われるのは、その優位性を次にどう活かすか。博報堂ＤＹホールディングスと共同制作した「Hard Techレポート 2026」が、6セクター・26セグメントでその答えを示します。

Japan quietly supplies close to 100% of the world's organic substrate insulating film and 95% of its high-end photoresist, two of the more prominent picks-and-shovels positions it holds across semiconductors and AI infrastructure. The open question is which convert into leadership in what comes next. Our Hard Tech Report 2026, co-produced with Hakuhodo DY Holdings, maps the answer across 6 sectors and 26 segments.

Pangaea Venturesは白博堂およびCorundum Systems Biologyとともに、2026年6月24日（火）午後4時（PT）（日本標準時：6月25日午前8時）にオンラインウェビナーを開催します。PangaeaパートナーのAndrew Haughianが登壇し、AI、半導体、および周辺インフラにおけるグローバルなハードテック機会をどのようにマッピングしているか、またその変革から成る「新規事業の機会を見守る」立場から「新規事業を形成する」立場へと移行したい日本のコーポレートベンチャー・戦略リーダーにとって何を意味するかを共有します。

Pangaea Ventures is joining Hakuhodo and Corundum Systems Biology for an online webinar on June 24 at 4pm PT (8am June 25 Japan Standard Time), featuring Pangaea Partner Andrew Haughian. Andrew will share how our team has mapped global hard tech opportunities in AI, semiconductors, and adjacent infrastructure.

In Part 1 of the Agtech Reset series, we explored how a decade of misaligned capital and expectations left many ag and foodtech innovations stranded, even as fundamentals strengthened. In Part 2, we turn to the practical question: where, exactly, are the opportunities, and what does it mean to both fund and fix them.

The Agtech Reset Part 1 examines how agtech and foodtech went from hyper-growth to capital drought, why strong technologies were left stranded, and how compressing valuations plus persistent food-system pressures are creating a specialist investor opportunity.

We’re often asked why our US office is in Phoenix. To us, the answer is clear. Arizona offers an unusually strong fit for hard tech: a rising startup hub, a deep pipeline of engineering and scientific talent, concentration in advanced manufacturing and semiconductors, and a supportive policy and business environment.

Photonic networking offers a way around today’s bottlenecks by moving more of the data path into the optical domain, where light can carry far more information with lower loss than copper. This shift is not just another speed bump on a roadmap, it is part of a broader hard tech revolution in compute and networking infrastructure, where materials innovation and systems-level design are reshaping what is possible in AI-era data centers.

If you search for a definition of hard tech, you’ll find it can be fluid. As a pioneer in hard tech investing we've been researching and investing in this sector for many years and have formed our own thesis on what is hard tech and why hard tech innovation matters.

Robotics is entering a phase where simply “seeing” the world is not enough. Tactile robotics adds the sense of touch, allowing robots to understand force, texture, slip, temperature, and deformation so they can handle fragile objects, work safely alongside people, and operate reliably in unstructured environments. For corporate investors, this is a critical enabling layer of the ongoing hard tech revolution.

Pangaea Ventures Director of Asia, Sayuri Nonaka, will dig into practical strategies to move from breakthrough science to market-ready solutions at the Hello Tomorrow Japan Deep Tech Summit in Tokyo on February 5-6, 2026.

Pangaea Partner Andrew Haughian will be presenting at the Second Global Deep Tech VC Seminar on February 12, 2026, a webinar series jointly organized by Hakuhodo’s MIRAI Design Unit and Corundum Systems Biology Inc.

Pangaea Ventures is expanding its efforts to fuel hard tech innovation in Japan through a new comprehensive partnership with Hakuhodo Inc., one of Japan’s leading integrated marketing and innovation companies.

Has AI truly “solved” materials discovery, or has it mainly supercharged our ability to explore chemical space faster? We examine what, if anything, has genuinely changed with foundational models and autonomous labs, what stubborn physics and simulation limits still stand in the way, and how investors might think about the opportunity in AI-driven materials discovery platforms.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping materials science through four emerging models spanning software platforms, hardware‑enabled systems, and product‑focused startups unlocking new possibilities for hard tech advancement.

In this edition of our 25th Anniversary interview series, Yuki discusses Tosoh’s approach to evaluating hard tech startups: it’s not only about technical excellence and IP, but also about building trust-based relationships and aligning with a shared roadmap for societal impact. By working closely with partners like Pangaea Ventures, Tosoh brings financial support, technical expertise, and manufacturing muscle to those innovations with real-world promise.