{"id":5960,"date":"2024-09-27T12:05:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T19:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/?post_type=people&#038;p=5960"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:13:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:13:34","slug":"shotaro-yamanaka","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/","title":{"rendered":"Sho Yamanaka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sho is a principal at Salesforce Ventures focused on investments in AI\/ML and SaaS startups in Japan and Korea. Throughout his career, Sho has led various VC and CVC businesses, including managing accelerator programs, leading the growth of U.S. startups in the Japanese market, and carrying out partnerships between startups and business divisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before joining Salesforce Ventures, Sho was a head of strategic investment at Rakuten Capital, the CVC arm of Rakuten based in Tokyo. Prior to Rakuten, he was an associate at Morgan Stanley. He is a CPA (State of Washington) and holds a MA in Finance from London Business School and a MA in Sociology from Hitotsubashi University. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sho is a principal at Salesforce Ventures focused on investments in AI\/ML and SaaS startups in Japan and Korea. Throughout his career, Sho has led various VC and CVC businesses, including managing accelerator programs, leading the growth of U.S. startups in the Japanese market, and carrying out partnerships between startups and business divisions. Before joining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":5988,"template":"","people_type":[19],"related-company":[329,814,813,822,835],"coauthors":[67],"class_list":["post-5960","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","people_type-team","related-company-aeye-security-lab","related-company-datumo","related-company-flyle","related-company-mujin","related-company-sakana-ai"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ja_JP\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Salesforce Ventures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-11T15:13:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"781\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1052\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SalesforceVC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"Alexa Makreas\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/\",\"name\":\"Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-27T19:05:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-11T15:13:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ja\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ja\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png\",\"width\":781,\"height\":1052},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"People\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sho Yamanaka\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/\",\"name\":\"Salesforce Ventures\",\"description\":\"For the Most Enterprising Founders\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ja\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Salesforce Ventures\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ja\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Salesforce-Ventures-Logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Salesforce-Ventures-Logo-1.png\",\"width\":2979,\"height\":1050,\"caption\":\"Salesforce Ventures\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/SalesforceVC\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/salesforce-ventures\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures","description":"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/","og_locale":"ja_JP","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures","og_description":"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.","og_url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/","og_site_name":"Salesforce Ventures","article_modified_time":"2026-03-11T15:13:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":781,"height":1052,"url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@SalesforceVC","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute","Written by":"Alexa Makreas"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/","url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/","name":"Sho Yamanaka | Salesforce Ventures","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png","datePublished":"2024-09-27T19:05:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-11T15:13:34+00:00","description":"Salesforce Ventures provides the most enterprising founders with patient capital, coveted community, and privileged access to the resources they need to build industry-defining companies.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ja","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ja","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Shotaro-Headshot.png","width":781,"height":1052},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/shotaro-yamanaka\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"People","item":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/people\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sho Yamanaka"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/","name":"Salesforce Ventures","description":"For the Most Enterprising Founders","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ja"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#organization","name":"Salesforce Ventures","url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ja","@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Salesforce-Ventures-Logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Salesforce-Ventures-Logo-1.png","width":2979,"height":1050,"caption":"Salesforce Ventures"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/SalesforceVC","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/salesforce-ventures\/"]}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"first_name":[],"last_name":[],"job_title":[],"seniority":false,"location":[],"facebook_link":[],"twitter_link":[],"linkedin_link":[],"email":[],"associated_user":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/5960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/5960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5973,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people\/5960\/revisions\/5973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people_type?post=5960"},{"taxonomy":"related-company","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-company?post=5960"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesforceventures.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}