Tomoko Ishikura

Managing Partner at Kicker Ventures

📍 United States🔄 Updated September 2026💼 16 investments📅 5 years investing🗓 Last invested Feb 2026
VC🌍 United StatesInvested this year
16
Total investments
3
Early stage
5
Mid stage
2
Late stage
5y
Years active

Portfolio

15 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Investor
Feb 2026
We work to map the microbiome and illuminate interactions foundational to the health of humanity.
Investor
Feb 2026
Beacons AI platform for brain data enables and accelerates new treatments that transform the lives of patients with neurological and psychiatric disease. Through FDA-cleared EEG wearables, novel machine learning algorithms, enormous datasets, and advances in software engineering, we are changing the way patients are treated for disorders of the brain. Want to join the team? We’re hiring—check out the careers page on our website for more. Please be advised that Beacon Biosignals does not ask for personal information outside of our official hiring process. If a role is not listed on our careers page, it is not an active job opening. We will never ask candidates to send money to supplement company equipment, and all official emails from our team will come from the @beacon.bio domain, never text messages or Teams messages.
Investor
Dec 2024
one.bio is a fast-paced, emerging biotechnology spinout from UC Davis creating ingredients for food and biopharmaceutical applications. We use proprietary technology to create novel oligosaccharides from natural products, with a focus on producing ingredients that beneficially modulate the microbiome and immune function.
Investor
Mar 2024
Streamlined communication for scientific collaborations
Investor
Jul 2023
We believe in the power of gaming to help mental and physical health. Currently developing Run Legends, a mobile co-op fitness RPG game where you move to play. Our award-winning team won the grand prize for the Niantic Beyond Reality Contest in 2019 and has gotten extensive press coverage in 2023 by PCMag, Shack News, ScreenRant, and more. We’re developing a first-of-its-kind social fitness game and we are thrilled to be working together, not only on an exciting gaming experience but one that could help promote a healthier way of life. Together, we’ve created independent games for the last 10 years with over 9.1 million downloads on the Apple App and Google Play Stores. Watch us talk about how we got started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvbsAf3BlrM
Board Observer
Jun 2023
Anise Health is a culturally-responsive digital mental health and wellbeing platform dedicated to meeting the unique needs of communities of color, starting with a focus on the Asian American population. We are founded by two minority female alumni of Harvard Business School and our clinical program is directed by Dr. Janie Hong, psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is a founding partner at the Redwood Center for CBT and Research, where she maintains a small private practice. She also is the current chair of the Asian American in Behavior Therapy and Research Special Interest Group in the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Board Observer
May 2023
Gravel AI (https://gravelai.com) is a personal care ingredient supply and demand analytics platform that helps ingredient manufacturers grow faster and understand their competition.
Investor
Nov 2022
Investor
Aug 2022
Jona is on a mission to reveal the relationship between our gut microbiome and health. Microbiome science has been exploding over the last decade with thousands of scientific studies showing the link to human health including GI conditions, autoimmune conditions, oncology, metabolic disease, athletic performance, longevity, depression, anxiety, Parkinson’s Disease and more. Yet, so far the microbiome has been too complex and the science too fast moving to benefit patients in practice. Jona has developed transformative AI technology to analyze an individuals microbiome, interpret the results, and summarize what is known today about that individuals microbiome profile based on the scientific literature. With actionable insights and recommendations, individuals can get to the root source of understanding their health, alleviate symptoms, and prevent chronic disease. We believe that fully realizing the microbiome in medicine will create whole new diagnostics, change patient pathways, develop new therapeutic classes, alter our food supply, and extend human longevity.
Investor
Apr 2022
Started by Stanford/MIT serial entrepreneurs, Ruby Robotics is working to maximize patient outcomes with tissue insights at the point of care. Using custom-built hardware and AI, our platform is being developed with the goals of optimizing biopsy and surgical procedure workflow while delivering disease analytics early in the patient’s journey. Ruby Robotics was acquired in 2025 by Intuitive Surgical.
Investor
Mar 2022
Digital Phenotyping for Mental Health. A revolutionary platform that assesses your mental state through personal device interactions. Always-On, Passive, and Accurate. Facebook uses digital behavior to analyze what you are going to buy next. Netflix evaluates digital behavior to identify what you are going to watch next. Behavidence analyses digital behavior to help manage your mental health.
Board Observer
Jan 2022
Swing Therapeutics was founded in 2019 with the goal of developing digital treatments in disease areas where patients are not well-served, and where digital interventions may be effective. Its focus is on tackling autoimmune conditions and chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) like fibromyalgia where central pain sensitization is a significant factor. The company is investing in research to support the development and validation of its pipeline of prescription-based digital therapies. Swing Therapeutics’ near-term goal is to validate its digital program for the treatment of fibromyalgia and bring it to market as an FDA-cleared, prescription-based digital therapeutic.
Investor
Aug 2021
CareX.AI delivers an AI-powered, video-based software as a medical device platform that transforms any camera-equipped device into a regulatory vital signs monitoring solution.
Board Member
Jul 2021
Tokyo, Japan based incubator / open-innovation facilitator focusing on solving near-future global problems with a focus on super aging society, societal health, and social good.
Investor
Jul 2021
An evidence-based, AI-powered mental health support tool that helps your patients and members live well with symptoms of anxiety and depression. Interested in learning more about Woebot, the behavioral health copilot? Connect with us here: https://woebothealth.com/partner-with-us/ #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthadvocate #mentalhealth #woebothealth #behavioralhealth #digitaltransformation
Experience · 17 entries
All (17)
Investments (16)
Board (4)
2026
Investor
Feb 2026
We work to map the microbiome and illuminate interactions foundational to the health of humanity.
Investor
Feb 2026
Beacons AI platform for brain data enables and accelerates new treatments that transform the lives of patients with neurological and psychiatric disease. Through FDA-cleared EEG wearables, novel machine learning algorithms, enormous datasets, and advances in software engineering, we are changing the way patients are treated for disorders of the brain. Want to join the team? We’re hiring—check out the careers page on our website for more. Please be advised that Beacon Biosignals does not ask for personal information outside of our official hiring process. If a role is not listed on our careers page, it is not an active job opening. We will never ask candidates to send money to supplement company equipment, and all official emails from our team will come from the @beacon.bio domain, never text messages or Teams messages.
2025
Elsa Fertility
Investor
Jun 2025
2024
Investor
Dec 2024
one.bio is a fast-paced, emerging biotechnology spinout from UC Davis creating ingredients for food and biopharmaceutical applications. We use proprietary technology to create novel oligosaccharides from natural products, with a focus on producing ingredients that beneficially modulate the microbiome and immune function.
Investor
Mar 2024
Streamlined communication for scientific collaborations
Show all 17 entries ↓
Investment activity
2021–2026 · 16 investments
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