E12 Ventures

E12 Ventures is a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm established in November 2022 as a joint venture between Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Inc. (MGI) and Morado Ventures LLC. Fund I raised $105 million with backing from major Japanese corporates including Mitsui & Co. and Nitto. The firm invests in early-stage companies solving pressing challenges in global industries, with a focus on climate tech, agtech, food tech, digital health, fintech, AI, data infrastructure, industrial internet, robotics and autonomy, and computer vision. With 15 investments to date, E12 writes checks averaging $5 million at Seed and Series A. Portfolio companies include Neura Health (digital neurology), Telo Trucks (electric vehicles), Archetype AI (AI platform), One Bio (which raised $27 million in a December 2024 Series A), First Resonance (manufacturing software), and unspun (sustainable fashion). The team of 14 is led by Founding Partner and Co-Managing Partner Ash Patel (former Yahoo CPO and SVP), Co-Managing Partner Sunao Nishimura from the Mitsui side, and Co-Managing Partner Mike Marquez. Morado Ventures, founded in 2011, brings decades of seed-stage investing experience to the partnership. E12 combines Mitsui's diverse industrial expertise — spanning chemicals, energy, food, and infrastructure — with Morado's early-stage track record to create a fund that can offer portfolio companies both capital and direct introductions to one of Japan's most significant corporate ecosystems. This industrial network is particularly relevant for companies operating in climate tech, agri-food, and advanced manufacturing.