About Me
Kei co-founded Venture Republic in 2001 and has been serving as CEO since the foundation. The company runs a group of online travel websites and services worldwide including LINE TRAVEL jp, Japan’s largest online travel metasearch/media (Over 35 million monthly uesrs. Formerly known as Travel.jp. http://www.travel.co.jp/), Trip101, Singapore based “travel enthusiasts’” generated” global online travel media (https://trip101.com/) and allstay, leading mobile accommodation search services in Korea (http://www.allstay.kr/). In 2018, he led the company to bring in LINE Corporation, the leading global mobile messaging company as a strategic investor.
In 2008, he led the company to IPO (2177. JASDAQ) after 7 years of inception and to LBO by management in 2012. In its history, the company had built one of the leading online comparison shopping businesses in Japan through running “coneco.net” which was acquired by Yahoo! Japan.
A frequent speaker at travel & technology events and conferences. Among them are ITB, Google Travel Executive Forum, Phocuswright, TBEX, WiT, and Digital Travel.
Angel investor in TravelTech. Serving as a board of directors for various startups including BeMyGuest and TravelMassive.
Kei also served as co-founder/organizer of WIT (Web In Travel) Japan & North Asia, the largest international business conference in North Asia focusing on tech & travel, Chairman of Keio University’s alumni association for startup founders/CEOs, Executive Committee Member of Harvard Business School Club of Japan and co-chapter leader of Travel Massive in Singapore and Tokyo.