About

About SWAN Venture Group

SEATTLE – with it’s mix of talented newcomers and world-class industry leaders is one of the technology capitals of the world and s global hub for artificial intelligence and machine learning development.

SWAN Venture Group is forming a family of funds for investing in early stage Seed and Series A rounds. We are a regional fund targeting our investments in the Pacific Northwest to include the US states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Utah, and the province of British Columbia, Canada.

SVG has the opportunity to become a major investment player in the Pacific Northwest marketplace. One of our core strengths is the significant number of relationships SVG General Partners already have in the region’s startup ecosystem. To date, SVG partners have are actively investing in over 100 companies.

In our view, early stage capital markets in the Pacific Northwest are dominated by angel groups instead of venture capital. Meanwhile, the area’s VC firms focus on particular software themes ignoring the broader early stage opportunities this vibrant region provides. The result is significantly less institutional investor participation than viable investment opportunities. SVG is positioned to fill this gap.

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We Are Industry Agnostic

Our focus on the Pacific Northwest offers exceptional opportunities in many technologies including:

Artificial Intelligence &
Machine Learning

Autonomous
Car Technology

B2B & B2C
Software

Internet of Things
(IoT & IIoT)

Medical
Devices, Diagnostics, Software

Market-Accelerating
Disruptive Technologies

Meet Our Team

The SVG team members have known each other and worked together in various capacities for at least six years and have combined experience greater than 150 years in the industry. The team acts in unison to ensure that the best practices found in institutional investing are brought to the challenges of investing in early stage companies.

The SVG team is comprised of both US and Japan based partners.

Click on images to open bios.

Swan Venture Group Partners

Richard Samuelson, CFA, Chief Investment Officer

Richard Samuelson, CFA

 Managing Partner

Hiroshi Matsui, MBA, Liason Officer, Japan

Hiroshi Matsui

Partner

Tetsuro Eto, CEO, Innovation Finders Capital

Tetsuro Eto

 Partner

Richard Samuelson, CFA, Chief Investment Officer

  • Richard Samuelson is currently a Managing Partner and co-founder of SWAN Venture Group. He spent the bulk of his career in investment banking, virtually all of it located in Asia. As an investment banker he specialized in equity and equity derivatives at both UBS and BNP Paribas. Mr. Samuelson began his career as an analyst and in his final position as a Managing Director he served as global head of equity and equity derivatives for both Asia and Japan at BNP Paribas.

    Since 2010, he has focused on angel investing, primarily through the Keiretsu Forum. He has invested in more than 27 companies and enjoyed several exits on his portfolio investments. He currently serves on the Board of Kineta, Inc. and Global Index Group.  He previously served on the investment review committee for Keiretsu Capital Fund 1.

    Mr. Samuelson holds a B.A. from Yale, an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts and an MBA in finance from the Wharton School. His professional accreditations include: the CFA, FRM. FDP and CAIA designations.

    • Hiroshi Matsui, MBA, Liason Officer, Japan

  • Hiroshi Matsui spent most of his career in investment banking in Japan and the US. As an investment banker, he specialized in Japanese equity sales and corporate access. He worked at WestLB, ING Barings, Mizuho Securities and other multinational banks for over twenty years. He has been involved in startup investments since 2014. He also consults startup companies for strategies, especially for the Japanese market.

    Mr. Matsui holds a B.A. from Waseda University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is fluent in both Japanese and English.

    • Tetsuro Eto, CEO, Innovation Finders Capital

  • There are few people within corporate Japan that understand Innovation better than Tets Eto. Since his early days at ASCII and Microsoft, his mission has always been bringing innovation to Japan. As Senior IT Director at Dentsu, the largest ad agency in Japan, it was his responsibility to create IT infrastructure. When Dentsu acquired Aegis Media, he was responsible for Global IT integration as part of PMI. Mr. Eto holds a B.A. from Keio University where he majored in business in commerce.