KENNDO Management is a Japanese operator-investor. We design, fund, build and run businesses in emerging markets, together with Japanese companies and local partners — and we hold equity in what we build.
Through business, we ignite innovative and sustainable development around the world — delivering prosperity to people's daily lives, and a future worth inheriting to the next generation's planet.
To contribute to solving global social challenges by making Japanese companies' overseas ventures succeed.
Social problems are not solved by goodwill alone. Not by studies, not by grants, not by pilot projects. Change becomes durable only when something works as a business — profitable for the company, generating jobs and income locally, and able to keep growing.
A world where Japanese capability drives growth and solves social problems in emerging economies.
| Name | KENNDO Management Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Head office | Oak Village 105, 1-3-6 Kita-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0074, Japan |
| Incorporated | January 2015 (operating since July 2006) |
| Representative | Kotaro Takahashi, Representative Director |
| Group company | PT. Kenndo Fisheries Indonesia — marine product processing, Makassar, Indonesia |
FOUNDER'S MESSAGE
I spent eleven years at the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working on Japan's official development assistance — writing policy and running projects. I left because of a conclusion I could not argue my way out of: aid moves things, but it does not make them last. Business does.
Japan has an unusual concentration of capable mid-sized and regional companies — real technology, real products, exceptional execution on the factory floor. Many of them could compete anywhere in the world and never leave the country, because they lack information, people, capital, or anyone on the ground they can trust.
Meanwhile, across ASEAN and other emerging economies, incomes are rising, populations are growing, cities and industries are being built. The opportunities are enormous. So are the unsolved problems.
Connecting those two things is the whole business.
But I learned something uncomfortable along the way. Studies and grant-funded pilots are not the hard part. The hard part is what comes after: finding a partner who will still be there next year, getting a licence, hiring people, fixing quality, financing working capital, and being wrong in public several times before the thing works.
So we stopped only advising. In Indonesia we built a seafood processing company ourselves. We run it. I deal with buyers, quality, cash flow, the organisation, and the trust of our local staff — not as a case study, but as this month's problem.
That is why I describe myself as a practitioner investor rather than a consultant. I take the same risk as the people I back, and I would not ask a partner to accept terms I have not accepted myself.
If you are looking for a Japanese partner who will hold equity, sit on your board, and stay through the difficult years — we should talk.
TEAM
Founder & Representative Director
Founded the Japan operation of Devex (now KENNDO Management) and has spent over fifteen years building Japanese companies' overseas ventures across Southeast Asia. Has led programmes for METI, JETRO, SMRJ, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and JICA, and advised on fundraising from financial institutions and PE funds as well as M&A matching and negotiation. Previously spent eleven years at JICA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Japan's ODA policy and implementation. MPA, Harvard Kennedy School (2002); MA Economics, University of Tokyo (1996).
Director
Adviser to Japanese SMEs on product development and business models. Project manager on JICA's SME overseas programme since its first cohort in 2012, with projects across Southeast and Central Asia. Established PT. Kenndo Fisheries Indonesia and currently serves as its auditor.
Director
Seafood processing specialist. Former plant manager and sales director at a Japanese seafood processing company, covering product development through production and promotion. Has delivered food processing and hygiene management work on ODA programmes. Now based between Japan and Indonesia.
Manager
Worked at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — through the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) — on project settlement and payment operations and in its environmental and social considerations support unit, before joining KENNDO Management. Manages and coordinates the administration and financial settlement of every project we run.
Manager, PT. Kenndo Fisheries Indonesia
Posted to Indonesia in 1999 as a JICA overseas cooperation volunteer and worked on JICA programmes in the country through 2017. Twenty years of living in Indonesia; now runs our Indonesian operation on the ground.
Sales
Thirteen years in sales at a Japanese seafood processing company, dealing with trading houses, wholesale markets, distributors and retail chains, developing products around what those customers asked for and running the marketing behind them. Now independent, he handles domestic sales in Japan for KENNDO Management and PT. Kenndo Fisheries Indonesia.
Tell us what you are building and where. If there is a fit, you will hear from us within two business days.