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Sabrina Sasaki
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Jul 17, 2026
Deep Tech for Manufacturing: From Prototype to International Markets. A chat with Sabrina Sasaki Partner at Monozukuri Ventures
7:26
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16:46

Nicola MarcheseHOST
In this context, moving to the B2B value proposition, assuming a founder in a pre-seed round, basically with a proof of concept, approaching a pre-seed or a more mature seed investment, which are the best options? piece of advice you would like to suggest them if they are working, for instance, in a physical AI for robotic application, where to start approaching the first customer and how, which is the kind of probe you look for as an investor to see, okay, these startups have something, let's say, despite precedes very early, but have something to, let's say, to pursue with the company.

Sabrina SasakiGUEST
Yeah, I think from us as a very specific type of investor, so we want to invest in enabling technologies, enabling startups that will actually help feed and improve the potential of the ecosystem.

Sabrina SasakiGUEST
So we do a lot of sensors, actuators, and systems that actually allow hardware and hard tech founders to prototype and have, you know, the the low scale volume they need in order to really go from a zero one, right? Exactly zero one is when they need to do some minimum viable product shows some tangible prototype that proves that what they want to build is something reasonable.

Sabrina SasakiGUEST
But at the same time, it does not necessarily mean that they will find use cases or people willing to pay out of their own lab.

Sabrina SasakiGUEST
researchers tend to speak the same language and face the same struggles because they are in the same control environment.

Sabrina SasakiGUEST
So then they develop some kind of components or technologies and are very good at selling to other universities and labs and engineers and designers who are making very specific prototypes.
7 MINS LATER

Nicola MarcheseHOST
Potential approach you would like to suggest funders, for instance, in legacy industry robotics, let's say hybrid robotics and AI, let's say, is to leverage a fabless company today and leverage the manufacturer there or to, let's say, put together all the components and, let's say, assemble a solution with their factory.