Matthew Romaine

Matthew Romaine is a Founding Partner of Shizen Capital, an early-stage VC fund operating an Angel Zeisei Fund (AZF) series of METI-authorized, tax-benefit funds supporting innovation in Japan. Previously, Matthew founded Gengo, Inc., an AI training data platform launched in 2008 from Tokyo, Japan. Gengo was backed by notable VCs including 500Startups, Atomico, Intel Capital, and Recruit, and was acquired in January 2019 by Lionbridge.Prior to Gengo, Matthew was an audio research scientist at Sony Corporation where he advised and published IETF standards for multichannel audio streaming codecs.Matthew received dual Bachelor of Arts degrees from Brown University in Music and Computer Science, and a Masters in Music, Science, and Technology from Stanford University. To decompress, he renovates a 200-year old kominka in Nagano, and spends time with his wife and two daughters.