Nicolas Sauvage is the founder and president of TDK Ventures, the global corporate venture capital arm of TDK Corporation. He launched the firm in 2019 around a simple principle: entrepreneurs come first. Today, TDK Ventures manages $500 million across four funds and backs early-stage startups globally, across AI and compute, energy, industrial and robotics, mobility, and advanced materials.
His work is guided by one question: How do frontier technologies become global companies? Nicolas works with founders at the intersection of bits and atoms, where AI meets infrastructure, software meets manufacturing, and scientific breakthroughs meet industrialization. He helps entrepreneurs connect capital with industrial expertise, customers, manufacturing capabilities, and global ecosystems.
Nicolas also serves as Chair of the Global Corporate Venturing Leadership Society and hosts Corporate Venturing Insider. On his Substack, From Frontier to Iconic, he shares first-principles field notes on investment conviction, founder-first scaling, catalysts beyond capital, and the journey from breakthrough technology to enduring global company.
Nicolas created the “8 words” practice to help people identify and act on their deepest priorities. His own eight words, engraved on his tablet, are: “Sheila first. Scaling Impact Scalers. Patience and Impatience.”
He holds a Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School and is an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, London Business School, and ISEN.