Toyota’s Woven Capital appoints new CIO and COO in push for finding the ‘future of mobility’

Sometimes, Michiko Kato thinks backmost connected the large challenges of her life. 

She erstwhile dropped everything successful her autochthonal metropolis of Tokyo to be Harvard Business School successful Massachusetts. One day, she decided to permission her vocation successful the unchangeable satellite of concern to participate the rocky terrain of startup life. That leap is what changed everything. 

On Wednesday, Kato officially assumes her top situation yet — CIO of Toyota’s Woven Capital and CEO of Toyota Invention Partners. The second assignment makes her the archetypal pistillate CEO of a wholly owned Toyota subsidiary. 

Woven Capital is the growth-stage task superior limb of Toyota, focused connected backing founders gathering successful mobility (including space, cybersecurity, and autonomous driving). It past announced an $800 cardinal Fund II successful August past twelvemonth (Fund I, besides astatine a $800 million, launched successful 2021), with plans to backmost astatine slightest 20 caller Series B investments. Companies successful its portfolio see the outer institution Xona and the defence manufacturing infrastructure institution Machina Labs. 

The steadfast seeks to find the “future person of mobility,” she said, and aims to prime companies that are “collaboration partners with Toyota.”

“We tin co-lead, we tin marque tiny investments, oregon we tin bash an assertive investment; we effort to beryllium flexible,” she said. And arsenic for her? “I privation to beryllium hands-on. I privation to beryllium invaluable to startups. And, I privation to truly absorption connected the concern creation.” 

Kato this week is not unsocial successful her promotion astatine the firm. Mia Panzer is besides moving from her concern strategy relation astatine 1 of Toyota’s exertion subsidiaries to go COO of Woven Capital. That means not 1 but 2 of the apical roles astatine this firm VC (CVC) steadfast volition beryllium held by women, a awesome of however the male-dominated satellite of concern and investments is progressing.

Historically, women person done (only a small bit) amended astatine climbing the ranks astatine CVCs than astatine accepted task firms. The past factual data, however, comes from a 2014 CBI study that said that a small little than 20% of the apical CVCs had women connected their investing teams. The fig was compared, astatine the time, to the information that lone 7% of partners astatine the apical 100 task firms were women.

Today, successful venture, that fig hovers astir 15.4%, suggesting the percent of women successful concern roles astatine CVCs has increased, too. 

Kato joined the steadfast backmost successful 2020 arsenic 1 of the archetypal caller hires for what was past the recently spun-out Woven Capital. (It spun retired from an in-house subsidiary of Toyota.) 

She’s spent 15 years successful investing overall, including connected the M&A squad astatine Unison Capital and arsenic CFO for the Japanese AI startup ABEJA. Since joining Woven, she’s led six investments (including an undisclosed one) into startups similar the reusable rocket institution Stoke and the autonomous conveyance institution Nuro, her archetypal investment. She’s astir excited by aeromobility, carnal AI, and hardware. “I deliberation we tin fundamentally alteration the mode manufacturing is done,” she said of her imaginativeness for the CVC. 

Working alongside her volition beryllium Panzer, successful the recently formed COO role. She’s going to beryllium taking implicit finance, operations, HR, and ineligible strategy. She said determination are 2 things each CVC is ever disquieted astir — a firm slowdown that kills deals and misalignment with the genitor company. “My occupation is to fundamentally assistance with processing this through,” she said. 

She’s been moving with Ro Gupta, Woven Capital’s managing director, since his days gathering the mapping institution Camera backmost successful 2019. She joined that startup portion 3 months large with her archetypal kid to tally finance. Previously, she was astatine Goldman and past astatine the favored wellness institution Independent Pet Partners (IPP). She said she wasn’t truly looking to permission her occupation astatine IPP but decided to springiness Gupta and Camera a chance. 

“I truly similar being portion of the startup world,” she said. 

Toyota’s tech subsidiary past purchased Carmera (a merchantability she helped facilitate), and Gupta and Panzer joined that division. In December 2025, helium became managing manager of Woven Capital and decided to bring Panzer along. Kato and Panzer study to Gupta.

At first, Panzer didn’t deliberation she was afloat qualified, but past she thought astir however women ever accidental they aren’t afloat qualified for a job, portion men conscionable leap successful and bash it. She thought of a vocation afloat of assumptions astir her, from the assemblage recruiter who didn’t deliberation she would person method cognition due to the fact that she was a woman, to the person astatine Goldman who told her she wasn’t his contention for promotion due to the fact that she was a woman. 

She decided to conscionable leap in, too.

“We speech a batch astir the Japanese conception of ikigai where you absorption connected trying to find thing you’re bully at, what you love, what the satellite needs, and what you tin get paid for,” she said, adding that it feels afloat ellipse arsenic generations of her household person worked successful automotive parts. “I ever accidental to different women, ‘Let them person debased expectations,” she said. “Easy to overdeliver.’”