Kenji Shimizu

S

Founder, Kestrel Mobility - Rust · community · open source

Kestrel Mobility
Tokyo, Japan · JST (UTC+9)
5+ years experience
National University of Singapore
English, Japanese
Raising
Messaging unavailable

Overview

Building Kestrel Mobility in Tokyo - developer tooling. Took Kestrel Mobility from zero to $1 million ARR. Raised $22 million across 2 rounds. Most at home with Rust and fundraising.

Good reasons to reach out
  • Investors who back our stage and sector
  • Questions about developer tooling
Please don't message about
  • SEO and link-building offers
  • Fundraising consultants
  • Agency or outsourcing pitches

Travels often; replies within 48 hours

Skills
communityopen sourceRustfundraising
RaisingRaising capital
closes in 3 months

Raising a $750k Series A for localisation for freight forwarders

Stage
Series A
Raising
$750k
Instrument
Priced round
Committed so far
$685k from operators in the space
Lead investor
Looking for a lead
Traction
$3M ARR after 24 months
Use of funds
Go-to-market in two new countries

$3M ARR after 24 months. Looking for investors who know supply chain and can help with hiring.

Tokyo, Japan · remote OKrustfundraisingcommunity
Open

Experience

  1. Founder
    Jul 2024 - Present
    Kestrel Mobility · 2 yr 3 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Raised $9 million across 3 rounds.
    • Took Kestrel Mobility from zero to $10 million ARR.
  2. Principal Product Manager
    Sep 2022 - Jul 2024
    Coupang · 1 yr 10 mo · Contract · Tokyo, Japan
    • Previously an operator for 8 years before investing.
    • Sit on 5 boards.
  3. Director of Product
    Oct 2021 - Sep 2022
    Stripe · 11 mo · Full-time · Tokyo, Japan
    • Launched the creator product in 3 markets.
    • Grew creator revenue from $8 million to $18 million ARR.

Projects

Write-up: developer tooling in practice
2026

A long-form guide to developer tooling for people starting out.

Side project: a recipe search engine
2023

Built with community and Rust. 629 people used it last year.

References

No references yet.

Education

  1. National University of Singapore
    BComp, Economics
    2016 - 2020

Details

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