About Braid
Founded in Tokyo in 2020, Braid is a deep-technology company dedicated to automating advanced engineering design. Solving this problem demands a unified approach spanning physics, applied mathematics, computational geometry, computer science, large-scale simulation, and machine learning. Brought together around this multidisciplinary mission, our team is developing the new generation of engineering design software that translates an engineer’s intent directly into manufacturable geometry.
Tokyo and Japan are our proving ground. We chose to build here for three reasons: unmatched industrial precision, culture steeped in hardware reliability, and immediate access to elite automotive and aerospace partners. By subjecting our technology to the world's most rigorous manufacturing standards from day one, we guarantee that our outputs are validated on real manufacturing lines — not just in simulation.
The technology is global; .
Founders.
Three founders covering the three core disciplines this problem demands. On their own, each background is rare; together, they target the exact points where traditional engineering design breaks down.
Ivo Timoteo
Ivo's love of complex dynamical systems has taken him from foundational machine learning research to building technology companies. Today, his work at Braid focuses on translating advances in AI, geometry, and physics into software capable of autonomous engineering design.
Before founding Braid, Ivo taught Artificial Intelligence II at the University of Cambridge while completing his doctoral research, serving as the course's principal lecturer at 25. He later joined a self-driving car startup as CTO, leading a team of around 60 engineers. He has an Erdős number of 5.
Guido Cossu
Guido leads research and development at Braid, where he is responsible for turning the company's vision into a reality and extending the range of engineering problems Braid can solve. Both depend on the same combination he has worked with throughout his career: formal physical models and the computing systems to run them at large scale.
Before moving to industry he spent fifteen years as a computational theoretical physicist, studying the early universe on some of the largest supercomputers around the world. He has published more than eighty peer-reviewed papers and holds a PhD in computational theoretical physics from the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.
Yuta Murakami
With a deep business background in automotive, aerospace, and logistics, Yuta is dedicated to leveraging technology to unlock human creativity and tackle complex challenges in advanced engineering. He focuses on building exceptional teams to create lasting impact for our Japanese and global clients.
Previously as partner at McKinsey & Company, he led Manufacturing & Supply chain, and logistics initiatives across North Asia, driving innovative solutions across diverse industries. At Braid, he continues to shape transformative approaches in technology and design.
Team.
Beyond the founders, Braid is currently around thirty people from many countries: researchers and engineers from particle physics, computational geometry, large-scale machine learning, scientific computing, and engineering systems.
Selected interview-format profiles of team members are available, covering their backgrounds, what they work on, and what brought them to Braid.
Read selected team profiles → opens in NotionDirectors and Advisors.
Braid’s board and advisors bring decades of experience founding, scaling, and leading pioneer organizations in heavy industry and deep technology.
They set the benchmark of rigor that governs our work.
External Directors外部取締役
Paul McInerney
Braid Technologies has the potential to fundamentally change the future of design across many diverse fields — I am excited to join the Board to support the Braid team on that journey.
Read the bio
Paul joined Recruit Co., Ltd. in 1997 and co-led digital business building and corporate venture capital investing efforts. While there he was also a founding member of Medioport (an online golf reservation site) — subsequently sold to Rakuten in 2002.
He joined McKinsey & Company's Tokyo Office in 2002, was elected Partner in 2007 and Senior Partner in 2014. After leading McKinsey & Company's Asia Pacific Marketing & Sales Practice from 2011 to 2017 Paul was the Leader of McKinsey & Company's Consumer & Retail Practice and Managing Partner of QuantumBlack Japan from 2018 until February 2021.
Paul joined Incubate Fund as a General Partner in March 2021.
Kazuhiro Oyoshi
By leveraging BRAID’s advanced industrial design technology, I believe we have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing in Japan and around the world. I am excited about this opportunity and look forward to supporting the team in capturing it.
Read the bio
Kazuhiro Oyoshi is a Partner at Headline Asia, where he invests in seed to early-stage startups across Japan and Asia. He focuses on AI, IP and entertainment, cross-border e-commerce and logistics, and selectively on deep tech.
Prior to Headline, Kazuhiro built his career across public and private markets, most recently as Director at Complus Asset Management in Hong Kong and Chief Portfolio Advisor at Nissay Asset Management in Tokyo.
At Headline Asia, Kazuhiro brings a public-markets lens to venture investing, helping founders think clearly about capital, market timing, and long-term company value. He is also involved in IVS, one of Japan’s largest startup conferences, where Headline Asia helps grow the founder and investor community across the region. Kazuhiro graduated from Keio University with a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Politics.
Shri Dodani
In the emerging era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), there is a pressing need for automated tools to improve engineering productivity to design innovative physical products, especially given the constraints of new materials and limited engineering expertise. We believe that Braid's approach to design automation, which integrates principles of physics, material sciences, computational mathematics, and constraint management, will be indispensable in this new landscape.
Read the bio
Shri Dodani is a veteran executive in the deep tech and communications industries. He is currently the founder of GHOVC, a venture capital firm focused on investing in high growth deep tech companies in Japan.
Shri was the president & CEO at StrataLight (now part of Lumentum), VxTel, a software start-up (acquired by Intel). Shri was the vice president of Engineering and Operations, at Carrier Access Corp. (IPO: CACS and now part of Dell). He also served as an executive with major companies such as Nortel and Alcatel/Nokia. He has a B.S. in Physics and Math, M.S. in Computer Science and MS in Business Administration.
Yuki Shirato
The revolutionary vision Braid is pursuing takes bravery, commitment and patience. I have full faith in the brilliant founders and amazing team of Braid to transform the $100 trillion manufacturing industries and beyond.
Read the bio
Yuki has a long term fascination with the startup world; he advised more than 30 startups and venture capital funds and invested in more than 50 startups, including some unicorns. Currently he is the Managing Director of the Techstars Japan Accelerator.
Previously, Yuki worked in the US, UK, Canada, UAE and Japan. He worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant and top global law firms such as Davis Polk as a lawyer. He was involved in more than 50 billion USD worth in corporate transactions and represented more than 100 clients around the world, from Fortune Global 500 companies to global private equity firms, from venture capitals to startups. He is a NY state attorney and a foreign registered lawyer (gaiben) in Japan.
Board of Advisors顧問団
Kazuyo Sejima
Kazuyo Sejima redefined architecture by dissolving the boundary between a building and its surroundings into one continuous landscape. Her joining of functionality, ergonomics and aesthetics is an ideal Braid shares, in the finished design and in the design process itself.
André Andonian
Over a 34-year career at McKinsey & Company, André founded and led its global Advanced Industries sector, ran the Japan and Korea practice, and served on the Global Board. He now sits on boards including the semiconductor giant Analog Devices and TUM.
Justin Waldron
At 19, Justin Waldron co-founded Zynga, pioneering online social games, and led its growth as Senior Vice President of Product through the $1 billion IPO in 2011. Now president and co-founder of a unicorn gaming company in Japan, he is also an active angel investor and startup advisor.
Talk to Braid.
General inquiries below. For sales, careers, or press, the most direct path is the relevant page on this site.
Investors & board → info@braid.tech · Sales & deployments → AURA · Careers & hiring → Careers · Press & media → press@braid.tech