ClientsFootprintNowWhat we doDomainsHow we workSpeakingWorkStoryPressTeam
Est. 2011 · Germany · USA · Taiwan

Deep-tech strategy and scouting for industrial companies.

We answer make-or-buy-or-partner questions in compound semiconductors, AI and robotics, optics and sensing, and advanced materials — for Audi, Continental, ABB and ZEISS. We map the value chain, name and rank the partners, and show our evidence. Then we find the companies on the ground, in 15 countries.

Named after Yushan 玉山 — Jade Mountain, Taiwan's highest peak
Where we have worked
15 countries across Asia, Europe, the Americas and Israel
Our focus — three hubs, one bridge
Taiwan USA Germany
15
Years in business, founded in Taipei in 2011
15
Countries where we have done the work
$100M
Deep-tech fund we advised as venture partner
4
Companies we scouted or advised that were acquired or went public
Trusted by

Who we work for.

Automotive OEMs, industrial manufacturers and consumer brands. Some engagements run a few weeks. Several have run for years.

Volkswagen Group
Audi
Continental
ABB Robotics
Siemens
Google
Microsoft
ZEISS
Coca-Cola
Siam Cement Group
Chanwanich
HeidelbergCement
Lite-On
IBM
Aumovio
APEC
Uno Minda
United Nations

Also engaged: GSMA, Foxconn, AcBel, VIA Technologies, NiSource, the Trans Pacific Technology Fund and MobileMonday Taipei.

Global footprint

Where we've worked.

Fifteen countries where we have run scouting, strategy or investment work. Hover any marker to see what we did there.

Country where we've scouted, advised, or invested
Engagement hub — hover for the work
Now

What we're working on.

Active engagements on both sides of the Pacific — scouting, market research, and business development.

Active · Technology Strategy

Automotive MicroLED strategy — European Tier 1

A board-level strategy paper on the automotive MicroLED ecosystem: compound-semiconductor value-chain mapping from GaN epitaxy through mass transfer to driver ASICs, a 34-company partner scorecard, and a risk-adjusted roadmap for R&D and CAPEX decisions.

Active · Business Development

Carbonix Materials — US Entry

Business development for the advanced-materials startup: US market-entry strategy and warm customer introductions across our corporate network.

2025 · Delivered

Best-Cost-Country Scouting — India

RFQ development and best-cost-country supplier scouting in India — from crafting the RFQ through supplier evaluation and selection.

What we do

What we do.

Domains

Where we go deep.

Four technology areas we know at the level where the cost and the risk actually sit — the process step, the component, the qualification gate. Not industry verticals.

01 · Semiconductors & displays

Compound semiconductor supply chains

The stack from wafer to pixel — epitaxy, chip, transfer, backplane, driver — and which step decides whether a programme is affordable. On one engagement we mapped and ranked 34 companies across a single value chain for a client's board.

GaN & GaN-on-Si epitaxyMicroLED & mass transferDriver ICs & AEC-grade ASICsBackplanes: LTPS, passive matrix, µCMOSQuantum-dot colour conversionInspection, metrology & yieldPackaging & test equipment
02 · AI & robotics

Machine intelligence in moving machines

We screened Japan's AI and robotics ecosystem for ABB Robotics — edge inference silicon, perception, reinforcement learning for motion control — and wrote a full technical dossier on every company that survived the screen.

Edge inference siliconPerception & sensor fusionReinforcement learning for motionMachine vision & 3D metrologyCloud robotics & fleet toolingBiometrics & facial recognition
03 · Optics, photonics & sensing

Light engines and hard-environment sensing

Microoptics, diffractive and holographic elements, and the light engines behind head-up displays — plus sensing that has to survive an industrial environment. We took ZEISS Microoptics through automotive series-production readiness and scouted kiln-tunnel sensors for Siam Cement.

Diffractive & holographic opticsHUD and panoramic-HUD light enginesRadar & lidarHigh-temperature industrial sensingSilicon photonicsWireless bio-signal sensing
04 · Advanced materials & manufacturing

Materials that do something, and the base that builds them

Smart materials, additive manufacturing and the suppliers who can make them at price. We ran Audi's 4D printing scouting project — printed structures that change shape with no mechanism — from a bare research field to four costed concepts on a gated investment path.

Additive & 4D printingAuxetic structures & metamaterialsShape-memory polymers & textilesAdvanced & carbon materialsInterior surfaces & shy techExterior lighting & adaptive driving beamBest-cost-country supplyConstruction & materials tech

These are named domains, not a menu. When a question falls outside them we say so, and point you to someone better placed.

How we work

Evidence you can take to a board.

Industrial clients do not need another confident deck. They need to know which numbers survive scrutiny and which ones do not — so we label them.

✓ VERIFIED  ·  ◆ ESTIMATE  ·  SUPPLIER-STATED

Every figure carries its provenance.

A chart in our reports is badged on its face: verified against a primary source, our own triangulation, or a vendor's claim recorded but unconfirmed. A client should never mistake our estimate for a fact. Where no honest figure exists we show a placeholder and say so.

Primary research, on the record.

Named expert interviews, supplier calls and trade-floor intelligence. A principal display engineer answering six written questions. A driver-IC house telling us on a call that the architecture everyone assumes is uneconomic at automotive screen size. Not a literature review with a logo on it.

Models you can edit.

Our partner scorecards ship as working spreadsheets: weighted criteria, weights in an editable row, ranking re-sorts when you change them. You get the model and the evidence tab behind every score — one row of sourced fact per company — not just our conclusion.

A range when the answer is a range.

The biggest uncertainty in a business case is shown as a band, not a number. On one recent question the analyst view and the leading supplier's view were twofold apart. We published both, and named which decisions were safe inside either.

We run the room, not just the report.

Two-day strategy workshops at the client's site, in their language — SWOT built live with the leadership team, an anonymous employee survey fed back into the room, then minutes and roadmap written up as a formal report within the week.

Culture is a gating requirement, like the spec.

Before a German optics team entered a Korean Tier-1 programme we wrote the field guide alongside the technical one: how decisions actually get made, ISO 26262 and ASIL obligations, RACI for series production, ramp-up and spare-parts planning. Both gate the award.

A partner-suitability scorecard from a live engagement. Thirty-four companies across one value chain, eight weighted criteria, and a stance gate that caps a direct rival at the bottom tier however strong its technology — because the risk being managed is IP leakage, not capability. The client edits the weights and the ranking re-sorts.
"The rise of internet economies will continue to challenge traditional business models, labor requirements and revenue streams."
Volker Heistermann — APEC O2O Summit, Lima, Peru
Speaking & thought leadership

Where we speak.

Volker has keynoted, moderated and judged at GMIC, GSMA Open Days, Mobile World Congress and APEC summits. Twenty-seven engagements on record since 2014.

GMIC Bangalore 2014 speaker lineup featuring Volker Heistermann, Managing Director of Yushan VenturesGlobal Mobile Internet Conference · Bangalore 2014 — featured speaker alongside InMobi, Kae Capital, Nazara & True Global Ventures
Also on stage and on the jury
Obama's Global Entrepreneurship SummitStartup WeekendMobileMonday TaipeiAudi Innovation Award
Selected work

Selected work.

The story

How we got here.

Yushan built ecosystems, scouted technology for the world's largest industrial companies, advised venture funds, founded an accelerator — and the founder is back at the helm.

2011

Founded in Taipei — and lit the spark

Yushan Ventures established to bridge global innovation and Asia's ecosystems. Introduced Startup Weekend to Taiwan and ran the MobileMonday Taipei chapter. In these early years Yushan also made a handful of direct angel investments of its own capital into Taiwanese startups — most since wound down; Lucent Sky, a web-security company, remains.

Startup WeekendMobileMonday Taipei
2012–2018

Co-built the APEC O2O Accelerator

Conceived and co-built the APEC O2O accelerator with Taiwan's government — running startup programs around the world, from Nanjing to Lima.

APEC
2015

Volkswagen Group, Audi & Coca-Cola

Became technology scouting partner to the Volkswagen Group and Audi — and introduced ProLogium, the Taiwanese solid-state lithium-ceramic battery maker, to Audi. Ran a China scouting engagement for Coca-Cola; toured 10 cities with GSMA on "The Rise of Asia's Innovation Machines".

Volkswagen GroupAudiCoca-ColaGSMA
2018–2020

Venture partner & ABB / Siam Cement scouting

Venture partner to HeidelbergCement's Foundamental fund; scouted vision tech in Japan for ABB's YuMi robot and high-temperature sensors for Siam Cement. Founded Mosaic Venture Lab, powered by Audi AG and Taiwan's MoEA.

FoundamentalHeidelbergCementABBSiam Cement GroupMosaic Venture LabMinistry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan
2026

Yushan rebooted

With Mosaic running independently, the founder returns to Yushan full-time — scouting, investment advisory, and startup growth under one roof again.

News & press

Selected press.

Interviewed as a cover story by Taiwan's trade authority, received at the Presidential Office, and on the record in the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch and 數位時代 — three decades of building ventures, in the press.

Recent coverage
Volker Heistermann shaking hands with President Lai Ching-te at the Presidential Office, TaipeiWith President Lai Ching-te · Presidential Office, Taipei · 2024
Delegation group photo with President Lai Ching-te at the Presidential Office, TaipeiDelegation reception · Presidential Office, Taipei · 2024
Selected clippings
Featured online coverage

Also covered by VentureVillage and 數位時代 創業小聚, and more recently a podcast guest on Startup Island TAIWAN, Startup DNA and Business Next.

Mosaic Venture Lab
Our spin-off

We founded Mosaic Venture Lab.

Created in 2018 as Yushan's deep-tech accelerator and hands-on VC in Taipei — powered by Audi AG and Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs — Mosaic Venture Lab grew into an integrated startup-support ecosystem with 20+ professionals. Today it operates independently.

Audi Innovation Award 2023 HackathonAudi Innovation Award 2023 Hackathon · “Women Driving the Future of Mobility” — powered by Audi & Mosaic Venture Lab, Taipei
Team

Who we are.

Six people across Germany, the USA, Taiwan and Malaysia: automotive engineers, semiconductor and display researchers, and venture investors.

Volker Heistermann

Founder & Managing Director · San Francisco

Founded Yushan in Taipei in 2011 after 15 years in Silicon Valley — Google, AT&T, and investment bank Rutberg & Co. Venture partner to the Trans Pacific Technology Fund and Foundamental; founded Mosaic Venture Lab; judge at Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Dr.-Ing. Volker Kaese

Managing Director · Germany

Automotive engineering leader with deep OEM experience. Leads technology research, supplier programs, and innovation consulting for European automotive clients.

Melanie Edwards

Advisor · Stanford University · USA

Brings Stanford research and Silicon Valley networks to Yushan's strategy and market-research engagements.

Bruce Bateman

Partner · Semiconductor Research Lead · Taiwan

A serial entrepreneur and IoT specialist who has spent his career in technology companies including Dell and PictureTel, Bruce leads Yushan's semiconductor research and scouting with decades of cross-border operating experience across Asia's technology and manufacturing sectors.

Kyle Hu

Research Manager · Display Technology · Taiwan

Leads display-technology research for Yushan's strategy and market-research engagements, working across the Mosaic deep-tech network in Taiwan.

Ken Huang

Venture Partner · Malaysia

A venture capital investor based in Malaysia, Ken backs and scouts early-stage deep-tech founders and connects Yushan's portfolio and clients to capital and partners across Southeast Asia.

Advisory Board

Senior advisors and institutional partners guiding our strategy across telecommunications, multilateral development, and automotive.

Axiata GroupTelecommunications · Southeast Asia
United NationsMultilateral development
AudiAutomotive · Mosaic partner
Contact

Tell us what you're looking for.

Scouting a technology, sourcing deals, or entering a new market — start with a conversation.