Real Estate · M&A Background · Japan

Dr.Maksym
Grinenko

Chartered Financial Analyst

Tokyo-based Investment Professional

View LinkedIn profile Contact ↓
Portrait of Dr. Maksym Grinenko in Tokyo beneath cherry blossoms
02

Profile

About

Tokyo-based investment professional focused on Japanese real estate, combining underwriting and market analysis with a background in cross-border M&A.

I work in investment management at Quraz Ltd., Japan’s leading self-storage platform. My work spans investment underwriting and sourcing, investor reporting, market and financial analysis and the enhancement of investment-management processes and reporting infrastructure.

Before joining Quraz, I worked in M&A advisory and quantitative forensic analysis at PwC Japan. I hold a PhD from Heidelberg University, where I researched Bitcoin and Japanese retail-investor behaviour. My academic work also included research at the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University.

FocusInvestment Management
SectorReal Estate
Primary marketJapan
03

Professional background

Experience

Jun 2024 — Present Quraz Ltd. Investment Management

Associate · Tokyo, Japan

  • Underwriting & valuation: Performing underwriting and valuation work, including financial modeling, returns analysis and model development.
  • Market analysis: Conducting economic, demographic, real estate and geospatial analysis to support site selection, rate setting and investment decisions.
  • Investment sourcing: Sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, including pipeline management, screening and transaction support.
  • Process ownership: Owning analytical infrastructure, including market reporting, core datasets and workflow automation; supporting cross-functional workstreams.
Aug 2021 — May 2024 PwC Japan M&A Advisory

Associate → Senior Associate · Tokyo, Japan

  • Transactions: Investment banking activities with a primary focus on cross-border transactions.
  • Deal origination: Sell-side and buy-side origination across sectors: identifying opportunities, market research, investment theses, screening and evaluation, pitch materials and assessment of strategic fit and deal feasibility.
  • Deal execution: Execution across the transaction lifecycle: preliminary planning, target identification, confidentiality agreements, due diligence, valuation and financial modeling, deal structuring, regulatory approvals, closing preparation and post-closing procedures.
  • Sector coverage: Logistics & Real Estate and Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT): deal screening, pipeline management, origination and collaboration with other PwC member firms on cross-border transactions.
  • Team: Onboarding and mentorship of junior staff.
Feb 2020 — Aug 2021 PwC Japan Quantitative Forensic Analysis

Associate · Tokyo, Japan

  • Fraud analytics: Designed and implemented a large-scale analytical workstream to identify potential fraud across multiple accounting datasets and translate the findings into clear, client-ready outputs.
  • Reporting automation: Co-developed a Python tool to automate the generation of investigative reports.
  • eDiscovery: Supported evidence collection at client sites and subsequent data processing.
  • Technology: Applied Alteryx, Python and Tableau across investigative analysis and reporting.
Apr 2019 — Dec 2019 Monozukuri Ventures Venture Capital

Investment Intern · Kyoto, Japan

  • Investment research: Venture capital investment research.
  • Market analysis: Market research across prospective investment themes.
  • Due diligence: Evaluation of prospective portfolio companies.
  • Funding data: Analysis of equity-funding trends.
2007 — 2016Intermittent roles Siemens AG Business Operations & Process Management

Student Employee · approximately three years in total · Karlsruhe, Germany

  • Content management: Content management within Business Operation Services.
  • Global coordination: Facilitation of intra-business communication across international teams.
  • Process improvement: Optimization of department-level business processes.
  • Automation: Automation of recurring business processes.

Qualifications

Professional credentials

Nov 2024CFA Charterholder
Nov 2021Alteryx Designer Advanced Certification
Mar 2019FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE)
Sep 2018Bloomberg Market Concepts

Language credentials

EnglishTOEIC — 990
JapaneseJLPT N2
GermanAbitur
04

Academic background

Education &
Research

Doctoral research Heidelberg University · 2019

Bitcoin and the Japanese Retail Investor

Examined Bitcoin’s 2017 emergence in Japan and argued that the country’s established foreign-exchange margin-trading culture helped pave the way for cryptocurrency adoption despite broader retail-investor risk aversion. Successfully defended with honors in November 2019.

Read dissertation

Education & research

2016 — 2019
Heidelberg University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Japanese business and economy
  • Doctoral research on Bitcoin, the Japanese retail investor and the Japanese investment environment.
  • Successfully defended with honors in November 2019.
2018 — 2019
The University of Tokyo
PhD Research Stay, School of Economics
  • One-year stay at the Graduate School of Economics to conduct dissertation research.
  • Supported by the Japan Foundation.
2017 — 2018
Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies
Specialist language school certification, Japanese
  • Ten-month intensive intermediate and advanced Japanese proficiency course.
  • Business and economics focus.
2014 — 2016
Heidelberg University
Master’s Degree, Society, Economy, Governance (Transcultural Studies)
  • Focused on interactions and the interplay between Europe, the United States and East Asia.
  • Grade: GPA 4.0 equivalent (German: 1,1).
2015 — 2016
Kyoto University
Graduate Exchange, School of Economics
  • Graduate exchange focused on economics and management, complemented by Japanese-language study.
  • Earned straight A grades, including placement in the top group for Industrial Organization.
2008 — 2014
Saarland University
Bachelor’s Degree, Comparative Linguistics and Translation
  • Formal linguistic training and language proficiency in English, German and Spanish.
  • Thesis on the statistical analysis of the variation of linguistic markers in texts translated through different production types.

Scholarships & fellowships

May 2018
Japan Foundation doctoral fellowship
Fellowship supporting doctoral research at The University of Tokyo.
May 2018
Toshiba International Foundation scholarship
Scholarship for attending the IUC Yokohama Summer Course.
Sep 2017
IUC Yokohama scholarships
Scholarships from the Ito Foundation for International Education Exchange, Mitsubishi UFJ International Foundation and Toshizo Watanabe Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Oct 2016
Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies doctoral fellowship
Highly competitive three-year doctoral fellowship within the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies.
Jul 2015
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) excellence scholarship
Excellence scholarship for a Kyoto University exchange.
05

Contact

Get in touch