• KURASERU,INC.

    KURASERU is one of the Kansai-born healthcare startups, which was selected for the KOBE Global Startup Gateway in December 2017 and launched its service in January 2018. Further, the company was a part of the OIH Seed Acceleration Program Batch 5 in 2018, before it started the demonstration experiment at nine medical institutions in Kobe City and successfully raised 180 million yen (about 1.6 million USD) in 2019. Daiki Kawahara, the co-founder and CEO of KURASERU, set his mind to…

  • FREEPLUS Inc.

    FREEPLUS has been pioneering the global experience of traveling in Japan by catering to the specific needs of international tourists, initially as a specialized land operator, and now through the expansion of their hotel chain in Japan, FP HOTELS. >>>Watch Kentaro’s speech at HackOsaka 2018 “Our land operating business was launched in 2010. Today, we manage around 3,000 projects and 250,000 nights of hotel reservations per year,” explains CEO Kantaro Suda. “We have sales network in 38 countries. Initially, most…

  • Phybbit Ltd.

    In February 2019, Phybbit’s CEO Satoko Ohtsuki took the stage with a beaming smile. She won the GET IN THE RING OSAKA 2019(GITR), a regional selection of the world-renowned pitch contest hosted by Osaka Innovation Hub, and made it to GITR’s global meetup in Berlin. This experience helped her step up as a presenter and communicator, but most importantly, connected her with investors whom she needed to take her company to the next level. Phybbit, founded in 2011, has grown…

  • akippa

    Osaka-based akippa is a leading company in the Japanese sharing economy, gaining over 1 million users in 5 years. Their goal is to build the world’s largest mobility platform by 2030. “Entrepreneurs need two qualities: logical thinking and more importantly perseverance,” says CEO Genki Kanaya. He learned the latter playing soccer, trying to make it to the professional league. It was a blackout that inspired him to start a business that would be “indispensable” for society, just like electricity. Genki…

  • Triple W

    Tokyo-based Triple W is tackling a universal problem that is a source of deep sense of shame for a half billion people around the world every day, especially for the elderly and the handicapped, incontinence or not knowing when to go to the bathroom. “My grandfather was an entrepreneur and I always wanted my own business,” says CEO Atsushi Nakanishi. He studied business in college, worked for a consulting firm, looked for business ideas in the Philippines and went to…

  • mui Lab

    Kyoto-based mui Lab successfully raised over $110,000 in its Kickstarter campaign in 2018, which was later chosen by Kickstarter as the Best of Kickstarter. Their product “mui” also received a CES Innovation Award 2019 in the smart home category. What’s so innovative about mui? At first glance, it is a simple plank of wood about 70 cm wide on a wall. It goes well with a sleek, minimalist Japanese home as an interior accessory. When the wood is touched, mui…