Yasuhide Sato

XAION DATA, Inc. (XAION DATA) holds a patent on technology that collects and structures data publicly available on the web. For CEO Yasuhide Sato, the mission is to create, through the power of technology, an environment where the value each person has can be maximized. We asked about the beliefs of the company, which has grown rapidly since its founding in 2020, the path that led Sato there, and the outlook ahead.

Tackling companies’ HR and sales challenges with two core products

To put it simply, collecting and structuring data means integrating open data on the web with closed data accumulated inside companies, and structuring it into a form AI can use. We hold a patent on this technology and use it to help solve a range of challenges in HR and sales.

Our business is built around two products. One is “AUTOHUNT,” a next-generation HR platform that gathers information on people and companies from social media and open media to help companies with their hiring challenges. The other is “AUTOBOOST,” an integrated sales platform that collects information published in open media, such as company news, and lets users approach key people directly based on our own company and person data.

As the working-age population keeps shrinking, many companies face hiring challenges. Yet most companies still hire the same way they always have. AUTOHUNT addresses that challenge. It is a platform that structures information on people and companies on the web with our own technology and lets users search that vast information for ideal candidates. From a database of about 10 million people, it even makes visible the “latent” talent who have not yet entered the job market, creating new encounters between companies and candidates.

Our sales support service, AUTOBOOST, works on the same basic mechanism: it collects and integrates the open data that companies publish, so users can approach key people at target customers. It makes sales activities more efficient and leads to high-quality business talks. We also provide solutions tailored to each customer, such as supplying data to meet their needs and developing custom AI models.

“You have wonderful value”: words I encountered in Finland became my driving force

Experiences in two countries had a big influence on my decision to start the company. In Finland, where I studied abroad as a student, education focused on building each person’s self-esteem. Teachers understood each student’s strengths and weaknesses, and rather than making them overcome what they were bad at, they tried to develop what each person liked and was good at. I was deeply impressed by that.

“You have this kind of wonderful value.” I vaguely thought back then that if people heard such encouraging words, and had an environment where they could make the most of that value, everyone could live more happily.

After that, I joined a major company as an engineer. I worked with the desire to make the world better through technology, but I gradually began to wonder, “What value is what I build actually providing to society?”

Around that time, I was sent to Silicon Valley in the United States as a member of the company’s global leadership development program, and there I was deeply inspired again. In the region known as the cutting edge of IT, brilliant engineers were leaving big global companies like the GAFA group to start their own companies and deliver value directly to the market. Seeing people who fought on their own strength without depending on a company inspired me enormously.

I, too, wanted to deliver value to society through technology and face the market directly. As that desire grew, and with encouragement from the colleagues I was working with at the time, I decided to go independent. After that, I gained business knowledge in Japan and abroad, working on business development and fundraising at a startup in the United States and setting up a Japanese subsidiary. In 2020, I founded XAION DATA with Ishizaki (now Director and CTO), whom I had worked with in the United States.

What I felt after studying and working in two countries, Finland and the United States, was how low Japanese people’s self-esteem is. While people in Europe and North America actively promote their own value, such as their areas of strength and their careers, Japanese people are not good at promoting themselves. Japan is full of people talented enough to compete with the world, and I feel this is a real waste.

The reason we started our business in hiring was our wish to “create an environment where each person’s value is recognized and can be fully used, by optimizing matching through the power of technology.”

Building businesses that are both “new and practical”

Today, in the context of “maximizing people’s value,” we are expanding our business around our two products in ways tailored to each company’s needs.

In HR, we support not only hiring but also talent use tailored to each company. For example, we digitize paper records such as résumés and work histories and integrate them with data such as aptitude tests and performance reviews, putting everything into an easy-to-use form that helps with staffing and hiring strategy. In sales, we use AI to automate the routine tasks that come up every day, creating an environment where people can focus on work that is meaningful precisely because people do it, such as communicating with customers.

If there is an environment where no one is forced into things they are bad at or burdened with pointless chores, and each person can work on jobs that suit them and that are meaningful for them to do, everyone can work with energy. Now, when the line between AI and humans is blurring, is exactly the time I want to use the power of technology to bring out the meaning and value of being human.

Looking ahead to global expansion, we are also broadening the data we collect to global data and comparing competitors on a global scale. In fact, companies in the United States are already using our products and getting results.

We currently have about 60 employees. The corporate philosophy we value is “New, but Practical”: “build things that are not only novel but truly practical.” Our belief is to provide valuable things that other companies cannot do and that customers are glad to have.

Another thing we value is “Integrity First,” one of our values: making the effort to face customers sincerely and meet their needs, and making the effort to face ourselves honestly and keep growing.
With this philosophy at our core, we want to expand our business further, aiming for a society where everyone can shine and live with energy.

How We Used OIH

Visiting the OIH booth at IVS 2025, the international startup conference held in Kyoto, led us to join “Tech Osaka Summit 2025.” We won an Excellence Award at the pitch contest “Tech Osaka Award 2025.” We expect OIH to be a strong ally as we expand our business into Kansai.