The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program will showcase a diverse selection of startups that focus on educational technology, new style of social media, web 3 and block chain development, environmental and agricultural carbon-dioxide solutions, and more with a Pitch Day on 12 January 2023.
Since 2021, JETRO and Techstars have partnered to launch four cohorts of the Founders Catalyst Program as part of JETRO’s Startup City Acceleration Program. Through this project, cohort startups undergo a series of masterclasses and cohort-building sessions that help participating founders build and grow their businesses. Moreover, they will be able to access the necessary tools that will help them navigate the challenges within their own startups.
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Each startup will be able to connect with Techstars’ global network of entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate partners. This platform offers chances for startups to seek professional business advice and may even lead to potential partnerships and connections between founders and mentors.
Past Techstars Founder Catalyst programs have contributed to hundreds of business and investor connections and seeded countless relationships between participants and mentors. The insights, and strategies, and other perks that Techstars created are helping innovative startups grow, become stronger, and catch the attention of global networks.
Here’s a peek at the 20 startups of the JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Pitch Day
1. AndLaw Inc.
Solving blockchain interoperability. Their product Futaba is an infrastructure service that specialises in cross-chain data acquisition where developers can easily deploy nodes and send chain data securely.
2. Artics
Building an app called “artics”, a social media platform that allows you to find and collect music, movies, art paintings, novels, comics, and any book you love. Users can also upload their own artworks.
3. Audiostock Inc.
Audiostock is a service that allows users to buy and sell licenses to use their music for projects. The company is revolutionising music distribution to create a world where the sound you create reaches the people you want to share with, and everyone can use the music with peace of mind.
4. Soundol (Bivio)
Soundol helps audio content creators (musicians and podcasters) earn money. Soundol is a platform similar to Spotify but removes the middleman, enabling musicians and podcasters to earn directly from their fans via monthly subscription plans.
5. Blue Farm Inc.
Blue Farm Co. is a company that is engaged in the double cropping of organic green tea and carbon credits by DXing tea plantations in mountainous areas. Through the provision of their services, they aim to contribute to the realisation of a sustainable society by helping companies become ESG and carbon neutral, as well as solving the problems of aging farmers and abandoned farmland.
6. CULTA Inc.
CULTA Inc. will become the global market leader in Speed Breeding Technologies for horticultural crops. They are presently the only company in Japan using AI/ Machine Learning, Genomics, and Phenomics, all for the betterment of Agriculture. They will produce high-quality cultivars and develop the Seed to Table Model to improve productivity and profitability for farmers.
7. Equmenopolis Inc.
Equmenopolis Inc. creates LANGX, a language learning experience platform to help people learn and speak English using highly interactive conversational AI technology.
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8. FRESS
FRESS started off as a mental health platform that truly believes in people’s health inside out. The company aims to change the Japanese snack industry through its variety of products, particularly plant-based and additive-free snacks such as granola bars. Their products also include hemp, to benefit mental and physical health from them.
9. Global Stage Inc.
At InterEd, they focus on empowering students to take action on global issues through STEAM, global competence, and entrepreneurship. Their program challenges students to understand complex problems and work collaboratively to address them through innovative technologies while learning critical content and skills.
10. Goldfinch LLC
Goldfinch’s product, LingoTV, is Language learning version of Netflix that helps people learn languages from watching anime and videos.
11. KAUCHE, Inc.
Cowche is a share-buying app that allows you to enjoy shopping at a great price by group-buying with “share-buying companions” such as friends, family, or someone on SNS. KAUCHE Inc. creates an exciting shopping experience for both customers who shop and partners who want to sell products.
12. KJ COMMONS
KJ COMMONS is an ikigai Tech company that creates services and contributes to the evolution of the system (maximisation of ikigai). They work at the crossroads of business, art, and technology.
13. MatchHat
MatchHat is a web app that helps creators find collaborators for their passion projects from any city in the world. They have built MatchHat for global creators, artists, and filmmakers. Collaboration for creative projects can take place remotely where, for example, a filmmaker in London is collaborating with a researcher in Tokyo on an AI robot companionship film project.
14. Omotete, Inc.
Omotete is developing unfre., a service that makes menstrual pads retrievable in bathroom stalls everywhere, and aims to be THE provider of lifestyle solutions to consumers. unfre. is a BtoBtoC service, with their core customers being the end-users, facility owners, and advertisers/marketers.
15. PaylessGate Co., Ltd.
PaylessGate provides a set of authentication technologies using Bluetooth for the real world. With their App installed, users can register any type of service for authentication including tickets, IDs, smart keys, payments, etc.
16. Pit-Step, Inc.
Blockchain Novel is an NFT marketplace for collaborative fiction writing. Users create stories and Illustration covers and sell/buy them as NFTs.
17. PITTAN, Inc.
PITTAN lets people to analyse health conditions through onsite, easy, sweat amino-acid analysis methodology, and people can take personalised healthcare services. Their machine is so small, that it could be used also in space in the future.
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18. Progummy Inc.
Progummy is an educational programming application for children that can be operated intuitively. It is the first visual programming application to have a collaborative editing function. This makes it possible to conduct group work in which multiple people work on a single program at the same time, which was previously difficult. Furthermore, teachers can easily monitor the progress of their students, which has been a challenge in online instruction. Currently, it is being used by several domestic programming schools for a fee.
19. Specialist Doctors Inc.
Specialist Doctors Inc., designs and develops web3 games to help middle and high school students achieve their first dream, such as a system that encourages gratitude and altruistic behavior and raises self-esteem, an AR function that allows people to talk to their minds and find their true selves when they are disturbed by anxiety, and a system to motivate people to see their future selves through AR, among others.
20. ZUU IFA. Co. Ltd.
Japan has big individual assets of about US 2 Trillion but does not have enough financial products to invest. ZUU IFA tries to connect the opportunities to invest US VC, PE and other unique asset class.
The team behind the JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program – Global Scale
The Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO’s “Startup City Acceleration Program” is an online program in partnership with the Cabinet Office of Japan. In this program, JETRO collaborates with six major accelerators to cultivate overall growth across the Japanese startup ecosystem, serving as an entry for some of the best Japanese startups to take on the global market. Through the program, startups will receive first-hand mentorship, matching opportunities with foreign investors, and new business partnerships, among many other exciting opportunities.
The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now, they are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to, and benefit from, the success of entrepreneurs. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, they do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 3,100 companies with a combined market cap of more than $150B.
To join the pitch day, RSVP here.
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