As part of JETRO’s Startup City Acceleration Program and under the support of the Japan Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), JETRO and Techstars have been collaborating since 2021 to launch four cohorts of the Founders Catalyst Program.
The JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program was built to prepare active Japanese startups for the global market. To do so, startups will access a series of masterclasses, mentoring resources, and cohort-building sessions designed to provide participating founders with the necessary knowledge and skills to establish and expand their companies in a fast-changing market and amid constantly evolving consumer needs.
Additionally, startups will have access to the tools they need to overcome the difficulties faced during the early startup development phase.
Helping disruptive startups scale to the global stage
By joining the Founders Catalyst Program, startups will become a member of a valuable network and gain exclusive access to long-term mentorship, partnership, and productive collaboration. Thanks to the collaboration with Techstars, startups can tap into the organisation’s extensive global network of business owners, venture capitalists, and corporate partners. Startups also have the opportunity to use this platform to obtain expert business counselling, laying the foundation to strengthen the relationship between founders and veteran mentors.
As a testament to this, past Techstars Founder Catalyst programs have helped establish countless connections between participants and mentors and hundreds of business and investor relationships.
In addition, during their journey with Founders Catalyst Programs, participants can take part in various professionally organized masterclasses and cohort-building sessions. In the end, 20 companies took part in the Pitch Day event that was held virtually on Zoom last January 12th and 10 of them were selected for the immersion program in San Francisco to engage with the local startup ecosystem for their oversea expansion.
The event was not only a networking and promotional activity but also a chance for startups to receive feedback to improve their products. Hence, startups are able to leverage the tools, strategies, and insights acquired from the programs to accelerate their growth and achieve global prominence.
A diverse cohort of 20 exciting new startups
JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program’s current cohort consists of 20 startups engaging in the verticals relating to educational technology, new styles of social media platforms, web 3 and blockchain development, environmental and agricultural carbon-dioxide solutions, and so on.
The selected startups present new opportunities from breakthrough technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, web 3, etc. to improve product performance, security, and usability, and meet unfulfilled market segments.
For instance, Audiostock offers a service for aspiring musicians and artists to monetise their artwork by licensing them to others. The company has contributed to a stress-free world when it comes to music distribution as people can enjoy music without any privacy concerns and artists can reach an unprecedentedly larger audience.
Operating in the retail space, KAUCHE, Inc. is a share-buying app that allows customers to enjoy an exciting shopping experience and at a great price via group-buying with “share-buying companions” such as friends, family, or someone on SNS.
The JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Program also features a slew of women-led companies operating in diverse spaces. Empowering content creators, MatchHat helps creators find collaborators for their passion projects from any city in the world. Projects can take place remotely, enabling creators as well as researchers to work on the same creative pursuits despite being countries apart.
In the FoodTech domain with a focus on the importance of a balanced and organic diet on mental health is FRESS, also led by a female founder. What started as a mental health platform, FRESS shifted their focus to revolutionising the Japanese snack industry. They provide a variety of products, particularly plant-based and additive-free snacks such as granola bars, including hemp which has mental and physical health benefits for customers.
Another exciting startup spearheaded by a female founder is Omotete, Inc. which developed unfre., a service that makes menstrual pads retrievable in bathroom stalls everywhere. unfre. is a BtoBtoC service with their core customers being the end-users, facility owners, and advertisers/marketers.
Regarding Edtech, Progummy argues that by leveraging students’ intuitive learning mechanisms, educational program applications can be both fun and effective. Hence, Progummy offers the first visual programming application to have a collaborative editing function. The program allows students to collaborate more seamlessly with their friends to co-learn while teachers can monitor the whole process with ease. The company plans to use a subscription model to monetise the product.
The cohort also features Pit-Step, Inc. which developed the Blockchain Novel operating within an NFT marketplace for collaborative fiction writing. Through Pit-Step, users can create stories and illustration covers and trade them as NFTs.
For social media networking, recognising a growing gap in the market for more personalised and targeted market segments, the novel social networking site artics aims to foster more genuine relationships among users based on their interests and provide a platform for users to share their work. Similarly focusing on social media networking, ikigai Tech company KJ COMMONS specialises in planning and producing projects that help maximise the ikigai of each individual.
Further diversifying the cohort is healthtech startup PITTAN, Inc., a company that lets people analyse health conditions through onsite, easy, sweat amino-acid analysis methodology. PITTAN’s machine is so compact, that it could even be used in space in the future.
To learn more about 20 startups in the current JETRO x Techstars Startup City Acceleration Programme cohort and explore their innovative business ideas, visit this site for an overview or watch their pitches videos in the links below.
AndLaw – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
artics – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Audiostock – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Blue Farm – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
CULTA – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Equmenopolis – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
FRESS – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Global Stage – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Goldfinch – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
KAUCHE – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
KJ COMMONS – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
MatchHat – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Omotete – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
PaylessGate – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Pit-Step – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
PITTAN – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Progummy – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Soundol – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
Specialist Doctors – Learn more by watching their pitch or talk to them here.
ZUU IFA – Talk to them here.
About JETRO
Founded in 1958, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is a Japanese government agency serving the mission of promoting Japanese investment and trade between Japanese and foreign businesses. JETRO’s “Startup City Acceleration Program” is an online program in partnership with the Cabinet Office of Japan that runs from October 2022 to March 2023. In this program, JETRO collaborates with five 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.
Learn more about JETRO at: https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/
About Techstars
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 we 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, we do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Through its accelerators, Techstars has invested in more than 3,300 companies with a combined market cap of more than $96B.
Learn more about Techstars at: www.techstars.com
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by JETRO
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