Global startups compete at Nagoya’s TechGALA – Innovations in AI, agriculture, and sustainability take top prizes!

JSTORIES ー One spotlight of the TechGALA startup convention held in Nagoya in early February was the World Startup Showcase, a pitch competitors joined by 16 startups from around the globe. The winners obtained help for enterprise growth and worldwide market entry, media publicity, and conferences with decision-makers from main companies.

The competitors was open to Japanese startups aiming to broaden globally and worldwide startups searching for entry into the Japanese market. Contributors competed throughout 5 key classes: Mobility, Sustainable Setting, Supplies, Life Science & Nicely-being, and Superior Know-how.

Picture by J-Tales (Masaru Ikeda) (Identical under)

A panel of specialists from enterprise capital companies and firms from the Tokai area evaluated the startups.

Antti Sonninen, Co-founder and CEO of Takeoff Tokyo
Takeshi Isaku, Govt Officer, Musashi Seimitsu Business / Head of MUSASHI Innovation Lab “Clue”
Keiko Usami, Head of Hydrogen Enterprise Growth, bp Japan Okay.Okay.
Eyal Agmoni, Founder and Chairman of Chartered Group
Michiko Kato, Companion, Woven Capital
Atsushi Suzuki, Regional Head, Marubeni Chubu
Yumi Goda, Senior Supervisor, MUFG Innovation Companions (MUIP)
Shoichi Teshiba, Govt Officer of Macnica Holdings
Shuji Honjo, Consultant, Honjo Workplace / Visiting Professor at Tama College

Along with enterprise growth help, the winners obtained money prizes. The primary-place winner received ¥1 million ($6,700); second place received ¥500,000 ($3,350); and third place ¥300,000 ($2,000).

First place: Spornado (Toronto)

Spornado is revolutionizing crop illness prevention with a solar-powered air sampler that collects airborne pathogens and makes use of DNA evaluation to optimize fungicide software.

Annually, the world spends $21 billion on fungicides, but crop illness nonetheless ends in losses exceeding $100 billion. Spornado’s know-how offers farmers real-time alerts and allows them to make use of a data-driven and focused fungicide as a substitute of counting on estimates.

The corporate operates over 1,000 samplers throughout 25 nations. It presents a subscription mannequin priced at $2-$8 per hectare. Subscribers obtain illness detection updates inside 24 hours through textual content or electronic mail. By optimizing pesticide use, Spornado delivers a two to 5 occasions return on funding (ROI) in comparison with conventional approaches.

The corporate has secured patents in North America, Europe, and Japan. The corporate plans to broaden its companies to cowl all main crops in 5 years. It additionally develops an AI-powered area sensor to reinforce illness prediction and remedy methods.

Second place: Onoma AI (Seoul, South Korea)

South Korea’s Onoma AI is remodeling webtoon manufacturing by automating storyboarding, character era, and scene composition.

Fueled by Netflix diversifications of Korean digital comics, the webtoon market is projected to succeed in $12.1 billion by 2029. Webtoon artists spend 40% of their workday creating storyboards, a time-consuming course of that Onoma AI seeks to streamline.

The corporate developed Illustrious XL, an AI mannequin ranked seventh amongst trending fashions on Hugging Face ー an organization that develops computation instruments for constructing purposes utilizing machine studying. Its platform permits artists to coach AI fashions, purchase and promote belongings, and generate content material sooner.

Backed by NVIDIA, Google, and Microsoft, the corporate received the CES Innovation Award in 2024 and 2025. By decreasing manufacturing time by 49%, Onoma AI allows artists to double their output. The startup is at the moment elevating a $3 million Collection A spherical (a startup’s first main enterprise capital spherical to scale and broaden) to enter Japan, aiming to deliver conventional manga into the webtoon format.

Since its launch in September 2024, Onoma AI has gained 2,974 registered customers with out advertising and marketing, producing $90,000 in B2B income and $20,000 in month-to-month recurring income via partnerships with platforms like Tensor.Artwork ー a web based picture generator that makes use of Ai to assist folks simply create, discover and share visuals.

Third place: JOYCLE (Kyoto, Japan)

Kyoto-based JOYCLE is addressing waste administration challenges with its moveable IoT-driven upcycling vegetation, offering a sustainable various to incineration.

As municipalities wrestle with shrinking budgets, rising transportation prices, and labor shortages, JOYCLE developed the JOYCLE BOX. This compact electric-powered system converts waste into reusable supplies while not having transportation or incineration.

In contrast to conventional waste processing amenities, JOYCLE BOX operates on electrical energy, integrating Web of Issues sensors (IoT) – mechanisms in bodily gadgets to gather knowledge from their surrounding surroundings – to optimize processing effectivity. The system transforms waste into ceramic ash and biofuel, which will be repurposed into eco-friendly constructing supplies.

For island communities, the place waste transportation is dear and carbon-intensive, JOYCLE presents a cheap and environmentally pleasant various. Okinawa has begun adopting the system, and curiosity is rising within the Philippines, Indonesia, and Hawaii.

JOYCLE plans to deploy 9 models throughout Japan within the subsequent two years. It’s collaborating with Kyushu College and Gunma College to refine its know-how. The corporate targets hospitals, island resorts, and native governments as key clients.

Within the following part, we’ll cowl the businesses that sadly didn’t win the competitors.

System Complete（Israel, Tel Aviv）

DeviceTotal gives safety visibility options for IoT and OT (operational know-how) gadgets, catering to industrial purposes. Cyberattacks concentrating on IoT techniques have turn out to be a rising concern within the Asia-Pacific area, with Japan rising as a main goal.

Leveraging synthetic intelligence, the corporate has constructed a proprietary repository that consolidates safety knowledge from all related gadgets. This platform delivers vulnerability scores, danger assessments, and mitigation methods for gadgets, together with these from Japanese distributors, providing shoppers a transparent return on funding. The answer requires no set up or system integration, permitting corporations to undertake it with out operational dangers.

In a single case research involving an automaker, DeviceTotal efficiently recognized 100% of vulnerabilities that Japan’s nationwide vulnerability database, JVN, had not detected. The corporate allows shoppers to take exact risk-reduction actions at no extra price. By using this intelligence, organizations can strengthen their total safety posture and mitigate monetary harm from cyberattacks, which in Japan common greater than $4.5 million per incident.

Choira（India, Mumbai）

One of many greatest challenges in fashionable music manufacturing is the difficulty of latency in on-line collaborations, the problem of discovering and reserving studios, and the prolonged technique of finishing a observe.

Choira goals to handle these points by providing an ultralow latency music collaboration platform, an AI-powered manufacturing suite for commercial-quality music, and an built-in market for studios, musicians, and producers. By digitizing and streamlining all the music manufacturing workflow, the corporate seeks to reinforce effectivity throughout the business.

Headquartered in India, Choira has already partnered with greater than 200 studios and has surpassed 15,000 downloads. Its subscription-based enterprise mannequin features a creator plan beginning at $15 per 30 days, a fee construction of 10%-25% from companions, and enterprise pricing of $200 per mission. Just lately, the corporate secured a partnership with Dolby Laboratories Inc., enabling customers to ebook Dolby Laboratories studios and music rooms immediately via the platform.

Positioning itself as a frontrunner within the digital transformation of the music business, Choira is aiming for international growth by 2030. The founding group consists of an digital music producer, former Core Play live performance administration executives, a advertising and marketing lead, an AI analysis adviser, and a professor from Musashino College. Whereas leveraging cutting-edge know-how, the corporate stays dedicated to empowering music creators and contributing to the expansion of the worldwide music business.

Human Life CORD Japan（Tokyo）

Human Life CORD Japan is a regenerative medication startup tackling international well being challenges related to growing old, together with sarcopenia and prediabetes — situations affecting an estimated 1.35 billion folks worldwide. The corporate makes a speciality of umbilical cord-derived cell therapies, leveraging stem cells with tissue-regenerating and immunomodulatory properties to supply a sustainable method to superior therapies. One umbilical wire can yield 3,600 models of its product, enough to deal with 300 sufferers.

In simply two and a half years since its founding, the corporate has secured regulatory approval, paving the way in which for medical purposes. A medical trial for leukemia sufferers with pulmonary issues demonstrated a survival fee of 71.1%, in comparison with 25% with standard therapies — a breakthrough that has accelerated its international growth efforts. In December 2024, Human Life CORD Japan will companion with the New York Blood Heart to ascertain a worldwide high quality assurance commonplace.

By 2027, the corporate goals to gather 10,000 case research and leverage AI to allow early detection of diabetes. It additionally explores stem cell purposes for preventive therapies. Dedicated to a localized manufacturing mannequin, the corporate seeks to construct a worldwide ecosystem for cell remedy whereas securing authorities certifications. With a deal with harnessing the huge potential of umbilical cord-derived therapies, it goals to handle vital healthcare challenges in growing old societies.

Baobab, a number one Japanese annotation firm, has been offering annotation companies for machine studying and AI — together with generative AI — for 15 years. Its shoppers embody distinguished figures equivalent to Dr. Graham Neubig from Carnegie Mellon College’s Language Applied sciences Institute, solidifying its repute within the business.

With a worldwide workforce, Baobab creates job alternatives for people who usually face employment challenges, together with refugees. Just lately, the corporate launched a help program for Ukraine, providing life abilities coaching for moms and males getting back from the entrance traces. In Japan, workers with disabilities contribute to coaching initiatives and work as proofreaders, underscoring Baobab’s dedication to range and social affect.

The corporate’s efforts prolong to serving to former troopers reintegrate into society by equipping them with important life abilities, a program backed by the Japanese authorities. Via these initiatives, Baobab continues to merge AI innovation with social duty.

IANUS Simulation（Germany, Dortmund）

Corporations throughout industries face mounting challenges when growing new equipment and processes, together with rising prices for energy, uncooked supplies, and vitality, difficulties in securing and retaining expert specialists, rising international competitors from new applied sciences, and rising calls for for sustainability.

IANUS Simulation, a deep-tech startup based mostly in Germany, presents custom-made digital simulation and AI-powered options to handle these points. Its cloud-based platform, StrömungsRaum, gives an intuitive instrument that permits corporations to run superior simulations with minimal enter. Customers can merely add 3D information, leverage an in depth element database, and enter a couple of parameters to start real-time problem-solving — with out the necessity for costly {hardware} or in-house specialists.

Certainly one of its main shoppers, Veka, a number one producer of plastic window and door frames, has built-in StrömungsRaum into its manufacturing course of. Beforehand, launching a brand new manufacturing run required 12 guide iterations, 12 tons of fabric waste, and 6 weeks of downtime. By adopting StrömungsRaum, Veka changed roughly 75% of guide work with simulations, attaining a €40,000 (roughly $43,000) price discount per machine, chopping materials waste by 9 tons, and shortening setup time by 4.5 weeks.

AC Biode（Japan, Kyoto）

AC Biode is a startup pioneering chemical recycling know-how to deal with the worldwide plastic waste disaster. Over 60% of the world’s plastic waste consists of combined, multilayered, or contaminated supplies, making mechanical recycling impractical. The corporate’s answer lies in Plastalyst, a proprietary catalyst able to breaking down plastics at a low temperature of 200 levels Celsius, with out counting on treasured metals, uncommon metals, or natural solvents — protecting prices low.

Utilizing this know-how, AC Biode can extract monomers from plastics and produce syngas, a mix of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane. Notably, it has developed the world’s solely PET-to-methanol conversion know-how. The corporate is conducting automotive business trials, efficiently decomposing advanced supplies equivalent to wire harnesses. Additionally it is engaged on options for medical waste disposal, together with supplies containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Past plastics, AC Biode is addressing methane emissions from palm oil waste — a serious environmental concern in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia — via native business collaborations.

Headquartered in Japan and the EU, the corporate has a multinational group from 10 nations led by PhD-level supplies science specialists. With workplaces in Kyoto, Tokyo, Mexico, and Cambridge, England, AC Biode is concentrated on scaling up its know-how and conducting proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives with waste-generating industries. Its course of can break down almost all forms of waste — apart from tires and vulcanized rubber — providing a brand new method to sustainable waste administration.

MAP IV（Japan, Nagoya）

MAP IV is a Nagoya College spinoff specializing in high-precision 3D mapping know-how for real-world environments. Based in 2016, the corporate has developed SEAMS, a system that effectively generates detailed, cost-effective maps important for autonomous car management. The know-how routinely detects key roadway options — together with site visitors indicators, lanes, and street constructions — whereas filtering out undesirable objects like transferring automobiles. It might probably additionally seize real-time environmental modifications, equivalent to street development.

MAP IV sells {hardware} geared up with laser scanners and sensors whereas providing knowledge processing and evaluation software program through a subscription mannequin. The corporate additionally gives customized mapping and verification companies tailor-made to shopper wants. Its options prolong past autonomous mobility and robotic logistics in factories and warehouses to AI-driven driving colleges, the place AI evaluates trainees’ driving efficiency — a sector anticipated to develop considerably.

Past self-driving purposes, MAP IV is increasing its know-how into conventional industries, with a specific deal with digitizing railway inspection. Addressing labor-intensive upkeep duties and workforce shortages, the corporate has demonstrated that 3D mapping can scale back workload by 50%. Its strengths lie in growing AI utilizing client-specific knowledge, accessing specialised datasets, and creating tailor-made options, positioning it as a frontrunner in next-generation mapping and automation applied sciences.

Autopass／車麻吉（Taiwan, Taipei）

Autopass is a startup that gives a seamless and cashless expertise for drivers. It streamlines the cumbersome processes at conventional self-service fuel stations — equivalent to dealing with gas nozzles and making funds — via car detection through surveillance cameras and computerized fee utilizing license plate recognition. The platform integrates with drivers’ most well-liked fee strategies, together with bank cards and financial institution accounts.

Among the many 1.4 billion drivers worldwide, Autopass at the moment serves 8 million. By December 2024, it expects 205,000 drivers to make use of its community and has already achieved $8 million in income within the earlier fiscal yr. The corporate operates on a Platform as a Service (PaaS) mannequin, incomes a 5%-15% income share from service suppliers, whereas charging model companions $2,000 for a 36-month contract to entry its driver ecosystem.

Autopass has partnered with LINE BANK, Toyota Taiwan, and Occasions Parking Taiwan to allow license plate-linked financial institution funds and on-line parking funds.

Founder Ronald Yu (余致緯) is a serial entrepreneur with two prior exits, together with an IPO in Taiwan and a enterprise sale to Acer. Autopass goals to turn out to be Asia’s main fintech answer for drivers by eliminating fee friction at fuel stations and parking amenities. Transferring ahead, the corporate seeks to drive cashless innovation on a worldwide scale and rework the motive force expertise.

Smartsound（South Korea, Seoul）

Smartsound develops and gives healthcare gadgets and AI options for analyzing coronary heart and lung sounds. To handle the wants of aged people who’ve issue visiting hospitals and power illness sufferers who’re monitoring their well being at house, the corporate has created a distant affected person monitoring system. Utilizing a easy machine and a smartphone app, it information and analyzes health-related sounds, detecting cardiopulmonary signs via AI. This know-how connects docs and sufferers, enabling early symptom detection and distant consultations.

Since 2021, Smartsound has been conducting potential medical trials and amassing cardiopulmonary sound knowledge from main hospitals in South Korea. The corporate has developed two AI fashions — one based mostly on spectrogram picture evaluation and the opposite on audio sign evaluation — and by combining them, it has achieved an accuracy of over 90%.

In contrast to different house healthcare gadgets that present solely numerical knowledge, Smartsound integrates picture and audio evaluation information, permitting physicians to make correct diagnoses. Knowledge collected from a 20-second measurement is analyzed on a server, and if abnormalities are detected based mostly on the AI analysis rating, a doctor overview will be requested.

Presently, Smartsound operates in over 20 nations and has partnered with main Japanese corporations, together with NTT. It presents tailor-made companies for pharmacies, clinics, B2B care suppliers, insurers, and shoppers, leveraging a subscription and licensing mannequin for sustainable income. The corporate’s know-how and enterprise mannequin have additionally been validated by U.S. healthcare establishments and consultants. Just lately, Smartsound introduced 4 new options: an AI stethoscope for pets, sleep apnea detection, WebRTC-based telemedicine companies, and Edge AI computing for physicians—AI processing carried out regionally on a tool slightly than counting on the cloud.

Carbon fiber, extensively used within the aerospace and automotive industries, is an ultrathin materials measuring simply 5-10 micrometers in diameter. Regardless of its excessive power, efficiency, and light-weight properties, recycling and reuse after preliminary use stay inadequate. With out intervention, an estimated 138 million tons of carbon fiber waste may find yourself in landfills over the following 50 years — or, within the best-case situation, be incinerated.

Deep-tech startup Fairmat is addressing this problem by offering a recycling answer for carbon fiber and its composites. The corporate operates amenities in France and the U.S., the place it automates the recycling course of utilizing robotics, relying solely on mechanical operations at room temperature to attenuate CO2 emissions. Fairmat has developed a proprietary traceability system, digital twin know-how, and structure simulation software program, enabling the manufacturing of high-performance, eco-friendly supplies at aggressive costs. In simply 4 years, the corporate has progressed from analysis to full-scale manufacturing, deploying 42 machines whereas sustaining 25% of its sources for continued growth. Life cycle evaluation confirms that Fairmat’s supplies scale back CO2 emissions by greater than half in comparison with options.

The corporate has already demonstrated its know-how throughout varied industries, together with ski tools, electronics, and battery casings for electrical automobiles. Inside 4 years, Fairmat has grown to a group of over 100 workers, established workplaces in France, Spain, and the U.S., and secured €51 million (about $55 million) in funding. It has additionally obtained B Corp certification – a designation for corporations that meet excessive requirements of social and environmental efficiency, transparency, and accountability. Presently specializing in Europe and the U.S., Fairmat plans to broaden into Japan, Vietnam, and China. Japan, as a worldwide chief in carbon fiber manufacturing, is a key goal market, the place the corporate goals to help the nation’s sustainability objectives.

Acompany（Japan, Nagoya）

Acompany is a startup specializing in confidential computing know-how, enabling encrypted knowledge processing whereas making certain compliance in cloud environments. This know-how is gaining traction amongst main gamers like Apple and Google for generative AI purposes and has been referenced in Japanese authorities paperwork. Acompany presents a confidential computing platform appropriate with AWS, GCP, Azure, and Snowflake, permitting safe utilization of knowledge and AI throughout varied industries.

The corporate locations explicit emphasis on the medical sector, supporting new drug growth and medical AI analysis by facilitating entry to affected person knowledge from establishments equivalent to Tohoku College and Hokkaido College. Historically, acquiring affected person knowledge has been expensive, starting from $1 million to $100 million, usually resulting in analysis failures on account of inadequate knowledge or extreme burdens on physicians throughout the consent course of. Acompany’s know-how streamlines knowledge utilization whereas decreasing the workload for healthcare professionals.

Acompany additionally leverages its experience in privateness rules. In July of final yr, it co-founded the Privateness Tech Affiliation alongside different startups, participating in discussions with Japan’s privacy-related organizations and authorities companies. The corporate goals to make encrypted computation the business commonplace, very similar to HTTPS has turn out to be the norm in telecommunications. Wanting forward, Acompany envisions broad purposes throughout telecommunications, healthcare, protection, and past, driving transformation throughout industries.

Most popular Computational Chemistry（Tokyo）

Most popular Computational Chemistry is a startup that develops and gives the AI answer Matlantis, which accelerates atomic-level materials simulations. Technological improvements have at all times been supported by new supplies, equivalent to metal, plastics, and semiconductors, and in the present day, the demand is for brand new supplies that may allow a sustainable future. Matlantis efficiently shortens atomic-level simulations, which beforehand took hours to months, to only seconds. For example, calculations that after took two months at the moment are accomplished in 0.3 seconds.

Matlantis helps all parts present in nature and will be utilized to a variety of supplies, equivalent to catalysts, batteries, and conductors. It’s a three way partnership between the deep studying know-how startup Most popular Networks and the key oil refiner ENEOS, combining the steadiness of a giant company with the agility of a startup. This hybrid construction permits the startup to leverage the sources, experience, and model recognition of the big firm whereas sustaining the flexibleness and innovation of a startup.

Phenikaa-X（Vietnam, Hanoi）

Phenikaa-X, established in 2020, is a Vietnamese startup offering applied sciences in autonomous driving, AI, IoT, and FPGA. With 120 workers, the corporate operates 5 enterprise areas: transportation options, drone options, robotics options, healthcare options, and training options. In 2021, it performed a proof of idea (PoC) for autonomous automobiles within the new city space Ecopark on the outskirts of Hanoi and developed a robotic assistant for COVID-19 prevention.

The corporate has additionally made important strides in industrial robotics and autonomous driving, together with offering Autonomous Cell Robots (AMRs) for Samsung and conducting PoCs for autonomous buses. The AMRs, particularly, have obtained excessive reward and are being deployed in electronics factories. Moreover, Phenikaa-X has developed autonomous drones for forest monitoring and is conducting PoCs over areas bigger than 3,000 hectares. Transferring ahead, the corporate goals to spend money on mass manufacturing and broaden its enterprise, specializing in good metropolis growth and Mobility as a Service (MaaS).