On Friday, February 2024, 2, the Tokyo Consortium for Startup Ecosystem held a deep tech event, "The Cutting Edge of Robotics Startups - The Challenge of Solving Social Issues through Technology," as part of its University Working Group.
We invited four robotics startups at the forefront of the industry - iRobotics Inc., Aerosense Inc., Sensyn Robotics Inc., and SOINN Inc. - as well as Professor Masaharu Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Institute of Technology to discuss the current status of robotics startups, including challenges and prospects, and explore the path to the future.
Tokyo Consortium Secretariat Yosuke Morimoto (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC)
The Tokyo Consortium provides a platform to promote exchanges between industry, academia, government and finance. In cooperation with public institutions such as the Cabinet Office and Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Consortium is working to address social and urban issues. It takes a two-stage approach of a surface ecosystem and a deep ecosystem to develop ecosystems and support the growth of startups. This event focuses on the robotics field, which is expected to see global market growth and increased demand, and has invited robotics startups that have been adopted into the deep ecosystem.
Masaharu Tsujimoto, Professor, School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Deputy Director, Research and Industry-Academia Collaboration Division
The ecosystem concept emphasizes the inclusion of complementary parties (complementars).
From this perspective, it is important to understand how your local product is perceived by others. Consumers do not just consume a product, they evaluate the entire system that supports it. In other words, not only a good product but also the presence or absence of problems in the whole system will affect customer evaluations.
In addition to business players, government policy makers also play an important role in the ecosystem. The difficulty in building an ecosystem here is bringing together diverse people with different beliefs and cultures. In an ecosystem, both detailed knowledge of the field and understanding of the big picture are important.
To begin with, Japan's ecosystem level continues to be inferior to the rest of the world. This is because, although Japan is not technologically inferior, university research has not had a significant impact on society.
As a result, I think that overseas expansion will be a challenge for the future. Even if you make a good product, it will be difficult to succeed if you cannot successfully integrate into the local ecosystem overseas.
Four leading robotics startups and Professor Tsujimoto participated in a panel discussion on social issues, industry challenges, and future prospects.
[Speaking companies]
Yoshiyasu Ando, CEO of iRobotics Inc.
Mr. Satoru Shimada, Director of Aerosense Inc.
Takuya Kitamura, President and CEO of Sensyn Robotics Inc.
Osamu Hasegawa, CEO of SOINN Inc.
Masaharu Tsujimoto, Professor, School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology
[Moderator]
Takanori Date, Manager of the Startup Business Division, Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support Co., Ltd.
Mr. Ando (hereafter, titles omitted):There are problems with aging equipment and labor shortages, but we cannot immediately move to mechanization. This is because compliance with safety standards and costs are obstacles. Simply listening to the customer's current issues will leave us unaware of the essential problems, so it is important to work closely with the customer to hear their concerns and come up with the optimal solution.
Mr. Shimada (hereafter, titles omitted):Introducing it will change the way people work on-site. Even if the benefits are clear, I feel it is difficult to make changes immediately.
Mr. Kitamura (hereafter, titles omitted):Introducing new technology is not a decision that can be easily made on the ground, so the top priority is to find people at the top who understand the idea.
Mr. Hasegawa (hereafter, titles omitted):Even if they are positive about the proposals, they often do not proceed to implementation. As a result, they sometimes end up adopting overseas technology, which is disappointing.
Mr. Tsujimoto (hereafter, titles omitted):The decision-making problem of where to introduce a solution arises in every industry. How quickly a company decides to try something out requires a different approach for each company.
Ando:I believe that what will change the world is if we create a situation where we have to do things, rather than something that is forced upon us from above.
Shimada:I think Japan's drone regulations are simple and easy to understand, and I think Japan could be a world leader.
Kitamura:The question is whether we can take risks. The Chinese government is encouraging various trials, saying that sacrifices are necessary for innovation. I hope Japan will also proactively try to implement them, rather than relying solely on past examples.
Hasegawa:I think it is important to raise awareness. I think our technology has been recognized by winning UPGRADE with TOKYO in 2022.
Tsujimoto:I believe that policies can be one of the engines of innovation and that the impact of policies can be significant in new fields.
Ando:Japan is good at manufacturing, but it doesn't have the infrastructure to generate innovation yet. It should first build a foundation before aiming to expand overseas.
Shimada:When expanding overseas, various regulations come into play, making things difficult. It is important to have a network that allows you to penetrate into the overseas ecosystem.
Kitamura:Japan is said to be a pioneer in solving problems, but we must use this as an advantage. There are many areas in which Japan is more advanced. I think we should take advantage of the ecosystem and go overseas as a team to sell our products.
Hasegawa:We are currently preparing to expand overseas by obtaining patents and trademarks. We have received investment offers from American companies, but they have told us that they cannot invest unless we move our headquarters to the US, and this is also a hurdle to entering the ecosystem. We are currently considering what to do next.
Tsujimoto:When developing an industry and entering an overseas ecosystem, thorough expertise is essential. I think the rotation of people in charge in the Japanese government is not good. I think that there are cases both at home and abroad where people, no matter how talented they are, are unable to enter the ecosystem.
One working adult audience member who attended the event commented, "It was extremely helpful to have people at the forefront of the startup world come together and share the challenges they've faced in the past. We gained valuable guidance for those who want to start a startup in the future. I hope they share these experiences with the younger generation."
The Tokyo Consortium will continue to support entrepreneurs with all its might in order to produce world-class startups from Tokyo. Thank you for your continued support.