Japanese tech startups start to explore India for customers and tech talent
The government of Japan is keen to globalise the reach of its tech startups. It is now actively looking at the India market for a long-term partnership.
Japanese startups have started to make a beeline to India to explore new partnerships, customers and technology talent. This is in an attempt to expand their reach outside of their home country.
The inititative is under the Japanese government’s Hiyaku Next Enterprise programme led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. It will select entities that have innovative ideas with cutting edge technologies.
In Bengaluru for the first time, 10 Japanese startups across different domains, showcased their expertise. This was in front of a select audience consisting of venture capitalists, Indian entrepreneurs and others in the startup ecosystem.
This initiative was led by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Bengaluru. Takashi Suzuki, Director General, JETRO, Bengaluru, said,
“This is the first try out for us and we wanted to create awareness about the startups from Japan.”
The Japanese startups made their pitches in front of VCs, which included the likes of Axilor and Keiretsu Forum. Takashi said the Japanese government aims to help these startup go global by exploring new markets. India is the second destination for these startups in the foreign market after Silicon Valley in the US.
The startups
The ten Japanese startups that showcased their expertise are:
- Caulis: A cybersecurity firm, which provides cloud-based fraud detection for enterprise companies.
- Quantum Biosystems: A life science startup developing single molecule sequencing technology to reduce sequencing costs while improving accuracy.
- Grooves: This is mid-stage HR entity has developed an engineering skill database which rate this technical pool through an AI platform.
- Susmed: A digital therapeutics startup has developed a mobile application to treat insomnia through the application of blockchain and AI technology.
- Geniee: This is a digital marketing technology startup which aims to help customers improve productivity and profitability.
- Stroly: An open map platform startup which is a location service that shows GPS positioning on any kind of map or form.
- Technolab: This is a hardware entity which is making a platform for low volume manufacturing targeted at industrial designers.
- Finc Technologies: A mid-stage healthcare startup, which has developed an AI trainer to help users understand daily habits that affect health.
- Ubie: This artificial intelligence health tech startup has developed a chat-bot disease prediction service.
- Lequio Power Technology: This healthcare venture has developed a generic portable ultrasound solution to be used for diagnosis and medical education.