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

JSTORIES ー One highlight of the TechGALA startup conference held in Nagoya in early February was the Global Startup Showcase, a pitch competition joined by 16 startups from around the world. The winners received support for business expansion and international market entry, media exposure, and meetings with decision-makers from major corporations.

The competition was open to Japanese startups aiming to expand globally and international startups seeking entry into the Japanese market. Participants competed across five key categories: Mobility, Sustainable Environment, Materials, Life Science & Well-being, and Advanced Technology.

Photo by J-Stories (Masaru Ikeda) (Same below)

A panel of experts from venture capital firms and companies from the Tokai region evaluated the startups.

Antti Sonninen, Co-founder and CEO of Takeoff Tokyo
Takeshi Isaku, Executive Officer, Musashi Seimitsu Industry / Head of MUSASHI Innovation Lab "Clue"
Keiko Usami, Head of Hydrogen Business Development, bp Japan K.K.
Eyal Agmoni, Founder and Chairman of Chartered Group
Michiko Kato, Partner, Woven Capital
Atsushi Suzuki, Regional Head, Marubeni Chubu
Yumi Goda, Senior Manager, MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP)
Shoichi Teshiba, Executive Officer of Macnica Holdings
Shuji Honjo, Representative, Honjo Office / Visiting Professor at Tama University

In addition to business development support, the winners received cash prizes. The first-place winner got ¥1 million ($6,700); second place got ¥500,000 ($3,350); and third place ¥300,000 ($2,000).

First place: Spornado (Toronto)

Spornado is revolutionizing crop disease prevention with a solar-powered air sampler that collects airborne pathogens and uses DNA analysis to optimize fungicide application.

Each year, the world spends $21 billion on fungicides, yet crop disease still results in losses exceeding $100 billion. Spornado’s technology gives farmers real-time alerts and enables them to use a data-driven and targeted fungicide instead of relying on estimates.

The company operates over 1,000 samplers across 25 countries. It offers a subscription model priced at $2-$8 per hectare. Subscribers receive disease detection updates within 24 hours via text or email. By optimizing pesticide use, Spornado delivers a two to five times return on investment (ROI) compared to traditional approaches.

The company has secured patents in North America, Europe, and Japan. The company plans to expand its services to cover all major crops in five years. It also develops an AI-powered field sensor to enhance disease prediction and treatment strategies.

Second place: Onoma AI (Seoul, South Korea)

South Korea’s Onoma AI is transforming webtoon production by automating storyboarding, character generation, and scene composition.

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

The company developed Illustrious XL, an AI model ranked seventh among trending models on Hugging Face ー a company that develops computation tools for building applications using machine learning. Its platform allows artists to train AI models, buy and sell assets, and generate content faster.

Backed by NVIDIA, Google, and Microsoft, the company won the CES Innovation Award in 2024 and 2025. By reducing production time by 49%, Onoma AI enables artists to double their output. The startup is currently raising a $3 million Series A round (a startup’s first major venture capital round to scale and expand) to enter Japan, aiming to bring traditional manga into the webtoon format.

Since its launch in September 2024, Onoma AI has gained 2,974 registered users without marketing, generating $90,000 in B2B revenue and $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue through partnerships with platforms like Tensor.Art ー an online image generator that uses Ai to help people easily create, find and share visuals.

Third place: JOYCLE (Kyoto, Japan)

Kyoto-based JOYCLE is addressing waste management challenges with its portable IoT-driven upcycling plants, providing a sustainable alternative to incineration.

As municipalities struggle with shrinking budgets, rising transportation costs, and labor shortages, JOYCLE developed the JOYCLE BOX. This compact electric-powered system converts waste into reusable materials without needing transportation or incineration.

Unlike traditional waste processing facilities, JOYCLE BOX operates on electricity, integrating Internet of Things sensors (IoT) – mechanisms in physical devices to collect data from their surrounding environment – to optimize processing efficiency. The system transforms waste into ceramic ash and biofuel, which can be repurposed into eco-friendly building materials.

For island communities, where waste transportation is costly and carbon-intensive, JOYCLE offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative. Okinawa has begun adopting the system, and interest is growing in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Hawaii.

JOYCLE plans to deploy nine units across Japan in the next two years. It is collaborating with Kyushu University and Gunma University to refine its technology. The company targets hospitals, island resorts, and local governments as key customers.

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In the following section, we will cover the companies that unfortunately did not win the competition.

Device Total（Israel, Tel Aviv）

DeviceTotal provides security visibility solutions for IoT and OT (operational technology) devices, catering to industrial applications. Cyberattacks targeting IoT systems have become a growing concern in the Asia-Pacific region, with Japan emerging as a primary target.

Leveraging artificial intelligence, the company has built a proprietary repository that consolidates security data from all connected devices. This platform delivers vulnerability scores, risk assessments, and mitigation strategies for devices, including those from Japanese vendors, offering clients a clear return on investment. The solution requires no installation or system integration, allowing companies to adopt it without operational risks.

In one case study involving an automaker, DeviceTotal successfully identified 100% of vulnerabilities that Japan’s national vulnerability database, JVN, had not detected. The company enables clients to take precise risk-reduction actions at no additional cost. By utilizing this intelligence, organizations can strengthen their overall security posture and mitigate financial damage from cyberattacks, which in Japan average more than $4.5 million per incident.

Choira（India, Mumbai）

One of the biggest challenges in modern music production is the issue of latency in online collaborations, the difficulty of discovering and booking studios, and the lengthy process of completing a track.

Choira aims to address these issues by offering an ultralow latency music collaboration platform, an AI-powered production suite for commercial-quality music, and an integrated marketplace for studios, musicians, and producers. By digitizing and streamlining the entire music production workflow, the company seeks to enhance efficiency across the industry.

Headquartered in India, Choira has already partnered with more than 200 studios and has surpassed 15,000 downloads. Its subscription-based business model includes a creator plan starting at $15 per month, a commission structure of 10%-25% from partners, and enterprise pricing of $200 per project. Recently, the company secured a partnership with Dolby Laboratories Inc., enabling users to book Dolby Laboratories studios and music rooms directly through the platform.

Positioning itself as a leader in the digital transformation of the music industry, Choira is aiming for global expansion by 2030. The founding team includes an electronic music producer, former Core Play concert management executives, a marketing lead, an AI research adviser, and a professor from Musashino University. While leveraging cutting-edge technology, the company remains committed to empowering music creators and contributing to the growth of the global music industry.

Human Life CORD Japan（Tokyo）

Human Life CORD Japan is a regenerative medicine startup tackling global health challenges associated with aging, including sarcopenia and prediabetes — conditions affecting an estimated 1.35 billion people worldwide. The company specializes in umbilical cord-derived cell therapies, leveraging stem cells with tissue-regenerating and immunomodulatory properties to offer a sustainable approach to advanced treatments. One umbilical cord can yield 3,600 units of its product, sufficient to treat 300 patients.

In just two and a half years since its founding, the company has secured regulatory approval, paving the way for clinical applications. A clinical trial for leukemia patients with pulmonary complications demonstrated a survival rate of 71.1%, compared to 25% with conventional treatments — a breakthrough that has accelerated its global expansion efforts. In December 2024, Human Life CORD Japan will partner with the New York Blood Center to establish a global quality assurance standard.

By 2027, the company aims to collect 10,000 case studies and leverage AI to enable early detection of diabetes. It also explores stem cell applications for preventive treatments. Committed to a localized production model, the company seeks to build a global ecosystem for cell therapy while securing government certifications. With a focus on harnessing the vast potential of umbilical cord-derived treatments, it aims to address critical healthcare challenges in aging societies.

Baobab（Tokyo）

Baobab, a leading Japanese annotation company, has been providing annotation services for machine learning and AI — including generative AI — for 15 years. Its clients include prominent figures such as Dr. Graham Neubig from Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, solidifying its reputation in the industry.

With a global workforce, Baobab creates job opportunities for individuals who typically face employment challenges, including refugees. Recently, the company launched a support program for Ukraine, offering life skills training for mothers and men returning from the front lines. In Japan, employees with disabilities contribute to training initiatives and work as proofreaders, underscoring Baobab’s commitment to diversity and social impact.

The company’s efforts extend to helping former soldiers reintegrate into society by equipping them with essential life skills, a program backed by the Japanese government. Through these initiatives, Baobab continues to merge AI innovation with social responsibility.

IANUS Simulation（Germany, Dortmund）

Companies across industries face mounting challenges when developing new machinery and processes, including rising costs for power, raw materials, and energy, difficulties in securing and retaining skilled specialists, increasing global competition from new technologies, and growing demands for sustainability.

IANUS Simulation, a deep-tech startup based in Germany, offers customized digital simulation and AI-powered solutions to address these issues. Its cloud-based platform, StrömungsRaum, provides an intuitive tool that allows companies to run advanced simulations with minimal input. Users can simply upload 3D files, leverage an extensive component database, and enter a few parameters to begin real-time problem-solving — without the need for expensive hardware or in-house experts.

One of its major clients, Veka, a leading manufacturer of plastic window and door frames, has integrated StrömungsRaum into its production process. Previously, launching a new production run required 12 manual iterations, 12 tons of material waste, and six weeks of downtime. By adopting StrömungsRaum, Veka replaced approximately 75% of manual work with simulations, achieving a €40,000 (roughly $43,000) cost reduction per machine, cutting material waste by 9 tons, and shortening setup time by 4.5 weeks.

AC Biode（Japan, Kyoto）

AC Biode is a startup pioneering chemical recycling technology to tackle the global plastic waste crisis. Over 60% of the world's plastic waste consists of mixed, multilayered, or contaminated materials, making mechanical recycling impractical. The company’s solution lies in Plastalyst, a proprietary catalyst capable of breaking down plastics at a low temperature of 200 degrees Celsius, without relying on precious metals, rare metals, or organic solvents — keeping costs low.

Using this technology, AC Biode can extract monomers from plastics and produce syngas, a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane. Notably, it has developed the world's only PET-to-methanol conversion technology. The company is conducting automotive industry trials, successfully decomposing complex materials such as wire harnesses. It is also working on solutions for medical waste disposal, including materials containing polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Beyond plastics, AC Biode is addressing methane emissions from palm oil waste — a major environmental concern in Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia — through local industry collaborations.

Headquartered in Japan and the EU, the company has a multinational team from 10 countries led by PhD-level materials science experts. With offices in Kyoto, Tokyo, Mexico, and Cambridge, England, AC Biode is focused on scaling up its technology and conducting proof-of-concept (PoC) projects with waste-generating industries. Its process can break down nearly all types of waste — except for tires and vulcanized rubber — offering a new approach to sustainable waste management.

MAP IV（Japan, Nagoya）

MAP IV is a Nagoya University spinoff specializing in high-precision 3D mapping technology for real-world environments. Founded in 2016, the company has developed SEAMS, a system that efficiently generates detailed, cost-effective maps essential for autonomous vehicle control. The technology automatically detects key roadway features — including traffic signals, lanes, and road structures — while filtering out unwanted objects like moving vehicles. It can also capture real-time environmental changes, such as road construction.

MAP IV sells hardware equipped with laser scanners and sensors while offering data processing and analysis software via a subscription model. The company also provides custom mapping and verification services tailored to client needs. Its solutions extend beyond autonomous mobility and robotic logistics in factories and warehouses to AI-driven driving schools, where AI evaluates trainees’ driving performance — a sector expected to grow significantly.

Beyond self-driving applications, MAP IV is expanding its technology into traditional industries, with a particular focus on digitizing railway inspection. Addressing labor-intensive maintenance tasks and workforce shortages, the company has demonstrated that 3D mapping can reduce workload by 50%. Its strengths lie in developing AI using client-specific data, accessing specialized datasets, and creating tailored solutions, positioning it as a leader in next-generation mapping and automation technologies.

Autopass／車麻吉（Taiwan, Taipei）

Autopass is a startup that provides a seamless and cashless experience for drivers. It streamlines the cumbersome processes at traditional self-service gas stations — such as handling fuel nozzles and making payments — through vehicle detection via surveillance cameras and automatic payment using license plate recognition. The platform integrates with drivers' preferred payment methods, including credit cards and bank accounts.

Among the 1.4 billion drivers worldwide, Autopass currently serves 8 million. By December 2024, it expects 205,000 drivers to use its network and has already achieved $8 million in revenue in the previous fiscal year. The company operates on a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model, earning a 5%-15% revenue share from service providers, while charging brand partners $2,000 for a 36-month contract to access its driver ecosystem.

Autopass has partnered with LINE BANK, Toyota Taiwan, and Times Parking Taiwan to enable license plate-linked bank payments and online parking payments.

Founder Ronald Yu (余致緯) is a serial entrepreneur with two prior exits, including an IPO in Taiwan and a business sale to Acer. Autopass aims to become Asia’s leading fintech solution for drivers by eliminating payment friction at gas stations and parking facilities. Moving forward, the company seeks to drive cashless innovation on a global scale and transform the driver experience.

Smartsound（South Korea, Seoul）

Smartsound develops and provides healthcare devices and AI solutions for analyzing heart and lung sounds. To address the needs of elderly individuals who have difficulty visiting hospitals and chronic disease patients who are monitoring their health at home, the company has created a remote patient monitoring system. Using a simple device and a smartphone app, it records and analyzes health-related sounds, detecting cardiopulmonary symptoms through AI. This technology connects doctors and patients, enabling early symptom detection and remote consultations.

Since 2021, Smartsound has been conducting prospective clinical trials and collecting cardiopulmonary sound data from major hospitals in South Korea. The company has developed two AI models — one based on spectrogram image analysis and the other on audio signal analysis — and by combining them, it has achieved an accuracy of over 90%.

Unlike other home healthcare devices that provide only numerical data, Smartsound integrates image and audio analysis files, allowing physicians to make accurate diagnoses. Data collected from a 20-second measurement is analyzed on a server, and if abnormalities are detected based on the AI evaluation score, a physician review can be requested.

Currently, Smartsound operates in over 20 countries and has partnered with major Japanese companies, including NTT. It offers tailored services for pharmacies, clinics, B2B care providers, insurers, and consumers, leveraging a subscription and licensing model for sustainable revenue. The company's technology and business model have also been validated by U.S. healthcare institutions and consultants. Recently, Smartsound announced four new solutions: an AI stethoscope for pets, sleep apnea detection, WebRTC-based telemedicine services, and Edge AI computing for physicians—AI processing performed locally on a device rather than relying on the cloud.

Fairmat（Paris）

Carbon fiber, widely used in the aerospace and automotive industries, is an ultrathin material measuring just 5-10 micrometers in diameter. Despite its high strength, performance, and lightweight properties, recycling and reuse after initial use remain insufficient. Without intervention, an estimated 138 million tons of carbon fiber waste could end up in landfills over the next 50 years — or, in the best-case scenario, be incinerated.

Deep-tech startup Fairmat is addressing this issue by providing a recycling solution for carbon fiber and its composites. The company operates facilities in France and the U.S., where it automates the recycling process using robotics, relying solely on mechanical operations at room temperature to minimize CO2 emissions. Fairmat has developed a proprietary traceability system, digital twin technology, and layout simulation software, enabling the production of high-performance, eco-friendly materials at competitive prices. In just four years, the company has progressed from research to full-scale production, deploying 42 machines while maintaining 25% of its resources for continued development. Life cycle analysis confirms that Fairmat’s materials reduce CO2 emissions by more than half compared to alternatives.

The company has already demonstrated its technology across various industries, including ski equipment, electronics, and battery casings for electric vehicles. Within four years, Fairmat has grown to a team of over 100 employees, established offices in France, Spain, and the U.S., and secured €51 million (about $55 million) in funding. It has also obtained B Corp certification - a designation for companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Currently focusing on Europe and the U.S., Fairmat plans to expand into Japan, Vietnam, and China. Japan, as a global leader in carbon fiber manufacturing, is a key target market, where the company aims to support the country’s sustainability goals.

Acompany（Japan, Nagoya）

Acompany is a startup specializing in confidential computing technology, enabling encrypted data processing while ensuring compliance in cloud environments. This technology is gaining traction among major players like Apple and Google for generative AI applications and has been referenced in Japanese government documents. Acompany offers a confidential computing platform compatible with AWS, GCP, Azure, and Snowflake, allowing secure utilization of data and AI across various industries.

The company places particular emphasis on the medical sector, supporting new drug development and medical AI research by facilitating access to patient data from institutions such as Tohoku University and Hokkaido University. Traditionally, obtaining patient data has been costly, ranging from $1 million to $100 million, often leading to research failures due to insufficient data or excessive burdens on physicians during the consent process. Acompany’s technology streamlines data utilization while reducing the workload for healthcare professionals.

Acompany also leverages its expertise in privacy regulations. In July of last year, it co-founded the Privacy Tech Association alongside other startups, engaging in discussions with Japan’s privacy-related organizations and government agencies. The company aims to make encrypted computation the industry standard, much like HTTPS has become the norm in telecommunications. Looking ahead, Acompany envisions broad applications across telecommunications, healthcare, defense, and beyond, driving transformation across industries.

Preferred Computational Chemistry（Tokyo）

Preferred Computational Chemistry is a startup that develops and provides the AI solution Matlantis, which accelerates atomic-level material simulations. Technological innovations have always been supported by new materials, such as steel, plastics, and semiconductors, and today, the demand is for new materials that can enable a sustainable future. Matlantis successfully shortens atomic-level simulations, which previously took hours to months, to just seconds. For instance, calculations that once took two months are now completed in 0.3 seconds.

Matlantis supports all elements found in nature and can be applied to a wide range of materials, such as catalysts, batteries, and conductors. It is a joint venture between the deep learning technology startup Preferred Networks and the major oil refiner ENEOS, combining the stability of a large corporation with the agility of a startup. This hybrid structure allows the startup to leverage the resources, expertise, and brand recognition of the large company while maintaining the flexibility and innovation of a startup.

Phenikaa-X（Vietnam, Hanoi）

Phenikaa-X, established in 2020, is a Vietnamese startup providing technologies in autonomous driving, AI, IoT, and FPGA. With 120 employees, the company operates five business areas: transportation solutions, drone solutions, robotics solutions, healthcare solutions, and education solutions. In 2021, it conducted a proof of concept (PoC) for autonomous vehicles in the new urban area Ecopark on the outskirts of Hanoi and developed a robot assistant for COVID-19 prevention.

The company has also made significant strides in industrial robotics and autonomous driving, including providing Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for Samsung and conducting PoCs for autonomous buses. The AMRs, in particular, have received high praise and are being deployed in electronics factories. Additionally, Phenikaa-X has developed autonomous drones for forest monitoring and is conducting PoCs over areas larger than 3,000 hectares. Moving forward, the company aims to invest in mass production and expand its business, focusing on smart city development and Mobility as a Service (MaaS).