\ Innovation trend commentary /

In this series, we will introduce the themes and ventures that were taken up in each morning pitch, and send out information that contributes to Japanese innovation.

This time, the event was held on April 27, 2023.Gen Z entrepreneur special feature"is.

Developing businesses that meet next-generation lifestyles

Generation Z generally refers to the generation born from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s, and is approximately 12 to 27 years old. The activities of Generation Z entrepreneurs are also attracting increasing attention. Timey, which provides a part-time job app for Mr. Ogawamine's free time, is characterized by its extremely fast pace of business, and has achieved a total of over 9 billion yen in funding in the three years since its launch.

Last year, we held a special feature on Gen Z entrepreneurs, and the companies that took the stage have seen rapid business growth over the past year. Zip Infrastructure, which develops the self-propelled ropeway "Zippar," has signed a sponsorship agreement with Major Sogo Engineering Co., Ltd. Turing Certs, a Taiwanese company that issues, manages, and authenticates digital certificates, has relocated its U.S. headquarters and established a subsidiary in Japan.

Generation Z entrepreneurs grew up surrounded by iPhones and iPads, so they can easily master these digital devices and are developing businesses based on the needs of next-generation lifestyles. Currently, services that utilize ChatGPT are being created one after another. In addition, because they were raised in an environment where they could freely use the Internet from birth, they have little resistance to communicating with people from other countries through SNS, and there are many cases where they conduct business with a global perspective. Another characteristic of this group is that they have a strong interest in issues such as the environment and discrimination, and many people boldly take on the challenge of businesses that solve social issues.

Entrepreneurship education is becoming more active

The business environment is also favorable. Entrepreneurship education has become popular, and students' interest in starting a business has increased since their student days. For example, in 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government implemented an entrepreneurship education program for 10 elementary and junior high schools in Tokyo. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is developing a project to develop next-generation entrepreneurs at universities across the country. A total of nearly 40,000 people participated from 2017 to 2020. We have a track record of starting 135 businesses. Entrepreneurial education provided by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency for high schools is not just education for starting a business, but also fosters independence, creativity, analytical skills, communication skills, etc., and provides students with the ability to live in the future. It is intended to be worn.

The success of young business owners lowers the hurdles to starting a business

Role models are emerging, and many young entrepreneurs in the latter half of the millennium generation are already active, and the hurdles for Generation Z to start a business have been lowered considerably. Sota Watanabe, CEO of Stake Technologies, which operates the Japanese blockchain "Astar Network," was born in 1995. We are making our presence felt overseas.

In addition, we have created an environment that is easy to operate a business, with extensive support for the seed stage. Specifically, in addition to investment from VCs and the provision of know-how through acceleration programs, incubation facilities and share houses are also being launched.

Cases of collaboration are also occurring one after another. In the area of next-generation lifestyle, New Innovations, an AI cafe robot, has partnered with a major private railway company to allow customers to receive special coffee in a completely unmanned and contactless manner by specifying the time and pick-up location within the station using an app. We are offering new services.

In the global field, Onikle, a startup from the University of Tsukuba that provides a paper publication and reference platform for computer scientists, is proceeding with development in collaboration with a major U.S. semiconductor manufacturer. PoliPoli, a platform operator that realizes policy co-creation, is collaborating with various local governments.

This time we will introduce five companies from the food/healthcare, social, and HR fields.

A job hunting platform for companies working to solve social issues (Ares Good Co., Ltd.)

Ares Good (Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture) operates a job-hunting platform called ``Ethical Job Hunting,'' where you can collect information and select companies, focusing on companies that are focusing on solving social issues. Sustainability is rapidly becoming a key focus for job hunting among Generation Z, and there is a certain need to work for a company that is working to solve social issues that interest them. Ethical Job Hunting provides a page that summarizes a company's business content, mission, and employee feedback, allowing companies to approach students and matching them to help solve social issues.

Collect and analyze various data through menstruation and pregnancy apps (Flora Inc.)

Flora (Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City) provides menstruation and fertility apps for general consumers. In addition to accumulating data on menstrual cycles and symptoms through the app, interactions with chatbots are also collected as data. We utilize data that other companies do not have, such as the cosmetics we use, our lifestyle habits, and our eating habits, allowing for deeper analysis. For companies, we provide support that leads to the active participation of female employees and the promotion of diversity. We support women who are turned down for promotions due to menstrual pain or menopause, and we provide data to companies that target women.

Prevent cryptocurrency fraud with pop-ups (KEKKAI Co., Ltd.)

KEKKAI (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) is developing a security tool that can prevent crypto asset fraud in the Web3 area. "KEKKAI Plugin" is equipped with a function that notifies you of transaction risks through a pop-up to protect against fraud. We make sure you know the risks before signing. The amount of damage caused by crypto asset fraud in 2022 will be approximately 500 billion yen, a significant increase of approximately three times compared to the previous year. As the Web 3.0 market is expected to grow in the future, the amount of fraud damage is also expected to increase, and demand for the company's tools is likely to increase.

Aiming to eliminate disaster stockpiled food loss (StockBase Co., Ltd.)

StockBase (Naka-ku, Yokohama) operates a matching platform "Stockbase" that makes effective use of stocked food and novelty items. In addition to transforming our stockpiles from "just stockpiling" to "stockpiling designed for consumption," we are simultaneously working to counter the ever-increasing amount of food loss and provide support to poor households by circulating it in local communities. The monetization point is on the company side, and we are building a model for a recycling-oriented society that is designed not only for the concept of donations but also for effective utilization. Our immediate goal is to eliminate food loss from disaster stockpiling.

Fostering a culture of donations to universities and activating innovation (Alumnote Co., Ltd.)

Alumnote (Taito-ku, Tokyo) aims to strengthen the financial foundation of universities by fostering a culture of donations, and is working to compile a database of related parties and support the revitalization of alumni communities. Universities play an important role as institutions that produce human resources and technology to stimulate innovation. However, the current situation is that the declining birthrate and reductions in operating subsidies have weakened the financial base, weakened international competitiveness, and weakened the ability to generate innovation. While deepening communication with donors through our services, we also plan and manage charity events tailored to each university's needs.

Generation Z entrepreneurs have a clear tendency to take on even big social issues as their own and boldly take on challenges to make the world a better place. As problems such as global warming and food shortages become more serious on a global scale, we expect this technology to play an even greater role.

▼Theme Leader Profile

Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support Co., Ltd.

innovation solutionDivision

Kazuma Suzuki

Graduated from Keio University Faculty of Commerce and joined Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support (DTVS) as a new graduate. During her extracurricular activities during her university days, she participated as an ambassador for a newspaper company's services for university students. As an intern during my university days, I worked on marketing and product development for a platform for OB/OG visitation for HR startup job hunters.
At DTVS, he was involved in acceleration programs for seed-stage entrepreneurs, planning and management of new graduate recruitment internships, and other activities.

-For those who want to catch up on innovation trends on a regular basis-

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In Morning Pitch, we will explain the outline of each theme as described above.

We deliver materials and videos only to paying members.

　Explanatory material ...Morning Pitch paid member

Explainer video ...Morning Pitch Innovation Community (MPIC) member

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