Leave a Nest Group, Asia’s Largest Venture Builder, Utilizes “tonari” to “Co-incubate” Deep Tech Startups and Investors Across Japan and Southeast Asia for co-creation of New Markets
Leave a Nest Group (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Group CEO: Yukihiro Maru) has connected four of its partner locations through “tonari,” a space-sharing system that connects two remote spaces via a life-sized high resolution screen developed by a Japanese startup tonari. The connections span across three countries in Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, enabling a more connected incubation ecosystem than ever before for deep tech startups across Japan and Southeast Asia. The four connected locations include two deep-tech incubation facilities: Center of Garage Tokyo (Sumida-ku, Tokyo) and Centre of Garage Malaysia (Cyberjaya, Malaysia), and UntroD Capital Japan (Minato-ku, Tokyo) managing the Real Tech Fund and UntroD Capital Asia Pte Ltd (Singapore) managing the Real Tech Global Fund which focuses on supporting early stage deep tech startups. This will enable a “Co-Incubation” system in which deep tech startups can be organically connected to investors and other ecosystem players to create new markets together.
▲Realizing the connection of four locations across three countries using “tonari”. Using the “location hopping” function, it is now possible to freely switch between the locations.
Since 2014, Leave a Nest Group has been operating TECH PLANTER in Japan and Southeast Asia, a platform dedicated to discovering and nurturing deep tech startups to solve deep issues. Today, it has formed an extensive network of entrepreneurs overlooking the six Southeast Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam) having nurtured 2,192 domestic and 1,604 overseas teams to date. In 2018, they also opened the Center of Garage (“COG”) in Sumida-ku, Tokyo, one of Japan’s largest incubation facilities specializing in hardware focused startups, to realize collaboration among startups, large corporations and manufacturers. As of September 2024, COG Japan houses 32 venture companies, 2 manufacturers, and 4 corporations. Furthermore, in 2023, the Center of Garage concept expanded to Malaysia with the opening of “Center of Garage Malaysia.” In COG Malaysia, 24 venture companies, 4 manufacturing companies, and 5 corporations have taken up occupancy, bringing the total to 56 venture companies, 6 manufacturing companies, and 9 corporations that have joined Center of Garage in Japan and Malaysia.
UntroD Capital Japan established the Real Tech Fund in 2015 with the purpose of accelerating social implementation of R&D-based deep tech startups with innovative technologies that contribute to solving global and human issues. Their total assets under management (AUM) is over 30 billion yen. UntroD Capital Asia also established the “Real Tech Global Fund” based on the same philosophy, investing mainly in startups based in Southeast Asia.
tonari (headquartered in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) is a startup that develops and sells life-sized high-resolution screen systems that seamlessly connect remote locations with low latency in order to create a world without boundaries caused by physical distance. Unlike conventional online systems that have become commonplace due to the development of IT, the low latency of the tonari system can capture the essence of non-verbal communication, such as facial expressions and gestures, to better create a sense of connection between the people connected through “tonari”.
Until now, only one connection between two locations with this life-sized video system was possible, but a “location hopping” function has been added to the system whereby multiple locations can be freely connected with simply the turning of a dial.
In this way, “tonari” now permanently connects the deep tech ecosystem Leave a Nest Group has built around Center of Garage and Real Tech Fund for the purpose of social implementation of deep tech startups.
For the social implementation of deep tech startups that aim to solve deep issues, the creation of markets that do not yet exist may be necessary. This requires “Co-Incubating” multiple startups through startup-startup collaboration, not just between startups and corporations. Furthermore, it is important to form not only one-to-many relationships between a startup and a company but also many-to-many relationships through venture-venture collaboration and “Co-Incubation” in which multiple startups work together to create a new industry. Through this system, deep tech startups in Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore will be able to seamlessly consult with each other for cross-border business development and funding. In this way, a united deep tech ecosystem between Japan and Southeast Asia is nurtured, enabling the co-creation of new markets unlimited by physical distance.
◾︎Press release from tonari ◾︎
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000016.000069342.html
◾︎Inquiries regarding this matter◾︎
Leave a Nest
Group Creation Department: Ueno, Takeda
TEL : 03-5227-4198 MAIL : info “at” lne.st