``1stRound'', Japan's largest cross-university entrepreneurship support program operated by the University of Tokyo Collaborative Platform Development Co., Ltd. (Todai IPC), and ``BizReach'', a career change site operated by BizReach Co., Ltd., have been selected for ``1stRound''. We will begin a new initiative to match management talent with side jobs and part-time jobs for university-launched startups.
1stRound is Japan's largest cross-university entrepreneurial support program in which 13 national and private universities, including the University of Tokyo, participate.It provides non-equity funds to accelerate the initial launch of a business, as well as financial support for the business. We provide hands-on support to help businesses and startups whose value can be calculated.So far, 76 companies have been selected, and approximately 9% have succeeded in raising initial funding.
In this initiative, BizReach will publicly recruit people with side jobs or part-time jobs to participate as management members in the teams selected in the 1st Round.In the future, we plan to expand this system to support researchers who are unable to take on the 1st round because they cannot find management talent. By incorporating the knowledge and know-how of management talent with a global perspective from an early stage, we will help develop world-class startups. Aiming to create a company.
As the first step, starting October 2023, 10, we will be recruiting management members for Scimit Co., Ltd., which aims to expand globally with "AI x voice," and Endophyte Co., Ltd., which aims to develop sustainable agriculture using microorganisms. It has started.
While there are many technological seeds within Japanese universities that are on par with those in the world, the current situation is that there is still insufficient support for early commercialization.University startups tend to require a large amount of capital in the process of commercializing deep tech, and the question is how to raise a large amount of capital at the beginning in order to grow into a high-quality business and achieve early social implementation. is an important point.
Therefore, it is essential to form a management team that understands the potential of university startups and can draw up business plans. However, 1stRound's hands-on support focuses on referral recruitment, and there are not enough opportunities to connect with a wide range of management personnel. Strengthening support for the government had become an important issue.Furthermore, for management personnel, it is difficult to predict the future when changing jobs to a university-launched startup, and the hurdles are currently higher than changing jobs to a regular company.
