SHIFT Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Hiroshi Tange; Prime market: 3697) which supports customers in creating software services and products that sell, will partner with Araya Co. Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Ryota Kanai; hereinafter, Araya) to start collaborating on joint research and development (R&D) aimed at improving the productivity and business innovation of companies by providing advanced technology that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience to address a wide range of needs in various industries.
We aim to provide value through the development of a wide range of industries and a significant expansion of human capabilities, and we have decided to embark on practical R&D through collaboration by leveraging each of our strengths to offer new value to the market.
Shift Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Hiroshi Tange; Prime market: 3697), which supports customers in creating software services and products that sell, will partner with Araya Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Ryota Kanai; hereinafter, Araya) to start collaborating on joint research and development (R&D) aimed at improving the productivity and business innovation of companies by providing advanced technology that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience to address a wide range of needs in various industries.
This undertaking was achieved as it was judged beneficial for the further business expansion of both companies by combining their different technical and know-how strengths, enabling them to share their target industries and thus able to provide previously unknown value to the market.
The background that led to the partnership is as follows:(About SHIFT)
Since SHIFT placed IT at the core of its operations in 2009, the company has provided quality assurance services targeted towards customers across various industries such as finance, communication, retail, public and automotive, starting with software testing for e-commerce and app development for smartphones and games. Afterwards, it developed a number of solutions that meet the needs of customers for the entire development process of software, other aspects of the software industry, and subsequently expanded its business domain to industries that require such solutions. To strengthen sales, further develop service and product development capabilities and enhance technological advantages, a wide variety of talents with technical expertise and specific industry know-how have been hired by SHIFT through M&A, enabling the firm to offer a wide range of services that resolve business issues and social challenges.
The strength of SHIFT lies in its ability to promote its projects and provide quality assurance to satisfy market needs from a variety of industries and its quality development power that creates highly-usable products in detail, making them products that customers continue to use. The company aims to quickly respond to market needs that will continue to evolve at an accelerating pace in the future and, is considering the adoption of emerging innovative technologies to deliver them to the market.
(About Araya)
Araya Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, "Araya") was founded in 2013 by Ryohta Kanai, a researcher in neuroscience, as an AI development company possessing brain technology. Mr. Kanai himself is a leading consciousness researcher who combines information science and neuroscience to conduct research and development on general-purpose AI. Araya is one of the leading companies in Japan in terms of technological strength and research results in the field of AI/neurotech, with over 70% of its employees being researchers and engineers.
Araya's strength in the AI/neurotech field is built on a foundation of advanced technology, which is based on the accumulation of numerous achievements that have provided solutions in cognitive and neural systems to companies through AI solutions and to university/research facilities by delivering joint research and solutions in the field of cognitive neuroscience. These technologies can be applied to a wide range of industrial fields such as manufacturing, construction, logistics, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries, among others, to improve operational efficiency and productivity, and bring innovation to industries such as healthcare and sports. Araya needed business insights, project management capabilities, and quality assurance know-how for AI technology, which is essential for realizing its development and providing products and services that embody its own technology capable of significantly enhancing human capabilities to respond to contemporary needs in various industries.
Under these circumstances, both organizations will leverage the strengths of relative to each company, on their pursuit of significant expansion of human capabilities to a broad range of industries and offer new value to the market, and embark on practical R&D through collaboration.
SHIFT will absorb customers' business issues and investment intentions in various industrial fields, and promote the development of products and services incorporating cutting-edge technology of Araya. In addition, in order to further develop both companies, SHIFT will support Araya in the field of project management, provide AI systems that provide added value of safety and security to development products, and contribute by providing quality assurance expertise specialized for products. On the other hand, Araya will provide technological support to transform the results of its technological research utilizing AI and neurotech, which is its overwhelming advantage, into products that respond to more concrete business issues and needs that companies have.
R&D The purpose and expected effectIn this R&D collaboration, SHIFT will leverage its excellent sales force and project promotion capabilities, and combine it with our technical capabilities to create and implement new solutions and products in the AI and neurotech fields. Through this cooperation, we hope to solve the business issues of customers in a wide range of fields and provide new values to the industry as a whole. We also hope to learn a lot from SHIFT's approach, which continues to grow rapidly, and make it a source of our growth. We will continue to work together to take on new challenges.
SHIFT believes that the cutting-edge technology that combines AI and neurotech possessed by Araya will transform the business of a wide range of industries in the future, as well as contribute to solving companies' business and social challenges, and it is believed that its versatility and impact will be significant. As an example, the BMI (Brain-machine Interface) technology that Araya is good at, which analyzes brain data and transmits human thoughts as data information to devices, improves the operating accuracy of small precision instruments in addition to aircraft and drones, and is expected to be applied in various fields such as medical care and defense. In addition, the application of brain characteristic analysis is expected to be used for artificial intelligence education and care for psychological disorders such as PTSD and depression, and the potential for this technology to contribute to solving corporate and social challenges is immeasurable. Moreover, if SHIFT can add new technological value called neurotech to the AI-related services that the group companies have developed and provided so far, we expect it to contribute to further improving our service capabilities.
Araya has engineers and researchers who develop advanced technology in the AI and neurotech fields, and has created numerous innovative solutions to date. However, we feel that there are issues in utilizing these technologies for business development and sales capabilities, and that their potential has not been fully reflected in our business.
In this R&D collaboration, we will leverage SHIFT's superior sales force and project promotion capabilities to create and implement new solutions and products in the AI and neurotech fields. Through this cooperation, we hope to solve the business issues of customers in a wide range of fields and provide new values to the industry as a whole. We also hope to learn a lot from SHIFT's approach, which continues to grow rapidly, and make it a source of our growth. We will continue to work together to take on new challenges.
Through this collaboration, SHIFT and Araya will contribute to the further development and advancement of various industries by sending new technologies such as "AI x Neurotech" as practical services to the world. This R&D activity is a highly potential activity for the further growth of both companies, and we believe that it will contribute to raising the bar of productivity throughout Japan through the improvement of productivity by DX in each industry. Please look forward to new efforts and achievements by both companies in the future through their collaboration.
Araya develops cutting-edge research and development, solution/product development and sales utilizing AI x Neurotech. By combining our strength in technical sharpness such as brain technology/edge AI/autonomous AI with the matching power with individual company issues, we can contribute widely from the upstream to the downstream of the value chain. We propose and develop solutions for our customers' issues, aiming to realize "AI that can really be used" in their business.
Company Name: Araya Co., Ltd.
Representative: Ryota Kanai, Representative Director
Established: December 2013
Address: Sanpo-sakuma Building 6F, 1-11 Kanda Saku-machi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
URL:
Business: Deep Learning, Edge AI, Autonomous AI, Neurotech, Research and Development Services
Above.
< For inquiries related to this release (for the media) >
SHIFT Co., Ltd. PR & IR Department, Public Relations Office
Email: pr_info@shiftinc.jp
