by Ekrem Duman | Jul 25, 2026 | Japan Company Stories, Startups & Unicorns
⚡ TL;DRSakana AI is a Tokyo-based artificial-intelligence research company founded in 2023 by prominent researchers including a co-author of the original Transformer paper. This guide covers its nature-inspired research philosophy, why its founders chose Tokyo, its...
by Ekrem Duman | Jul 25, 2026 | Japan Company Stories, Startups & Unicorns
⚡ TL;DRSmartNews built a news aggregation app that became one of Japan’s few consumer unicorns and made a serious attempt at the American market. This guide covers its algorithmic approach, its expansion to the United States, the difficulty of monetizing news,...
by Ekrem Duman | Jul 25, 2026 | Japan Company Stories, Startups & Unicorns
⚡ TL;DRPreferred Networks became Japan’s most valuable startup by building deep-learning technology for industrial applications rather than consumer products, partnering with Toyota, FANUC and other manufacturers. This guide covers its founding, the Chainer...
by Ekrem Duman | Jul 25, 2026 | Japan Company Stories, Startups & Unicorns
⚡ TL;DRMercari is Japan’s flagship startup success — a mobile-first secondhand marketplace that became a unicorn, listed publicly in 2018 and reshaped how Japanese consumers buy and sell used goods. This guide covers its founding, why mobile-first mattered, its...
by Ekrem Duman | Jul 25, 2026 | Japan Company Stories, Startups & Unicorns
⚡ TL;DRJapan has the world’s third-largest economy but produces remarkably few unicorns compared with the United States, China or even smaller European markets. This guide explains the structural reasons — risk aversion, lifetime employment, personal loan...
