Commissioned by the City of Sendai, LEVANES Corporation promotes the Sendai-Tohoku Expansion Program (STEP), which supports startups that take on the challenge of solving global issues from Sendai and Tohoku.As part of this initiative, we will hold a global business seminar for start-ups and local companies seeking to expand their business overseas from Sendai and Tohoku.will be held approximately seven times from August to November.

Release:https://gbp.lne.st/1410/

Deep-tech startups need to start their business from the stage where the market has not yet manifested itself. Therefore, it is important to start moving at an early stage in parallel with business design and PMF (Product-Market Fit) in Japan, rather than waiting until sufficient conditions are in place to expand overseas where the culture and economic environment are different.

This seminar will be held under the theme of "Learn from the Pioneers of Global Expansion! and will feature lecturers from deep tech startups that have actually expanded overseas, introducing case studies and key points that should be kept in mind when expanding overseas.

Euglena Co.
Co-founder and Executive Fellow
Mr. Kengo Suzuki

D. (Agriculture)/Ph.D. (Medicine), was involved in the establishment of Euglena Co., Ltd. in 2005 while a student at the University of Tokyo, where he was one of the co-founders and responsible for research and development up to the present. He is mainly involved in the development of technologies related to the mass cultivation of Euglena, a type of microalgae, and received his PhD (Agriculture) from the University of Tokyo in 2016 and his PhD (Medicine) from Kitasato University in 2019. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of the Algae Resource Upcycling Research Team at RIKEN, a Visiting Professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and a Specially Appointed Professor (Visiting) at Tohoku University.

Representative Director and Group CEO, Liverness Inc.
Yukihiro Maru

D. in Agriculture, founded LIVERNESS Co., Ltd. in 2002 while still in graduate school. Ltd. in 2002. He has developed Japan's first "delivery laboratory class of cutting-edge science" into a business. He operates a "knowledge manufacturing business" that creates new knowledge by combining management resources and technologies that lie dormant in universities and local communities, and has facilitated more than 200 projects through his "knowledge platform. As the instigator of one of Asia's largest venture ecosystems in collaboration with local factories and major companies, etc., he works to solve global-scale social issues by discovering deep tech from around the world. He has also been involved in the launch of numerous venture companies, including Euglena Co.

President and Representative Director, Ball Wave Corporation
Mr. Shingo Akao

Graduated from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Toho University in 1997, and completed the Graduate School of Science and Engineering, University of Tsukuba in 1999. In October of the same year, he joined Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. and was assigned to the Toppan Printing Research Laboratory, where he has been engaged in research and development related to ball SAW since 2003. In 2014, he retired from Toppan Printing and participated in the MEXT START Project "Development of Ball SAW Trace Moisture Meter" as a specially-appointed associate professor at Tohoku University's Joint Research Center for Future Science.

CEO and Representative Director, Ugo Inc.
Mr. Ken Matsui

2004 Graduated from Tokyo University of Technology, Faculty of Media Studies. 2006 Joined Monster Lab Inc. as a founding member, developing smartphone apps and web systems for various new businesses. 2011 Founded Mira, an IoT device development company, with experience developing and mass producing various connected devices. 2018 Founded ugo Co. He became CEO and Representative Director.

Representative Director, Liberaware, Inc.
Mr. Hong-Kyung Min

He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering. He was involved in the development of a drone system for the decommissioning of nuclear reactors by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy while a researcher at Chiba University, as well as the development of a disaster response flying robot system.

Director, Asia Region, Platinum Bio Inc.
Mr. Hideaki Itami

He has been mainly responsible for European business for more than 30 years at an automobile manufacturer. He was stationed in Belgium and Germany for more than 10 years, leading European business (marketing, sales, and service). In 2023, he joined PlatinaBio and is mainly responsible for business development in the Southeast Asia region.

CEO, INOCA Corporation
Mr. Yota Takakura

Born in Hyogo, Japan. Graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering, and conducted research in the Junichi Rekimoto Laboratory of the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, where he conducted research on supporting musical instrument practice using machine learning. established INOCA, Inc. in April 2019. In October 2021, he became a director of the Roth Foundation for Children's Mirai. In the same year, he was selected for Forbes Japan's "30 Under 30.

Representative Director and CEO, Second Heart Co.
Mr. Yukihiro Ishida

Born in September 1981, he has been working as a clinical engineer in the medical field such as dialysis since 2004. 2021, he became a director of Kibata Keiki Seisakusho Co. 2023, he established Second Heart Inc. aiming for zero foot amputation due to diabetes and became CEO and Representative Director. He is promoting social implementation of preventive foot care centered on his main service, "Steplife," a podiatry treatment support platform. In 2024, he will be awarded the Malaysia Tech Entrepreneur Programme by the Malaysian government, and is also focusing on global expansion.