Growing Complexity of Business Challenges Drives Demand for External Talent; Sollective Enhances Its Services

Sollective K.K. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Erika Iwai; hereinafter 'Sollective'), a company that solves corporate challenges through the power of high-skill freelancers and partners with businesses for growth, announces on June 16, 2026, the full rebranding and enhancement of its corporate service under the name 'Sollective Biz'.

Sollective Biz

### [Background of the Rebranding]

Severe Talent and Know-How Shortages Among Japanese Companies

External Talent Adoption as the Key to Meeting Diversifying Needs

Japan is currently facing a critical shortage of specialized professionals. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), there will be a shortfall of 1.81 million specialists by 2040 (cited from METI's 'Initiatives Toward Industrial Human Resource Development,' February 2026). As a result, securing specialized talent beyond traditional full-time hiring has become an urgent priority for businesses.

Additionally, according to a 2026 survey on 'Corporate Management Challenges' published by Teikoku Databank, Ltd., 90.2% of executives and managers identified 'Talent Strengthening' as a top management challenge. Respondents also emphasized the need to 'address various challenges in a balanced manner with an overall optimization mindset.'

To address these talent and knowledge gaps, the strategic use of external professional talent is rapidly expanding within corporate human resource strategies.

While external professionals have long been actively utilized—especially in IT sectors and primarily by large enterprises—and have become an established talent acquisition method, their use in strategic areas such as corporate planning, business planning, business development, and marketing remains limited to only a few companies. In fact, comprehensive statistics in these areas have yet to catch up.

### [Service Overview]

What is Sollective’s Corporate Service 'Sollective Biz'?

In response to this landscape, Sollective is launching 'Sollective Biz,' a professional talent utilization service designed for mid-sized to large enterprises that are considering or beginning to explore the use of external professionals.

Since 2020, Sollective has provided talent services specialized in contract-based professionals. During this time, we have frequently heard feedback from clients such as 'We’re not sure how to best utilize external talent' and 'We hired excellent external talent, but didn’t see the expected results.' We realized that the root cause often lies in companies proceeding with hiring without first clearly defining their operational challenges or strategic goals, leading to talent misalignment and, ultimately, unmet expectations.

In light of these insights, Sollective has evolved from a traditional talent-matching service into a comprehensive support model that integrates 'Challenge Assessment,' 'Talent Assignment,' and 'Ongoing Support' into a single offering. Going beyond simple matching, we adopt a skill-based organization approach—analyzing the challenges a company needs to solve and translating them into required skill sets—to ensure precise, mismatch-free talent placement. Following deployment, we provide continuous support to help companies achieve their goals and sustainably resolve challenges.

Sollective employs rigorous, domain-specific screening conducted by specialists across various fields to carefully select self-driven, high-caliber professionals. Our talent excels in upstream processes across areas such as corporate strategy, business planning and development, solution sales, branding, AI, digital transformation (DX), and project management (PM). Notably, 70% of our projects involve core business initiatives for mid-sized and large enterprises.

Corporate Service 'Sollective Biz' Website: https://sollective.biz/

### ◼ About Sollective

Sollective K.K. operates under the mission of 'Proving the Value of Freelancing.' We aim to solve corporate challenges using the expertise of experienced, high-skill freelancers, while also promoting new ways of working for freelancers and organizational transformation. We offer a fully vetted, high-skill freelancer-dedicated platform and SaaS-based business tools. For enterprises, we support business problem-solving by introducing 'Sollective Certified Pros'—professionals who have passed expert-led reviews across various job functions.

Company Name: Sollective K.K.

Representative: Co-Founder & CEO, Erika Iwai

Headquarters: 1-11-2 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Founded: January 2020

Business Activities:

- Corporate Services: Professional Talent Introduction

- Freelancer Services: High-skill freelancer-focused platform, development and provision of SaaS and back-office tools, operation of freelancer communities

### ◼ Contact Information

[Inquiries about the Service] Sollective K.K. – Biz Design Team Inquiry Form: https://sollective.biz/contact