Okinawa-based Startup HANAMII Inc. Secures Funding from Multiple Prominent Angel Investors for Full-Scale Deployment of Domestic PaaS "hanamii"
Okinawa-based startup HANAMII Inc. has secured funding from multiple prominent angel investors to accelerate the full-scale deployment of its domestic PaaS "hanamii." This funding will be used for further functional enhancements, expansion of development and business systems, and accelerating provision to domestic companies and public sectors.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: May 7, 2026 at 20:43
- 🔍 Collected: May 7, 2026 at 12:01
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 7, 2026 at 13:02 (1h 0m after Collected)
HANAMII Inc. (Headquarters: Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture / Representative Director and Chairman: Shunichiro Kaneshiro / Representative Director and President: Keisuke Shibata, hereinafter "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has secured funding from multiple prominent angel investors and entrepreneurs.
The Company is a startup based in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, established by Mirai Studio Inc., a startup studio that has created and supported numerous startups, and HANATABA Inc., which has been involved in promoting local government DX and product development.
We are promoting the commercialization of the domestic cloud platform "hanamii" by combining startup creation know-how with on-site knowledge in the administrative and public sectors.
The funds raised will be allocated to further functional enhancements of our independently developed domestic PaaS "hanamii," expansion of our development and business systems, and accelerating its provision to domestic companies and public sectors.
Website: https://hanamii.jp/
1. Background of Funding
Increasing demand for data sovereignty and domestic content ratio
With the expansion of cloud utilization, aspects such as data location (data sovereignty), compliance with domestic laws, and the domestic content ratio in the supply chain are becoming increasingly important as procurement requirements for companies, local governments, and the public sector. However, platforms that meet these requirements while also providing a nimble deployment experience – "publishing services in seconds" – to keep pace with modern speeds are still limited in Japan.
Structural problem of an ever-expanding "digital deficit"
Behind the growing interest in "domestic content ratio" lies a structural issue in the overall Japanese economy. Japan's digital balance of payments, the so-called "digital deficit," reached a record high of approximately 6.7 trillion yen in 2024, more than tripling compared to 2014. In particular, the deficit in the "computer services" sector, including cloud services, rapidly expanded to approximately 2.5 trillion yen in 2024, about three times the pace in 10 years, exceeding the surplus from inbound tourism. Furthermore, it is reported that this could expand to an annual scale of 18 trillion yen by 2035, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also published the "Digital Economy Report: A World Swallowed by Data, Survival Strategy for a Digital Market Without Sanctuaries" in April 2025, signaling a national alarm.
One of the main causes is the strong dependence on overseas big tech in the cloud/PaaS domain. In Japan's IaaS/PaaS market, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure hold significant shares, creating a structure where the more Japanese companies and local governments promote digitalization, the more payments to overseas operators swell.
In other words, the issues of "data sovereignty" and "domestic content ratio" are no longer merely matters of compliance or procurement requirements for individual companies, but have become issues related to Japan's overall macroeconomics and economic security. We believe that establishing a domestic cloud infrastructure and fostering an environment where Japanese companies, local governments, and creators can rapidly publish and operate applications on it is an extremely important initiative to support the transition from a "digital consumer nation" to a "digital producer nation."
Challenge of the "last mile of deployment" in the generative AI era
In addition, with the spread of generative AI and LLMs, an era has arrived where even non-engineers can create prototypes and applications. However, the "deployment" – the last mile of publishing created deliverables to the world – still remains a highly specialized area, posing a significant barrier for many non-engineers and business-side stakeholders.
Our Company's Awareness of the Problem
To directly address these challenges, our company was established in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, with two missions: "to provide an environment where applications can be published at world-class speed on a domestic infrastructure" and "to open up the 'last mile of deployment' in the generative AI era to non-engineers."
2. About the Product "hanamii"
"hanamii" is a domestic PaaS independently developed with the concept of "a cloud platform blooming in Japan's sky." It captures the trend of the generative AI and LLM development era, providing strong support for product development and release by non-engineers, and is also developed and offered as a high-quality service and infrastructure comparable to existing overseas PaaS for professional use.
The Company is a startup based in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, established by Mirai Studio Inc., a startup studio that has created and supported numerous startups, and HANATABA Inc., which has been involved in promoting local government DX and product development.
We are promoting the commercialization of the domestic cloud platform "hanamii" by combining startup creation know-how with on-site knowledge in the administrative and public sectors.
The funds raised will be allocated to further functional enhancements of our independently developed domestic PaaS "hanamii," expansion of our development and business systems, and accelerating its provision to domestic companies and public sectors.
Website: https://hanamii.jp/
1. Background of Funding
Increasing demand for data sovereignty and domestic content ratio
With the expansion of cloud utilization, aspects such as data location (data sovereignty), compliance with domestic laws, and the domestic content ratio in the supply chain are becoming increasingly important as procurement requirements for companies, local governments, and the public sector. However, platforms that meet these requirements while also providing a nimble deployment experience – "publishing services in seconds" – to keep pace with modern speeds are still limited in Japan.
Structural problem of an ever-expanding "digital deficit"
Behind the growing interest in "domestic content ratio" lies a structural issue in the overall Japanese economy. Japan's digital balance of payments, the so-called "digital deficit," reached a record high of approximately 6.7 trillion yen in 2024, more than tripling compared to 2014. In particular, the deficit in the "computer services" sector, including cloud services, rapidly expanded to approximately 2.5 trillion yen in 2024, about three times the pace in 10 years, exceeding the surplus from inbound tourism. Furthermore, it is reported that this could expand to an annual scale of 18 trillion yen by 2035, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also published the "Digital Economy Report: A World Swallowed by Data, Survival Strategy for a Digital Market Without Sanctuaries" in April 2025, signaling a national alarm.
One of the main causes is the strong dependence on overseas big tech in the cloud/PaaS domain. In Japan's IaaS/PaaS market, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure hold significant shares, creating a structure where the more Japanese companies and local governments promote digitalization, the more payments to overseas operators swell.
In other words, the issues of "data sovereignty" and "domestic content ratio" are no longer merely matters of compliance or procurement requirements for individual companies, but have become issues related to Japan's overall macroeconomics and economic security. We believe that establishing a domestic cloud infrastructure and fostering an environment where Japanese companies, local governments, and creators can rapidly publish and operate applications on it is an extremely important initiative to support the transition from a "digital consumer nation" to a "digital producer nation."
Challenge of the "last mile of deployment" in the generative AI era
In addition, with the spread of generative AI and LLMs, an era has arrived where even non-engineers can create prototypes and applications. However, the "deployment" – the last mile of publishing created deliverables to the world – still remains a highly specialized area, posing a significant barrier for many non-engineers and business-side stakeholders.
Our Company's Awareness of the Problem
To directly address these challenges, our company was established in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, with two missions: "to provide an environment where applications can be published at world-class speed on a domestic infrastructure" and "to open up the 'last mile of deployment' in the generative AI era to non-engineers."
2. About the Product "hanamii"
"hanamii" is a domestic PaaS independently developed with the concept of "a cloud platform blooming in Japan's sky." It captures the trend of the generative AI and LLM development era, providing strong support for product development and release by non-engineers, and is also developed and offered as a high-quality service and infrastructure comparable to existing overseas PaaS for professional use.