Eliminating the "Overseas Expansion Gap" for Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturers. Overseas Expansion Agency Service "Trst" Launches Today
KiAI Inc. has launched "Trst", an overseas expansion agency service for small and medium-sized manufacturers. This service uniquely combines AI-driven research and outreach with a local network from IACE Travel to help smaller companies overcome barriers to global markets. The goal is to ensure no Japanese manufacturer is left behind due to company size.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 1, 2026 at 19:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 1, 2026 at 10:15
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 16, 2026 at 22:25 (372h 9m after Collected)
Our company supports April Dream, which aims to make April 1st a day to share dreams. This press release is the dream of "KiAI". KiAI Inc. (Headquarters: Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture, CEO: Kazumasa Oba) has officially launched "Trst", an overseas expansion agency service for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, starting today, April 1, 2026. Trst is Japan's first "AI x Local Network" type overseas sales agency service, combining AI-driven rapid company research and multilingual sales approaches with the local land operator network of publicly traded travel company IACE Travel.
■ KiAI Inc.'s Dream
Our dream is to end a society where the decision to "go overseas or not" is determined by company size.
Large corporations have dedicated overseas sales departments, leverage trading companies, and can establish bases overseas. However, small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 99% of Japanese manufacturing, despite having technical capabilities, lack the means to find reliable overseas partners and face shrinking domestic markets without taking the first step.
Trst bridges that gap. Our representatives, fully utilizing AI and local networks, will execute market research, by-name approaches, and negative checks on your behalf. Simply answer our interview questions, and your overseas expansion will begin the day after the contract. This is the first step toward the world we want to realize.
KiAI aims to deliver the world-class technologies possessed by Japanese small and medium-sized manufacturers to the right partners. Our dream is to have zero business owners saying "we couldn't go overseas because we were small" in 10 years.
■ Trst Service Overview
Trst is an "overseas sales agency" service. By simply answering an interview, the representative (overseas expansion specialist) will consistently perform the following for the management and staff of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies:
* Market research and strategy planning for target countries and industries.
* By-name sales emails and SNS messaging in local languages (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.).
* On-site investigation (negative check) for suspicious companies.
* Continuous support for strategy updates and progress towards negotiations through bi-weekly meetings.
While traditional overseas consultants often end at the "strategy planning" stage, Trst begins approaching over 50 companies within the first week of the contract.
◆ 2 Differentiation Points
[1] Ultra-fast approach by AI
The AI utilized by Trst is a specialized overseas sales AI developed by KiAI, a university-origin startup headed by a professor with 30 years of AI research experience as its Chief AI Officer (CAIO). It is being developed as a project adopted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. It automates company selection, local language email creation, sending, and response analysis, enabling a single representative to approach dozens of individual companies from the first week.
[2] Negative checks through travel industry network
Through IACE Travel, local land operators actually visit company locations to confirm signs and business operations. It eliminates risks of fraud, invisible online, at less than 1/10th the cost of investigative firms and in as little as 1 day.
■ Pricing Plans
**Standard**
* Monthly Fee: ¥150,000 / month
* Sales Approach Count: Approx. 200 emails/month
* On-site Investigation: Up to 1/month (AI judgment)
**Scale**
* Monthly Fee: ¥300,000 / month
* Sales Approach Count: Approx. 600 emails/month
* On-site Investigation: Up to 3/month (AI judgment)
No performance-based fees (fixed monthly rate) *With a fixed monthly rate, the budget is clear even during the period until results are achieved.*
■ Partner Comment (IACE Travel Co., Ltd.)
"For Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises aiming for overseas expansion, obtaining accurate and reliable local information remains a significant barrier. Through this initiative, we feel the potential for a new form of support that combines our land operator network, cultivated worldwide, with KiAI's advanced AI technology, thereby overcoming that barrier."
"By combining the strengths of analog methods, such as directly visiting locations for verification, with AI's fast and precise approach, we believe we can present solid options to companies that have hesitated in overseas expansion until now. Together with partners around the world, we will proceed with supporting the accurate and safe delivery of valuable technologies held by Japanese small and medium-sized manufacturers to the global market."
■ Voices from Supported Companies (Soma Kogyo Co., Ltd.)
**Reply from US Company President via Email Approach**
"Although our company was tasked with challenging the US market specifically now, I realized I had limitations on my own. Finding companies was the first hurdle. Being able to search directly from live information using AI is fundamentally different. I saw hope."
* In 8 working days, 160 US companies were discovered and extracted by AI. Normally, a one-week business trip to America (5 working days) would allow visits to at most 7-8 companies. The fact that we could develop leads for 20-30 times more US companies gave me a sense of super high efficiency and great expectations for the possibilities.
* The AI analyzed the partner company's website and automatically outputted a matching score with our products, points of compatibility, and gaps. I felt, "This is surprisingly good."
* Previously relied-upon lists had limitations in information freshness and accuracy. Being able to search directly from live information using AI is fundamentally different.
* I felt relieved knowing that IACE Travel's local operators could act on reliability checks for unfamiliar companies.
* If we can build relationships with 3-5 companies in parallel, we can shorten the waiting time until orders. This gave me a sense of "seeing hope."
■ Company Overview
**[Contact Information Regarding This Matter]**
KiAI Inc. Public Relations Representative
E-mail: info@kiai.bz
URL: https://trst.bz
■ KiAI Inc.'s Dream
Our dream is to end a society where the decision to "go overseas or not" is determined by company size.
Large corporations have dedicated overseas sales departments, leverage trading companies, and can establish bases overseas. However, small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 99% of Japanese manufacturing, despite having technical capabilities, lack the means to find reliable overseas partners and face shrinking domestic markets without taking the first step.
Trst bridges that gap. Our representatives, fully utilizing AI and local networks, will execute market research, by-name approaches, and negative checks on your behalf. Simply answer our interview questions, and your overseas expansion will begin the day after the contract. This is the first step toward the world we want to realize.
KiAI aims to deliver the world-class technologies possessed by Japanese small and medium-sized manufacturers to the right partners. Our dream is to have zero business owners saying "we couldn't go overseas because we were small" in 10 years.
■ Trst Service Overview
Trst is an "overseas sales agency" service. By simply answering an interview, the representative (overseas expansion specialist) will consistently perform the following for the management and staff of small and medium-sized manufacturing companies:
* Market research and strategy planning for target countries and industries.
* By-name sales emails and SNS messaging in local languages (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.).
* On-site investigation (negative check) for suspicious companies.
* Continuous support for strategy updates and progress towards negotiations through bi-weekly meetings.
While traditional overseas consultants often end at the "strategy planning" stage, Trst begins approaching over 50 companies within the first week of the contract.
◆ 2 Differentiation Points
[1] Ultra-fast approach by AI
The AI utilized by Trst is a specialized overseas sales AI developed by KiAI, a university-origin startup headed by a professor with 30 years of AI research experience as its Chief AI Officer (CAIO). It is being developed as a project adopted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. It automates company selection, local language email creation, sending, and response analysis, enabling a single representative to approach dozens of individual companies from the first week.
[2] Negative checks through travel industry network
Through IACE Travel, local land operators actually visit company locations to confirm signs and business operations. It eliminates risks of fraud, invisible online, at less than 1/10th the cost of investigative firms and in as little as 1 day.
■ Pricing Plans
**Standard**
* Monthly Fee: ¥150,000 / month
* Sales Approach Count: Approx. 200 emails/month
* On-site Investigation: Up to 1/month (AI judgment)
**Scale**
* Monthly Fee: ¥300,000 / month
* Sales Approach Count: Approx. 600 emails/month
* On-site Investigation: Up to 3/month (AI judgment)
No performance-based fees (fixed monthly rate) *With a fixed monthly rate, the budget is clear even during the period until results are achieved.*
■ Partner Comment (IACE Travel Co., Ltd.)
"For Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises aiming for overseas expansion, obtaining accurate and reliable local information remains a significant barrier. Through this initiative, we feel the potential for a new form of support that combines our land operator network, cultivated worldwide, with KiAI's advanced AI technology, thereby overcoming that barrier."
"By combining the strengths of analog methods, such as directly visiting locations for verification, with AI's fast and precise approach, we believe we can present solid options to companies that have hesitated in overseas expansion until now. Together with partners around the world, we will proceed with supporting the accurate and safe delivery of valuable technologies held by Japanese small and medium-sized manufacturers to the global market."
■ Voices from Supported Companies (Soma Kogyo Co., Ltd.)
**Reply from US Company President via Email Approach**
"Although our company was tasked with challenging the US market specifically now, I realized I had limitations on my own. Finding companies was the first hurdle. Being able to search directly from live information using AI is fundamentally different. I saw hope."
* In 8 working days, 160 US companies were discovered and extracted by AI. Normally, a one-week business trip to America (5 working days) would allow visits to at most 7-8 companies. The fact that we could develop leads for 20-30 times more US companies gave me a sense of super high efficiency and great expectations for the possibilities.
* The AI analyzed the partner company's website and automatically outputted a matching score with our products, points of compatibility, and gaps. I felt, "This is surprisingly good."
* Previously relied-upon lists had limitations in information freshness and accuracy. Being able to search directly from live information using AI is fundamentally different.
* I felt relieved knowing that IACE Travel's local operators could act on reliability checks for unfamiliar companies.
* If we can build relationships with 3-5 companies in parallel, we can shorten the waiting time until orders. This gave me a sense of "seeing hope."
■ Company Overview
**[Contact Information Regarding This Matter]**
KiAI Inc. Public Relations Representative
E-mail: info@kiai.bz
URL: https://trst.bz