NAGARA Co., Ltd., Developer of Caregiving AI SaaS "Nagarakaigo", Wins Grand Prize at "Gogin Startup Festa 2026"

NAGARA Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, CEO: Kazuki Okada, hereinafter "NAGARA"), a developer of AI SaaS for the caregiving industry, is pleased to announce that it has won the Grand Prize at the "Gogin Startup Festa 2026" (hosted by The San-in Godo Bank) held on Friday, March 27, 2026, in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. As a result of the pitch competition among five finalists selected from across the country, the business concept of "Nagarakaigo," which transforms caregiving documentation tasks with AI, received the highest evaluation.

About Gogin Startup Festa 2026 The "Gogin Startup Festa" is one of the largest startup events in the San-in region, hosted by The San-in Godo Bank (President: Yutaka Yoshikawa). In its second year, this event brought together over 700 participants, including startups, venture capitalists, and local business leaders, in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture. Five finalists selected from across the country gave pitches, and NAGARA was chosen as the Grand Prize winner based on the judges' evaluation.

President Yutaka Yoshikawa commented that NAGARA's model is "particularly suitable for regions with aging populations like Shimane." The approach of solving local caregiving challenges with AI was supported for its high social significance.

Background of the Award: The Severe Documentation Burden in Caregiving Facilities

The Japanese caregiving industry, despite its market size of approximately 16.1 trillion yen, faces structural challenges of severe labor shortages and increasing work burdens.

In particular, caregiving documentation is a significant burden for staff. Under the long-term care insurance system, creating care records is mandatory, and caregivers spend a large portion of their daily work hours on documentation. While it is necessary to accurately record changes in the condition of each user, care details, and vital information, manual input via paper or keyboard remains the mainstream method. This leads to complaints from caregiving sites nationwide that they "cannot spend enough time interacting with users.".

NAGARA was founded based on the personal experience of CEO Okada, whose grandmother complained at a care facility that "caregivers don't listen to me." Through interviews with over 150 care facilities nationwide, the company became convinced that the root of this problem lies not in the "caregiver's mindset" but in the "work structure," leading to the development of "Nagarakaigo.".

Overview of the Award-Winning Solution "Nagarakaigo" "Nagarakaigo" is an AI-native caregiving record software based on voice conversation. Simply by caregivers talking with users while holding a smartphone, the AI transcribes the conversation in real-time and automatically generates legal documents such as care records, handover notes, and daily logs.

This is not merely "voice input" but "conversational input." While traditional voice input requires "speaking for the sake of recording," "Nagarakaigo" makes "the conversation itself the record," a completely new approach that simultaneously improves the quality of care and operational efficiency.