Academia and Corporations Leverage the City to Achieve Integrated Research, Demonstration, and Commercialization: Mitsui Fudosan and Business Co-creation Company Relic Establish Kashiwanoha Co-creation Agency

Key Points of this Release

- Mitsui Fudosan and Relic, which has supported new business development for over 5,000 companies, have signed a business alliance agreement. A project team, "Kashiwanoha Co-creation Agency," has been established within UDCK Town Management with seconded expert members from both companies. - Previous initiatives, such as the co-growth program "CO-GROWTH," have been progressively reorganized and integrated under the new action brand "CO-GROWTH" to drive new industry creation. - This is an advanced domestic initiative that fully integrates the city-scale co-creation environment (hardware/community) of Kashiwanoha Smart City with new business development functions (software/programs) to implement a seamless mechanism up to commercialization. - The goal is to continuously create businesses from Japan's top-level seeds, aiming to form a cycle where industries are born and accumulate in Kashiwanoha Smart City, with a target of creating and attracting 100 ambitious businesses over the next 10 years.

Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takashi Ueda), which has been promoting urban development in Kashiwanoha Smart City for 20 years, and Relic Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Takaki Kitajima; CTO: Ryo Oba), which has supported new business development for over 5,000 companies nationwide, have signed a business alliance agreement. They will fully integrate the city-scale co-creation environment (hardware/community) and new business development functions (software/programs) of Kashiwanoha Smart City to launch the action brand "CO-GROWTH" for new industry creation.

In conjunction with this, the "Kashiwanoha Co-creation Agency" (hereinafter referred to as "this Agency") will be established within UDCK Town Management (Headquarters: Kashiwa City, Chiba; Representative Director: Yu Yamamoto), a general incorporated association promoting urban development through public-private-academic collaboration, to accelerate new industry creation and accumulation in Kashiwanoha Smart City (Kashiwa City, Chiba).

Kashiwanoha Smart City has already been promoting the "provision of demonstration fields" and "co-creation with diverse city players." In recent years, in addition to the accumulation of companies in rental labs like Mitsui Link-Lab Kashiwanoha, research bases of large corporations have also entered the area, leading to the advancement of industry accumulation and community formation in life sciences and hard-tech fields.

Through this initiative, we will promote our efforts as an "Industrial Developer" responsible for creating and nurturing industries. Furthermore, using Kashiwanoha Smart City as a model, we aim to realize and expand a city where innovation continues to be born.

*1: "CO-GROWTH" is based on the co-growth program previously promoted in Kashiwanoha Smart City, but its scope and functions are expanded and redefined as an action brand under this Agency.

Basic Actions of this Agency

This Agency will integrally execute the following four basic actions for business ideas and projects both within and outside the region. Beyond just promoting the commercialization of individual projects, we will step-by-step promote a virtuous cycle of new industry creation and accumulation in Kashiwanoha by continuously operating the cycle of "project creation -> demonstration -> evaluation -> introduction/expansion" centered on businesses born in the region and regional players.

Action 1: "Create" In collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Chiba University, and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) located in Kashiwanoha Smart City, we will implement a new mechanism to discover technical seeds from researchers and students and commercialize research results.

Action 2: "Call" By utilizing Relic's network of 5,000 companies and Mitsui Fudosan's network of thousands of companies, as well as networks related to venture co-creation business and CVC, we will highlight the appeal of Kashiwanoha as a city-wide demonstration field and a place where it is easy to experiment, thereby attracting business development and demonstrations from domestic and international startups and large corporations. We will also connect businesses born in the region with businesses outside the region as needed.

Action 3: "Test" Even in the existing "CO-GROWTH" program, co-creation with multiple companies is progressing. We will provide comprehensive support for demonstrations in a seamless manner, including regulatory adjustments, securing demonstration sites, feedback from a residents' perspective, and data acquisition support, all provided comprehensively at the shortest and fastest speed.

Action 4: "Grow" Leveraging Relic's strength in new business development, we will provide seamless support according to the business growth stage, including building and verifying business hypotheses, expanding sales channels and partners, support for capital policy and fundraising, and even investment functions.

Future Initiatives This Agency will focus on (1) programs for creating startups from academia, and (2) recruitment and composition of demonstration themes by topic.