Plug and Play Osaka celebrates its first anniversary!
In July 2020, Plug and Play Japan opened a new office in Osaka, and it has been exactly one year since the opening. Shingo Ando, the Director of Plug and Play Osaka, talked about this challenging yet rewarding year.
Thank you note from Director, Shingo Ando (Andy)
It is such a pleasure to celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of our Osaka office and Smart Cities program. I would like to thank all of our corporate partners, the startups that have participated in the program, the people in industry, government, academia, and businesses who have supported us.
The journey began in January 2020, when Shumpei Kobayashi and I took on the challenge of launching the Osaka office. While facing the turbulence and societal change under the COVID-19, we have been working together towards our vision of “Realizing a well-being Smart City by promoting innovation between startups and major companies through collaboration with industry, government and academia.”
Now I am very grateful for being able to carry on the the Smart Cities Program at the Osaka base with 11 team members (Haruka Ichikawa, Woojung Kim, Shumpei Kobayashi, Ai Sakura, Haruka Takamori, Asako Nakatomi, Masato Nakamura, past graduate interns Yu Yasuda and Ryutaro Oi, and new interns Doina Zavulan and Naoki Hirukawa).
One year has passed since the moment the press release was published at 10:00 a.m. on July 21, 2020. And thanks to your support, all team members are continuing to work together on the next challenge.
While striving for the revitalization of Smart Cities in the Kansai region, we will continue to make efforts to make ourselves known as the Smart Cities Hub in the country.
In all of our actions, we cherish the “Team PHILOSOPHY”, which says that “We will continue to take advantage of change as an opportunity and boldly take on new challenges”. With this in mind, we will continue to work closely with our global stakeholders to create a well-being Smart City. We look forward to your continued guidance and encouragement.
Quick Interview: Looking Back on the First Year
— Looking back over the past year, what was the most significant moment for you?
Andy: In March 2021, I had a memorable experience on stage at the end of the Batch 1 EXPO, the demo day for the first program. Until then, most of my work was in my head, because we were just preparing for a program that wasn’t there yet. So the moment I stood on the stage and spoke to the audience, I could feel that the program was actually happening. That time I felt that I made one step closer to the Smart City we have envisioned.
— What were the difficulties you faced?
As soon as we started working for the establishment of the Osaka base around March 2020, we were hit by the pandemic, and I was very worried that the base would not be able to be set up. I did not expect to have partnership agreement during the pandemic, especially since we had to create the contract online from start to finish, which made the proposal activities even more difficult. However, when I think about it now, I feel that it was a great opportunity that I could experience something I never have imagined. .
At that time, I was in charge of hiring and I really wanted to meet and work with passionate people as soon as possible. I am deeply moved by the fact that we are now a 10-member team.
— What are your expectations for the Batch 2 program?
Today we announced the selected startups list of the Batch 2 program!
We hope to make our upcoming Batch program to bring more outstanding results. From this batch, we have changed the program period and design, and we have also made some improvements to the startup selection process. The number of selected startups has been narrowed down from 14 to 8, and we are preparing on the premise that we can conduct a product demonstration, so we have high expectations for PoCs and subsequent commercialization!
— What are you envisioning for next year?
We want to be an organization that listens carefully to the voices of all stakeholders involved in Plug and Play Osaka and continues to make changes in order to increase the value of the program. We would also like to further expand our current team and make the Smart Cities program even more solid. I want to increase the number of people who are open to change and have passion to create Smart Cities.
Thank you for your continuing support for Plug and Play Osaka!
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（Translation: Doina Zavulan, Intern at Plug and Play Osaka）
（Japanese article is available from below link:）
