Tokyo, Japan, November 24th, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Masafumi Asakura, and CDO Yasuhide Yokoi) and Sony Design Consulting Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO Yutaka Hasegawa) today announced they are partnering to conduct joint research on creative and design support for startups.

In recent years, there has been strong growth in startups worldwide, including US and Japan. More venture capitals, corporate venture capitals, and institutional investors are offering financial supplies to startups, and startup promotional supports are now widely available by accelerators, incubators, media, co-working space owners, and governmental offices.

Furthermore, in addition to the software industry, startups are expanding to various domains such as the hardware industry including IoT, robotics, autonomous mobilities, and aerospace, to the intellectual property industry in contents and entertainment sectors. It is critical for startups today to develop and manage with a comprehensive approach.

While a comprehensive approach is accelerating its need, there remains a gap in startup business management and its design development caused by missing consolidated understanding or knowledge in every phase from theory to practice.

Having this as a challenge we share, Final Aim and Sony Design Consulting have formed joint research to explore creative and design development methodology and practices that ensure rapid growth of startups business and equity financing.

This partnership aims to get rid of various gaps in startup development and design, promote aggressive investment to design, and contribute to a resilient and sustainable ecosystem for startups.

Major Research Agenda
1. Explore and clarify the impact and effectiveness of design development in startups.
2. Propose effective design approaches and practices for startup growth.
3. Establish industrial standard of contracts and fees optimal to design in startups.

Publication of the Joint Research Activity
The team will launch an exclusive website for this joint research with regular publication of progress and result. Organizing events are in our scope to encourgae open discussion in presentation and workshops. Details will be announced upon progress.

Sony Design Consulting

About Sony Design Consulting
Company Name: Sony Design Consulting Inc.
Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Director: Representative Chief Executive Officer, Yutaka Hasegawa
Business Description: Design consulting / Design management / Design service / Other related services
Website: https://www.sonydesignconsulting.com/

About Final Aim
Company Name: Final Aim, Inc.
Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Chief Executive Officer / Yasuhide Yokoi, Chief Design Officer
Business Description: Zero-to-one support with design and technology
Website: https://final-aim.com
Contact: contact@final-aim.com

Tokyo, Japan, November 12th, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Masafumi Asakura, and CDO Yasuhide Yokoi), is proud to announce that the company has collaborated with the top leading tech startups in autonomous driving, Tier IV, Inc. by design to support the realization of driverless taxi service.

Specifically, Final Aim supported the hardware design of the AI PXX, a roof package with LIDAR sensors and image cameras for long-range sensing, intended for the use case of medium-to-high speed autonomous driving.

From November 5th to 8th, Tier IV will install the package to the vehicle JPN TAXI and organize a driverless taxi service trial in the Nishi-Shinjuku area. The trial program is also run together with Mobility Technologies Co., Ltd., Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., KDDI Corporation, AISAN TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd., and Shinjuku Subcenter Area Environmental Improvement Commission.

AI PXX

Driverless taxi service trial in the Nishi-Shinjuku area

Final Aim’s mission is to support a zero-to-one step with technology for new business category creation and job opportunity generation following it.
Since the company’s foundation in December 2019, our global challenge has expanded from Japan to Singapore, Indonesia, and Africa in various industries such as autonomous mobilities, robotics, and digital manufacturing, where we enable a zero-to-one for startups, new business development departments in large corporations, venture capitals, and research labs in universities.

Since its founding in 2015, Tier IV has developed autonomous driving technology with the vision of achieving “Intelligent Vehicles for Everyone” − to establish the sustainable ecosystem for autonomous driving to which everyone can contribute in terms of development, and to solve societal issues such as traffic accidents and transportation inefficiency.
To develop all of these elements efficiently and dynamically, Tier IV has promoted the establishment of an ecosystem around Autoware*, the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving. Autoware is supported by the largest autonomous driving open source community and has found widespread and international adoption as it is used by more than 100 companies and runs in more than 20 different countries.
Also, Tier IV has succeeded in multiple large fundraising since its foundation. Recently, the company has announced additional funding from SOMPO Holdings, Inc., one of Japan’s biggest insurance companies, taking its total funding to USD $166 million.
(* Autoware is a registered trademark of the Autoware Foundation)

As a side note, Yasuhide Yokoi, an industrial designer and a Chief Design Officer of Final Aim, has been supporting Tier IV industrial design since its early stage. He has collaborated with Shinpei Kato, the founder and CTO of Tier IV, Inc., and delivered various designs such as Milee, autonomous EV for short-range driving, and Logiee, autonomous micro-mobility for logistics.

For the new AI PXX, the design concept and principles inherit the core value of Tier IV that has evolved over the years of new ventures. Similar to other designs developed, AI PXX’s aesthetics such as form, colors, and textures convey the value of simplicity, friendly, and delightful.
Especially for AI PXX, it is important to keep the design simple since the package will be loaded to different vehicles from different car companies. Because each car has its design styling, the package needs to be harmonious without conflict of aesthetics.

With the new AI PXX, the company’s advanced technology, and strong industry knowhow, Tier IV aims to accelerate further development of autonomous driving technology, and continue to advance its vision, “Intelligent Vehicles for Everyone.”

– Yasuhide Yokoi, an industrial designer and a CDO of Final Aim, has supported Tier IV industrial design since its early stage –

Milee – autonomous EV for short-range driving

Logiee – autonomous & customizable micro-mobility for logistics

Postee – autonomous EV for postal service

AI Pilot – system unit for low-speed autonomous vehicles

– New AI PXX design inherits the core value of Tier IV that has evolved over the years –

Mounted on JPN TAXI

About Tier IV, Inc.
Tier IV, a deep-tech startup based in Japan, is dedicated to sharing technology for safe intelligent vehicles that will benefit all of society by enabling as many individuals and organizations as possible to overcome the barriers of time and space to collectively bring autonomous vehicles into reality.
Founded in December 2015, Tier IV has led the development of Autoware*, the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving, and applied Autoware in applications of last-mile driverless mobility and logistics. Tier IV and its global partners continue to evolve Autoware and provide turn-key solutions for commercialization of Autoware-based autonomous vehicles all over the world. Learn more at: https://tier4.jp/en/
(* Autoware is a registered trademark of the Autoware Foundation)

About Final Aim, Inc.
Company Name: Final Aim, Inc.
Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Business Description: Zero-to-one support with design and technology
URL: https://final-aim.com
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Chief Executive Officer / Yasuhide Yokoi, Chief Design Officer
Main Partners: OTSAW Digital (Singapore), Yasunli (Indonesia), Bionic M (Tokyo), ICMG (Tokyo, Singapore, Silicon Valley), SHORA Ventures (Rwanda), GINZAFARM (Tokyo)
Contact E-mail: m-asakura@final-aim.com

Tokyo, Japan, October 29th, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Masafumi Asakura, and CDO Yasuhide Yokoi), is proud to announce that the company has partnered with an agricultural EV robot startup GINZAFARM Co., Ltd. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Kazuki Iimura). Final Aim will comprehensively support GINZAFARM’s startup growth from industrial design, hardware and business development.

And as a 1st partnership project, Final Aim has collaborated by design to develop “FARBOT”, a revolutionary autonomous agricultural robot mobility.
The initial design made its debut in AGRI WEEK TOKYO – Japan’s largest and Asia’s leading show for agricultural technologies – during October 14th-16th, 2020, attracting high public attention and strong industrial reputation.

FARBOT – Autonomous agricultural robot mobility

Final Aim’s mission is to support a zero-to-one step with technology for new business category creation and job opportunity generation following it.
Since the company’s foundation in December 2019, our global challenge has expanded from Japan to Singapore, Indonesia, and Africa in various industries such as autonomous mobilities, robotics, and digital manufacturing, where we enable a zero-to-one for startups, new business development departments in large corporations, venture capitals, and research labs in universities.

With a vision to “Enrich the future of agriculture with SmartAgri Technology,” GINZAFARM has been bringing innovation to agriculture by integrating robotics, AGV/UGV and other smart technologies.
The company has partnered with large social infrastructure organizations, such as NTT East by robot development in the local 5G network, Shikoku Electric Power by developing smart agricultural robots, and Japanese MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism) in smart agriculture of the smart city project.
GINZAFARM has further extended its smart agriculture and robot technology to the space industry, collaborating with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in joint research and development of achieving lunar farming.

GINZAFARM has selected Final Aim as an alliance partner from the viewpoint of design and business development with a comprehensive scope and long-term partnership.
From agriculture to the space industry, the alliance aims to strongly push GINZAFARM’s growth as a startup to a global scale by blending Final Aim’s proven hands-on capability of zero-to-one startup support in the hardware design and manufacturing industry.

FARBOT – 1st Partnership Robot Design Project
As an initial kick-off project with GINZAFARM, Final Aim has collaborated by design to develop a revolutionary autonomous agricultural robot mobility, “FARBOT”.
The robot will support farmers not just in daily labor activities but also to sense, analyze, and visualize field data using smart technologies such as various sensors, AI computing, and autonomous driving.
Furthermore, the hardware design incorporates a mobility platform concept, enabling it to be customized to meet the diverse needs of local farmers, e.g. logistic cargo, lawnmower, and pesticide sprayer.
The exterior of the robot including various color options is designed to further enhance the concept of FARBOT.
Farming can now be more stylish and pleasurable with the visually appealing form that the new design takes, without any compromising on technology innovation and daily operability.

Sensing model

Customization – Pesticide sprayer model

Customization – Lawnmower model

Color variation

About GINZAFARM Co., Ltd.
Company Name: GINZAFARM Co., Ltd.
Location: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Business Description: Development and sales of EV agricultural products with robot technologies, Farmer’s market (Marche) operation, Fruit and vegetable cultivation
URL: https://smart.ginzafarm.co.jp/
Representative Director: CEO Kazuki Iimura
Contact: https://smart.ginzafarm.co.jp/contact/

About Final Aim, Inc.
Company Name: Final Aim, Inc.
Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Business Description: Zero-to-one support with design and technology
URL: https://final-aim.com
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Chief Executive Officer / Yasuhide Yokoi, Chief Design Officer
Main Partners: OTSAW Digital (Singapore), Yasunli (Indonesia), Bionic M (Tokyo), ICMG (Tokyo, Singapore, Silicon Valley), SHORA Ventures (Rwanda)
Contact E-mail: m-asakura@final-aim.com

Singapore, June 3, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Masafumi Asakura, and CDO Yasuhide Yokoi), is proud to announce that the company has collaborated with OTSAW Digital PTE LTD by design to develop Camello, the revolutionary autonomous delivery robot.

Final Aim’s mission is to support a zero-to-one step with technology for new business category creation and job opportunity generation following it.

And since January 2020, Final Aim has formed a business partnership with one of the leading robotics startups – OTSAW – a company based in Singapore and Silicon Valley that implements self-driving and artificial intelligence technologies into security, delivery, and mobility applications.

https://final-aim.com/business-partnership-with-otsaw

Previously, as a 1st and emergency project to correspond with the threat against the COVID-19 pandemic, the two companies collaborated intensively to develop the UV-C LED disinfection autonomous robot, O-RX.

https://final-aim.com/fight-against-covid-19-final-aim-collaborated-with-otsaw

Now, for the 2nd project, Final Aim is pleased to announce the collaboration by design to develop Camello, an autonomous delivery robot that disrupts and transforms the last mile delivery service.

Similar to other countries, Singapore faces the inefficiency in the last mile of the logistics chain, which accounts for a large proportion of shipment costs and complexity of operations.
This distribution inefficiency in urban areas comes from low load factors, long dwell times at loading and unloading points and a high number of delivery requirements to individual customers within a short time.
And, especially in Singapore, due to the urban development of many malls and housing estates, there is a big gap in the demand of deliveries in housing estates and shortage of supply from retailers.

The autonomous delivery robot Camello challenges this issue with many design features such as compact dimensions that are perfectly optimized to the Singapore urban environment, easy-to-use cargo space and user friendly interface & styling.

Under the partnership with the industrial key players, the robots are planned to be installed by the delivery companies and retailers in Singapore.
And ultimately, it is expected to build an ecosystem that provides a new delivery chain to improve customer experience, and help businesses gain better efficiency and profitability over time.

About OTSAW Digital PTE LTD
OTSAW Digital PTE LTD was founded to improve business processes, safety, and everyday lives.
With a global team that spreads from Singapore to Silicon Valley, the company builds robotics solutions for security, delivery, and mobility applications, implementing our self-driving and artificial intelligence technologies into OTSAW’s cutting edge machines.
URL: http://www.otsaw.com/

About Final Aim, Inc.
Company Name: Final Aim, Inc.
Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Business Description: Zero-to-one support with design and technology
URL: https://final-aim.com
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Chief Executive Officer / Yasuhide Yokoi, Chief Design Officer
Partners: OTSAW, Yasunli
Contact E-mail: m-asakura@final-aim.com

Singapore, May 27, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO Masafumi Asakura, and CDO Yasuhide Yokoi), is proud to announce that the company has collaborated with OTSAW Digital PTE LTD by design to develop O-RX, the revolutionary UV-C LED disinfection autonomous robot.

Final Aim’s mission is to support a zero-to-one step with technology for new business category creation and job opportunity generation following it.

And since January 2020, Final Aim has formed a business partnership with one of the leading robotics startups – OTSAW – a company based in Singapore and Silicon Valley that implements self-driving and artificial intelligence technologies into security, delivery, and mobility applications.

As an emergency project, to correspond with the threat against the COVID-19 pandemic, Final Aim collaborated intensively by industrial design with OTSAW and supported its rapid development of the disinfection robot O-RX.

The robot is the first revolutionary UV-C LED disinfection autonomous robot in the world. With a disinfection rate of 99.9%, the innovative UV-C LED technology emits only UV-C light, which is effective in killing microbes, including viruses such as COVID-19.

By using UV-C LED technology, it is 70% more energy-efficient as compared to conventional mercury lamps. Also, it is friendly to humans as it is much safer and non-cancerous to human skin as compared to conventional mercury lamps that emit harmful UV-A and UV-B radiation.

On top of that, it is equipped with state-of-the-art heat management and cooling systems to help counter the heat that is being emitted from the high intensity LED modules in the robot.

Within a super tight development lead time, the industrial design realized above severe functional criteria in a compact dimension that can be rapidly prototyped and produced. Furthermore the design leveraged form, materials, and colors for the safe ergonomics and user interface that will be critical to the harsh environment.

The robot will be installed in indoor facilities in Singapore, helping to keep people safe and lessen the spread of the virus.

About OTSAW Digital PTE LTD
OTSAW Digital PTE LTD was founded to improve business processes, safety, and everyday lives.
With a global team that spreads from Singapore to Silicon Valley, the company builds robotics solutions for security, delivery, and mobility applications, implementing our self-driving and artificial intelligence technologies into OTSAW’s cutting edge machines.
URL: http://www.otsaw.com/

About Final Aim, Inc.
Company Name: Final Aim, Inc.
Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
Business Description: Zero-to-one support with design and technology
URL: https://final-aim.com
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Chief Executive Officer / Yasuhide Yokoi, Chief Design Officer
Partners: OTSAW, Yasunli
Contact E-mail: m-asakura@final-aim.com

Tokyo Japan, March 19, 2020 – Final Aim, Inc. (Final Aim) filed a patent (No. 2020-34812) for intellectual property (IP) management system on March 2, 2020.

With this smart contract management system by blockchain technology, Final Aim enables accurate IP and design patent management in startups, for example, where minimizing corporate value assessment in the due diligence process is imperative.

Final Aim’s vision is “Supporting all innovators that challenge Zero-to-One and create new industries”.
The company has been focused on developing its service and product to create the world where all challenges are encouraged.

To further enhance the company activities, Final Aim filed a patent for the IP management system as its very first patent application.

Compared with large corporations, not many startups own internal IP departments. However, IP management is highly demanded at venturing business not only in IPO and M&A but also in fundraising.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The most well-known types are copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets.
The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goods. To achieve this, the law gives people and businesses property rights to the information and intellectual goods they create, usually for a limited period of time. This gives economic incentive for their creation because it allows people to profit from the information and intellectual goods they create. These economic incentives are expected to stimulate innovation and contribute to the technological progress of countries, which depends on the extent of protection granted to innovators.
– Wikipedia (link)

However, securing resources in corporate management is hard at agile startup environment.
Although the global numbers of patent application are growing, it is often the case that not many startups file patents in the course of their business activities.
Having an internal IP department and an assigned patent attorney should be ideal for startups, but these resources weigh heavy at initial phase.

– World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (link)

Furthermore, a design patent and its importance in the business strategy is often overlooked among the startup founders.

What is Design Patent?

A design patent is a form of legal protection granted to the ornamental design of a functional item. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers, and computer icons are examples of objects that are covered by design patents.
– Wikipedia (link)

– World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (link)

To solve this and related major issues, Final Aim developed design patent management system applying blockchain technology and filed a patent for IP.
This smart contract system enables to minimize corporate value assessment in due diligence process.

What is Smart Contract?

A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract. Smart contracts allow the performance of credible transactions without third parties. These transactions are trackable and irreversible.
Proponents of smart contracts claim that many kinds of contractual clauses may be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. The aim of smart contracts is to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law and to reduce other transaction costs associated with contracting. Various cryptocurrencies have implemented types of smart contracts.
– Wikipedia (link)

A smart contract is part of blockchain technology that is now being widely tested in POC (Proof of Concept) projects, especially in managing contracts and documents.
There is plenty of room for improvement in blockchain technology, however, the business value-add of blockchain is forecasted to grow more than $176 billion by 2025, and then it will exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030. (Gartner Research: link)

What is Blockchain?

A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.
By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”. For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority.
– Wikipedia (link)

– Survey on Blockchain Technologies and Related Services by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (link)

As filing the patent, Final Aim will be accelerating the product development, business development, and hiring, and enhancing on achieving our corporate vision of “Supporting all innovators that challenge Zero-to-One and create new industries”.

About Final Aim

Final Aim, Inc. is a firm provides hands-on design & technology.
The company cooperates with startups, labs, and MNCs, accelerating ambitious ideas & technologies to realize great design & business.

Headquarter Location: Tokyo, Japan
Founders: Masafumi Asakura, Yasuhide Yokoi
Founded Date: December 2019
Services: Business Design / Industrial Design / UI & Software Design / Technology Strategy / Financial Strategy / IP Strategy
URL: https://final-aim.com
Contact: Masafumi Asakura (m-asakura@final-aim.com)