Establishment of Mirai Startup Consortium, an organization providing comprehensive support for startups

Mirai Works Co., Ltd., headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo and led by President and CEO Shoji Okamoto, has launched the Mirai Startup Consortium (MSC) in collaboration with several key innovation organizations across Asia. These include TechShake Pte. Ltd., headed by Co-Founder and CEO Kotaro Adachi, along with Creww Co., Ltd., StartPass Co., Ltd., and Protostar Co., Ltd.

As a long-time collaborator and gateway to Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, TechShake joins MSC to help bridge Japanese innovation with high-growth markets in the region. Together, the consortium aims to provide comprehensive, one-stop support for startups through collaborative programs, market access, and ecosystem integration.

Moving forward, the consortium will leverage each company's areas of expertise and management resources to provide comprehensive support, including matching with large corporations, introducing professional talent, fundraising, M&A, overseas business expansion, and free provision of management promotion cloud services, to promote corporate growth and exit strategies.

Background and Overview

The Japanese economy is facing serious challenges such as a declining birthrate and aging population, as well as structural changes in industry. The “Five-Year Plan for Startup Development” launched in 2022 with the aim of fundamentally increasing the number of startups, which are the drivers of innovation, has begun to show results, with a 1.5-fold increase compared to 2021. 

However, to further accelerate the growth of startups and link it to the revitalization of the Japanese economy, challenges such as talent shortages, funding gaps, promoting M&A, and appealing to overseas investors remain.

In this context, the “Mirai Startup Consortium” provides comprehensive support to startups through a one-stop service, including matching with large corporations, introducing professional talent, funding, M&A, overseas business expansion, and free provision of management promotion cloud services, to promote the growth and exit strategies of startups.

Roles of Each Company

Mirai Works: Providing professional talent with networks with business companies and diverse knowledge and experience

TechShake: Supporting business expansion in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines

Creww: Providing business growth opportunities for startups, open innovation programs, and

open innovation platforms

StartPass: Providing a marketplace specialized for startups

ProtoStar: Providing funding, business growth, and M&A opportunities for startups

About the Strengths of the Entire Company and Future Developments

Mirai Works’ vision is to “create an ecosystem where professional talent can take on challenges.” In this era of 100-year lifespans, they are developing multiple services to create an environment where professional talent can freely choose their work style, such as “independence, entrepreneurship, side jobs, or full-time employment,” and their place of work, such as “urban or rural areas,” and continue to take on challenges.

TechShake's vision is to expand the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia, centered on the Philippines, and connect Southeast Asia with the world. The company is forming a startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia through activities such as supporting the expansion of tech companies, operating innovation programs, operating innovation hubs (LimineLabs), operating venture building programs (Go Global Catalyst), and operating innovation conferences (IGNITE). As a key partner company of the Southeast Asia Alliance, ATLAS, and SEA Business Connect, it supports the expansion of numerous overseas companies into Southeast Asia.

Through Mirai Works’ open innovation platform ‘Booster’, which supports professional talent aspiring to independence or entrepreneurship, as well as those already independent or entrepreneurial, they have co-managed acceleration programs and provided individual mentoring and access to professionals with specialized knowledge to support the growth of startups.

Creww operates under the vision of “Creating an era of great challenges” and provides a variety of services tailored to the needs of all those who wish to take on challenges, including startups, entrepreneurs, corporations, and individuals. It operates an open innovation platform with approximately 8,500 registered startups, has held more than 500 open innovation programs in Japan and overseas, and has facilitated approximately 1,500 collaborations.

StartPass has the mission of “making Japan a startup-friendly country” and its main business is the planning, development, and provision of StartPass, a management acceleration cloud service specialized for startups. It has been adopted by more than 10% of the market share in terms of cumulative number of users. In May 2025, Mirai Works entered into a business partnership with freee to address the issue of “rough accounting” among startups, establishing an environment where startups can use freee for free for three years, thereby contributing to solving their challenges.

ProtoStar focuses on supporting challengers and offers a variety of services, including StartupList, one of the largest entrepreneur-investor matching services in Japan, and JP STARTUPS, a media outlet that introduces and supports Japanese startups. In addition to alliance initiatives promoting collaboration and acceleration between startups and major corporations, and existing services like Japan's largest entrepreneur support media platform “Entrepreneur LOG,” Mirai Works recently launched “Startup M&A,” which provides M&A support as part of growth and exit strategies for startups. We have established a comprehensive support system for “challengers.”

Moving forward, each company will leverage its strengths to provide startups with comprehensive support, including access to talent, funding, space, and opportunities, as well as matching with large corporations for business expansion, introduction of professional talent, fundraising, M&A, overseas business expansion, and free provision of management promotion cloud services. Additionally, for large corporations, we will contribute to accelerating open innovation in Japan by introducing startups and facilitating matching opportunities.