JR East begins accepting applications for the company's first incubation / acceleration program | BRIDGE Technology & Startup Information

On the 19th, JR East held a briefing session for the company's first incubation / acceleration program "JR EAST STARTUP PROGRAM" in Tokyo. The program includes an "acceleration course" for companies within 10 years of starting a business and an "incubation course" for individuals who have started a business or have just started a business, depending on the content of the proposal to JR East. Two courses were prepared, and application entries were accepted on the web from 10 am on the 20th. The application deadline is the end of May for the "acceleration course" and the end of July for the "incubation course".

Mr. Tetsushiro Matsuzaki, Executive Officer of JR East and Deputy General Manager of Business Creation Division, who took the stage at the briefing session, is in the memorable year of the 30th anniversary of the company's establishment, confirming the intentions of the management team, and conducting open innovation activities. Explained that it came to launch. He said, "Because this is my first attempt, there are some parts where I haven't fully expressed my thoughts as JR East, but I think I can operate the program flexibly." Told.

For entrepreneurs and start-ups, the biggest advantage of collaborating with JR East is the large number of touch points with consumers. Considering the railway business alone, JR East handles 17 million passengers every day, and the total number of passengers is 6.2 billion annually.

In addition to electronic money represented by Suica and the station Naka business that has recently expanded into Singapore, lockers for receiving home delivery in station premises, innovation vending machines, sweets for local production and local consumption, and "JRE" that can be used at 71 stations and 4,500 stores. Many new products and services such as "POINT" have been created from within the group companies. As a background to JR East's decision to work on open innovation by relying on the power of companies outside the group, Mr. Tadashi Sano, the manager of the Business Development Group, Regional Revitalization Division, Business Creation Headquarters, JR East, said, "More than ever. However, it is necessary to change quickly, and I thought that doing it on my own would not work. "

There are five issues facing JR East as a reference for the themes that accept applications. The list is as follows.

1. Labor shortage (needs for automation and robotization)
2. Changes in working style (mobile work, satellite work)
3. Change of traffic mode (For example, after arriving at a local station on the Shinkansen, no matter how fast the Shinkansen gets, it will still be difficult to get on the foot from the station. Ride sharing with railways, cooperation issues with autonomous driving, etc.)
4. Smartphone conversion (application of 18,000 payment cash register terminals provided to 8,500 tenants in station buildings, personalization of information, etc.)
5. Inbound (multilingualization, luggage, guides, etc., building an environment that can respond appropriately not only as a company but also as a society)

Each of his JR East group companies is participating in this program, and he said that he would like to respond to the extent possible if he / she consults at the stage of application and business construction regarding the resources that each company can provide. .. For example, using anonymized open data about passengers and beacons that can grasp the current position and boarding position of all trains on the Yamanote Line, as well as the "JR East Japan App" boasting 3 million downloads. He also wanted to respond positively to consultations such as cooperation and attaching something to the station.

Regarding the acceleration course, JR East said that applicants (mainly companies) already have some kind of product or service, and based on that, they can consider commercialization and start test marketing in November this year. I'm assuming. In addition, regarding the incubation course, it is assumed that there is a business idea and a plan to collaborate by utilizing the resources of JR East will be put together in November.

During the program period (August-November), he will be provided with the Kowakin Space of the JR Kanda Manseibashi Building free of charge to the companies and individuals selected for the program. There is no specific mention of the number of projects to be adopted, but according to Mr. Matsuzaki, considering the human resources of JR East, it may be about several projects for each course. It was said that.

Demo days for each course are scheduled to be held in November this year, with 1 million yen for the best proposal and 100,000 yen for the best proposal.

As for open innovation of railway business companies, Tokyu Corporation has entered the third year of the operation of the "Tokyu Accelerate Program", and Nishi-Nippon Railroad, which is based in Fukuoka, is based in "Nishitetsu Co + Lab" and Yokohama. Sotetsu and Takashimaya start operating the acceleration program. Creww, an open innovation platform, operates the "Tokyo Metro ACCELERATOR".

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