Takumi Giken Kogyo

Takumi Giken Kogyo Inc., also known as Takumi Engineering, Inc., is a University of Tokyo-originated startup founded in February 2020. The company was established by CEO Shota Maeda, CTO Seina Isaka, and CBO Takafumi Hara, who were teammates in the University of Tokyo's lacrosse club. Maeda, who came from a family of lawyers, was inspired to enter the startup world after taking an entrepreneurship course at graduate school with Isaka and Hara. After exploring various business ideas, a series of interviews with over 1000 companies led them to discover the deep-seated issues within the manufacturing industry, particularly in metalworking, which steered the company to its current focus.

The company operates in the vertical SaaS market, specifically targeting the Japanese manufacturing industry. Its mission is to address pressing challenges such as labor shortages, technology succession, and declining international competitiveness. Takumi Giken Kogyo focuses on small and medium-sized supplier companies, which constitute 99% of the manufacturing market, a segment often overlooked by technology providers who typically target large enterprises. The business generates revenue through its SaaS product, "Takumi Force," a factory management DX system. A significant milestone was achieved in December 2024, when the company raised 500 million JPY in a Series A funding round, bringing its total raised capital to 770 million JPY.

Takumi Giken Kogyo's core offering is "Takumi Force," an AI-powered quotation support system for small and medium-sized parts manufacturers. This system is designed to tackle the critical and often personalized task of creating price estimates. By digitalizing and standardizing the quotation process, it allows for proper value-added pricing, moving away from intuition-based calculations. Key features include digitizing know-how to enable any employee to create accurate quotes quickly, managing drawings and project information, and issuing quotations all within one platform. This not only improves efficiency, with some clients reporting a 50% reduction in quotation lead times, but also facilitates the transfer of technical skills from veterans to younger employees. The system is designed to be a data hub, collecting crucial information on processes, manufacturing, and defects, effectively turning a company's tacit knowledge into a digital asset. This prepares companies to leverage AI for enhanced productivity and advanced management decisions in the future.

Keywords: manufacturing SaaS, factory DX, AI quotation system, vertical SaaS, production management, cost calculation, technology succession, supplier support, parts manufacturing, industrial AI, Shota Maeda, Seina Isaka, Takafumi Hara, Takumi Force, University of Tokyo startup, Japanese manufacturing, quotation management, digital transformation, business efficiency, industrial technology