ABOUT | TECH PLANTER(en)

Ecosystem Connecting Southeast Asia and Japan

TECH PLANTER was born in Japan

In 2014, we started TECH PLANTER as an acceleration program to nurture Deep Tech startups in Japan. In 2000s, several stars existed especially in the IT area, but there is no ecosystem to foster most Deep Tech startups. One of our aspirations was (and still is ) to create an ecosystem in Japan to support startups who need R&D and academic researchers passionate about social implementation of their technologies. With Japanese big corporations, professional businesses, and excellent factories, TECH PLANTER has been developed. Nowadays, in total, we’ve gathered more than 1,500 teams and they have raised about 30B USD*. In year 2021, 55 big corporations partnered with us.

^{*By Aug, 2021}

To Solve Deep Issues in Southeast Asia

At the same time, we visited Southeast Asia, and realized similar needs for the Deep Tech ecosystem existed. That is why, we’ve also developed TECH PLANTER in southeast asia. Since our first activity in Singapore in 2014, it has expanded to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. During the journey, we’ve noticed that entrepreneurs and academic researchers in ASEAN are tremendously passionate about solving issues in their own country, area, and field.

What if we connect each ecosystem together? We believe such a connected ecosystem will accelerate solving issues that Southeast Asian entrepreneurs want to solve. You can access the Japanese market, technologies, and other assets. It would be a new paradigm to solve southeast asian issues.

What Connected Ecosystem Can Offer

Supports from International Communicators

In the year 2021, 29 southeast asian governmental institutions, corporates, VCs, accelerators and incubators supported TECH PLANTER. In addition, 10 Japanese corporations including conglomerates partnered with us. However, international, inter-field, inter-category communications are tough. The organizer, Leave a Nest team, is a group of communicators. Our members have both science and technology research experience and business background. Also, we have members in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and in Japan. Such a unique team will lead registrants to connect to various stakeholders.

Vast Network to Global Corporations

TECH PLANTER held in southeast asia welcomed 10 globally connected Japanese big corporations as partners. Not only are they interested in Southeast Asia as a market, but also they have a strong will to create new business by collaborating with local startups. Their assets, especially R&D knowledge, will help the TECH PLANTER community. Also, these partner companies would be good first collaborators for a startup to come to the Japanese market.

Prototyping Support by Super Factories

Manufacturing is essential for the social implementation of knowledge. However, in the past, there was no counterpart for startups to consult about Prototyping if there are no product specifications.We partnered with so-called Super Factories; that is, 6 Japanese factories who have practiced the concept of “understanding the vision of the start ups and proposing concrete manufacturing” .

Unconventional Small Investment

TECH PLANTER have made unconventional small investments to the Alumni in Southeast Asia. For R&D-oriented startups, timely, small, but various support is required especially in the initial stage. In our ecosystem, Leave a Nest Capital, and Glocalink Singapore take on the role of about 50K USD initial investment, and REAL TECH FUND, other VCs and CVCs seamlessly carry it on to the following stage ***.

*** Recent track records for TECH PLANTER Alumni are written as below

Exploring Deep Tech & Solving Deep Issue

Deep Issues from Researcher’s Way of Thinking

Every researcher's raison d'etre is to work on “World-First”. And their motivation always stems from a personal “Question”, we believe. The simple thought of “why?” will eventually sublimate into one's philosophy, which will ultimately lead to a world-first discovery.

Leave a Nest defines such issues developed from personal Question as “Deep Issue”. It can be connected to social issues, or your academic question. Various representations might exist. However, it is deeply connected to your inner Question. TECH PLANTER is a community of entrepreneurs and researchers who have their own “Deep Issues”.

Knowledge Manufacturing & Deep Tech Create Our Future

Today, the world is overflowing with issues that need to be solved. There is no future for humanity if we continue in the way we have been doing. There is probably no magic that can instantly reverse this situation. However, if we can solve one Deep Issue, we will make our world 1 step better. This is how we hope to create our future.

So, what will bring about the solution to the Deep Issue? It doesn't have to be a single technology. Multiple players bring their own passions and technologies to the table, and by combining them in a process of “Knowledge Manufacturing”, we can move forward to solve problems. We define this kind of technology assembly and aggregation as “Deep Tech”.

Year 2022 TECH PLANTER is now ON. Please join our ecosystem to solve Deep Issues in our world by exploring Deep Tech.

What is TECH PLANTER