fiBona

Shiseido's open innovation program "fibona" started in 2019 and is now in its third year. One of the activities, "co-creation with startups," aims to create innovation by fusing the novel ideas and unique technologies of startup companies with the knowledge, technologies, and services of the research field.

The final screening of "SHISEIDO OPEN INNOVATION 2021," which aims to search for new co-creation partners among startups, was held at the Shiseido Global Innovation Center (S/PARK) on November 24.

SHISEIDO OPEN INNOVATION 2021 was the second time for Shiseido's collaboration program with startups, and aimed to create innovation in "beauty wellness" similar with the first time in 2019.

For the first time in about two years, three themes were set: data, communication, and solutions. After a one-month application period, approximately 50 applications were received, and after document screening and interviews, five companies were selected to participate in the final presentation screening.

Based on the day's presentations, five judges were to decide which companies would be selected. The judges included those who had evaluated the first startup selection: Hidefumi Araki, (project owner of fibona and director of R&D Strategy), Katsunori Yoshida (Chief Technology Officer), and Kiyoshi Sato (director of the Business Core Technology Center). Jun Oda (President of IPSA Corporation) and Yoshiaki Okabe (Chief Brand Innovation Officer) joined as new judges. (*Positions are as of the time of the final screening.)

After the five judges gave their opening remarks, presentations were made by each company. Each company had five minutes to make a presentation, which was followed by a Q&A session.

There were questions like:
“As a start-up company, you have already developed various businesses beyond the initial stage. What solutions do you have in mind for co-creating with Shiseido?"
“I think the proposal appropriately captures consumer insights, and its unique focus is very good. Do you envision new outputs for different lifestyles than the existing ones?"
“There are many other indicators that measure value, but what are unique strengths of the indicator?"
“What kind of innovation possibilities are there by co-creating with Shiseido?”
“What value does the technology have?”
“What are your thoughts on beauty?”　

During the Q&A session, questions and sincere responses were exchanged and presenters and judges engaged in lively discussion.

After the presentations by all five companies, including one online presentation, the judges moved to a separate room for screening. During the screening, prototypes and materials from each company were displayed in the venue, and the researchers enthusiastically asked questions on their interesting points and tried out the products.

When the judges returned to the venue, the results were announced. In the overall review, Mr. Araki prefaced his remarks by saying, "In our selection process, we discussed the possibility of a win-win relationship that would allow both companies to develop their businesses.”

The two companies selected for the selection were EVCARE Corp. and SCENTMATIC, Inc. The following is an introduction of the characteristics of each company.

The first company selected was EVCARE Corp., which offers a program that implements health monitoring by using hair samples and questionnaires for developing subsequent aftercare.

The company, the first venture company approved by Shiga University and founded in 2019 by Kei Isozumi, who studied at the graduate school and serves as president and CEO, quantitatively measures cortisol and other stress hormones that accumulate in hair to promote awareness of a person's stress, and it also offers aftercare programs.

Mr. Isozumi explained, "Hair has an advantage over urine and saliva in that it can be measured over the medium to long term. Because we can look at accumulation going back several months, we can also retrospectively examine the causes of stress in the context of work and daily life."

The uniqueness of the two approaches to stress evaluation, subjective stress values based on conventional questionnaires and scientifically based stress values that even the individual may be unaware of, was highly evaluated.

“We are a company that evaluate stress from hair, but we did not want to create a company that evaluates stress. By measuring stress, we would like to create a society where customers themselves can recognize the balance between mind and body and support their lives of wellbeing, together with Shiseido.”

How do we create a point of contact between stress perception, well-being and beauty? Many of the judges had high hopes for future co-creation, including contributions to new product development.

The other company is SCENTMATIC Inc., which develops and provides services for KAORIUM, AI system that can convert scents into language and at the same time select scents from words.

Mr. Toshiharu Kurisu, president of the company, says, "Words have the power to extend the experience brought about by the five senses. If this is the case, then by fusing the ambiguous sensation of scent with language, we may be able to create a new experience.” He explained the motivation for the development.

During the Q&A session, Mr. Kurisu talked about a reality where "many scent ventures are dying," but he passionately discussed the significance of designing and implementing a fusion experience of scent and words, both in terms of the consumer experience value and business value for the company.

The judges highly evaluated the potential of the business, and in their comments, the following reason for their selection was stated: "I believe that we can develop our businesses together by working together not only on UX development using fragrance, but also in the area of sensitivity, which is one of our strengths.”

In response, Mr. Kurisu said, "Although what we do is in the IT field, we have been pursuing values that are difficult to convey with logic and words. That is why we are happy that our work has been evaluated from the perspective of sensitivity. Going forward, the company aims to embody innovation in new beauty experiences through fragrance.”

Finally, Mr. Okabe, the head of the judges, expressed his gratitude to the companies that were not selected, his expectations for them, and his enthusiasm for future co-creation.

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to the teams that were not selected. By collaborating more and more with teams that have excellent solutions, such as those in this event, we at Shiseido hope to continue to be a company that can further accelerate innovation and be reborn. I would be delighted if we can continue to work together in some way in the future.”

What kind of innovations will the efforts toward co-creation with the two startup companies selected this time produce? We look forward to future collaboration with fibona and the inspiration and expansion it will bring to both parties.


(text: Hanae Abe, edit: Kaori Sasagawa)