Best Internet of Things - Industry Applications Companies in Japan
The 136 best Internet of Things - Industry Applications companies in Japan in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: WHILL.
Japan's Internet of Things - Industry Applications sector has 136 companies tracked in our directory, ranked by disclosed equity funding and momentum, and the $452M total raised tells you this market is real but still early.
No unicorns yet. That's the headline. EdgeCortix leads at $28M, Idein sits at $24M, and then the field drops fast, with most players well under $15M. And honestly, I find that gap more interesting than the top-line figure, because it signals a consolidation window that investors like Global Brain, SBI Investment, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital are clearly watching. The hot themes right now are ai hardware and edge inference, which maps directly onto what EdgeCortix is building. So where does the sector go from here? Coverage is rising, median app install growth is running around plus 13% year-over-year across adjacent internet and internet retail categories, and the money is starting to follow. Girasol Energy and SoxAI are small today at $5M and $6M respectively, but in a market this fragmented, early positioning matters more than current size. If you're benchmarking potential partners or targets, this list is the place to start.
Our analysis of 184 Internet of Things - Industry Applications companies
$13.9b in tracked funding; 91% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Internet of Things - Industry Applications companies in Japan
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Employees | Founder | Tech stack | Web popularity | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WHILL Developer of wheelchairs for orthopedic support | $62M | 24 mo ago | 300 | Satoshi Sugie Co-Founder & CEO | WordPress Block EditorCart FunctionalityWooCommerce+46 | Top 500k | 103 patents Advanced electric wheelchair chassis and control systems for personal mobility | — |
| 2 | Photosynth Provider of cloud-based access control systems | $53M | 59 mo ago | 176 | Kawase Kodai CEO | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+12 | Top 5M | — | — |
| 3 | AdInte Provider of IoT-enabled customer engagement solutions for retail industries | $46M | 52 mo ago | 123 | Shinji Togawa CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+26 | Top 5M | 13 patents Location-based data analytics and marketing platforms for consumer behavior insights | — |
| 4 | Midokura Open source edge platform providing network virtualization solution | $45M | 120 mo ago | 80 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+27 | Top 50M | — | 1 partnership |
| 5 | EdgeCortix Developer of energy-efficient AI processors, accelerators, modules, cards, and systems | $28M | 2 mo ago | 37 | Sakya Dasgupta Founder & CEO | HubSpot CMS HubHubSpotcore-js+16 | Top 5M | 5 patents Hardware acceleration for AI/ML and communications: low‑precision MAC, LDPC decoding, streaming pipelines | — |
| 6 | Idein Provider of edge-computing platform service to enterprises | $24M | 10 mo ago | 74 | Yasuyuki Yamada Co-Founder & CTO | HubSpot CMS HubAmazon Web Servicescore-js+17 | Top 5M | — | — |
| 7 | I-Grid Provider of GX solutions, energy trading, and renewable energy platforms | $21M | 34 mo ago | 100 | Tomokazu Akita CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+21 | Top 1M | 12 patents Quantum algorithm design and optimization for hybrid quantum‑classical machine learning | — |
| 8 | Bitkey Provider of blockchain-based smart locks | $20M | 61 mo ago | 233 | Masanori Hotsuki Co-Founder / Chief Creation Officer | WordPressMySQLPHP+31 | Top 5M | 40 patents Patents concentrated in electrical & electronics | 1 launch |
| 9 | TechMagic Developer of AI-based food cooking robots | $17M | 26 mo ago | 19 | Yuji Shiraki Founder & CEO | WordPressApple iCloud MailGoogle Workspace+32 | Top 5M | 72 patents Automated food portioning, ingredient supply, and cooking equipment for commercial kitchens | 1 expansion |
| 10 | BONX Provider of communication earplugs | $15M | 36 mo ago | 15 | Takahiro Miyasaka CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+11 | Top 5M | 20 patents Group calling and mobile communication system integration for enhanced multi‑party telecom services | — |
| 11 | Metroweather Provider of drone-based atmospheric measurement equipment | $11M | 10 mo ago | 22 | Kuniaki Higashi CEO | WordPressApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+16 | Top 10M | 3 patents Doppler radar signal processing and analysis for meteorological forecasting | — |
| 12 | Global Mobility Service Connectivity and telematics solution for usage-based auto finance | $10M | 96 mo ago | 105 | Tokuzo Nakajima CEO | GSAPAmazon Web ServicesCloudflare+18 | Top 5M | 108 patents Electronic vehicle control and remote operation systems for doors, batteries, and onboard devices | — |
| 13 | EDGEMATRIX Developer of edge AI-based video surveillance solutions for smart cities | $9M | 81 mo ago | 14 | — | NginxAmazon Web Servicescore-js+8 | Top 50M | — | 1 job opening |
| 14 | SmartDrive Analytics platform for transportation | $9M | 110 mo ago | 73 | Retsu Kitagawa CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+25 | Top 1M | 12 patents AI-based acquisition and analysis of vehicle mobility and behavior data | — |
| 15 | Latona Developer of AI-powered edge computing solutions for Internet of Things | $8M | 62 mo ago | 8 | Asuka Mizuguchi Co-Founder & COO | — | — | 13 patents Edge computing platforms for sensor data orchestration and automated workflow generation | — |
| 16 | Vegetalia Provider of agricultural IoT solutions and plant disease diagnostic services | $8M | 105 mo ago | 4 | — | VideoJSGSAPAmazon Web Services+7 | Top 10M | — | — |
| 17 | SoxAI Manufacturer of smart rings designed to monitor and analyze sleep | $6M | 8 mo ago | 5 | Tatsuhiko Watanabe Founder | Cart FunctionalityShopifySentry+32 | Top 500k | 2 patents Continuous physiological monitoring and health management via wearable sensor devices | — |
| 18 | AUTHENTIC JAPAN Provider of a Bluetooth-enabled disaster management platform | $6M | 54 mo ago | 21 | — | Webflow EcommerceWebflowGoogle Ads+23 | Top 10M | — | — |
| 19 | Telepathy Developed eyeglass-shaped wearable device for sharing what user sees and hears in real-time. | $5M | 154 mo ago | 11 | — | Facebook LoginGoogle MapsYouTube+8 | Top 50M | 13 patents Adjustable-focus head‑mounted AR/VR displays providing natural field‑of‑view optics | — |
| 20 | Girasol Energy Provider of AI and cloud-based monitoring solutions for photovoltaic plants | $5M | 13 mo ago | 8 | Li Min CEO | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+11 | Top 50M | — | — |
| 21 | IndyGo Provider of IoT based asset tracking and monitoring solutions | $4M | 91 mo ago | — | Kumar Rajesh CEO | — | — | — | — |
| 22 | Desamis IoT-based solution for real-time monitoring of cattle | $4M | 27 mo ago | 8 | Koji Seike CEO & President | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+15 | Top 10M | — | — |
| 23 | PGV Provider of wearable brainwave measurement technology and AI-powered brainwave analysis | $4M | 57 mo ago | 49 | Osamu Oshirasawa CEO & President | HubSpot CMS HubHubSpotcore-js+10 | Top 10M | 2 patents Neurocognitive therapeutic compositions and sensory evaluation systems for itch/pain assessment | — |
| 24 | Tamecco IOT based personalization solution for retailers | $4M | 126 mo ago | — | Koichiro Tsujino Founder & CEO | — | — | — | — |
| 25 | Grace imaging Wearable device for tracking muscle metabolism | $4M | 35 mo ago | 8 | — | — | — | 4 patents Medical imaging and bioanalysis sensors with integrated data processing algorithms | — |
| 26 | Xenoma Garment with embedded sensors | $4M | 72 mo ago | 15 | — | PHPNginxcore-js+8 | Top 10M | 21 patents Flexible textile-integrated ECG monitoring devices and stretchable conductive wire technologies. | — |
| 27 | Visban Developer of RF-on-glass technology integrated with AI for millimeter wave connections | $3M | 3 mo ago | — | S Cha Co-Founder & CEO | — | — | 6 patents RF beamforming hardware—phase shifters, radios, and transceivers for wireless communications. | — |
| 28 | LiveSmart Developer of connected hubs for residential buildings | $3M | 58 mo ago | 18 | Roy Asch CEO | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+14 | Top 10M | — | — |
| 29 | Remohab Online telemedicine platform for rehabilitation | $2M | 77 mo ago | — | Tatsunori Taniguchi Founder & CEO | — | — | — | — |
| 30 | mui Lab Provider of smart home control systems | $2M | 10 mo ago | 15 | Munehiko Sato Co-Founder | Node.jsNext.jsGSAP+8 | Top 5M | — | — |
| 31 | H2L Developer of smart bands to track hand gestures | $2M | 111 mo ago | 5 | — | WordPressMySQLPHP+15 | Top 10M | 21 patents Wearable haptic feedback and bio‑sensing systems for medical/rehabilitation applications | — |
| 32 | SenSprout Provider of cloud-based soil moisture sensor systems | $1M | 93 mo ago | — | Kazuhiro Nishioka Co-Founder | WordPressMySQLPHP+15 | Top 50M | — | — |
| 33 | Novars Provider of IoT based business consulting and services | $1M | 117 mo ago | — | Okabe Yoshihiro CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+21 | Top 50M | 43 patents Battery management and wireless monitoring systems for portable power supply devices | — |
| 34 | PLANTIO Developer of smart indoor planting system | $1M | 73 mo ago | — | Takashi Serizawa Co-Founder & CEO | — | — | 10 patents Digital control systems and recycling kits for hydroponic plant growth media | — |
| 35 | Inupathy Wearable device to monitor heart rate variability for dogs | $923K | 83 mo ago | 3 | Joji Yamaguchi CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+19 | Top 50M | 2 patents Acoustic-based animal emotion detection for livestock welfare monitoring | — |
| 36 | Susmed An app which takes user data, puts it through an algorithm, and then provides advice for fixing patient's… | $880K | 111 mo ago | 34 | Taro Ueno CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+16 | Top 5M | 26 patents Digital therapeutic platforms for mental health and sleep disorder management | — |
| 37 | exiii Provider of gloves with haptic feedback | $750K | 98 mo ago | 3 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 38 | Melody International Provider of device and cloud-based app for fetal monitoring | $743K | 30 mo ago | — | Keiji Ninomiya Co-Founder | — | — | — | — |
| 39 | Octa Robotics Provider of software solution for robots to communicate with infrastructure | $692K | 44 mo ago | — | Koji Maekawa Co-Founder | — | — | 8 patents Autonomous mobile robot navigation and traffic management for warehouse logistics | — |
| 40 | Mari Device for sleep disorder management | $666K | 27 mo ago | 13 | Hirofumi Taki Founder & CEO | STUDIOFirebaseNode.js+9 | Top 50M | 21 patents Non‑invasive acoustic and sensor systems for detecting and treating sleep apnea and cardiovascular disorders | — |
| 41 | Quantum Core Provider of reservoir computing solutions for time-series data analysis | $353K | 83 mo ago | 5 | Akiyoshi Shingo CEO | TypeScriptZone.jsAngular+12 | Top 10M | — | — |
Top 12 Internet of Things - Industry Applications companies in Japan
#1
Series B · Chuo, Tokyo · founded 2019 · 37 employees$28Mraised▾
Developer of energy-efficient AI processors, accelerators, modules, cards, and systems. The company offers a software platform facilitating AI inference across heterogeneous systems. Its technology includes a reconfigurable, highly-parallelized architecture. The company's products handle vision tasks and large language models in low-power environments.
- Apr 2026Series B—
- Nov 2025Series B$110M
- Aug 2025Series B—
- Jun 2025Grant (prize money)$21M
#2
Series A · Chiyoda City, Tokyo · founded 2015 · 74 employees$23.6Mraised▾
Idein is a technology company that designs and develops machine learning models, applications, inference speed acceleration solutions, among others. Its chief offering is an IoT platform, also known as Atcast, which links events and data in the physical world to the web with deep learning inference on the edge devices. Partners include AJIS, DNP, TechShare, Oton Glass, Data Strategy, among others.
- Jul 2025Series A—
- Aug 2019Series A$7.8M
- Jul 2017Series A$15.8M
#3
Series A · Tokyo, Tokyo · founded 2022$3.1Mraised▾
Developer of RF-on-glass technology integrated with AI for millimeter wave connections. This technology aims to provide fast, uninterrupted millimeter wave connections. It addresses challenges associated with millimeter wave networks, such as coverage gaps. The technology distributes millimeter wave signals, enhancing network reliability.
- Feb 2026Series A—
- Sep 2024Series A$3.1M
#4
Series A · Uji, Kyoto · founded 2015 · 22 employees$11.1Mraised▾
Provider of drone-based atmospheric measurement equipment. It has developed a lidar that measures wind information in the sky and the ocean using remote sensing technology and signal processing technology. It helps users to understand, visualize, and control the wind conditions in the city and sky.
- Jul 2025Series A$5.7M
- Oct 2023Series A$1M
- Aug 2023Series A$2.5M
- Apr 2022Series A$5.6M
#5
Series A · Yokohama, Kanagawa · founded 2021 · 5 employees$6.4Mraised▾
Manufacturer of smart rings designed to monitor and analyze sleep. The rings utilize sensors to gather data related to heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and body temperature. Acquired data is analyzed to provide insights into sleep patterns and potential health concerns. The company also develops mobile applications for data presentation and analysis.
- Sep 2025Conventional Debt—
- Jun 2024Series A$5.6M
- Nov 2021Seed$877.6K
#6
Series B · Bunkyo, Tokyo · founded 2017 · 8 employees$4.6Mraised▾
Provider of AI and cloud-based monitoring solutions for photovoltaic plants. It provides a PPLC sensor that collects data from panels and a PPLC gateway that communicates with the PPLC cloud. The PPLC cloud automatically located abnormal behavior using an AI engine.
- Apr 2025Series B$9M
- Mar 2024Series B—
- Aug 2021Series A$4.6M
#7
Series D · Shinagawa, Tokyo · founded 2012 · 300 employees$62.5Mraised▾
Developer of wheelchairs for orthopedic support. It has developed personal electric vehicles with innovative design and state-of-the-art technology for personal mobility. It provides a device that is compact in size, has intuitive controls, wheels with Bluetooth controls, and 3G connectivity. The device can be connected to the mobile app remotely and users can access key device information and battery health to ensure the device is operating at its best. Using the device, users can charge their phones and provide voice notification alerts when it encounters operational errors. It has an anti-sway feature that helps keep the device driving in a straight line on side slopes. The device contains electromagnetic brakes that provide a safe stopping on inclines. It has also developed a device that contains a power sliding seat that allows users to pull right up to tables and desks and slide forward to a comfortable position.
- Jun 2024Series D$45M
- May 2022Series C—
- Sep 2018Series C$45M
- Jun 2016Series B$17.5M
#8
Series B · Kyoto, Kyoto · founded 2014 · 15 employees$1.8Mraised▾
Provider of smart home control systems. It offers a wood-based smart home control hub. It lets users monitor and control their smart home appliances remotely.
- Aug 2025Series B—
- Oct 2019Seed$1.8M
#9
Series C · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2018 · 19 employees$16.8Mraised▾
TechMagic specializes in developing AI-based food cooking robots. Its offerings include AI cooking robot and AI automation robot. The robots have features such as ordering automation, payment automation, cooking automation, automated waiting, and much more.
- Mar 2024Series C$16.8M
- Oct 2019Seed—
#10
Series B · Chiyoda City, Tokyo · founded 2004 · 100 employees$21Mraised▾
Provider of GX solutions, energy trading, and renewable energy platforms. They offer solutions to accelerate decarbonization for regions and businesses. The company provides a platform for circulating renewable energy. It also shares information through its original media regarding carbon neutrality.
- Aug 2023Series B$21M
#11
Public · Minato City, Tokyo · founded 2014 · 176 employees$52.6Mraised▾
Provider of cloud-based access control systems. It develops smart access control and management solutions for residential and commercial buildings. Its chief offering is a retrofit lock that fits over the inside thumb-turn lock of the door, which engages the deadbolt, and is held in place with adhesive. Its business offering comes with compatibility for NFC-embedded cards. This version connects to the internet through a unit installed near the door, which allows sharing of keys via social media platforms like LINE, Facebook, or text/email. These locks integrate with the administration portal, which is a web service that grants users various access privileges, as well allows setting up and control locks remotely.
- Jul 2021Series C$15.8M
- Aug 2020Series C$33M
- May 2018Series A—
- Sep 2015Series A$3.8M
#12
Series B · Kyoto, Kyoto · founded 2009 · 123 employees$46Mraised▾
Provider of IoT-enabled customer engagement solutions for retail industries. Its offering includes AI-powered beacons and an analytics platform. It provides online-to-offline marketing solutions to identify consumers, utilises data to entice and advertise on-shop. It also provides in-store analysis, and store visit measurement.
- Jan 2022Series B$25.2M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Internet of Things - Industry Applications coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Internet of Things is moving in Japan
A read on the academic research around Internet of Things — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 760 Japan-affiliated papers.
- Asia University47
- Korea University40
- The University of Tokyo35
- Tohoku University30
- Keio University29
- Wireless sensor network14→56
- Wireless2→41
- Computer network5→35
- Computer security2→29
- Scalability2→24
- Wireless2→44
- Wireless sensor network9→47
- Embedded system1→23
- Computer security3→24
- Computer network6→21
- Computer security1→9
- Smart city1→7
- World Wide Web1→5
- Wireless3→4
Where iot is researched across Japan
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing iot patents in Japan
Japan iot patent filing is cooling — 62,262 filings from 8,000 assignees (2016–2025), led by SONY, NEC, NTT Docomo; annual filings 5918→4965.
- SONY9988
- NEC9149
- NTT Docomo8379
- Fujitsu6174
- Canon KK5769
- Toyota3960
- Sharp KK3912
- Kyocera3238
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.