The KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND Invests In MODE, Which Promotes On-site DX Globally With IoT Technology And Generative AI
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March 03, 2025
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
TOKYO, March 3, 2025 - Kirin Holdings Company, Limited (Kirin Holdings) announced today that it has invested in MODE, Inc. (MODE) through the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND (KHIF), a corporate venture capital (CVC) fund established jointly with Global Brain Corporation (Global Brain), a leading independent venture capital firm.
MODE is a start-up company that provides solutions to improve the quality of work by combining IoT technology with generative AI to transform real-time data from visualization to usability in increasingly complex on-site operations. The company offers BizStack, a solution-type IoT platform that accelerates on-site DX by collecting, storing, and utilizing data on people, things, and the environment, and BizStack Assistant, an AI assistant that grasps the current status of on-site operations. BizStack Assistant, an AI assistant that grasps the current status of the workplace, supports the streamlining and innovation of on-site operations.
In its long-term management concept Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV2027), the Kirin Group has identified "ICT to accelerate value creation" as one of the organizational capabilities to achieve innovation, and is continuously challenging new value creation through DX. Based on the company's medium- to long-term vision "to achieve a next-generation workplace environment where humans and AI work together," MODE aims to improve the efficiency of daily operations and solve the issues of human resource shortages by having AI agents work as a digital workforce in the future, with a deep understanding of the workplace. For the Kirin Group, which has many manufacturing sites around the world, promoting DX to improve operational efficiency is an important issue. By combining MODE's proprietary IoT technology and generative AI, the Kirin Group will explore the maximization of the value provided by MODE through the use of digital technology.
About MODE, Inc.
MODE is a startup company from Silicon Valley, U.S.A. that provides a solution-based IoT platform BizStack to accelerate DX in the workplace. MODE aims to realize a society that is one step ahead of the rest by bringing about a revolution in business through the penetration of on-site data utilization in various industries, especially in the manufacturing, distribution and construction industries. Based on the concept of "an AI assistant that knows best what is happening in the real world,” BizStack Assistant, announced by the company in June 2023, connects the generated AI and the real world via on-site data, and supports customers' business by asking questions in natural language and interacting with them in response to ever-changing on-site conditions. The AI Assistant supports customers' business operations by connecting the generated AI and real world through on-site data, asking questions in natural language and conducting dialogue according to ever-changing on-site conditions.
About the CVC Fund "KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND"
Through the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND, Kirin Holdings intends to invest in startups around the globe that have innovative technologies and business models for resolving health issues, and to leverage their advanced health science technologies and solutions for improving customer experience. By combining the Kirin Group’s wealth of assets and competence in health science with innovations and technologies that startups will bring to partnerships, Kirin Holdings will be better able to bolster its existing Food & Beverages domain as well as step up efforts to launch new businesses in its Health Science domain.
About Kirin Holdings
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited is an international company that operates in the Food & Beverages domain (Food & Beverages businesses), Pharmaceuticals domain (Pharmaceuticals businesses), and Health Science domain (Health Science business), both in Japan and across the globe.
Kirin Holdings can trace its roots to Japan Brewery which was established in 1885. Japan Brewery became Kirin Brewery in 1907. Since then, the company expanded its business with fermentation and biotechnology as its core technologies, and entered the pharmaceutical business in the 1980s, all of which continue to be global growth centers. In 2007, Kirin Holdings was established as a pure holding company and is currently focusing on boosting its Health Science domain.
Under the Kirin Group Vision 2027 (KV2027), a long-term management plan launched in 2019, the Kirin Group aims to become “A global leader in CSV* creating value across our world of Food & Beverages to Pharmaceuticals.” Going forward, the Kirin Group will continue to leverage its strengths to create both social and economic value through its businesses, with the aim of achieving sustainable growth in corporate value.
*Creating Shared Value. Combined added value for consumers as well as for society at large.
Company Overviews
⑴About the KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND
| Fund name |
KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND (registered as KIRIN and GB Investment Limited Partnership) |
|---|---|
| Primary sector for investment | Startups around the globe operating in the health science domain |
| Established | March 2020 |
| AUM | 5 billion yen |
| Investment period | 10 years |
| General partner | Global Brain Corporation |
⑵About Global Brain
| Company name | Global Brain Inc. |
|---|---|
| Head office | SHIBUYA AXSH 2-17-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002, JAPAN |
| President | Yasuhiko Yurimoto, President and Representative Director |
| Established | January 1998 |
| Primary business | Venture Capital Business |
| URL | https://globalbrains.com/ |
⑶About MODE
| Company Name | MODE, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Location | 1840 Gateway Dr. Suite 250 San Mateo, CA 94404 USA |
| Representative | Gaku Ueda, CEO |
| Establishment | July 2014 |
| Primary business | Provision of sensor platforms and related software services |
| URL | https://www.tinkermode.jp |
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KIRIN HEALTH INNOVATION FUND