Zuken Inc. (Yokohama, Japan; President and Representative Director: Makoto Kaneko; hereafter, “Zuken”) has entered into a capital and business partnership with Ghelia (Taito-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Ryo Shimizu, hereafter, “Ghelia”), a start-up company that strives to achieve “Symbiosis of Humanity and A.I.” through the pursuit of cutting-edge research and development into AI technologies and the social application of such, with Ghelia allocating a third-party share issuance to Zuken.
<Purpose of this capital and business partnership>
The Zuken Group has contributed to innovations in new product development and in the engineering chain led by clients in the manufacturing field, providing a broad range of solutions and services delivering automation and streamlining within a wide range of manufacturing fields, focusing on electronics and electrical (E/E) design.
Innovations in communications, networking and other recent technologies have greatly increased the sophistication and complexity of manufacturing processes. Conversely, the decrease in the number of experienced technical engineers has made environmental improvements intended at boosting the productivity of each individual engineer, and to allow engineers to focus their efforts on highly creative pursuits to provide added value, an issue of urgent concern. The Zuken Group sees the application of AI technologies as key to resolving these issues faced by the manufacturing industry, and is currently working on the application of several of these solutions. These initiatives include product development efforts that apply the natural language analysis technology using Ghelia’s deep learning technologies (
related press release available via Zuken PreSight). Zuken and Ghelia saw the importance of going beyond a simple collaborative relationship on an individual product development project basis to mutually sharing development roadmaps for the mid- to long-term, simultaneously training human resources to be proficient in AI while maintaining a deep insight into the issues facing the manufacturing industry through personnel exchanges between the two companies. This framework was introduced in order to effectively apply learnings in the field of AI – a highly specialized field for which technology continues to advance at a breakneck pace – to products intended for the manufacturing industry in a timely manner. This capital and business partnership was established to further strengthen this collaborative relationship.
Areas of development to be pursued further by both companies in light of this capital and business partnership are set to be revealed at “Zuken Innovation World 2019” (The Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu) held on October 17 and 18 as part of a presentation given by Ghelia on “Future electrical design emerging from the actual use cases of AI which is gaining momentum of social implementation” (October 17, 1B4).
<Comments from both companies>
Ryo Shimizu, President and CEO of Ghelia Inc.
For a company that aims to achieve “Symbiosis of Humanity and A.I.”, it brings us great joy to work alongside our shareholder, Zuken, in further expanding the area in which our cutting-edge AI technologies can contribute, such as by helping resolve issues seen in the electric system CAD/EDA field, improving service value and other such areas.
Ghelia will work with all shareholders to strongly advance the implementation of AI in society to help enrich the lives of all.
Jinya Katsube, COO and Representative Director, Zuken Inc.
Ghelia’s high level of expertise with regard to AI technologies, and its array of personnel with experience in electronics product development, together with the company’s track record in this area, greatly impressed us at Zuken. This capital and business partnership with Ghelia is sure to prove greatly significant as Zuken explores new avenues for AI-driven solution development. I firmly believe that this collaboration between the two companies will produce solutions that will lead to process innovations among our clients in the manufacturing industry.
About Ghelia (https://ghelia.com)
Ghelia was founded in June 2017 by UEI Corporation, Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc. and WiL LLC. Striving for the “Symbiosis of Humanity and A.I.”, Ghelia is involved in the development of integrated platforms, including operating systems and hardware, that put cutting-edge deep learning technology at people’s fingertips.
Address : 4-19-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan
President and CEO : Ryo Shimizu
Founding : June 30, 2017
Business activities : Development and provision of general AI solutions
[For inquiries on this matter, please contact]
Mamoru Hirayama, Corporate Marketing Div. (CMD), Zuken Inc.
Tel: 045-942-1511