UMI completes collaborative partnership agreement with hide kasuga 1896 to achieve a circular economy

Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (UMI), a venture capital company specializing in the material and chemical industries, has completed a collaborative partnership agreement with hide kasuga 1896 (hk1896), which promotes the branding of production based on a circular economy. The goal of this agreement is to introduce design concepts and contribute to the creation of new innovations and new business in the material and chemical fields, in order to achieve a circular economy.

UMI’s investment activities targeting new technologies and business in the material and chemical fields will be combined with hk1896’s “Hide Kasuga Method,” an approach to production branding, to create globally competitive industry based on a circular economy originating in Japan.

Hideyuki Kasuga, CEO of hide kasuga 1896 (right) and Shosuke Kiba, Representative Director of Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (left)

Comment from Dr. Hideyuki Kasuga, CEO of hide kasuga 1896
Through collaborations with UMI, we will promote the branding of outstanding, cutting-edge Japanese materials, chemicals, and technologies, develop high added value Japanese products that apply these elements, and build a series of business schemes that will bring these products to global markets. We will also collaborate with UMI in achieving a circular society.

Comment from Shosuke Kiba, Representative Director of Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd.
There are many truly outstanding technologies and products in Japan’s material and chemical industries, but because design concepts have not yet been entrenched, there is considerable room for improvement in terms of communicating the attractiveness of those technologies and products to outside parties. By more effectively communicating to the world the attractiveness of the Japanese material and chemical industries using the Hide Kasuga Method, which has been cultivated by hide kasuga 1896, we hope to contribute to the realization of Japanese industry based on a circular economy.

hide kasuga 1896
https://www.hk1896.com/
Location：1-7-17 Motoakasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0051, Japan
Founder / CEO：Hideyuki Kasuga
Establish：2012
The hide kasuga group, for which hide kasuga 1896 is the core company, promotes the branding of various forms of Japanese production with a focus on platforms that combine sensibility and functions based on a circular economy. It also communicates “Reiwa Modernism,” a lifestyle approach that combines the old and the new, to achieve a circular society in the future.

Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (UMI)
https://www.umi.co.jp/en/
Location：1-12-22 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Representative Director: Shosuke Kiba
Establish：2015
UMI invests in outstanding new technologies and businesses in the fields of materials and chemicals that form the foundations for future industry, originating from both Japanese companies and academia, based on the vision of “Strengthening Japan’s engineering capabilities and cultivating an industry structure that can compete globally, by fostering outstanding material/chemical companies.”