This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
Three Press Releases from PR TIMES, Vol. 3
Continuing the series. This week's three:
- shizai raises 500 million yen in Series A; total funding reaches 620 million yen
- FromTo (which operates 47pass) raises 60 million yen from CyberAgent Capital
- relay (business succession matching platform) appoints former ANA CIO as advisor
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1. shizai: DX for Packaging, With a Sustainability Angle
shizai operates a product that supports D2C and e-commerce companies across their entire back-end: custom packaging creation, warehouse selection, and procurement operations management. The new funding will accelerate hiring, marketing, and product development.
Alongside the fundraising, shizai established a corporate vision centered on two parallel goals: DX for legacy industries, and contributing to a sustainable society.
The sustainability angle isn't just framing. shizai is actively helping e-commerce companies transition their packaging materials from plastic to paper. Any single company making this change has limited environmental impact. But if shizai's platform is facilitating this transition across hundreds of D2C brands simultaneously, the aggregate effect becomes significant.
What I find compelling here is the combination of operational value (the platform genuinely helps companies run their logistics more efficiently) with sustainability impact (the material transition). These are usually presented as trade-offs. shizai's bet is that they can be pursued simultaneously.
2. 47pass: Using Government Pilot Programs as a Distribution Channel
FromTo raised 60 million yen from CyberAgent Capital and others to expand 47pass—a platform that connects companies seeking regional market entry with relevant municipal government pilot programs across Japan's 47 prefectures.
The insight behind 47pass is that local governments regularly run proof-of-concept programs for new technologies and services, but these programs are hard for companies to discover and navigate. 47pass creates a structured discovery and application layer. Companies get access to local pilots; municipalities get private-sector participation in their programs. Both sides benefit.
COVID accelerated interest in regional business models—side jobs, regional secondment programs, and rural-to-urban talent flows all increased. 47pass takes a different angle: it connects decision-makers at companies with local government stakeholders who have actual authority and programs to offer. Connecting people with real power on both sides, rather than just matching workers with opportunities, is a different and potentially more durable model.
3. relay: Business Succession Meets Operations Expertise
relay is a matching platform for business succession—connecting business owners who are looking to pass on their companies with potential successors. The company appointed Takanori Yukishige (former ANA CIO, now CEO of Nagasaki Airport Building) as an advisor.
The succession problem in Japan is real and large. A significant share of small and medium businesses close not because they're unprofitable but because owners can't find qualified successors. Platforms that can efficiently match sellers and buyers serve a genuine social function.
What interests me about this appointment: the most important operational challenge for a matching platform isn't the matching algorithm—it's the process design around the match. Business succession involves due diligence, legal work, financing, and relationship building. Making that process smooth requires thinking about it the way an experienced operations leader thinks about complex workflows.
Yukishige's background in ANA—an organization where operational failures have severe consequences and processes are therefore designed with extreme care—is directly relevant. Platform reliability and process quality matter more in high-stakes domains like business succession than in lower-stakes matching.
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