Jetro: Training and Matchmaking to Japanese Startups

A success case between

Meet our client Jetro

JETRO stands for Japan External Trade Organization, a Japanese government organization that works to promote trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

When it was born in 1958 its goal was to promote Japanese exports. However, it currently focuses its efforts on two areas: promoting foreign investment in Japan and maximizing the export potential of Japanese small and medium enterprises.

Jetro Needs: Prospecting, Methodology and Advice

In line with Jetro’s mission, Peninsula was in charge of developing the Japan Innovation Showcase Program with the aim of accompanying 20 Japanese startups in prospecting and market landing Spanish.

The program included four months of training with Lean Startup methodologies, mentoring and pitch preparation. The final outcome was in the framework of 4YFN – Four Years From Now , the biggest event of Networking and Matchmaking for startups worldwide under the umbrella of MWC- Mobile World Congress.

Solutions applied to Jetro Japanese Startups

• Face-to-face Lean Startup trainings (both in Tokyo and Barcelona) and virtual , with expert mentors who have helped them structure their business and give them projection to access new markets such as Spanish.
• Personalized Pitching advice for 9 Japanese startups selected to present their presentation at 4YFN.
• Generation of a total of more than 60 one2one meetings with potential partners, clients or investors in Barcelona, ​​according to the interest of each startup.
• Availability of an individual booth in 4YFN.
• Generation of tours to know the Barcelona entrepreneurial ecosystem with interesting visits.

We know the market and we know that the big companies are looking for a joint business and to be able to scale. Therefore, we reach out to Japanese startups, we analyze the business, what they do, how they do it or what their interests are to offer them networking with large companies. We help them prepare for the 4YFN event through talks about the importance of Corporate Venturing in order to know how they should generate synergies with contacts

Results of 4YFN

Visibility

20 Japanese startups received training and were introduced to the Barcelona ecosystem. Each of them obtained visibility, having a booth within the 4YFN Congress.

Pitch

9 startups, selected by the mentors, received additional training to pitch in the Agora Stage of 4YFN. These companies presented their pitches on the 26th from 4 to 6 p.m., the interest was great and filled the auditorium.

Matchmaking

Throughout the 4YFN Congress, 60 previously closed value meetings were held between Japanese startups and large companies such as Ferrovial, Roca, Sorigué, Seat or Suez. We must add about 200 visits to its stand Opening doors to negotiations and with the possibility of entering the national market.

How was the Japan Innovation ShowCase developed?

Japan Innovation Showcase is a program that brings together 20 Japanese startups from different sectors, but mostly from AI, HightTech, e-Health and Fintech who want to explore the Spanish market and assess the possibility of entering here.

In November, we started activities giving face-to-face training in Tokyo (you can read more about our experience with Jethro in Tokyo in this article). The mentoring was facilitated by 4 of our experts who traveled to the Japanese capital for that purpose. Subsequently, teams were formed and they continued to be trained virtually on our online campus.

The final stretch of so many months of preparation came when Japanese startups traveled to Barcelona on February 24-28 and participated in the 4YFN.

During their stay in Barcelona, ​​startups visited Canòdrom Parc de Recerca Creativa, carried out various Networking activities, meetings with corporates of their interest visited the Mobile World Congress as well as the reference hub at Pier01. The 9 startups chosen presented their startups at 4YFN , before the auditorium full of attendees, in an event that was energized by Pedro Olivares and had the influencer Un Gato Nipón, who narrated his stay in Japan, his impressions of the Japanese culture and the professional quality of the Japanese.

4YFN 2019 was the first time we participated in a startup event in Spain. We participated with 20 Japanese companies in this latest edition in which Península did a great job adapting its training program to each company that was at a different stage. We are also very grateful for the ability to call Pitching at the fair where Japanese companies achieved great success. Thank you very much again and we hope to collaborate again very soon

Japanese Startups that were part of the Japan Innovation Showcase

(*) Japanese Startup who presented his pitch on the Agora stage of 4YFN

From Peninsula we want to thank the trust placed by Jetro for this collaboration

The talent of the Japanese startups that arrived in Barcelona has been high-level and deserving of the entire audience they generated. Our knowledge about the ecosystem and mentoring methodologies makes this connection to our market possible. We are satisfied with the positive impact of this Matchmaking, both for startups and for local corporations.

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