Fostering Startups at Keio University

2022/09/08

On the morning of May 18, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun featured a major article titled "Keio Tops University-Launched Startups in METI FY2021 Survey." The body of the article continued as follows:

"The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's (METI) FY2021 survey revealed that 200 university-launched startups were newly established in one year, bringing the cumulative total to over 2,300. Keio University led the increase, with university-affiliated venture capital (VC) firms supporting the startups."

Emerging companies, previously referred to as "venture companies," have come to be called "startups" to distinguish them from small businesses that do not aim for growth or mature small-to-medium enterprises, implying an aim for rapid growth in a short period. The political and business worlds also have high expectations for startups as drivers of economic growth while solving social issues. On July 4, the government announced the appointment of a minister in charge of startup support, and the word "startup" is increasingly appearing in the news.

In the aforementioned METI "FY2021 Survey on University-Launched Ventures," the number of Keio University-launched ventures increased from 90 in the previous year to 175. This ranked first in the nation for the number of new additions and represented a significant leap from 10th to 5th place in terms of total number. In reality, this does not mean that 85 Keio University-launched ventures were born in a single year. Rather, in response to the METI survey, we conducted a thorough investigation following METI's broad definition of university-launched ventures—which includes joint research, technology transfer, student ventures, and related ventures, in addition to the narrow definition of research-result ventures previously tracked by Keio. As a result, startups established in previous years were added to the tally, increasing the total to 175.

To promote the social implementation of research results through startups, Keio University established Keio Innovation Initiative (KII) in December 2015 as a venture capital firm to support startup development in terms of funding and management. KII raises funds from external investors such as financial institutions and manages two investment funds totaling approximately 15 billion yen. It has invested in 40 startups that utilize the research results of universities in Japan and abroad, centered on Keio University, and has seen results such as three companies listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market.

There are two reasons why fostering startups is important for Keio University. The first is to pursue the ideal of being a leader of all society, which is The Mission of Keio University. It has been a tradition since the founding of Keio University to demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit, overcome difficulties, and pioneer new fields. Keio University has traditionally produced many business leaders for the economic world. In particular, during the dawn of the internet from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, many venture companies were born from Keio University, centered on SFC, and many of them have become industry leaders. To continue being a leader of all society, fostering startups as a university will become increasingly important.

The second reason is the change in social demands on universities. Traditionally, the social mission of a university was said to be education and research, but now there is a further requirement to contribute to society based on the results of that education and research. The 2007 amendment to the School Education Act also added a clause stating that the purpose of a university is to contribute to the development of society by providing the results of education and research widely to society. Consequently, the fostering of startups at universities is strongly demanded as one form of that social contribution.

There are two pillars to fostering startups at universities. One is entrepreneurship education, and the other is the fostering of research-based ventures.

Entrepreneurship education is not education aimed at immediately establishing a startup, but rather education to cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit—how to discover and solve problems amidst various constraints such as funding and resources. This is a long-term effort to build a population for startup support; if as many people as possible receive entrepreneurship education and even one in ten of them eventually establishes a startup, the number of startups will increase.

The fostering of research-based ventures is more direct. This is an initiative to support researchers in establishing startups, developing products and services, and commercializing them to solve social issues based on intellectual assets born at the university, such as patents and technical know-how. Specifically, we provide support for creating business plans, recruiting founding members, and fundraising, while also promoting joint research between the venture and the university for product development.

Until now, Keio University has provided a wide range of entrepreneurship education in each faculty and graduate school, but regarding the fostering of research-based ventures, the university was unable to provide a sufficient system and relied mainly on the self-help efforts of researchers. Based on the recognition that it is necessary to build a support system organizationally as a university, the Startup Division was established within the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Project Professor Nobuaki Shindo took office as the division head this March. Mr. Shindo has experience promoting open innovation with startups and academia after working in the R&D department of a major pharmaceutical company, making him well-suited to support the fostering of university-launched ventures. Currently, the Startup Division is recruiting practitioner-faculty members, aiming to build a dedicated system of four or five people by the end of the year.

We have received offers from many people, including the government, local municipalities, various organizations, private companies, and alumni, who wish to support Keio University's startup fostering, but until now, there was no single window for the Juku to receive them. Furthermore, we received feedback from researchers within Keio that they did not know where to go for advice when starting a business. Moving forward, the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will provide a one-stop response to proposals and consultations from both inside and outside the Juku, and by bringing together the strengths of Keio and beyond, we aim to rank among the top three universities nationwide in terms of the number of startups.