[No. 129] Masaya Takada

Hello. My name is Masaya Takada, and I am a graduate of the Makabe Laboratory in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at the Faculty of Science and Technology. I currently work for a company called V-cube, Inc. (hereafter, V-cube). V-cube was founded in October 1998 by its president, who was a student at Keio University at the time. I was introduced to V-cube by a friend during my student years and joined the team. V-cube has continued to grow since then, and on July 22, 2015, it became a company listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

When I was a student at Keio University, it was the height of the IT bubble, a time when the internet was rapidly spreading throughout the world. Against this backdrop, V-cube members taught themselves website creation and management skills, taking on orders to produce websites for companies and organizations with the speed and affordability that only students could offer.

At the time, V-cube's members were mainly students from Keio University. Since the president was from the Faculty of Science and Technology, there was a relatively large number of students from that faculty, but students from various other faculties also gathered. Upon graduating from their undergraduate or graduate programs, many members went on to work for large corporations, and I was one of them, although the president continued the V-cube business.

After completing graduate school, I joined Hitachi, Ltd. to enhance my IT knowledge and was assigned to the Advanced Middleware Development Department. There, I learned the fundamentals of software development and gained experience in design and development work. However, shortly after joining, the president of V-cube invited me back, saying, "I want to expand the company, so why don't you come back?" Although my time at Hitachi was very short—only a year and a half—I decided to return to V-cube and take on a new challenge.

From its inception, V-cube had the capability to develop software. While its business was mainly focused on contract development, we decided to "develop software as our own product and sell it ourselves," gradually shifting our business domain. Then, in May 2004, we established a new company to plan, produce, and sell our own services, and began full-scale service operations.

Since then, the company has repeatedly raised funds from operating companies and venture capital, invested in the business, and raised more funds, thereby expanding the business scale and building a revenue base. To enhance V-cube's social credibility and further expand and accelerate its business scale, we were newly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on December 10, 2013, and then moved to the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange approximately a year and a half later, on July 22, 2015.

The V-cube Group currently provides visual communication services. With the vision of becoming the "No. 1 visual communication platform in Asia," we are promoting our services on a global level, with offices not only in Japan but also in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and other locations. The services provided by V-cube are used in various fields, including not only meetings and training but also education, healthcare, nursing care, disaster response, fieldwork, and teleworking. They contribute to the realization of a richer communication society by freeing people from the constraints of time and distance.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Toshiaki Makabe, who is now a Vice-President of Keio University. As a student, I was more absorbed in the student venture business than in my research, and I was likely a maverick in the laboratory. Nevertheless, he accepted me until I completed my graduate studies and provided me with strict guidance.

It goes without saying that the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology provides advanced, cutting-edge education. But beyond that, everyone who gathers here—the professors, senior students, peers, and junior students—is outstanding, and the faculty has produced many individuals who are active on the front lines in various fields. Why not enroll in the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology and challenge your own potential?