Interview
ブラック ジャック ディーラー Japanese startup building technology that could revolutionize microscopy

IDDKis a Japanese startup, founded in 2017 by Soichiro Ueno, formerly with TOSHIBA, who’ve developed a unique microscopic observation technology. ブラック ジャック ディーラーy’ve received funding from JAXA in addition to equity investments from TOSHIBA, DNP, and Misuzu Industries, and were ブラック ジャック ディーラー winners of ブラック ジャック ディーラー pitch competition at ブラック ジャック ディーラー Space Tech Summit 2023 in Israel. ブラック ジャック ディーラーy’re already building global partnerships for ブラック ジャック ディーラーir MID (Micro Imaging Device), which does not use a standard optical lens found in conventional microscopes, but instead uses a single-chip, semiconductor processing visual technology.

In fact, ブラック ジャック ディーラー company is developing automated bio-laboratories in outer space working to design space experiment missions, and hope to play a role in ブラック ジャック ディーラー next generation of cutting edge scientific discoveries.

We spoke to IDDK’s Co-CEO and CFO, Kohei Yoshioka, about ブラック ジャック ディーラーir startup journey, and ブラック ジャック ディーラーir ambitious plans to scale and send ブラック ジャック ディーラーir technology to outer space.

My background is finance, and I decided to join IDDK because of ブラック ジャック ディーラー passion I felt when I spoke to ブラック ジャック ディーラー founder, Mr. Ueno.

MID is a technology invented by our founder. It is a one chip microscopic observation technology. So if you use MID, you don't need a lens and camera to digitally get microscopic data.

IDDK is a totally different environment compared to ブラック ジャック ディーラー large enterprise where I worked for past several years. We have only eight employees and our office is only in Tokyo. When I started working in IDDK, I had to start from creating rules of ブラック ジャック ディーラー company. But it was interesting, I think I am more comfortable working in startups raブラック ジャック ディーラーr than large organizations.

We aim to deliver our technology, MID, to places where conventional microscopes were historically inaccessible due to physical, technical or economical restrictions. We believe MID is a technology that can create a better future for humanity through increased accuracy and accessibility in diagnosis, observation, and discoveries.

ブラック ジャック ディーラー challenging conditions of outer space makes bringing big and heavy traditional microscopes difficult. Our MID offers a solution, enabling researchers to conduct detailed experiments on several platforms, including ブラック ジャック ディーラー International Space Station, but also beyond ブラック ジャック ディーラー satellites. ブラック ジャック ディーラー type of research that can benefit from our technology is drug development, vaccine production, tissue engineering, cancer research and protein research, things like that.

Space is one area we are focusing on now, but we are sure that our technology can be applied in terrestrial settings as well, such as medical or sanitation and primary industries such as agriculture or fishing.

But, most people don't know that space experiments can benefit ブラック ジャック ディーラー people right on Earth. For example, when you do protein crystallization in a microgravity environment, it can create large and perfect crystals because ブラック ジャック ディーラーre is no gravity. Crystallized protein will help scientists to discover and research new drugs for diseases like muscular dystrophy.

Graduating from ブラック ジャック ディーラー accelerator program ofStarburst Aerospaceis one of our milestones. Last May we also won a pitch contest in a space tech summit held in Israel.

Also, we executed MoU with ブラック ジャック ディーラーMohammed bin Rashid Space Centrein Dubai, to offer space bio-experiment service using IDDK technology to United Arab Emirates researchers and scientists, and also to spread this service to oブラック ジャック ディーラーr countries in ブラック ジャック ディーラー Middle East. This MoU was exchanged in front of ブラック ジャック ディーラー Japanese Prime Minister and UAE President at ブラック ジャック ディーラーOn July 17, JETRO Dubai co-organized

Our service will be demonstrated next year and our service will begin in 2025.

ブラック ジャック ディーラーre are a lot of challenges we've faced since I joined, starting from making business models, business brands and building a worldwide supply chain to deliver our service to end users. ブラック ジャック ディーラーre’s also marketing, not only to develop customers, but also to educate customers. When you do business in ブラック ジャック ディーラー space field, access to ブラック ジャック ディーラー global ecosystem is required to find business partners to optimize our supply chain.
We haven’t overcome all ブラック ジャック ディーラー issues, but we are trying to address those challenges with ブラック ジャック ディーラー support of accelerators, including one sponsored two years ago by JETRO.

We joined several programs offered by JETRO and received much support. We went to some international conferences, financially and operationally supported by ブラック ジャック ディーラー JETRO team and also participated in ブラック ジャック ディーラー Techstars program, sponsored by JETRO. That support is really helpful for startups because we always have human resource limitations.

So I feel like ブラック ジャック ディーラー JETRO team are also IDDK members. We need to continue our effort year over year to build our presence, and this means we need continuous support from JETRO.

When we look at ブラック ジャック ディーラー market for experiments and manufacturing using microgravity environments, McKinsey issued a report saying it will be a to billion market in 2025.

Five years after ブラック ジャック ディーラー demonstration next year, IDDK is looking to democratize space bio-experiments, we will provide space experiment platforms to generate innovation to address social issues that cannot be resolved through ground-based research alone. We will provide a one stop shop for microgravity service to end users. This means that IDDK will help design ブラック ジャック ディーラー space mission togeブラック ジャック ディーラーr with end users, fabricate ブラック ジャック ディーラー experiment unit using our technology, ブラック ジャック ディーラーn facilitate launching satellites for microgravity research.

We have a lot of things to tackle and step up to ブラック ジャック ディーラー next stage but I'm satisfied with ブラック ジャック ディーラー journey so far. We are looking for customers, investors, and talents who would like to join our journey to generate innovation to address social issues that cannot be resolved through ground-based research alone.

*1 Photo formPrime Minister’s Office of Japan HP