Table of Contents
What is HONGO AI?
The "HONGO AI 2021" is,Contest to recognize outstanding early-stage AI startupsIt is.
The company must be an early-stage start-up company utilizing AI technology (machine learning/deep running).
The total equity value must be less than 2 billion yen or the total amount of funds raised must be less than 500 million yen as of the most recent round.
The application requirements include the following
▶︎https://hongo.ai/
Final Selection and Awards Ceremony
On November 29, the finalists of "HONGO AI 2021" competed in a pitch contest among 14 finalists, and MENOU's CEO, Mr. Nishimoto, made a pitch.
In his final selection, Mr. Nishimoto said.Challenges of visual inspection in manufacturing"Features and strengths of products that can implement AI with no code"Future prospects for customers to develop and maintain their own AI so that they can work on DX themselves in the field.The pitch was made to the judges and the audience watching the simultaneous webcast.
After the 14 companies completed their pitches, MENOU was reviewed by experts from industry, government, and academia in terms of market growth, difficulty of imitating the technology, and the quality of the team.Received six awards, including the HONGO BEST AI AWARD, the grand prize.I did.
Awards List:
HONGO BEST AI AWARD
EY Japan Award
Softbank Prize
Tokio Marine Award
ITOCHU Prize
Viewer's Prize
Reasons for the Award and Past Initiatives
From the jury at the awarding of each prize,
I shared their vision of a world where everyone can use AI."
The team from the manufacturing industry is developing products quickly by picking up feedback from the inspection site."
We have already implemented the system for a number of clients, and we are quickly building a track record."
The comments were appreciative of these points.
MENOU Corporation enables integrated development of AI for visual inspectionDevelopment of MENOU-TE, a no-code AI visual inspection solutionSince its inception, the company has been introducing its products to a large number of companies.
MENOU-TE" is conducted by inspectorsAI that makes complex and sophisticated decisions can be developed without programmingTherefore, it is used for inspection of various materials such as metals, resins, and fibers in a wide range of industries such as automobile, electronics, food, and apparel.
From customers who have actually introduced the system,Highly rated for ease of understanding of user interface, easy and flexible development steps, and recognition accuracyhas been received.
■Comments from Mr. Tsugiteru Nishimoto, CEO and Representative Director of MENOU Co.
Thank you for the HONGO BEST AI AWARD and the other six awards.
We would like to thank our customers, partners, and everyone who has supported MENOU's progress to date for this award. We will continue to work together with our members to deliver products and services that encourage all people involved in manufacturing.
【【About MENOU Corporation]
An AI startup founded in 2019 as a spin-out of Nikon Corporation's engineers. The company is developing support for introduction of its proprietary high-speed AI inspection software to various industries. 2020 saw the release of MENOU-TE, which not only enables intuitive operation for annotation, but also provides an integrated development environment that enables file management and model management necessary for AI development in a single package. 2021 In March 2021, MENOU-TE was selected for the "Microsoft for Startups" program offered by Microsoft Corporation (headquarters: Washington, USA).
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