Interview with Kenji Ota, Founder and CEO of CODE Meee Inc., a startup from Yokohama that is exhibiting at Techday New York in May.

Merging Aroma and Technology to present “Personalized Aromas.”

We began development on our products with a simple concept in mind: using aromas and technology to reduce stress. At TechDay New York this year we’re proud to be exhibiting “CODE Meee ONE,” a web-based service which utilizes AI and SNS in tandem to provide customers with personally optimized aromas. After online analysis, a specialized aromatic base is created for each customer. Optionally, if the customer so desires, we can also perform text data mining on the user’s Twitter feed through IBM’s Watson AI, running original algorithms on the retrieved data to recommend aromas adapted to the user’s determined personality traits or stressors. We offer over 3000 patterns of these customized aromas to our customers through a subscription delivery service. Our connection with IBM was established when we were selected to participate in the IBM BlueHub program last year, a program IBM started to create innovation by partnering with startups.

While often confused with perfumes, our products are intended to benefit and refresh the users themselves. Suggested usages include application to the neck to relax before a big presentation, or to a pillow before sleeping. Comments we received from our test marketing included “My presentation went really well after using this product,” and reports of reduced cigarette usage from our testers.

“We want the world to know just how interesting startups from Japan can be.”

This TechDay will be my first time exhibiting internationally. We want the world to know just how interesting startups from Japan can be, and our goal is to raise that awareness. Most aroma products use foreign-sourced natural essential oils, but ours are made with local Japanese natural essential oils. In the future we’re hoping to ship internationally with the label “Made in Japan.”

We already have actual results from our B2B aroma service. Last year, we were chosen for Batch 1 of Plug and Play Japan’s acceleration program, and we received great results from test marketing our office space aroma branding, so we aim to further development of that service in the future as well.

Interviewed on April 10, 2019.