On May 2nd, 2019, the City of Yokohama hosted a booth at TechDay New York, the largest startup event in the US.
This year’s annual TechDay was the busiest to date, with over 20,000 attendees registered to see the 300+ startups exhibiting in the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Among those 300 were three startups from Yokohama, Japan exhibiting at the City of Yokohama’s booth. Located near the center of the enormous convention floor, these three companies were in a prime position to display their ideas and products to the TechDay attendees.
In cooperation with JETRO, the City of Yokohama hosted Ms. Tsuchiya of ICON, Ms. Sakamoto of M.I-Story, and Mr. Ota of CODE Meee, and other members of their startup companies, who flew to New York from Yokohama to participate in TechDay.
In addition to their time spent exhibiting their products and samples at the City of Yokohama’s booth, each entrepreneur also participated in a special “Investor’s Session” hosted by JETRO, where they pitched their companies to investors.
TechDay proved an invaluable experience for these startups, providing them with market testing, direct feedback from American consumers and investors, and powerful connections for when they reach the stage to begin international expansion of sales channels.
TechDay attendees enjoyed hands-on interaction with the products on exhibit: M.I-Story’s unique “Hammock Pillow,” a pillow that reduces shoulder and neck tension by supporting the head in the air; CODE Meee’s all-natural, refreshing, and personalized aromas customized by AI and SNS; and ICON’s cute and colorful “KUMIITA,” a robot toy and tile set developed to teach young children about real programming and coding concepts from as young as 7 months old.
In addition to these three startup companies and entrepreneurs, product samples from Yokohama-based cosmetics startup mayunowa‘s line of silk-based facial brushes and researchers from Fuji Xerox’s Palo Alto Laboratory research lab in Northern California graced the City of Yokohama booth.
ICON – KUMIITA robot
M.I-Story – Hammock Pillow
CODE Meee – Personalized aromas (CODE Meee ONE)
mayunowa – Sustainabeauty by Silk
Learn more:
Innovation in Yokohama
