Phoenixi is hosting the Cohort 11 Showcase of its Incubation Program at toberu, a Kyoto-based residential incubator for corporate intrapreneurs and social entrepreneurs. The Showcase is a final pitch and networking event, where Cohort 11 Fellows present the impact-driven business ideas they developed over the past four months at toberu.
A Q&A and networking session will follow. During this time, both judges and all attendees will cast their votes to determine the 🥇🥈🥉 medal recipients. The voting criteria:
- Attendess: Their support for the venture’s success | Social impact
- Judges: Their support for the venture’s success | Social impact | Business feasibility
Please register (required) and join us to discover how the new Fellows aim to challenge the status quo, what drives their work, and how together we can amplify their social impact!
📅 Thursday 17 September 2026
- 17:20 Doors open
- 17:45 Event begins | Remarks | Pitches
- 18:35 Q&A/Networking (with 🍺🧀) | Voting by all attendees & judges
- 19:40 Results announced | Judges’ comments
- 20:00 Event concludes: toberu closes
🗣️ Japanese & English (AI translation available)
- Free admission. 80 spots only (first registered, first served).
- No parking (car or bicycle) on-site.
- Please bring your business cards.
- Feel free to enter or leave at any time.
Speakers:
Opening remarks:
- Yutaka Iijima | COO & Executive Director, Phoenixi
- Katsunori Ishii | Executive Officer, Daikin Industries
- Taka Nakamura | Founder & CEO, taliki
- Francesco Ukon | Senior Finance Director, Diesel Japan | Contract Professor, Doshisha Business School
- Asli M. Colpan | Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Management | Outside Director of Kansai Paint and Sumitomo Electric Industries
Final pitches by Cohort 11 Fellows:
- Toshiyuki Yamada | Ajinomoto Co., Inc. | MitasuVege: one meal, a day’s worth of greens — freedom from “Gotta eat veggies!”
- Kaori Tada | Daikin Industries | AmPle: a platform for ambience place of hay fever
- SuKha | Fashion designer & icon | Something to Wear by SuKha Never Dies
- Yuya Ogawa | Founder & CEO, Noevis Inc. | Picopal: an Interactive Entertainment Platform for Neurodivergent Children
- Pandi Agnes | Doshisha Business School, Global MBA ’25 | Xplore!: a platform connecting tourists and local mobility providers
- Brian Roy Tan, PhD | Co-founder & CEO, Wisdom Approach Pte Ltd | Scam Protect: identification using elemental fingerprinting
Judges’ overall comments:
- Katsunori Ishii | Executive Officer, Daikin Industries
- Taka Nakamura | Founder & CEO, taliki
- Francesco Ukon | Senior Finance Director, Diesel Japan; Contract Professor, Doshisha Business School
- Asli M. Colpan | Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Management | Outside Director of Kansai Paint and Sumitomo Electric Industries
Closing remarks:
- Yukiko Hashitera | CEO & co-founder, Phoenixi
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About Phoenixi Co Ltd
Phoenixi operates a residential incubation program and a fund for program graduates to foster both business ideas that address social challenges and the entrepreneurial talent behind them. Program participants (Phoenixi Fellows) — including corporate employees, university faculty, students, and entrepreneurs — live for four months at the company’s facility “toberu”, where they engage in daily cross-sector interactions, startup-focused skill training, and personalized mentoring and coaching. Through this process, they develop new businesses that generate both profit and social impact. Founded in 2018 in Kyoto by CEO Yukiko Hashitera, Dr Sachiko Kuno, and Izumi Kobayashi, Phoenixi is built around the concepts of “creating corporate-born ventures” and “sharing unusual time and space.” Since its inception in 2019 and run by COO Yutaka Iijima, the company has supported a total of 13 cohorts and 96 Fellows (44 sponsored Fellows and 52 independent Fellows), with 31% women and 21% international participants.
