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2025.7.28 Mon
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UOsaka Startups, Alpha Fusion Inc. & Thinker Inc. Selected for 2025 Innovation Showcase at Japan-U.S. Innovation Awards

Alpha Fusion Inc. and Thinker Inc., both startup companies originating from the University of Osaka, have been simultaneously selected for the 2025 Innovation Showcase at the Japan-U.S. Innovation Awards, co-hosted by Stanford University and the Japan Society of Northern California.

For more details, click here.

Comment from Prof. FUJIO Yasushi, Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Co-Creation

The University of Osaka has been further developing its university-industry collaboration, which boasts top-tier achievements in Japan, to serve as a hub for packaging and socially applying underrated cutting-edge technologies from large and medium-sized companies, thereby transforming the industrial and social structures.
The two startups selected this time are pioneers of this strategy and are excellent examples of university-based startups that are challenging themselves to create new values and commercialize their technologies through joint research and technical collaboration between the universities and industry.

Alpha Fusion Inc. is responsible for the social application of astatine (At-211) drug discovery, aiming to bring about a “paradigm shift in cancer treatment” by providing a new treatment for advanced, intractable cancers in a safe, easily accessible manner and can also be administered through outpatient care. Thinker Inc. utilizes “proximity sensors” as its core technology to develop robotic hands that can grasp objects like human fingers. The company aims to enhance the competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing by increasing production efficiency in manufacturing lines at medium-sized companies that have never used robots before.

Both companies emerged from UOsaka’s outstanding research and are brilliant startups with an eye on solving social issues. This award is also a recognition that UOsaka's research and the businesses born there have an impact and contribute to the world; therefore, we will continue to deepen our research across the university while focusing on creating and nurturing startup companies that will follow in the footsteps of these two companies.

Support for startup creation at the University of Osaka

On top of our wholly owned subsidiary Osaka University Capital Co., Ltd. (OUVC), we work to support the creation of and fundraising for startups together with more than 30 affiliated venture capital firms. In addition, as part of our pre-incubation program, we implement the GAP Fund (Social Application Support Grant, KSAC-GAP Fund Program by Kansai Startup Academia Coalition, a project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and UOsaka Exclusive GAP Fund in collaboration with Resona Bank) to back up the discovery of promising research seeds.

The number of venture businesses originating from the University of Osaka increased approximately 2.25 times from 117 in FY2016 to 263 in FY2023. The University of Osaka topped in the incremental number of venture businesses from the previous fiscal year in the FY2023 Survey on University-Developed Venture Businesses conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

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