Organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, this program matches startups with issues facing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and supports startups in solving issues facing the Tokyo Metropolitan Government while also helping them with pilot projects and developing strategies for expanding sales channels."King Salmon Project"So far, five startups have been selected and are conducting demonstration experiments in administrative offices in Tokyo.

Starting from Tokyo, this project aims to produce "King Salmon" companies that will grow into world-famous unicorn companies and eventually become a catalyst for nurturing the next generation of startups in Tokyo. What kind of companies and with what kind of partners are they collaborating to develop their businesses?

TOMORUBA will introduce examples of initiatives. The first one we will look at is an initiative by iPresence, a startup selected in the 1th phase of the King Salmon Project, and Bunkyo Ward. In order to establish a new model of working style using the telepresence avatar robot provided by iPresence, they conducted a demonstration experiment for about one month from January to February 5. What were the responses and results they gained from the experiment, and what are their prospects for the future?

We spoke with Fujinaga Haruto, Chief Brand Officer and Head of Sales at iPresence, and Uchimiya Junichi, Section Chief of the Economic Affairs Division of the Bunkyo Ward Resident Affairs Department, with which iPresence is collaborating.

Aiming to promote remote work for managers, the company is conducting a demonstration experiment of "pseudo teleportation"

-First, please tell us about iPresence's business overview.

iPresence・Fujinaga:　iPresence provides "Telepresence Avatar Robots (hereafter, Telerobots)" that communicate in real time with people in distant places through robot avatars. It may be easier to imagine Telerobots as a videoconferencing tool that combines robots and remote control.

The concept of iPresence is Teleportation as a Service, or TaaS for short. TaaS provides an immersive remote experience by controlling and managing telerobots with a unique application provided by iPresence and linking them with digital twins.

In other words, our mission is to provide various values ​​such as revitalizing communication with remote locations by enabling "pseudo teleportation" and giving users the feeling that they are actually there. Currently, it is being used in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, service, tourism, universities, research institutes, and education.

However, the immediate issue was that "a certain level of IT skills are required to operate and manage telerobots, making their use somewhat difficult." Therefore, the purpose of participating in the King Salmon Project was to strengthen the service provision scheme, including customer success and operation methods in fields where there are no dedicated administrators.