Designing The Future of Cross Border Innovation, Impact Makers’ Cross Talk INDIA- JAPAN


Seekers Base is a Tokyo based company, currently building a state of art IT platform that connects Entrepreneurs, Investors and other stakeholders, focusing on social impact. There are a lot of cultural and logistics differences between India & Japan that are involved in fostering collaboration between Indian and Japanese companies and our aim is to bridge these gaps.

We need to bring these partners onto the same platform, into the same room, for them to have a mini conversation and the goal for that conversation is not to just meet and greet, but to become a starting point for people to explore interest and then have the opportunity to follow up and foster real partnership and real investment and that’s why we organized this conference.

The conference started with a keynote opening remark and warm welcome address by Ms. Kayoko Tsuchiya,  CEO, Seekers Base.

We had different sessions and panel discussion at the conference. In the first session, Mr. Yoshihiko Ito from JETRO Innovation and Intellectual Property Department, Startup Support Division, and Mr. Sanjeev Sinha, President, India-Japan Partnership Fund Group talked about the “Now and future of Japan and India Business Relations”. Mr. Yoshihiko Ito talked about the JETRO’s achievement and their work in building and strengthening the Japan-India business relations.
Mr. Sanjeev Sinha talked about his journey in Japan for the past 23 years and his different approach and achievements toward enhancing the relationship between India and Japan by bringing in more partnership from both countries.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Jay Krishnan,  General Partner of Mantra Capitals, internationally known as the former CEO of India’s largest Incubation center, T-Hub talked about the startup ecosystem in India and highlighted some key factors why India is becoming the World’s leader in the startup and Investment sector. He also enlightened on some key characteristics needed to be an Entrepreneur. He presented some facts that compared Japanese companies operating in India to the other major countries in the world and interestingly, there are only 5% of  the Japanese company currently existing in India, which is a very less number and he thinks the number should be increased because it will not only increase co-creation, business and trade in India & Japan but at the same time it will help in strengthening the bilateral ties between both countries.

In the other session, Mr. Ken Shibusawa, Representative Director & CEO, Shiv Sawa & Co. Ltd., and Mr. Yoshiki Hashimoto, Investment Committee Member & Advisor, Aavishkaar talked about the “Learning the latest of Impact Investment from India”. Japanese audiences were impressed to learn the fact that India’s impact investment sector is very advanced and their significant track record in creating impact while generating financial returns.  

Speaking in the session, “Importance of Design in Sustainable Social Development”, Dr Pradyuman Vyas, Honorary Advisor at Seekers Base & Former Director, National Institute of Design and India Design Council talked about how design is helping to create more innovations in India. During his talk, he mainly talked about different aspects of India and how design can play a pivotal role in cross border innovation and sustainable social development. He enlightened on the SMART village concept and according to him, the SMART village means a village where SMART- Stability, Morality, Ability, Respectability & Tradability exists.

In this session, the announcement of Global Impact Design Fund and the release of its symbol mark was done jointly by the speakers, Ms. Kayoko Tsuchiya, Dr. Pradyuman Vyas and symbol designer Mr. Hiromi Inayoshi, the master artist, social designer & social Innovator. Global Impact Design Fund is to be established to fund social impact projects, the organizer plan to work with design organizations and send designers to curated social impact project as a form of investment. Global Impact Design Fund will be operated in partnership with global fund management partners.

In the other session, Ms Kayoko Tsuchiya, Mr Jay Krishnan, and Mr Hajime Suzuki, CEO, Wiredgate Inc., discussed “Future Vision of Cross Border Innovation”. In this session, Dr Ritesh Malik, Founder, Innov8, India’s 3rd largest co-working space, joined us through Internet call and he put forward his viewpoints on the Cross border innovation and its essence in today’s world. Mr. Hajime Suzuki explained about his initiative of Kibi Innovation Hill at Okayama and how his initiative can play a vital role in cross border innovation. Ms. Kayoko Tsuchiya gave a sneak preview of what Seeker Base new platform will look like.

In the final panel discussion for the day, Ms. Kayoko Tsuchiya, Dr. Pradyuman Vyas, Ms. Masako Ono, Founder of Mudra Foundation & Global Indian Classical Solo Odissi Dancer, and Mr. Yoshiyuki Morioka, CEO, Morioka Books discussed how collaborating and working with the inter-disciplinary people can help in creating innovation and achieving a sustainable society.

This conference topic is very appealing in today’s world,  the combination of  Social Impact Fund – Cross Border Innovation –  Social Development Design really fit the scope of what we want our future partnership should look like. More conference of this sort should be organized to enhance the cross border innovation and only then we can think of creating a better world for everyone.

Let’s unite and work for the sustainable and a better future for all!

P.S.- We are very thankful to everyone who was present at the conference and our special thanks to all the speakers who has traveled miles away to participate in this event. 

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