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Harnessing Global Talent Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd. IP
Website: Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd.
Category: IoT and Software
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Sekai Lab promotes diversity through high tech partnerships
“Sekai” is the Japanese word for “world,” and it’s clearly an idea that Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd. takes to heart. The software development company already has 11 offices in 6 countries around the world, and its main office in Tokyo boasts a multinational workforce with employees from 13 countries. The company’s managers see diversity as the key to developing their outsourcing services.
Sekai Lab is a global outsourcing company that provides services for a wide range of technical applications. However, the firm’s founder and CEO Hiroki Inagawa says his corporate mission is to “create a platform for diversity.”
Website of Sekai Lab, courtesy of Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd.
“That has two meanings,” he says. “One is to support individuals or small clients externally. But also internally, by having many people from different backgrounds here, we can have innovative ideas or develop something new that nobody thought of.”
Inagawa’s interest in diversity launched Monstar Lab, a digital music services provider for promoting independent music that was launched in 2006, and for which he holds a patent. Sekai Lab came about in 2013 with the goal of connecting Japanese clients and developers in developing countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
“I realized there are many good IT development centers in Southeast Asia,” he says. “So when I started Sekai Lab two years ago, my idea was to connect Japanese clients with existing development companies. Sekai Lab is a platform connecting Japanese or international clients with developers around the world.”
“Those countries have a lot of talented engineers, but there aren’t many jobs there,” adds Shunsuke Nakajima, Sekai Lab’s senior sales manager for North America. “By connecting Japanese clients with developers in those countries, we can help them broaden their talents.*
Strength of Sekai Lab, courtesy of Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd.
A Global Development Partner
The strength of Sekai Lab’s service is in product development. The firm acts as a partner, connecting developers with skilled and affordable software engineering teams in other countries. Past project areas have included e-commerce systems, music and video streaming services, education systems, games, e-book projects and portals for sales and promotion. A Sekai Lab partner even won a Gold Award at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival.
“We have approximately 500 engineers in house, and our platform holds about 100 partner companies in 15 countries,” says Inagawa. “That’s more than 10,000 engineers. We can cover any technology area.”
Inagawa says another strength of his firm is that it supports projects in local markets. With sales and marketing offices in Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Shanghai, San Francisco and Los Angeles, it is able to work with developers in their own communities.
Hiroki Inagawa, founder and CEO of Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd.
Stretching Out
Last year, Sekai Lab began a new phase of its ongoing expansion into the Asian market with an investment in the Vietnam-based development company Asian Tech; the main objective of this company is to deliver software engineers for Japanese clients. “Asian countries are good for development centers,” Inagawa says. “And the market is growing. We want to have at least 30 branches in 15 countries within 3 years. The mobile or IT market in Asia is growing very fast. There are so many opportunities.”
Based on interview in December 2015
Website: Sekai Lab Pte. Ltd.
