Healthcare Venture Conference Kyoto

Next week a major event for healthcare startups, Healthcare Venture Conference (HVC 2025), will be hosted in Kyoto. The event will have 22 finalist startups participating of which 15 will make their pitches. You’ll find the event schedules below.

Healthcare Venture Conference (HVC 2025)
Contents:	Health Industry Pitch Contest, Seminar
Date:	Tuesday 1st, July, 2025
Time:	10:00－18:30
Location:	Buzz Hall, B1F, KRP Bldg. No. 4, 93 Chudoji Awata-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto [Google Maps Link]
Language:	English
Participation:	In-Person
Registration:	Event Registration Page

Schedule

• 10:00 Opening Speeches
• 10:30 Biotech Finalists Pitches
• 12:50 Lunch Break
• 13:50 BIE Selection Pitches
• 14:15 Medtech Finalists Pitches
• 16:20 Biotech Finalist Pitches
• 16:50 Presentations & Panel Discussion
• 17:40 Awards, Closing Remarks & Networking
• 18:30 Event Close

HVC requires (free) pre-registration, so make sure you register beforehand! You will find a full list of pitching companies and detailed event schedule at the registration page. On registration page you can also register to review an event recording, which will be available a month later.

IVS Kyoto 2025

One of country’s largest startup events, Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS2025), will be hosted next week in Kyoto. Some 12,000 visitors are expected to gather to the Rohm Theater and Miyako Messe venues during the three day event.

IVS2025
Contents:	Startup Exhibition
Date:	Wed 2nd to Fri 4th, July, 2025
Time:	11:00 – 18:00 *Friday Close 17:00
Location:	Miyako Messe & Rohm Theather, Okazakiseishoujichou, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto [Google Maps Link]
Language:	English & Japanese
Participation:	In-Person
Registration:	Purchase Tickets

Previously the event had been arranged on exclusive invitation basis, but since 2023 the event has been opened to wider audience.

Tech Osaka Summit 2025 – Exhibitor Applications Open

Tech Osaka Summit, arranged simultaneously with the World Expo’s Global Startup Expo, is now open for exhibitor applications.
The Tech Osaka Summit is a startup exhibition for bioscience, life science, healthcare, green tech and digital startups, and is expected to draw some 3,000 visitors.
Apply for an exhibit booth here and read the exhibitor guidelines* here

Osaka Tech Summit
Contents:	Tech Startup Exhibition
Date:	Tue 16th to Wed 17th, September, 2025
Time:	Opening hours TBA
Location:	Grand Front Osaka, North Building, 3-1 Ofukacho, Kita-ku, Osaka City Knowledge Capital Congrès Convention Center (B2F) [Google Maps Link]
Language:	Japanese & English
Participation:	On-site
Registration:	Exhibitor Application*

*The English application guidelines include an incorrect translation stating that exhibitors need to have been in business for 10 years. The guidelines should say that the exhibitor company need to have been in business for less than 10 years.
*The event will require a registration to attend, but registration for visitors will open at later date.

Japan Health Exhibition and the Global Healthcare Challenge

Next week in Osaka, there are two events that healthcare industry professionals should check out!
Japan Health 2025 Exhibition gathers more than 400 healthcare companies to display their innovations and to network in the field, and Global Healthcare Challenge has 20 global startups participating in a pitching contest. Both events feature seminars where industry leaders from all over the world share their insights into the healthcare field’s present and its future.

Both events require a pre-registration so be sure to register before attending!

Medtech Actuator Demo Day

10 Finalist Companies from Medtech Actuator Program are making their pitches at Medtech Actuator Demo Day later in June at Osaka! The event will also be broadcasted live (Sign up for more info!).

The MedTech Actuator J-StarX HealthTech Gateway Demo Day
Contents:	Startup Pitches and Medtech Actuator Program Introduction, Networking
Date:	Tuesday, June 24th, 2025
Time:	15:00－18:00
Location:	Nakanoshima Qross 2F CrossoverLounge, Osaka, Nakanoshima 4-3-51 [Google Maps Link]
Language:	English & Japanese
Participation:	Online or in-person
Registration:	Event Registration

Medtech Actuator Program is an Australia-based global growth accelerator program that speeds up high potential startups to grow globally and leverages the knowledge and support of Australian ecosystem. Finalists from JETRO’s J-StarX HealthTech Gateway are now completing their 9-month sprint for global expansion in the Medtech Actuator Program and will hold their final pitches for a powerful audience of investors, corporates, and ecosystem leaders from around the world.

Schedule

• 15:00-15:30: Arrival and networking
• 15:30-15:40: MoU Announcement-Nakanoshima Qross & Medtech Actuator
• 15:40-15:50: Welcome from MedTech Actuator & Guests
• 15:50-16:05: Introduction of the program & Fireside chat
• 16:05-16:45: Startup pitches and event proceedings

Check out the pitching companies profiles and pitch decks here and their Dealroom profiles here

Pitching Companies
Physiologas Technologies
Joconne
Hedgehog MedTech
INOPASE
SONoALS
IMMUNOSENS
Tactoria
LIFESCAPES
CNS Drug Innovation
Gifts

Upcoming Kyoto Startup Events

Kyoto Open Innovation Network (KOIN) has announced two new startup events 1st and 3rd of July.The events will be held at Kyoto Keizai Center’s 3rd floor.
Participation is free of charge and exclusively for startup ecosystem players. The events require pre-registration through respective event pages.

Kyoto Open Innovation Network(KOIN) Kyoto Keizai Center 3rd Floor
〒600-8491 Kyoto, Shimogyo Ward, Kankobokocho 78

Contact
Kyoto Chiemori
TEL: 075-353-7122
E-mail: startup@chiemori.jp

Support for Government and Non-Government Organizations Planning Events during Osaka World Expo

Government entities and industry associations in Osaka have banded together to support their counterparts to arrange events and programs in Osaka during the World Exhibition.
Osaka One-Stop Business Service Desk offers free support service to embassies and consulates, state and municipal governments, as well as business organizations such as chambers of commerce and industry. The service desk will help to locate event venues, connecting with partners and can provide information on local companies that foreign organizations are planning cooperation with.

Contact Details
Phone: +81 6 4705 8607
E-mail: Osaka_Business_Onestop@jetro.go.jp
Hours: 09:00~17:00 JST
More information

Theme Week Panel Discussions at Osaka World Expo

Osaka World Expo 2025 organizes panel discussions and events during themed weeks. Here are few featured panel discussion events with industry experts weighing in on global issues and our future.
All events are broadcasted online for free and have simultaneous translation. Events are hosted in Osaka World Expo’s Theme Week Studio. On-site participating requires a reservation made prior to the reservation deadline through Osaka World Expo reservation system. All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC +9).

Global Healthcare Challenge (GHeC)

Japan External Trade Organization & Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will hold the Global Healthcare Challenge event at Grand Prince Hotel Osaka Bay on June 25th-26th 2025. METI has been organizing the healthcare challenge since 2016 domestically for Japanese startups; this year the event will be a global event and hosted as part of the Osaka World Expo's Health and Well-being theme week.

Split between the two days, the event features a pitch contest with pitches from 20 healthcare startups from around the world, and a conference with prominent speakers from the healthcare industry who will share their insights on the future of healthcare.

The event will require a pre-registration.

More info:
GHeC Event Page

Featured Startup - GramEye Inc.

Overcoming Antimicrobial Resistance with AI

GramEye Inc. from Osaka University is developing a fully automated solution for bacterial analysis.
In patient treatment, wide use of antibiotics has led to emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria which is one the global top global health threats facing humanity as stated by WHO, health ministries and other organizations worldwide. Emergence of resistant bacteria can be suppressed by administering precise antibiotics depending on the patient’s sickness. However, the process to correctly analyze and classify bacteria takes from half a day to two days, which is often too long of a wait before starting treatment and results in cases where ineffective or broad-spectrum antibiotics are administered by mistake - driving an increase in drug-resistant species of bacteria. The GramEye inc.’s solution shortens the analysis time to 10 minutes and will allow precise antibiotics to be administered on the spot.

The Current Process

While identifying bacterial strains is a crucial step to deciding effective treatment, the analysis requires microbiology laboratory technicians of which there is a severe shortage of. When examining a bacteria sample, the first test that a laboratory technician performs to determine its species is the Gram stain, in which bacteria are stained and observed under a microscope to classify them into four types based on color and morphology.

Microbiology laboratory technicians usually handle a substantial number of these examinations manually. The need to determine the color and morphology of numerous species under a microscope, combined with insufficient human resources, means that in Japan it currently takes anywhere from half a day to two days in the slowest cases for results to be reported.

First-ever Fully Automated AI Gram-staining-to-species-determination Solution

Despite the risks of resistant bacteria, antimicrobials are an indispensable part of modern medicine. One of the most impactful approaches to addressing the problem of resistant bacteria is to identify pathogens as quickly, easily, and inexpensively as possible so that physicians can prescribe more appropriate antimicrobials to their patients.

This is what GramEye, achieves with the use of AI and robotics.

GramEye has developed a microbial and cell-staining analyzer that fully automates all processes from Gram staining to classification and identification of bacterial species using AI. While automated Gram-staining technology already exists, GramEye’s analyzer will be the world's first fully automated device capable of handling every step from staining to bacterial species classification and identification. With the device, the whole analysis can be completed automatically within 10 minutes, simply by inserting a glass slide coated with a specimen.

Potential to serve as a Gram-staining digital image platform through global expansion

GramEye’s analyzer will collect standardized image data. As Gram staining is currently a manual process, on a global scale the digital standardization of test images taken from Gram staining has yet to be achieved. The image data collection capability of GramEye’s device is likely to become a major advantage in the global market. Within the next few years, the company plans to expand its business to Europe and the United States, where laboratory automation is advancing, and it believes that the device has the potential to serve as a platform for collecting and standardizing Gram-stained image data from around the world.

While working towards the global dissemination of its product, GramEye is also considering horizontal development to enable identification of tuberculosis and other acid-fast bacteria, which are a concern for hospital-acquired infections. With a mission of creating a world where antimicrobials are prescribed appropriately, the university-launched startup and their attempts to help solve the global problem of drug-resistant bacteria have recently drawn attention both within Japan and abroad.

Company Website