Knowledge-sharing services provider Arches Corporation, situated in Japan, revealed last Friday that it has secured an additional 410 million yen ($2.6 million) in funding.
The funding, which brings the total amount raised to 640 million yen ($4.06 million), comes from KUSABI, VISIONAL Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital, Grove Advisors Ventures, and seven angel investors from Japan and overseas, the company said in a statement.
The company will use the money to grow its current “Expert Matching” service and launch new ventures, like the “Expert Knowledge Bank,” a database service that transcribes expert interviews.
In order to achieve “expert matching,” the funds raised will be utilized to build a “expert knowledge bank” that will turn the knowledge of the experts into assets.
In order to achieve the “democratization of knowledge,” Arches will grow its clientele to include corporations and financial institutions and create a platform of trustworthy, highly specialized knowledge.
Arches is also thinking about getting into the human resource space, moving from knowledge sharing to resource sharing through the use of the human resource database, with the goal of eventually developing into a global platform for sharing human resources that cuts across borders and industries.
Future plans for Arches include adding more content, particularly interviews, and expanding features like article summaries and trend analysis with ChatGPT.
“While the recent revitalization of the artificial intelligence (AI) market has made it possible for anyone to easily access a wide range of information, highly specialized and rare knowledge and experience are still accumulated in specific individuals without being visualized, making it difficult for companies to utilize them,
“In addition, in many cases, the data sources of information provided by AI-related services are weak, and we feel that the need for atypical knowledge with guaranteed reliability, which cannot be obtained from open sources, is rather increasing,” Arches Chief Executive Officer Hiroki Kato said.
“We have a one-stop service lineup that can provide individual expertise in the form of article databases, interviews, research/consulting, and talent dispatch/introduction, starting with our database of experts,
“Using the funds raised this time, we will deepen each of these services and expand our geographic coverage, aiming to become a ‘comprehensive platform of global knowledge,” he added.
