SCRUM Program Overview

Program content

Common Session

Lectures and workshops on steps necessary for overseas expansion and marketing techniques for making business hypotheses for overseas expansion.

Common SessionⅠ
Hypothesis making and market
research for overseas expansion

• ・Learning the overall picture, benefits and objectives, and pitfalls of overseas expansion
• ・Conducting a workshop on creating an overseas business hypothesis through conceptualization of a value chain
• ・Learning market research methods necessary to create the business hypothesis

Common SessionⅡ
Hypothesis refinement and English
pitches

• ・Conducting a workshop on the business model hypothesis refined through the market research
• ・Learning techniques on English pitches for actual overseas activities

Common SessionⅢ
Refinement of pitches and plan
making

• ・Conducting a workshop on refining English pitches through presentations and feedback
• ・Crafting policies to test overseas the business model hypothesis created up to the Workshop II

Speaker

Mr. Shingo Tsuda

Individual Session

Mentoring by experienced business professionals and pitching to overseas VCs to refine your hypothesis and pitch.

Mentoring from
mentors assigned to
each startups

Individual mentoring support from mentors

• ・Refining the business model hypotheses developed in the common session
• ・Improving pitch decks to deliver effective presentations internationally

Individual mentoring
by overseas VCs

Mentoring from overseas VCs, including feedback on business models, etc., based on the pitch refined through the above mentoring.

Social Events

Networking opportunities, including an online event with overseas startups and an in-person event with overseas VCs.

In-person networking event with
overseas VCs

Introduction of market overview of each region/country
・Introductions by overseas VCs on market overviews in their respective regions/countries of expertise
Presentation by participating startups
・Presentations by participating startups to overseas VCs on their business plans, etc., which they have brushed up through the program
Networking opportunities with overseas VCs

Networking event with
overseas startups

Roundtable discussion to exchange opinions with overseas startups

Overseas VCs (Last year)

＊Overseas VCs to be invited this year may be different from last year

• North America

  Magnify Ventures

  Joanna Drake

  Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Magnify Ventures, as well as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who built next-generation media technology companies including ReacTV, Moxi, and Current TV. Joanna has been an entrepreneurial leader in the venture industry, including becoming the first operator angel investor with Broadway Angels.

  

• North America

  National Grid Partners

  Raghuram
  Madabushi

  Director of National Grid Partners, focusing on investing in early-stage companies in the energy infrastructure industry. Raghu previously worked at SRI Ventures and GE Ventures, with the investment focus on deep tech and industrial infrastructure. Raghu also has extensive experience in the hard and software design space.

  

• East Asia

  Darwin Venture Management

  Emily Wu

  Partner of Darwin Venture Management. Prior to joining Darwin, Emily focused on product and application development, sales promotion, and market strategy planning at ITE Tech Inc. as well as identifying and establishing emergent customers for United Microelectronic Corporation UMC, a leading global semiconductor foundry.

  

• Southeast Asia

  Golden Gate Ventures

  Jeffrey Paine

  Managing Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, a Singapore-based company that supports startups in Southeast Asia in a wide range of fields. Jeff is also a data scientist with expertise in AI and other technologies.

  

• Southeast Asia

  Monk’s Hill Ventures

  Arun Pai

  Principal of Monk’s Hill Ventures, based in Singapore with over 17 years of experience in Investment Banking (Lehman Brothers & Nomura) and Tech start-ups (Kristal.AI & Flow). Arun graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a frequent panelist and speaker at a number of conferences and appears regularly on MoneyFM to provide market insights; he satisfies his didactic nature by being a Training Consultant at Fintech Academy.

  

Comments from the Past Participants

Last year, a total of 15 startups in Tokyo participated in the program. For comments and impressions from
the participating startups, please click on the link to read the interview articles.

Program Schedule (Tentative)

About application

Eligibility

• The applicant must be a corporation located in Tokyo (including businesses that have a branch, sales office, or other business location in Tokyo).
• Must have been in business for approximately 10 years or less
• Must be a privately held company
• In principle, must not have overseas offices or subsidiaries, and is aiming to expand overseas in the future.
• Program participant must be able to communicate with overseas entities in English
• In principle, must be able to participate in all programs including offline sessions.
• Program participants must be a manager, a person with decision-making authority over management, or a person responsible for overseas expansion.
• Must be able to participate in an online interview if pass the initial screening
• Must be able to report the results of the project to the secretariat and participate in hearings to ascertain the results of the project.
• Please note that the following cases will be excluded from the screening process
  • If the applicant violates or is likely to violate laws or ordinances or public order and morals
  • If the contents of the application are incomplete
  • If the applicant provides false information in the application or otherwise makes a false declaration to the Management Office
  • If the applicant is involved with antisocial forces or related parties
  • If the applicant has been involved in fraud or other incidents in the past with respect to projects conducted by the national government, prefectural government, ward, city, town, or village government, etc.
  • If the applicant is engaged in a type of business that is deemed inappropriate as a recipient of public funds, such as chain sales, negative options, hypnosis, or psychic sales.

Application Process

Please prepare the following documents, fill out the entry sheet on the X-HUB TOKYO web page, and upload the submitted documents.
All materials must be submitted in Japanese.

Required Submissions

Related Materials ： Please prepare the following materials in the specified format and upload the materials to the entry sheet page.

• Pitch Materials (PDF, about 10 pages of slides)　

  • ※They will be used during the second screening interview. The following must be included in your materials
  • Hypotheses and proposed plans for business development in the regions/countries envisaged
  • Internal structure for overseas expansion
  • Goals to be achieved in this program

• Company Logo (PNG format, 600x600px minimum)

Application
Deadline

Friday, July 25, 2025, 5:00 p.m. JST

Application Process

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 

Screening and Adoption

Number of
adopted companies

Approx. 15 companies

Screening

The screening committee, consisting of outside experts, will review and adopt the proposals based on the screening criteria.
Adopted startups will be announced on the website of the Management Office. The Management Office will also notify all applicants of the results.
In order to select startups that meet the objectives of the program, the following screening criteria will be used.

• Overseas Market Potential
• Feasibility of overseas expansion
• Enthusiasm for overseas expansion and willingness to participate in programs

Schedule of Screening
(Tentative)

Screening： Initial screening (document review) : Early to Mid August ​
Second screening（online interview） : Mid September ~ Late September

*Companies that pass the initial screening will be invited for an online interview by an external reviewer. The schedule for the online interview screening will be notified to the companies that pass the initial screening.

Notification of the results of the initial screening : Early September（tentative）