[Tokyo] Arches Corporation raised 410M yen, totaling 640M, to expand “Expert Matching” and develop new services like “Expert Knowledge Bank.”

Arches Corporation (Headquartered in Tokyo; Hiroki Kato, CEO; hereinafter referred to as “Arches”), a global provider of knowledge-sharing services, announced today that it has raised an additional 410 million yen in funding from KUSABI, VISIONAL Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital, Grove Advisors Ventures, and seven angel investors from Japan and abroad, bringing the total funds raised to 640 million yen. The company will use the funds to expand its existing “Expert Matching” service and develop new businesses, such as the “Expert Knowledge Bank” (a database service for transcribing interviews with experts).

■ Knowledge Sharing Developed by Arches

Arches operates in five locations around the world, including Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo with the mission of “Share knowledge, Empower Asia,”. To date, Arches has developed a “knowledge-sharing business” that provides companies seeking specific expertise to invest in new areas or resolve issues in existing businesses with the opportunity to recruit experts and access their knowledge.

In particular, the company’s “Expert Matching” service, in which experts are interviewed on an hourly basis, is favored by more than 300 clients worldwide, mainly consulting firms and investment companies that wish to gather highly specialized knowledge in a pinpoint manner quickly. With a database of over 100,000 experts, mainly in Asia, and a robust recruiting system and team built at offshore BPO centers in Vietnam and other countries, Arches is able to match experts in niche regions and cutting-edge fields that other companies in the industry are unable to provide.

■ Arches’ New Business “Expert Knowledge Bank”

Arches has launched a new business, the “Expert Knowledge Bank,” which provides expert knowledge not only on a one-to-one basis through hourly interviews but also on a one-to-many basis by transcribing the interviews into a database.

By accumulating interview transcriptions with experts from around the world matched by Arches, we hope to make it easier and less expensive for more customers to search for and view expert knowledge at any time. In 2023, we launched the service in beta and mainly investment firms used to invest in listed stocks. In the future, Arches plans to increase the amount of contents, especially interviews, and expand functions such as article summaries and trend analysis using ChatGPT.

■ Future Prospects

The funds raised will be used to expand the expert network that realizes “expert matching” and to develop an “expert knowledge bank” that converts the experts’ knowledge into assets. Arches will realize the “democratization of knowledge” by building a platform of reliable, highly specialized knowledge, expanding our client base to Corporates and Financial Institutions. 

In addition, Arches is also considering entering the human resource field, from knowledge sharing to resource sharing by utilizing the human resource database, aiming to become a global human resource sharing platform that transcends regions/industries in the mid- to long-term.

■ Our Investors

・KUSABI
・VISIONAL
・SMBC Venture Capital
・Globe Advisors Ventures
・Hiroaki Sugita（Ex Representative of Boston Consulting Group Japan)
・Kenji Sugiyama
And 5 other angel Investors

Total 11 Investors　

■ Comment from CEO, Hiroki Kato

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the investors who participated in this additional financing. Thanks to your support, since our establishment in 2019, our services have been used by more than 300 customers across more than 20 countries.

While the recent revitalization of the 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.

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.

■ Comments from Our Investors

Mr. Yuki Watanabe, Representative Partner, KUSABI
Expert network services have gradually become popular in Japan over the past few years, but they have yet to really take off, especially in Japan and the rest of Asia. Although there are similar and competing companies, we believe that we are approaching a sufficiently attractive market. Arches is also a rare startup that, despite being in its Early phase, has a winning edge globally at this stage. In addition, Arches is adjacent to a vast market of consulting, BPO, and human resources businesses, which allows for significant expansion of TAM. Furthermore, we see the potential for business development not only by solving issues for corporate clients but also by evolving value-added services for experts. In response to the above opportunities, I had no choice but not to invest in the company, as it has a talented team that reminds me of Userbase, a company I once invested in myself. As a lead investor, I look forward to a slow and significant return in the future.

Mr. Wataru Iizuka, SMBC Venture Capital
“I am pleased to have joined Arches, a global provider of expert knowledge sharing services, as an investor. The challenges facing companies these days are becoming more and more complex, and external knowledge is essential to survive in the highly competitive international marketplace. Arches has successfully implemented a unique business model that benefits from low-cost operations in Vietnam and maintains high profit margins and excellent service quality. Based on its expert network services, Arches can expand into information database provision, recruiting, and BPO services, and its global growth is expected to be significant. The management team, including Mr. Kato, will bring their experience and track record to this international success. We are committed to supporting Arches in its future endeavors.”

■ Company Overview

Company Name: Arches Corporation
CEO: Hiroki Kato
Address: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Established: May 2019
Number of Employees: 131
H P: https://arches-global.com

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