What XICA does

XICA (株式会社サイカ) is a Tokyo-based data science and decision intelligence firm founded in February 2012 by CEO Yoshiaki Hirao. The company serves large Japanese enterprises — across consumer goods, food service, financial services, telecommunications, retail, and tobacco — with a hybrid consulting-and-platform model anchored on its AI Decision Engine (AIDE). The AIDE framework comprises three cores: Decision Insight (data meaning), Decision Refinement (decision amplification), and Decision Intelligence (organizational knowledge assetization), operating over the proprietary XICA Spiral growth model that connects data science, strategy design, and enablement. XICA has accumulated 270+ enterprise clients including Mizkan, Seven-Eleven Japan, Marugame Seimen, Japan Tobacco, Kewpie, Asahi, Kagome, Mizuho, KDDI, JCB, and Pizza Hut Japan.

The company's core technology stack is built on two proprietary analytical products. MAGELLAN delivers Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) that quantifies the contribution of each marketing tactic — including TV, digital, and promotions — to sales, capturing direct effects, indirect effects, short/medium-term carryover, and long-term brand equity accumulation. COMPASS delivers Consumer Mix Modeling (CMM) that elucidates consumer brand selection mechanisms and identifies switching drivers between competing brands, including switch-rate probability modeling. Both products run on XICA*AIP, the AI Platform infrastructure designed to accumulate organizational decision knowledge as a persistent asset. In September 2025, XICA co-developed an industry-first 'mental capital management' analysis method with Toridoll Holdings and Marugame Seimen, quantifying how employee happiness and customer emotional response drive revenue in food service.

XICA operates a hybrid revenue model combining project-based consulting engagements (revenue stream: professional services) with SaaS/analytics platform licensing (revenue stream: subscription/recurring). Pricing is custom-quoted, with multi-year enterprise contracts and no public pricing tiers. The company raised 37 billion JPY in Series E funding in February 2022 led by Growth Capital THE FUND Investment Limited Partnership, with prior backing from DNX Ventures, SBI Investment, Salesforce Ventures, Dentsu, Recruit Strategic Partners, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Cross Marketing Group, and others. The 2024 rebranding to AI Decision Engine, the 2025 launch of the Chief AI Office, and ongoing methodology expansion indicate a deliberate strategic shift from data science vendor to AI-era organizational decision infrastructure provider.

Name

XICA

Legal name

株式会社サイカ

Website

https://xica.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

XICA is a Tokyo-based decision intelligence firm that delivers AI-driven marketing analytics via its AIDE platform, combining proprietary Marketing Mix Modeling (MAGELLAN) and Consumer Mix Modeling (COMPASS) to help large Japanese enterprises quantify marketing ROI and optimize brand strategy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Analytics Software

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services (BPAEAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Data, Analytics & AI Consulting (BPAHAEAF), AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)

Keywords

• Marketing mix modeling
• Consumer mix modeling
• Marketing analytics software
• Decision intelligence platform
• Data science consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Roppongi

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. AI Decision Engine (AIDE) Consulting Services: Project-based consulting engagements delivering data science-driven marketing strategy and decision intelligence services. engagements include MMM and CMM analysis, organizational decision intelligence implementation, and strategy design. Services are tailored to enterprise clients requiring high-complexity marketing analytics.
2. SaaS / Analytics Platform Licensing: Platform-based delivery of proprietary analytics tools (MAGELLAN, COMPASS, AI Platform) to enterprise clients, typically as part of consulting engagements or standalone licensing arrangements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

XICA develops and operates the AI Decision Engine (AIDE), a proprietary decision intelligence platform that combines data science, consulting, and engineering to help large Japanese enterprises evolve their organizational decision-making. Built on the XICA*AIP infrastructure, AIDE delivers two flagship analytical solutions — MAGELLAN for Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and COMPASS for Consumer Mix Modeling (CMM) — alongside bespoke consulting engagements that quantify marketing ROI, identify brand-switching drivers, and convert insights into reusable organizational intelligence.

Product overview

XICA operates as a data science firm providing an integrated decision-making platform called AI Decision Engine (AIDE). The product portfolio consists of two core analytical solutions: MAGELLAN for Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and COMPASS for Consumer Mix Modeling (CMM), supported by the AI Platform (AIP) infrastructure. Together, these enable organizations to move beyond intuition-based decisions by quantifying 'where and how much' to invest (via MMM) and 'who and what' messaging to deliver (via CMM). The three-core AIDE framework—Decision Insight, Decision Refinement, and Decision Intelligence—combines data science, consulting, and engineering capabilities to help clients achieve reproducible, data-driven growth.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI Decision Engine (AIDE): XICA's core framework for evolving organizational decision-making, consisting of three cores: Decision Insight, Decision Refinement, and Decision Intelligence.
• MAGELLAN
• COMPASS
• XICAスパイラル (XICA Spiral)
• XICA MARKETING SCIENCE LAB

Products and services

• AI Decision Engine (AIDE) A decision intelligence platform that evolves organizational decision-making capabilities through three cores — Decision Insight (data meaning), Decision Refinement (decision amplification), and Decision Intelligence (organizational knowledge assetization) — combining data science, consulting, and engineering into a continuous growth engine for enterprise clients.
• MAGELLAN XICA's Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) solution that quantifies the ROI contribution of each marketing activity (TVCM, digital ads, promotions, etc.) and calculates optimal budget allocation, analyzing direct effects, indirect effects, short/medium-term carryover effects, and long-term brand equity accumulation effects for enterprise marketing and brand teams.
• COMPASS XICA's Consumer Mix Modeling (CMM) solution that elucidates consumer brand-selection mechanisms and identifies the key drivers influencing switching from competing brands to the client's brand, delivering switch-rate probability calculations and strategic optimization for targeting specific consumer segments.
• Consumer Trends Analysis A data-science-driven analysis service that discovers consumer trends and insights using methodologies including topic modeling and social media analysis, designed for enterprise marketing and brand teams needing evidence-based consumer intelligence.
• Data-Driven Marketing Strategy Consulting A consulting engagement service that designs marketing strategies grounded in quantitative insights derived from MAGELLAN, COMPASS, and XICA's other data science analyses, aligned with the XICA Spiral framework and delivered to enterprise marketing leadership.
• Mental Capital Management Analysis Method An analytical method co-developed with Toridoll Holdings and Marugame Seimen that quantitatively visualizes the impact of employee happiness and customer emotional response on business outcomes, representing an industry-first framework for the Japanese food service sector and demonstrating a closed 'Happiness → Kando → Prosperity' cycle.

Quantifiable outcome

• 128% increase in sales revenue and 148% increase in operating profit over 6 years (Marugame Seimen, 2019 baseline)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Toridoll Holdings (トリドールホールディングス)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 September 2025XICA and Toridoll Holdings co-developed Japan's first-ever analysis method in the food service industry for 'mental capital management.' The method quantifies the impact of employee happiness (hapiness) and customer emotional response (kando) on business outcomes, demonstrating that employee well-being and customer experience drive measurable sales results.
• Marugame Seimen (株式会社丸亀製麺)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 September 2025Marugame Seimen, operated by Toridoll Holdings, is the primary end-user of the co-developed mental capital management analysis method. XICA has been partnered with Marugame Seimen for over 6 years, applying MMM and CMM to optimize marketing investment and brand strategy, contributing to 128% revenue growth and 148% operating profit growth.
• Meitetsu (名和高司) — Hitotsubashi University / XICA Senior AdvisorminorOthersProfessor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University Business School serves as Senior Advisor to XICA. His Mobius Model transformation theory underpins XICA's proprietary 'XICA Spiral' growth framework — a conceptual model bridging data science, strategy design, and organizational enablement for sustainable business growth.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Analytic Partners: Global leader in Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and commercial analytics, headquartered in the US. Directly competes with XICA in MMM methodology, with comparable offerings for large enterprise advertisers across CPG, retail, and financial services.
• Ipsos MMA: Marketing Management Analytics division of Ipsos, specializing in MMM and marketing ROI optimization for global enterprises. Closely comparable to XICA's MAGELLAN offering and competes for the same enterprise CMO buyer.
• Ekimetrics: France-based marketing mix modeling and data science consultancy serving large global brands. Directly comparable to XICA in its combination of proprietary MMM methodology with consulting-led delivery for enterprise clients.
• Marketing Evolution: Marketing measurement and optimization platform providing MMM and marketing effectiveness solutions for advertisers. Directly comparable to XICA's MAGELLAN methodology targeting enterprise marketing teams.
• ThinkVine: Marketing mix modeling and unified measurement platform serving large CPG and enterprise advertisers. Comparable technology stack and buyer persona to XICA's MMM offering.
• Visual Sciences: Marketing effectiveness and MMM solutions provider serving enterprise advertisers globally. Closely comparable in methodology and target customer to XICA's MAGELLAN offering.

Broad incumbents

• Nielsen: Global measurement and data analytics giant with marketing effectiveness and MMM solutions serving major advertisers. Overlaps with XICA's enterprise analytics offering but as part of a much broader portfolio of audience measurement, retail, and media services.
• Dentsu: Japan's largest advertising agency group and an early investor in XICA (Series A, 2016). Operates extensive marketing analytics and consulting capabilities at scale; competes with XICA for enterprise analytics budgets while also being a strategic partner/customer.

Regional players

• Macromill: Leading Japanese online market research and digital marketing analytics firm listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange. Serves many of the same Japanese enterprise clients as XICA, with overlap in marketing data analytics, though with broader research focus.
• Intage: Japan's largest marketing research company providing consumer panels, ad effectiveness, and marketing science solutions. Competes with XICA in marketing analytics for Japanese enterprises, particularly in CPG and consumer goods verticals.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/xica_official
• Facebookfacebook.com/XICA.japan
• LinkedInjp.linkedin.com/company/xica-co

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors14 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about XICA