Nulab

What Nulab does

Nulab is a privately held Japanese SaaS company headquartered in Fukuoka, with a secondary office in Tokyo, that builds team collaboration and project management software used by more than four million people worldwide. Its core product portfolio centers on Backlog, an all-in-one project management platform with issue tracking, Kanban, Gantt charts, Git/SVN integration, and wikis; Cacoo, a real-time visual collaboration and diagramming tool; and Nulab Pass, an enterprise security layer providing SAML authentication, audit logs, automated provisioning, and centralized admin controls. The company sells primarily through a product-led growth motion with freemium signup, self-serve trials, and annual Premium and Enterprise subscriptions, supplemented by a reseller/sales-partner channel for larger accounts. Pricing is tiered, with AI Assistant bundled into paid tiers (2,000 complimentary monthly credits) and additional credit packs sold on a usage-based basis.

The product stack has been meaningfully extended through AI in 2026. Backlog AI Assistant (launched March 2026) layers natural language processing, smart search/summarization, document drafting, and task automation onto the Backlog workspace, with a human-in-the-loop approval model that requires manual sign-off before any AI-generated action is executed. Nulab Flowbase (announced June 2026) extends the company's footprint into AI-powered business process automation, leveraging 20 years of accumulated Backlog project data to help organizations design, implement, and improve reproducible workflows; general public availability is planned for 2027. AI capabilities are delivered through third-party foundation models (Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock) rather than proprietary models, with domain specialization rather than novel research serving as the differentiator.

Nulab serves a horizontal mix of customers spanning development teams, UX and design teams, product management, marketing, and small businesses, with named enterprise users including Toyota Motor Corporation, JPX, DMM, BuzzFeed, Lineastoria, and Fukuoka City. The company has raised approximately $5.9 million across two disclosed rounds (East Ventures in 2017 and a 2020 round led by NOW Japan, Shinsei Corporate Investment, and XTech Ventures) and remains founder-controlled under co-founder and CEO Masanori Hashimoto. Recognition includes G2 High Performer Winter 2026, G2 Best Relationship Winter 2026, Capterra Shortlist 2026, and SaaSworthy Top 20 Q2 2024.

Name

Nulab

Legal name

Nulab Inc.

Website

https://nulab.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Nulab is a Fukuoka-headquartered Japanese SaaS company offering team collaboration and project management software — led by Backlog, Cacoo, Nulab Pass, and the Backlog AI Assistant — used by 4 million people worldwide across development, design, product, marketing, and enterprise teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Project Management Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Managed Workplace Services (DaaS/Workplace-as-a-Service) (BPAEAIAA)

Keywords

• Project management software
• Team collaboration tools
• Visual collaboration platform
• Issue tracking software
• Workflow automation software

Headquarters

HQ city

Fukuoka

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans (Premium/Enterprise): SaaS subscription model with monthly or annual billing. Premium and Enterprise plans include Backlog AI Assistant with complimentary monthly credit allowances (2,000 credits). Additional credits can be purchased as add-ons. Free plans available with limited functionality.
2. AI Assistant Credit Packs: Usage-based consumption model where users purchase additional credit packs when they exceed their monthly allowance. Credits are consumed per AI Assistant interaction (task organization, issue drafting, etc.).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Nulab develops and sells cloud-based SaaS collaboration and project management software, anchored by Backlog (project management, issue tracking, Git/SVN integration, Kanban, Gantt, and wikis), Cacoo (real-time visual diagramming and whiteboarding), and Nulab Pass (enterprise SAML authentication, provisioning, and audit logs). The suite is enhanced by Backlog AI Assistant for AI-driven task automation and the recently announced Nulab Flowbase platform for AI-powered workflow automation, all integrated with each other and third-party tools.

Product overview

Nulab offers a portfolio of collaboration and project management tools centered around its core products: Backlog (all-in-one project management), Cacoo (visual collaboration/diagramming), and Nulab Pass (enterprise security). The Backlog platform is enhanced by the AI Assistant module for intelligent automation, and the company recently announced Nulab Flowbase as an AI-powered workflow automation platform. Nulab's products serve over 4 million users worldwide and integrate with each other as well as third-party tools including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Jenkins, and various project management platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Backlog: All-in-one project management tool with AI-powered features for teams
• Cacoo
• Nulab Pass
• Nulab Flowbase

Products and services

• Backlog All-in-one project management and issue tracking platform for software and cross-functional teams. Supports Git/SVN integration, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, wikis, and integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jenkins, Jira/Redmine importers, Google Workspace, and other tools.
• Backlog AI Assistant AI-powered assistant embedded within Backlog that uses natural language processing, knowledge retrieval, generative AI, and process automation to handle task creation and breakdown, smart search and summarization, content polishing for docs and wikis, smart updates, daily prioritization, and progress reporting. Includes human-in-the-loop approval for all generative or action-oriented commands.
• Cacoo

Quantifiable outcome

• Searching past issues with AI Assistant saves several minutes to tens of minutes each time

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration15 records

AI capability8 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• OASIS FUNDcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 April 2026Nulab co-hosted a partner event for SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 with OASIS FUND on April 28, 2026 at Nulab's Tokyo office. The event focused on service development in the AI era, featuring discussions by entrepreneurs and investors on practical insights for launching and scaling services.
• DEEPCOREcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 April 2026Nulab co-hosted a partner event for SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 with DEEPCORE on April 27, 2026. The event featured a panel discussion on innovation talent required after the rise of LLMs, with Learner's Learner CEO Kurokawa Katsuaki presenting based on Minerva University's educational approach.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Monday.com: Monday.com competes head-to-head with Backlog in SMB/mid-market PM and has aggressively bundled AI features. Comparable horizontal GTM and freemium-led growth model.
• ClickUp: ClickUp is a direct competitor positioning as an 'everything app' for work, overlapping Backlog's PM, docs, and collaboration surfaces with aggressive AI feature rollout.
• Atlassian: Atlassian's Jira and Trello are the most direct competitors to Backlog in issue tracking and team PM. Atlassian has been expanding its own AI agent (Rovo), directly competing with Nulab's AI Assistant and Flowbase direction.
• Asana: Asana is a direct peer in horizontal project management with overlapping personas (PMs, marketing, cross-functional teams) and a similar subscription + AI add-on monetization model.
• Linear: Linear is an emerging direct peer focused on software development teams—the same primary segment Nulab targets with Backlog. Modern UX and growing AI capabilities make it a strong direct threat.
• Notion: Notion competes through docs, wikis, and lightweight project tracking, overlapping Backlog's wiki features and increasingly its task management. Notion AI is a comparable monetization lever.
• Miro: Miro is the closest direct peer to Cacoo in visual collaboration and diagramming. Same target buyer (design, product, and UX teams) and now expanding into adjacent workflow automation.
• Wrike: Wrike is a direct competitor in team-based project management with strong marketing and PM use cases that overlap Nulab's customer segments.
• Smartsheet: Smartsheet competes with Backlog for project managers handling roadmaps, sprints, and stakeholder reporting. Comparable subscription model and AI roadmap.

Broad incumbents

• Airtable: Airtable overlaps with Nulab's workflow use cases (campaign planning, content workflows, custom workflows) and competes with Nulab Flowbase's automation ambitions as a broader platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/nulabinc
• Facebookfacebook.com/nulabinc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nulab

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors4 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 Nulab