Groovenauts
Groovenauts builds MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code cloud platform combining AI, machine learning, and quantum annealing on Google Cloud, serving Japanese financial institutions and enterprises including MUFG Bank, Sompo Japan, and Askul.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2011
- HeadquartersFukuoka, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Groovenauts does
Groovenauts is a Fukuoka-headquartered Japanese technology company founded in 2011 that builds MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code cloud platform combining machine learning and quantum annealing capabilities on top of Google Cloud Platform. The platform enables enterprise users to assemble AI, IoT, image, speech, and conversational workflows through a block-based visual interface without writing code, and is distributed via direct sales, the Google Cloud Marketplace, and the Salesforce AppExchange (as BlocksConnector). Primary commercial use cases include risk management, derivatives optimization, and operational efficiency for financial institutions, alongside CRM augmentation, IoT device orchestration, and customer-service automation for enterprise customers such as MUFG Bank, Sompo Japan, and Askul.
The company monetizes primarily through recurring MAGELLAN BLOCKS subscriptions and related enterprise services, supplemented by membership revenue from the TECH PARK and TECH PARK KIDS afterschool/tech-education programs, the GSS Fairy game-backend platform, and the OPEN AI LAB regional initiative co-developed with Fukuoka Financial Group. Strategic positioning is anchored by a 2023 capital and business alliance under which MUFG Bank acquired approximately 18% of Groovenauts for billions of yen — the first quantum-technology investment by any of Japan's three largest banks — and by the continued involvement of Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), creator of the Ruby programming language, as Chief Architect. Recent corporate actions include an asset-light restructuring (relocation into CIC Fukuoka with full remote work in February 2026) and the announced retirement of Chairman Sasaki Kumiko at the September 2025 shareholders' meeting.
Groovenauts firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Groovenauts
- Legal name
- 株式会社グルーヴノーツ
- Website
- https://groovenauts.jp
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2011
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Groovenauts builds MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code cloud platform combining AI, machine learning, and quantum annealing on Google Cloud, serving Japanese financial institutions and enterprises including MUFG Bank, Sompo Japan, and Askul.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Groovenauts industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI/ML Cloud Platform
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- End-to-End MLOps & ML Platform Suites (HDAAABAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- AI/ML Solution Integration & MLOps Enablement (BPAEAAAJ), Cloud-Native Enablement (Containers, Kubernetes, Service Mesh) (BPAEAKAE)
Keywords
Where Groovenauts is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Fukuoka
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices2 records
Markets served
Groovenauts business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- MAGELLAN BLOCKS Subscription Services: Cloud platform services providing AI, machine learning, and IoT capabilities through subscription model, enabling enterprises to build applications without specialized programming knowledge.
- TECH PARK Operations: Afterschool club services for children's technology education, generating membership-based recurring revenue.
- GSS Fairy Platform Services: Mobile application development and operation platform for game developers, with infrastructure and operational support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | MAGELLAN BLOCKS Beta version with usage limitations |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
Groovenauts product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Groovenauts develops and operates MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code cloud platform built on Google Cloud Platform that enables enterprises to build and deploy AI, machine learning, IoT, and quantum computing applications through a visual block-based interface without programming expertise. The platform provides pre-built blocks for BigQuery integration, ML classification/regression, image classification, object detection, automatic transcription, and Dialogflow-based conversational apps. Supporting offerings include TECH PARK (children's tech education and maker community), City as a Service (municipal/smart city technology initiatives), and consulting services for financial sector digital transformation.
Product overview
Groovenauts offers a portfolio of technology products centered around MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code machine learning and data analytics platform. The core platform enables users to build and deploy ML models through a visual block-based interface without programming knowledge. Supporting offerings include GSS Fairy for game backend services, TECH PARK and TECH PARK KIDS for community and educational initiatives, City as a Service for municipal solutions, and the OPEN AI LAB for AI education. The company operates primarily on Google Cloud Platform and has established strategic partnerships including a 2023 alliance with Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (MUFG acquiring 18% stake).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MAGELLAN BLOCKS: A cloud platform (PaaS) for cloud-native application development, originally launched in December 2014.
Products and services
- MAGELLAN BLOCKS A no-code AI/ML and quantum-enabled cloud platform built natively on Google Cloud Platform, enabling enterprises to build and deploy machine learning models, IoT data pipelines, image classification, object detection, speech-to-text transcription, and conversational AI applications through a visual block interface without programming knowledge.
- GSS Fairy (ジー・エス・エス・フェアリー) Backend platform service for mobile and native game developers, providing payment processing, push notification infrastructure, and KPI reporting capabilities.
- TECH PARK (テックパーク) Combined technology-focused afterschool club and maker/developer community space for children and creators, combining tech education with childcare support. Recognized in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's 2016 White Paper and awarded the 10th Kids Design Award in 2016.
- OPEN AI LAB AI learning and co-creation space initiative for regional enterprises in Fukuoka and Kyoto, supported by Fukuoka Financial Group and local partners, offering AI education and the CAMP1 training program.
- City as a Service Urban development and municipal service initiative leveraging Groovenauts technology for smart city solutions and regional corporate activities tailored to local community characteristics.
Quantifiable outcome
- MUFG Bank achieved enhanced risk management and operational efficiency through quantum technology deployment
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Groovenauts
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Groovenauts technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability10 records
Feature5 records
Groovenauts partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, supporting, core and minor.
- Fukuoka Financial Group (FFG)flagshipJoint establishment of OPEN AI LAB for regional companies to learn about and utilize AI. FFG provides support for local enterprises' AI adoption while Groovenauts provides technology platform and training through CAMP1 program.
- SoftBanksupportingSupporting partner for OPEN AI LAB initiative, providing resources for regional AI education and business activation.
- Fukuoka City / Fukuoka Institute of Advanced Science and TechnologysupportingOfficial support from Fukuoka City and ISIT for OPEN AI LAB initiative to promote regional AI adoption.
- Salesforce (Salesforce.com)coreISVforce partner agreement with Salesforce.com. MAGELLAN BLOCKS available on Salesforce AppExchange as BlocksConnector, enabling CRM users to build custom machine learning models for sales forecasting, fraud detection, and business analytics.
- Nishitetsu ( 西日本鉄道 )flagshipPartnership for TECH PARK initiative. Planned relocation to Fukuoka Central Children's Hall with TECH PARK MAKERS and TECH PARK KIDS facilities to support local creators, engineers, and children's technology education.
- JAXA / SkyPerfect JSATminorSocial experiment using JAXA's WINDS satellite for IoT verification in agriculture and fisheries. Groovenauts' Magellan platform used for sensor data collection via satellite communication.
- BroadleafminorBusiness partnership for big data utilization. Combining Broadleaf's big data with Groovenauts' high-speed distributed processing technology for automotive aftermarket service providers.
- IDC FrontiercorePartnership for mobile application platform services. Joint development of 'Native Application Platform for Gaming GSS Fairy' combining IDC Frontier cloud infrastructure with Groovenauts' game platform technology.
- Google Cloud PlatformcoreStrategic partnership with Google for cloud infrastructure. MAGELLAN BLOCKS built natively on Google Cloud Platform with deep integration to BigQuery, Cloud ML, Vision API, Speech API, and Dialogflow. Joint co-marketing activities including GCP NEXT events.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Groovenauts competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Akkio: No-code AI/ML platform aimed at business users for forecasting, lead scoring, and text classification. Comparable to MAGELLAN BLOCKS in positioning AI/ML as a no-code tool for non-technical enterprise users rather than data scientists.
- H2O.ai: Provider of an end-to-end ML platform (H2O AI Cloud) for building, deploying, and managing AI/ML models with automated machine learning. Comparable to Groovenauts as a horizontal ML platform with enterprise focus and cloud deployment.
- Obviously AI: No-code predictive analytics and ML platform that lets users build models on tabular data through a guided UI. Directly comparable to MAGELLAN BLOCKS' classification/regression boards and enterprise CRM sales-prediction use cases.
- DataRobot: Enterprise AutoML/MLOps platform that lets business users build and deploy machine learning models with minimal coding. Closely comparable to MAGELLAN BLOCKS in targeting enterprise customers who want no-code/automated ML on cloud infrastructure.
- Dataiku: End-to-end AI/ML platform with visual modeling, MLOps, and collaboration features for enterprise teams. Closely comparable to MAGELLAN BLOCKS in offering both no-code and code-based ML on cloud infrastructure for enterprise customers.
Broad incumbents
- Palantir Technologies: Enterprise data analytics and AI platform (Foundry/AIP) serving large institutions including financial services. Comparable to Groovenauts in targeting enterprise/government customers with integrated AI + data workflows, though at much larger scale.
- C3.ai: Enterprise AI application platform providing pre-built and configurable AI solutions across verticals including financial services. Comparable in targeting large enterprise AI rollouts, and competes for the same Japanese megabank/insurance budgets as Groovenauts.
- Google Vertex AI: Google Cloud's flagship managed ML platform offering AutoML, custom training, and MLOps. Directly comparable as the underlying platform Groovenauts builds on, and a potential competitor offering no-code ML on the same GCP infrastructure.
- AWS SageMaker: Amazon's broad cloud ML platform with built-in AutoML, no-code Canvas UI, and MLOps tooling. Competes with MAGELLAN BLOCKS for enterprise ML workloads and is part of the hyperscaler competitive set that defines platform alternatives.
- Alteryx: Analytics automation platform combining data preparation, no-code ML, and workflow automation for enterprise users. Comparable as a broader analytics/ML suite targeting business analysts, similar to Groovenauts' visual block interface.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Groovenauts social profiles
Digital presenceGroovenauts financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Groovenauts leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Groovenauts funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Groovenauts M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Groovenauts
What does Groovenauts do?
Groovenauts develops and operates MAGELLAN BLOCKS, a no-code cloud platform built on Google Cloud Platform that enables enterprises to build and deploy AI, machine learning, IoT, and quantum computing applications through a visual block-based interface without programming expertise. The platform provides pre-built blocks for BigQuery integration, ML classification/regression, image classification, object detection, automatic transcription, and Dialogflow-based conversational apps. Supporting offerings include TECH PARK (children's tech education and maker community), City as a Service (municipal/smart city technology initiatives), and consulting services for financial sector digital transformation.
Is Groovenauts a public or private company?
Groovenauts is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Groovenauts founded?
Groovenauts was founded in 2011. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Groovenauts based?
Groovenauts is headquartered in Fukuoka, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Groovenauts make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. MAGELLAN BLOCKS Subscription Services are the primary driver. The others are TECH PARK Operations and GSS Fairy Platform Services.
Who are Groovenauts's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Akkio, H2O.ai, Obviously AI, DataRobot and Dataiku. Broad incumbents are Palantir Technologies, C3.ai, Google Vertex AI, AWS SageMaker and Alteryx.
Does Groovenauts have an API?
No public API is recorded for Groovenauts.
What industry is Groovenauts in?
Groovenauts's product category is AI/ML Cloud Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAABAA, End-to-End MLOps & ML Platform Suites, with a secondary code of BPAEAAAJ, AI/ML Solution Integration & MLOps Enablement. Its NAICS code is 5415 and its SIC code is 7373.