KAKEAI

What KAKEAI does

KAKEAI is a Tokyo-based SaaS company founded in April 2018 by Honda Hidetaka and Minagawa Emi that develops and operates an enterprise 1on1 (one-on-one) meeting management cloud platform. The company's core product, the Kakeai 1on1 Tool, is a SaaS platform that uses AI and proprietary patent-protected methods to reduce the burden of manager-employee 1on1 meetings while improving conversation quality, drawing on a proprietary dataset accumulated from over 3 million 1on1 sessions across 104,000+ organizations in Japan. Three complementary service lines — Kakeai Customization, Kakeai Training, and Kakeai Consulting — extend the core platform into implementation, enablement, and advisory engagements, and the company operates a content sub-brand called 1on1総研 (1on1 Soken) that publishes management and organizational development thought leadership.

The business serves enterprise customers across a broad vertical mix, with named logos spanning IT/telecom (KDDI, NTT Data, Ricoh), manufacturing/electronics (Mitsubishi Electric, Toyota Industries), trading (Itochu), printing (Dai Nippon Printing), financial services (Norinchukin Bank, GMO Financial, Asahi Mutual Life), retail/auto (IDOM), construction (Taisei Construction, Okumura Corporation), cosmetics (Shiseido), media (Asahi Shimbun), and higher education (Kobe University). Revenue is generated through annual SaaS subscriptions billed on custom enterprise pricing tied to user count and feature scope, supplemented by recurring customization revenue and project-based professional services revenue from training and consulting engagements.

The go-to-market is sales-led with enterprise field sales supported by content marketing, seminars, and downloadable resources; the company holds a customer referral partnership with Dai-ichi Life Insurance announced in February 2026. Operations are domestic-only, with headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, headcount in the 11-50 range, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for information security. The company is privately held with disclosed venture funding from Mobile Internet Capital and DBJ Capital totaling approximately $7.2M across rounds in 2019 and 2024.

Name

KAKEAI

Legal name

株式会社KAKEAI

Website

https://kakeai.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

KAKEAI is a Japanese B2B SaaS company that provides an AI-enabled 1on1 meeting management platform and adjacent customization, training, and consulting services to enterprise organizations across industries to improve manager-employee dialogue quality and employee engagement.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

HR and People Management Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Compliance, GRC Workflow & Audit Automation Platforms (HDAEAHAL)

Keywords

• One-on-one meeting software
• People management platform
• Employee engagement SaaS
• HR management tools
• Manager development software

Headquarters

HQ city

Kita

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

Revenue model

1. Kakeai 1on1 SaaS Tool Subscription: Core SaaS platform subscription for 1on1 meeting management, providing tools for quality improvement, burden reduction, and retention support. Subscription tiers based on organization size and feature requirements.
2. Professional Services - Training: Practical training programs designed with specific data and facts from hundreds of client implementations, covering management, communication, and 1on1 methodologies
3. Professional Services - Consulting: Comprehensive consulting covering 1on1 operation design, effectiveness measurement, retention, and activation promotion strategies
4. Customization Services: Customization of Kakeai 1on1 Tool to optimal specifications based on organizational environment and requirements, including data integration

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

KAKEAI develops and operates a cloud-based SaaS platform (the Kakeai 1on1 Tool) that helps managers and employees run more effective one-on-one meetings by improving dialogue quality and reducing the operational burden on managers. The platform is powered by patented 1on1 methodologies and AI trained on data from over 3 million 1on1 sessions, and is sold alongside customization, training, and consulting services to enterprise customers in Japan.

Product overview

KAKEAI offers a unified 1on1 support platform centered on the Kakeai 1on1 Tool SaaS product, complemented by three distinct service lines: Kakeai Customization (customization to organizational needs), Kakeai Training (practical seminars and training programs), and Kakeai Consulting (tool-independent advisory services). The Kakeai 1on1 Tool serves as the core platform, while the service offerings are positioned as separate but complementary solutions that work together to provide end-to-end support for 1on1 program design, execution, and optimization. Additionally, the company operates 1on1総研, an editorial media platform that publishes thought leadership on organizational change, management, and 1on1 best practices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• 1on1総研: 対話を通じた組織変革の実践知を提供するメディアプラットフォーム。1on1やマネジメント、組織開発に関する記事・コンテンツを配信。

Products and services

• Kakeai 1on1 Tool A cloud-based SaaS platform that helps managers and employees run more effective 1on1 meetings by improving conversation quality and reducing manager burden, using patented 1on1 methodologies and AI trained on over 3 million 1on1 sessions. Sold to enterprise HR and people-management teams across industries in Japan.
• Kakeai Customization (Kakeai カスタマイズ) A customization service that adapts the Kakeai 1on1 Tool to each organization's specific environment and requirements, including data integration and configuration of various quality-improvement and burden-reduction modules. Sold to enterprise customers on top of the core SaaS subscription.
• Kakeai Training (Kakeai トレーニング) Practical training programs for 1on1 implementation, management, and communication skills, designed using data and insights from hundreds of client companies and over 3 million 1on1 sessions. Sold to enterprise HR teams and managers.
• Kakeai Consulting (Kakeai コンサルティング) Comprehensive consulting covering 1on1 system design, effectiveness measurement, adoption support, and activation strategies, offered independently of the software tool. Sold to enterprise HR and organizational transformation leaders.
• 1on1 Soken (1on1総合研究所) A media platform operated by KAKEAI that publishes practical knowledge on organizational transformation through dialogue, covering management, human capital, and 1on1 practices. Functions as a content marketing and thought leadership platform supporting KAKEAI's enterprise sales funnel.

Quantifiable outcome

• 104,000+ organizations using the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• 第一生命chutz相互会社coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 February 2026Customer referral partnership for corporate 1on1 support services. First Life provides introductions to their corporate clients seeking 1on1 support solutions, expanding Kakeai's enterprise customer acquisition channels.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• BizReach (HRMOS): Japanese HR tech operator (BizReach, HRMOS) with suite products including 1-on-1 and engagement features. Domestic peer with broader HR scope competing for enterprise mindshare.
• Talentio: Japanese talent management SaaS covering recruitment, evaluation, and 1-on-1. Comparable Japanese peer addressing similar enterprise people-management use cases.
• HRBrain: Japanese HR tech platform offering HR data, talent management, and 1-on-1 support modules. Comparable Japanese peer competing for the same enterprise customers in the domestic market.
• SmartHR: Leading Japanese cloud HR and labor management platform with growing people-management features. A domestic scale player whose suite-style expansion could compete with KAKEAI's specialized 1-on-1 offering.

Broad incumbents

• Workday Peakon: Employee voice and engagement platform owned by Workday, serving enterprise HR with continuous listening and manager feedback tools. Broader incumbent with overlapping engagement and dialogue capabilities.
• Culture Amp: Australia-origin employee engagement and performance platform with 1-on-1 functionality within a broader HR suite. Larger incumbent with overlapping dialogue and engagement capabilities.

Direct peers

• Lattice: US performance and people management platform with dedicated 1-on-1 module. Directly competes in the same category of structured 1-on-1 and engagement tooling for enterprise HR teams.
• Reflektive: Continuous performance and 1-on-1 feedback platform for enterprises. Highly comparable on 1-on-1 workflow automation and manager-employee dialogue tooling.
• 15Five: US-based continuous performance management platform with a flagship 1-on-1 meeting product. Closest functional analog to KAKEAI's core offering, both focused on improving manager-employee 1-on-1 quality through structured tooling.

Others

• WingArc1st: Japanese enterprise software vendor in data and HR analytics. An ecosystem participant/adjoining HR-tech vendor whose customer base overlaps with KAKEAI's enterprise accounts.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/KAKEAI_Inc

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 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 KAKEAI