Nishika
Nishika is a Tokyo-based AI company that provides SecureMemo and SecureMemoCloud meeting transcription and summarization tools, with proprietary 'shirushi' Japanese speech recognition (96.2% accuracy). It targets Japanese government, defense, police, healthcare, and enterprises requiring secure on-premises AI deployments.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Nishika does
Nishika is a Tokyo-based AI company founded in May 2019 by former Nomura Research Institute consultants Yamashita Tatsuro (CEO) and Matsuda Yuki (CTO). It develops AI-powered meeting transcription and summarization software, operating two business lines: an AI Product business anchored by SecureMemo (an on-premises AI meeting minutes tool for fully offline environments) and SecureMemoCloud (a cloud SaaS version with a freemium-to-enterprise pricing model), and an AI Solution business delivering custom Private AI, Voice Recognition AI, and On-premise AI Agent development for high-security offline and closed-network deployments. Reference customers span Japanese prefectural police, central government ministries, the Defense Equipment Agency and related defense organizations, JAXA, regional banks such as Toyama Bank, hospitals such as Shinbeppu Hospital, and industrial firms including Kumiai Chemical and Sugatech.
Nishika's core technology is its proprietary speech recognition AI 'shirushi,' launched in April 2024 and built by fine-tuning OpenAI Whisper on 680,000 hours of multilingual data using Nishika's proprietary annotation rules applied to real Japanese business meeting audio; the company claims highest-in-class 96.2% accuracy on Japanese business meeting audio. SecureMemoCloud integrates GPT-4o for generative meeting minutes, and in November 2024 the company released 'ほぼ完議事録' (Nearly Complete Minutes), an industry-first feature that auto-generates near-final, consultant-grade meeting minutes directly from meeting audio. CTO Matsuda holds a registered patent on a combined voice recognition AI and closed-LLM speech processing system. The company also maintains 'AI Concierge,' an on-premises RAG-based chatbot, and an On-premises AI Agent product for closed-network environments, alongside the previously released Nishika Image Finder e-commerce image search tool.
Revenue derives from one-time SecureMemo perpetual licenses plus annual maintenance contracts, SecureMemoCloud subscription revenue (free personal tier plus paid enterprise plans), and professional services from custom AI solution engagements. Go-to-market blends a direct enterprise field-sales motion for government, defense, police, and regulated enterprise accounts with a self-serve/product-led funnel for SecureMemoCloud aimed at SMBs and individual users. The company holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and Privacy Mark (JIS Q 15001, No. 10825001(03)) certifications, and in July 2025 was selected for Phase 3 of the METI/NEDO GENIAC program to develop Small Language Models for secure local AI deployment in public, medical, and municipal sectors. Only one external capital event is publicly disclosed: a November 2020 seed round of approximately $793K from CyberAgent Capital and G-STARTUP. In February 2026 the company announced the discontinuation of its legacy Nishika Connect job-matching and data science competition services effective March 31, 2026, formally concentrating resources on AI products and solutions.
Nishika firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Nishika
- Legal name
- Nishika株式会社
- Website
- https://nishika.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Nishika is a Tokyo-based AI company that provides SecureMemo and SecureMemoCloud meeting transcription and summarization tools, with proprietary 'shirushi' Japanese speech recognition (96.2% accuracy). It targets Japanese government, defense, police, healthcare, and enterprises requiring secure on-premises AI deployments.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Nishika industry classification
Industry- Product category
- AI Meeting Transcription Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- On-Device Speech & Audio AI (wake word, ASR, enhancement) (HDAAAJAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Conversational AI Platforms (chat/voice bots, orchestration) (HDAAAFAC), Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG), AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)
Keywords
Where Nishika is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Tokyo
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
Nishika business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- AI Product Business - SecureMemo: On-premises AI meeting transcription software sold as perpetual license with deployment options (standalone, USB dongle, client-server). Revenue from software licenses and annual maintenance/support contracts.
- AI Product Business - SecureMemoCloud: Cloud-based AI meeting transcription SaaS with subscription model offering personal free tier and paid enterprise plans with unlimited usage.
- AI Product Business - AI Concierge: On-premises offline AI chat and RAG software for enterprise clients requiring secure internal knowledge management.
- AI Solution Business: Custom AI development services including private AI implementation, voice recognition AI customization, and on-premises AI agent development for organizations with high security requirements.
- Private AI Services: Finetuning, RAG, and agent architecture implementation for offline/closed-network high-security environments serving police, defense, and government clients.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Personal/Free Plan - Free access to SecureMemoCloud |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise Plan - Unlimited usage for organizations |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Nishika product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Nishika develops and sells AI-powered meeting transcription software — SecureMemo (on-premises/offline version) and SecureMemoCloud (cloud SaaS) — using its proprietary 'shirushi' Japanese speech recognition AI and GPT-4o-based summarization. It also delivers custom Private AI development, Voice Recognition AI, and On-premises AI Agent solutions for closed-network, high-security environments, plus an on-premises RAG chatbot called AI Concierge.
Product overview
Nishika operates a dual-axis business model combining AI product and AI solution services. The core product portfolio centers on AI meeting minutes tools: SecureMemo (on-premises/offline version) and SecureMemoCloud (cloud version), both utilizing proprietary speech recognition AI 'shirushi' with 96.2% accuracy. The portfolio also includes AI Concierge (on-premises RAG-powered chatbot) and Nishika Image Finder (discontinued EC search AI). Supporting services include Private AI, Voice Recognition AI, and On-premises AI Agent solutions. Nishika's competitive differentiation lies in specialized AI for Japanese business contexts, on-premises/closed-network deployment capabilities for high-security environments (police, defense, government agencies), and fusion of speech recognition AI with generative AI for meeting minutes creation.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- SecureMemo: On-premises AI meeting minutes software for offline transcription with high security, used by police, government agencies, and enterprises.
- SecureMemoCloud
- AIコンシェルジュ
- Nishika Image Finder
Products and services
- SecureMemo (SecureMemo On-premises) On-premises AI meeting transcription software that performs speech recognition and AI summarization entirely within the customer's closed network with no external cloud transmission. Targets police, defense, central ministries, financial institutions, hospitals, and large enterprises with strict data security policies; reported 97.2% customer retention rate.
- SecureMemoCloud Cloud-based AI meeting transcription SaaS using the proprietary 'shirushi' speech recognition AI (96.2% claimed accuracy for Japanese business meetings) and GPT-4o summarization. Features speaker identification, speech content editing, search/filter/replace, and approximately 100-language translation. Sold via a free personal plan and a paid unlimited-usage enterprise plan.
- AI Concierge (AIコンシェルジュ)
Quantifiable outcome
- 97.2% customer retention rate for SecureMemo on-premises solution
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Nishika
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Nishika technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature7 records
Nishika partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.
- Lively合同会社 (Lively LLC)minorPartnership for development and social implementation of forest CO2 absorption quantification and visualization system using satellite imagery and remote sensing technology. Nishika provides AI capabilities for CO2 absorption analysis while Lively contributes remote sensing technology. Published in Mainichi Shimbun.
- 株式会社アイデミー (Aidemy Inc.)minorCollaboration in data science training field. Both companies leverage their expertise to promote data science human resource development and provide practical learning opportunities. Partnership combining Nishika's AI technology with Aidemy's training platform.
- コムデザイン社 (ComDesign)minorPartnership for ContactCenter MashUp BOX 2024 event. ComDesign partnered with Nishika for voice AI demonstrations at their first real event, featuring SecureMemo and SecureMemoCloud solutions.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Nishika competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Notta: Notta is a leading Japanese AI meeting transcription SaaS offering real-time transcription, summarization, and multi-language support. Directly competes with SecureMemoCloud for Japanese cloud-based meeting transcription users and SMB/individual customers.
- Empath: Empath specializes in Japanese voice emotion recognition and speech AI, including call center applications where Nishika also positions its products. Competes in Japanese voice AI infrastructure for enterprise and contact center use cases.
- Advanced Media (AmiVoice): Advanced Media's AmiVoice is one of Japan's most established speech recognition engines, widely used for medical, legal, and call center transcription. Competes with Nishika in Japanese ASR accuracy and enterprise/departmental verticals, with deeper penetration in healthcare.
- Otter.ai: Otter.ai is a global leader in AI meeting transcription and note-taking. While English-first, it competes internationally in the same product category and represents the type of well-funded global competitor Nishika faces as Otter expands into additional languages and markets.
- Rimo: Rimo provides Japanese-language AI meeting transcription and summarization targeted at enterprise sales teams and business meetings. Direct competitor in the Japanese cloud meeting transcription market with similar AI summarization focus.
Broad incumbents
- Zoom Communications: Zoom's AI Companion provides built-in meeting transcription, summarization, and action item extraction directly within the video conferencing platform. Major incumbent competitor due to bundling with already-ubiquitous Zoom deployments in Japanese enterprises.
- Microsoft (Microsoft 365 Copilot / Teams): Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot include built-in meeting transcription and AI summarization features. Represents the largest incumbent threat due to bundled enterprise distribution and improving Japanese language capabilities.
- Google (Gemini / Google Meet): Google Meet and Gemini offer built-in meeting transcription, note-taking, and AI summarization integrated into Google Workspace. Significant incumbent competitor leveraging global AI infrastructure and Japanese enterprise presence.
Emerging players
- Sakana AI: Sakana AI is a prominent Japanese AI research company developing foundation models, including Small Language Models. Relevant comparison as another Japanese AI company selected for GENIAC and competing for Japanese sovereign AI positioning and government contracts.
Others
- Aidemy: Aidemy is a Japanese AI/data science education platform that has a strategic partnership with Nishika for data science training. Related Japanese AI ecosystem player with overlapping founder networks (also ex-consulting backgrounds) and similar AI/data positioning.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Nishika social profiles
Digital presenceNishika compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Nishika financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Nishika leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Nishika funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Nishika 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 Nishika
What does Nishika do?
Nishika develops and sells AI-powered meeting transcription software — SecureMemo (on-premises/offline version) and SecureMemoCloud (cloud SaaS) — using its proprietary 'shirushi' Japanese speech recognition AI and GPT-4o-based summarization. It also delivers custom Private AI development, Voice Recognition AI, and On-premises AI Agent solutions for closed-network, high-security environments, plus an on-premises RAG chatbot called AI Concierge.
Is Nishika a public or private company?
Nishika is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Nishika founded?
Nishika was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Nishika based?
Nishika is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Nishika make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. AI Product Business - SecureMemo is the primary driver. The others are AI Product Business - SecureMemoCloud, AI Product Business - AI Concierge, AI Solution Business and private AI Services.
Who are Nishika's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Notta, Empath, Advanced Media (AmiVoice), Otter.ai and Rimo. Broad incumbents are Zoom Communications, Microsoft (Microsoft 365 Copilot / Teams) and Google (Gemini / Google Meet). Sakana AI is listed as an emerging player. Aidemy is listed as an others.
Does Nishika have an API?
No public API is recorded for Nishika.
What industry is Nishika in?
Nishika's product category is AI Meeting Transcription Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAJAF, On-Device Speech & Audio AI (wake word, ASR, enhancement), with a secondary code of HDAAAFAC, Conversational AI Platforms (chat/voice bots, orchestration). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.