Ibis

What Ibis does

Ibis Inc. (株式会社アイビス) is a Japan-based mobile technology company founded on May 11, 2000, and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market (Code: 9343) since March 23, 2023. The company operates two distinct product lines: a consumer-facing digital painting application (ibisPaint) and an enterprise B2B cloud services platform (ibisWorks). ibisPaint is a cross-platform digital illustration app available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Huawei AppGallery, with 540 million cumulative downloads across 200+ countries as of May 2026, and approximately 40 million monthly active users. ibisWorks offers enterprise cloud storage (ibisStorage) with zero-trust security and AI-powered meeting transcription (ibisScribe). The company maintains offices in Tokyo (Chuo-ku), Nagoya (regional HQ relocated May 2026), and Osaka, with 190 disclosed contract workers across the three offices.

The company's core technology stack is built around a proprietary GPU-accelerated mobile painting engine written in C++, supporting pressure-sensitive brush input, vector layers, and animation functionality. AI capabilities include deep learning-based automatic coloring (released 2017), AI super-resolution upscaling (June 2023), and a distinctive "AI learning obstruction" feature (May 2024) that adds protective noise to artwork to degrade output from AI models trained on scraped creator content. ibisStorage integrates AI-OCR (leveraging the ChatGPT API) to extract structured fields from receipts and invoices for Japanese electronic bookkeeping compliance. The company holds ISO/IEC 27001 (ISMS), ISO/IEC 27017 (cloud security), Privacy Mark, and JIIMA electronic bookkeeping certifications, supporting its enterprise go-to-market.

Ibis's business model combines multiple revenue streams: a freemium consumer model with ad-supported free tiers (ibisPaint X), paid app downloads at 980 JPY per platform, and premium subscriptions at 300 JPY/month or 2,980 JPY/year; marketplace commissions from Apple App Store, Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Huawei AppGallery; B2B subscription revenue from ibisWorks (ibisStorage Standard at 600 JPY/user/month, Enterprise at 1,400 JPY/user/month, plus unlimited-seat tiers); a historical IT engineer dispatch business (190 contract workers with disclosed margin rates of 42.7–47.4%); and contracted software development services. Approximately 90% of ibisPaint users are international, and primary customer segments span Gen Z/Gen Alpha individual creators, professional illustrators and studios, educational institutions (via ibisPaint Edu), and Japanese SMBs requiring compliant document storage.

Name

Ibis

Legal name

株式会社アイビス

Website

https://ibis.ne.jp

Company type

Public

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Ibis is a Japanese mobile technology company that develops and operates ibisPaint, a globally popular digital painting app with 540 million cumulative downloads, alongside the ibisWorks B2B cloud platform offering zero-trust storage (ibisStorage) and AI meeting transcription (ibisScribe) for Japanese enterprises.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Art Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210), Graphic Design Services (54143)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Pens, Pencils & Other Artists' Materials (3950)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Integration & Orchestration Platforms (Connectors, Workflow, iPaaS for AI) (HDAEANAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

iPaaS & Workflow Automation (BPAMAOAB)

Keywords

• Mobile painting software
• Digital illustration apps
• Enterprise cloud storage
• AI meeting transcription
• Contract software development

Headquarters

HQ city

Nagoya

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. ibisPaint Premium Subscriptions: Freemium model with basic free features and premium paid tier; premium includes advanced brush sets, materials, AI tools, and exclusive features; monthly subscription at 300 JPY per month for premium membership
2. App Store Commissions: Revenue share from paid app downloads (980 JPY for paid versions) and premium subscriptions through Apple App Store, Google Play, Microsoft Store, and Huawei AppGallery
3. ibisWorks Enterprise Cloud Services: B2B cloud storage (ibisStorage) and AI meeting transcription (ibisScribe) sold to enterprises with per-user or unlimited-user pricing tiers
4. B2B Contracted Development: Custom software development services for enterprise clients alongside IT technician dispatch services
5. Advertising Revenue: Ad revenue from free app users; user behavior analytics shared with sponsors for targeted advertising

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Ibis develops and operates the ibisPaint mobile digital painting app — a cross-platform illustration tool with over 540 million cumulative downloads across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Huawei devices — along with the ibisWorks enterprise cloud services platform offering ibisStorage (zero-trust cloud storage with AI-OCR for electronic bookkeeping) and ibisScribe (AI meeting transcription). The company additionally provides contracted mobile app development and IT technician dispatch services.

Product overview

Ibis operates two distinct product lines: (1) Consumer digital art: ibisPaint — a mobile-first painting app available as free (ibisPaint X) and premium versions across iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac, plus ibisPaint Edu for educational institutions; and (2) Enterprise B2B: ibisWorks — a cloud services platform comprising AI meeting minutes service ibisScribe and zero-trust cloud storage ibisStorage. The company also maintains historical legacy products (ibisBrowser series, ibisMail) which are discontinued. The portfolio spans C2C illustration/social (ibisPaint community), B2C subscription (ibisPaint premium), and B2B SaaS (ibisWorks enterprise tools).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Cumulative downloads reached 540 million globally (May 2026)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability8 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• QUICK (株式会社QUICK)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 14 May 2026QUICK Research Net, a web media operated by Nikkei Group company QUICK, featured ibisPaint and company business strategy in their 'Trend Selection' article series. Article highlighted ibisPaint's global growth through word-of-mouth and community features, reaching 40 million MAU, plus future growth strategies including AI integration and subscription monetization.
• JETRO Nagoya (Japan External Trade Organization)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2026Participated in foreign media press tour organized by JETRO Nagoya and Foreign Press Center Japan (FPCJ); part of international promotion efforts to showcase Japanese mobile apps globally.
• Wacom Co., Ltd.coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 9 December 2025ibisPaint pre-installed on Wacom MovinkPad series tablets as exclusive drawing app; comes with 180-day premium membership bonus for enhanced drawing experience. Strategic hardware bundling to reach professional artists and creators.
• NIJIN Afterschool (合同会社NIJIN)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 December 2025Collaboration with metaverse-based after-school program for digital art education; held illustration contest for elementary/middle school students themed 'Ideal Vtuber' using ibisPaint.
• Techno-Speech Co., Ltd. (株式会社テクノスピーチ)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 August 2025Ibis acquired Techno-Speech (VoiSona brand) as subsidiary to expand into AI voice/speech synthesis market; synergy between ibisPaint animation features and voice synthesis technology for content creation.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Emerging players

• Krita Foundation (Krita): Krita is a free, open-source professional painting application popular with concept artists and illustrators on desktop. It competes with ibisPaint's premium tier on price (free) within the professional creator segment, though it lacks ibisPaint's mobile-first product advantage.
• Otter.ai: Otter.ai is an AI meeting transcription and notes service targeting enterprise and SMB meeting workflows. It is directly comparable to ibisScribe as an AI-powered meeting minutes product competing for the same B2B productivity customer base.

Broad incumbents

• Picsart: Picsart is a mobile-first creative tools platform with AI-powered photo editing, drawing, and design tools. While broader than illustration, its freemium mobile model, social community features, and AI creative tooling directly overlap with ibisPaint's product-led growth and consumer creator positioning.
• Canva: Canva is the dominant consumer-friendly graphic design platform offering templates, drawing tools, and AI image generation. It overlaps with ibisPaint on casual creator segments and is rapidly encroaching on illustration workflows with Magic Studio and AI features.
• Box Inc. Box is an enterprise cloud storage and content management platform with strong compliance certifications (HIPAA, FedRAMP). It is comparable to ibisStorage as a secure enterprise cloud storage solution, though Box operates at global scale versus ibisStorage's Japan-SMB focus.
• Adobe (Fresco & Creative Cloud): Adobe's Fresco drawing app and broader Creative Cloud suite serve the same professional and prosumer illustration market as ibisPaint, but as part of a much larger creative software portfolio. Adobe bundles Fresco with Creative Cloud subscriptions, leveraging enterprise-wide distribution that ibisPaint lacks.
• Autodesk Sketchbook: Autodesk Sketchbook is a free cross-platform drawing app from Autodesk serving hobbyist and professional illustrators. As a free incumbent with established brand recognition, it competes for ibisPaint's indie creator audience particularly on desktop platforms.

Direct peers

• MediBang (MediBang Inc.): MediBang Paint is a Japanese-developed free cross-platform illustration app (mobile + desktop) targeting the same teen and amateur manga/digital art demographic as ibisPaint. Its freemium model with optional Pro subscription directly competes for the lower end of ibisPaint's user base.
• Celsys (Clip Studio Paint): Clip Studio Paint is the leading professional illustration and manga creation software from Japanese developer Celsys. It shares ibisPaint's anime/manga-focused user base and expanding mobile/desktop cross-platform strategy, with subscription and perpetual licensing models that directly compete for professional illustrators.
• Procreate (Savage Interactive): Procreate is the dominant professional digital illustration app on iPad, the closest direct competitor to ibisPaint in the mobile/tablet drawing category. It targets a similar creator demographic with a one-time purchase model and overlapping feature set (brushes, layers, animation), making it the natural head-to-head for ibisPaint on iOS.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights8 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ibisPaint
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCo2EevPr79_Ux66GACESAkQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/ibisPaint
• Instagraminstagram.com/ibispaint_official
• TikToktiktok.com/@ibispaint_official0621

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Ibis