Takao AI

What Takao AI does

Takao AI (TAKAO AI 株式会社) is a Tokyo-based private company founded in February 2021 by students of Tokyo Kosen (Tokyo National College of Technology) in Hachioji. Its flagship product, Tendoc (:::doc/てんどっく), is a deep learning-powered braille translation system that uses image recognition to scan printed materials and convert them into braille documents in minutes, addressing a pain point where traditional braille translation costs thousands of yen per page and takes 1-2 weeks. The product is offered as a free consumer-facing demo, a smartphone/tablet application, and a B2B platform (Tendoc Platform for Web/Doc) that incorporates OpenAI's GPT-3.5 integration, targeting organizations that serve visually impaired clients and government accessibility programs.

The company monetizes through three streams: SaaS subscriptions for the Tendoc Platform, commissioned development projects with public facilities and stores (used to collect training data and pilot deployments), and — most recently — transaction fees on its Yatai AI application marketplace, an alpha-stage platform launched in August 2023 that allows developers to monetize AI applications via token-based consumption and OAuth integration. Distribution runs through self-serve web demos, a channel partnership with Nishikawa Communications Corporation, government pilot programs (e.g., Bunkyo Ward), and a developer Discord community for Yatai. Capital structure is anchored by a ¥100 million grant from the DCON Start Up ¥1 Billion Fund (JDLA-administered) in October 2021, the fund's first-ever investment, with no subsequent institutional round disclosed.

Name

Takao AI

Legal name

TAKAO AI 株式会社

Website

https://takao.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Takao AI builds Tendoc, a deep learning-powered braille translation system that converts scanned printed materials into braille for visually impaired users, offered as consumer demos, a B2B platform, and the Yatai AI application marketplace.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Accessible AI / Braille Translation Software

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Vision Assistive Technology (Screen Readers, Braille, Magnification) (EDAKAIAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Generative AI & LLM Solutions Services (RAG, Agents, Copilots) (BPAEAHAG), LLMOps & Generative AI Platforms (Prompt/Agent Orchestration, RAG) (HDAEANAD)

Keywords

• Braille translation software
• Accessibility AI software
• Document conversion services
• AI application marketplace
• Visual impairment assistance

Headquarters

HQ city

Hachioji

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Tendoc Platform (Software Service): SaaS platform for visual impairment accessibility. Tendoc Platform for Web/Doc with GPT integration offered to B2B customers (organizations serving visually impaired).
2. Yatai Marketplace Commission: Token-based consumption model where users purchase tokens to use various AI applications. Developers monetize via token consumption. Platform takes commission on transactions.
3. Commissioned Development Services: Accepts commissioned development projects from public facilities and stores to collect data and flexibly introduce services to society while developing the braille translation engine.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Takao AI develops and operates the Tendoc (:::doc) automatic braille translation engine, which uses image recognition and AI/deep learning to convert scanned printed materials into braille documents in minutes for visually impaired users, available via a consumer-facing free demo, a smartphone/tablet version, and the B2B Tendoc Platform for Web/Doc with GPT-3.5 integration. The company also operates Yatai, a token-based AI application marketplace platform that enables third-party developers to monetize AI-powered software through OAuth-based authentication and per-usage token consumption.

Product overview

TAKAO AI offers a portfolio centered on accessibility solutions for visually impaired individuals, anchored by the Tendoc braille translation product line. The core Tendoc system converts printed materials to braille via scanner and AI processing. This is available as a consumer-facing demo (Tendoc v2), a B2B platform (Tendoc Platform for Web/Doc), and a smartphone application. Separately, Yatai is an AI application marketplace enabling developers to monetize their own applications through token-based usage.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• :::doc (てんどっく): An automated braille translation system that allows visually impaired users to independently scan printed materials and convert them into braille documents using image recognition and AI technology. Previously won Best Award at the National College of Technology Programming Contest (2019) and DCON 2020.
• Tendoc Platform
• Tendoc
• Yatai (屋台)

Products and services

• Tendoc (:::doc / てんどっく) AI-powered automatic braille translation system that lets visually impaired users scan printed materials with a scanner and have the content automatically converted to braille in minutes. Uses image recognition and AI/deep learning to extract text from documents and translate it to braille. Marketed to individual visually impaired users as a self-serve solution to read everyday printed materials independently.
• Tendoc Platform for Web/Doc B2B-focused braille translation platform for organizations serving visually impaired individuals. Provides Tendoc Platform with GPT-3.5-turbo integration to offer accessible document workflows in Web/Doc environments. Distributed via direct and channel partnerships (e.g., Nishikawa Communications Corporation).
• Tendoc v2 Second version of the Tendoc braille translation engine, available as a free demo at https://v2.demo.takao.ai, providing an improved engine for visually impaired users to translate printed materials into braille.
• Yatai (屋台) Experimental AI application marketplace platform that enables individual and corporate developers to easily list and monetize AI-powered software through an OAuth-based authentication system and a token-based consumption model. End users buy tokens to access various AI applications on the platform. Designed to solve the problem of niche AI apps being financially unsustainable due to high API costs.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• 東京都文京区和光地区地区cimiento (Bunkyo Ward)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 February 2023Selected for Bunkyo Ward's 'B+ Administrative Collaboration Support' program for development service demonstration. The project validates Takao AI's service through administrative collaboration with Bunkyo Ward.
• 西川コミュニケーションズ株式会社 (Nishikawa Communications Corporation)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 January 2023Business partnership signed 2023-01-24 with 西川コミュニケーションズ株式会社 (based in Nagoya, Aichi) to provide appropriate information services for visually impaired and improve information accessibility. The partnership includes providing a visual impairment accessible version of Tendoc Platform.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Hugging Face: Hugging Face operates an AI model and application hub where developers publish and monetize AI applications. Functionally comparable to Takao AI's Yatai marketplace for AI app distribution and developer monetization, with established network effects.
• NV Access (NVDA Screen Reader): NVDA is the leading free open-source screen reader for blind users, converting on-screen text to speech/braille. Directly comparable as a software-based text-to-braille/text-to-accessible-output solution for visually impaired users, and a benchmark for Tendoc on desktop workflows.
• Replicate: Replicate is a cloud platform for running and monetizing AI models/applications via API consumption. Directly comparable to Yatai's token-based AI app marketplace and developer monetization focus.
• OrCam: OrCam builds AI-powered wearable devices (MyEye) that read text aloud and identify objects for blind and visually impaired users. Highly comparable to Takao AI's Tendoc as both apply AI/computer vision to translate printed text into an accessible format for visually impaired end users.
• Aira: Aira provides on-demand visual interpretation for blind users via smart glasses connected to trained remote agents. Direct overlap in serving visually impaired users needing help accessing visual/printed information, although Aira uses human agents rather than AI-only translation like Tendoc.
• Be My Eyes: Be My Eyes is a smartphone app connecting blind/low-vision users with sighted volunteers (and increasingly AI agents) for visual assistance. Direct overlap with Tendoc's mission of enabling visually impaired users to independently access printed/visual information, especially through AI.
• Envision: Envision develops AI smart-glasses and a mobile app that reads text, recognizes faces, and describes scenes for visually impaired users. Comparable product/customer overlap with Takao AI: AI vision-to-text accessibility for blind/low-vision individuals.

Others

• ABBYY: ABBYY provides enterprise OCR and document AI (FineReader, Vantage) used to convert scanned documents into machine-readable text. Comparable underlying technology layer to Tendoc's image-recognition-to-braille pipeline, and a potential upstream technology partner or competitor for document AI components.

Broad incumbents

• Freedom Scientific (JAWS): JAWS is the dominant commercial screen reader globally, providing braille and speech output for visually impaired users. Comparable in core functionality (digital-to-braille) and overlapping customer base, though operating at much larger scale and broader product portfolio.
• Microsoft Seeing AI: Microsoft's Seeing AI is a free mobile app that narrates the visual world (text, people, objects) for blind users. As a major incumbent offering bundled AI-driven visual accessibility, it competes broadly with Tendoc's value proposition while leveraging distribution via Microsoft's ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TAKAOAI_SOCIAL

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

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 Takao AI