CoA Nexus
CoA Nexus operates an AI-powered matching and recruitment platform for R&D professionals, using paper and patent analysis to connect researchers with deep tech companies and academic institutions across Japan and globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersItabashi, Japan
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What CoA Nexus does
CoA Nexus is a Tokyo-based deep tech talent platform that operates AI-powered matching and recruitment services for R&D professionals and the companies and academic institutions seeking them. The company was founded in September 2020 by Kota Nozaki (originally as Srust Inc., renamed to CoA Nexus in 2023) and maintains a US office in Menlo Park alongside its Japanese headquarters in central Tokyo.
Its core technology is an AI system that automatically analyzes over 30 million research papers and 1 million patents to extract technical keywords and generate expertise scores, enabling objective, publication-based profiling of more than 3 million R&D professionals worldwide. This data layer powers CoA Atlas, a next-generation AI matching platform, and CoA Career, a Japan-focused R&D recruitment platform supporting full-time hiring, outsourcing, consulting, and collaborative research arrangements. The portfolio is rounded out by CoA Accel (startup creation and industry-academia collaboration support) and CoA Study (a media platform for R&D careers).
The business model is B2B subscription-based, with enterprise clients paying from JPY 200,000/month (12-month contract term, annual billing preferred) for access to the matching platform and database, while researcher registration is free. The company serves deep tech startups, large enterprises in biotech, AI, semiconductor, and renewable energy, as well as universities and national research institutes. As of October 2025, CoA Nexus had raised approximately JPY 500 million cumulatively (including a JPY 300 million Series A) from investors including Lotte Ventures Japan, Innovation Engine, Hakuhodo, and BlueSeed, and holds a paid employment placement business license in Japan.
CoA Nexus firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- CoA Nexus
- Legal name
- 株式会社CoA Nexus
- Website
- https://coanexus.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- CoA Nexus operates an AI-powered matching and recruitment platform for R&D professionals, using paper and patent analysis to connect researchers with deep tech companies and academic institutions across Japan and globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
CoA Nexus industry classification
Industry- Product category
- R&D Talent Matching Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)
- SIC
- Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Augmented Analytics & AI-Assisted BI (NLQ/NLG, Insights) (HDAEAMAD)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Data Exploration & Ad-Hoc Query Tools (HDAEAMAL)
Keywords
Where CoA Nexus is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Itabashi
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices2 records
Markets served
CoA Nexus business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Enterprise Recruitment Services: B2B recruitment services where companies pay for access to the R&D talent database, scouting support, and matching services. Pricing starts at JPY 200,000/month for CoA Atlas enterprise access.
- CoA Atlas Platform Subscription: Monthly subscription model for enterprise clients accessing the AI-powered matching platform. Contract term is 12 months with annual billing preferred. Credit card (Stripe) and bank transfer payment options available.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | CoA Atlas Enterprise Access - Starting tier |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels4 records
CoA Nexus product offering
Product offeringCore offering
CoA Nexus operates an AI-powered matching platform that connects R&D professionals with companies and academic institutions seeking specialized talent. Its core offering, CoA Atlas, analyzes over 30 million research papers and 1 million patents to score researcher expertise and enable targeted search and outreach for hiring, outsourcing, consulting, advisor selection, partner discovery, and R&D trend analysis. The platform is free for researchers to register and monetize through enterprise subscription fees.
Product overview
CoA Nexus operates a platform ecosystem specialized for the deep tech and R&D sector, comprising four interconnected services: CoA Career (the primary researcher recruitment and matching platform), CoA Atlas (the AI-powered next-generation matching platform with paper/patent analysis capabilities), CoA Accel (businessization and startup support), and CoA Study (a media platform for researcher career content). The portfolio serves the full lifecycle of R&D talent acquisition, from recruitment and matching to collaboration and career development, with CoA Career and CoA Atlas forming the core talent discovery engines, CoA Accel providing ancillary support services, and CoA Study serving as a content and engagement platform.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- CoA Career: R&D-focused talent acquisition and recruitment support platform connecting researchers with companies and academic institutions.
- CoA Atlas
- CoA Accel
- CoA Study
Products and services
- CoA Atlas AI-powered matching platform that analyzes over 30 million research papers and 1 million patents to score R&D researcher expertise by technical keyword, enabling rapid search and outreach for talent acquisition, outsourcing, advisor selection, partner discovery, and R&D trend analysis. Used by enterprise clients and academic institutions to find specialized R&D talent; researchers register for free.
- CoA Career R&D-focused recruitment support service connecting companies and research institutions with specialized researchers in academia and industry worldwide. The largest researcher platform in Japan with 300,000+ registered researchers, supporting mid-career recruitment, outsourcing contracts, spot consulting, and collaborative research matching globally. Targets both enterprise clients (CoA Career for Biz) and individual researchers (CoA Career for researchers).
- CoA Accel Multi-faceted support service for companies, academia, and researchers covering all phases of R&D including businessization support, industry-academia collaboration, and deep tech startup creation. Leverages a database of approximately 3 million R&D professionals to support team building and accelerate technology social implementation.
Quantifiable outcome
- 89% of registered researchers receive first offer within 3 months
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use CoA Nexus
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
CoA Nexus technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability5 records
Feature4 records
CoA Nexus partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Beyond Next VenturescoreCo-organizer of TECHNIUM Global Conference 2026, a deep tech conference bringing together researchers, companies, and investors. Beyond Next Ventures is a Japanese venture capital firm specializing in deep tech startups.
- Dentsu (株式会社電通)coreCo-organizer of TECHNIUM Global Conference 2026. Dentsu, one of Japan's largest advertising agencies, contributes to conference promotion and ecosystem building for deep tech innovation.
- Korundamu (コランダム株式会社)minorCo-organizer of TECHNIUM Global Conference 2026 alongside CoA Nexus, Beyond Next Ventures, and Dentsu.
- HakuhodocoreCapital and business alliance with Hakuhodo, a major Japanese advertising and communications company. The partnership aims to strengthen recruitment, marketing, and product development including global expansion initiatives.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
CoA Nexus competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI operates an AI-powered talent intelligence platform focused on skills-based matching, talent acquisition, and workforce planning for enterprises. It is a direct competitor to CoA Atlas's AI expertise-matching thesis and competes for the same enterprise HR-tech buyers, though it is broader in scope than R&D specialization.
- HireEZ (formerly Hiretual): HireEZ is an AI-powered outbound talent sourcing platform that aggregates candidate data from multiple sources for recruiting teams. It competes with CoA Atlas for AI-driven talent matching budgets at enterprise customers, with stronger US-market presence but less R&D-specific expertise scoring.
- SeekOut: SeekOut is an AI-driven talent search platform with deep technical / engineering candidate sourcing capabilities, including GitHub and publication-aware profiles. It directly competes with CoA Atlas for technical recruiting teams and has more mature enterprise sales coverage in North America.
- Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent): Wellfound is a startup and tech-company-focused talent marketplace with strong traction among venture-backed and deep-tech employers. It competes with CoA Career for the deep-tech startup recruiting segment, particularly in the US market, though it lacks publication/patent-derived expertise signals.
- researchmap: researchmap is a Japan-based researcher profile platform operated by JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) covering over 300,000 Japanese researchers with publication-derived profiles. It is the closest direct competitor to CoA Career / Atlas in Japan for academic researcher profiles, though it lacks CoA's patent data and enterprise matching layer.
- JREC-IN Portal: JREC-IN is the Japan Research Career Information Network operated by JST, providing a free job board for academic and research positions in Japan. It directly competes with CoA Career in the Japanese researcher recruitment market and benefits from government affiliation and free access for academic institutions.
Broad incumbents
- iCIMS: iCIMS is an enterprise talent acquisition platform offering candidate sourcing, CRM, and onboarding tools to large employers including tech and life sciences companies. It competes for the same enterprise recruiting budgets as CoA Atlas, though it focuses on broader ATS/CRM functionality rather than R&D-specific expertise matching.
- LinkedIn (Microsoft): LinkedIn is the dominant global professional network with deep AI-driven recruiting features (Recruiter, Talent Insights) used heavily by R&D hiring managers. It competes with CoA Atlas as a broad talent platform with vastly larger reach, though it lacks CoA's deep-tech specialization and patent/publication-derived expertise scoring.
- Recruit Holdings (Indeed, LinkedIn competitor): Recruit Holdings owns Indeed and operates one of the world's largest HR service and job marketplace portfolios with deep presence in Japan (Indeed Japan, Rikunabi). It is a broad incumbent with the resources and data scale to enter any R&D recruitment vertical, posing a structural competitive threat to CoA Nexus's Japanese market position.
Emerging players
- AcademicLabs: AcademicLabs is an AI-driven expert-finding platform that builds researcher profiles from publications and grants for R&D and innovation teams. It is an emerging peer to CoA Atlas in the publication-derived expertise matching category, primarily serving European customers with a comparable go-to-market to CoA's enterprise motion.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks8 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
CoA Nexus social profiles
Digital presenceCoA Nexus financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
CoA Nexus leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
CoA Nexus funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
CoA Nexus 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 CoA Nexus
What does CoA Nexus do?
CoA Nexus operates an AI-powered matching platform that connects R&D professionals with companies and academic institutions seeking specialized talent. Its core offering, CoA Atlas, analyzes over 30 million research papers and 1 million patents to score researcher expertise and enable targeted search and outreach for hiring, outsourcing, consulting, advisor selection, partner discovery, and R&D trend analysis. The platform is free for researchers to register and monetize through enterprise subscription fees.
Is CoA Nexus a public or private company?
CoA Nexus is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was CoA Nexus founded?
CoA Nexus was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is CoA Nexus based?
CoA Nexus is headquartered in Itabashi, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does CoA Nexus make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Enterprise Recruitment Services are the primary driver. The others are coA Atlas Platform Subscription.
Who are CoA Nexus's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Eightfold AI, HireEZ (formerly Hiretual), SeekOut, Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent), researchmap and JREC-IN Portal. Broad incumbents are iCIMS, LinkedIn (Microsoft) and Recruit Holdings (Indeed, LinkedIn competitor). AcademicLabs is listed as an emerging player.
Does CoA Nexus have an API?
No public API is recorded for CoA Nexus.
What industry is CoA Nexus in?
CoA Nexus's product category is R&D Talent Matching Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAMAD, Augmented Analytics & AI-Assisted BI (NLQ/NLG, Insights), with a secondary code of HDAEAMAL, Data Exploration & Ad-Hoc Query Tools. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 8742.