Arclev

What Arclev does

Arclev is a Tokyo-based academic consulting agency that operates as an intermediary between Japanese companies and academic researchers, with a stated mission of strengthening Japan's R&D ecosystem by channeling industry funding into academia. Founded in 2019 by Makoto Asai (CEO, a Keio University Project Professor and former Columbia University postdoc), Mari Hirata (PR strategist and founder of the Freelance Association Japan), Hirokazu Miyoshi (serial entrepreneur), and Naoto Tsuru (BPO operator), the company sells five B2B professional services: Researcher Assignment (embedding part-time PhD-level researchers into client R&D teams), Evidence Acquisition (scientific validation and experimental design), Workshops (expert-facilitated brainstorming), Prototype Proposal (researcher-led ideation and prototyping), and Visiting Lectures (cutting-edge knowledge transfer). The company's underlying platform is the AASN (Arclev Academia Strategist Network), a curated network of young researchers from universities worldwide spanning biology, medicine, engineering, materials, AI, environmental science, agribio, and decarbonization — the network being the primary asset, rather than any software infrastructure.

Arclev's revenue mechanics are entirely professional-services based: each engagement is bespoke and quote-priced, with no public pricing, subscription, or marketplace layer. The go-to-market is sales-led and consultative, targeting three horizontal customer segments in Japan — large enterprises seeking specialized talent augmentation, SMEs lacking dedicated R&D departments, and startups needing rapid access to scientific expertise. Distribution is direct B2B only; there are no resellers, marketplaces, or self-serve channels. The company is privately held, has 1–10 employees, and is headquartered at CIC Tokyo in Toranomon Hills Business Tower. Co-founders Makoto Asai, Mari Hirata, and Hirokazu Miyoshi collectively control the entity, with advisory input from Junji Kido (Yamagata University, organic electronics) and Yuichi Tei (University of Tokyo, biomedical engineering). No external funding rounds, M&A activity, partnerships, patents, or revenue figures are publicly disclosed.

Name

Arclev

Legal name

株式会社アークレブ (Arclev, Inc.)

Website

https://arclev.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Arclev is a Tokyo-based academic consulting agency that connects Japanese companies with a curated network of young university researchers (AASN) for part-time R&D support, evidence acquisition, workshops, prototyping, and lectures.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

R&D Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAHAEAI

ERP, CRM & Enterprise Applications Consulting

Business & Public Services/Professional Services (Legal, Accounting, Consulting)/Technology & Digital Consulting

Keywords

• Researcher matching
• R&D consulting
• Industry-academia collaboration
• Academic consulting services
• Innovation support

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Researcher Matching & Assignment Services: Arclev provides researcher assignment services where companies can engage academic researchers as part-time R&D resources. The company forms project teams of domestic and international first-class researchers who serve as immediate contributors to client R&D efforts.
2. R&D Consulting Services: Services include evidence acquisition (scientific validation of products/services), workshops (researcher participation in brainstorming sessions), prototype proposals (ideas and prototypes for client challenges), and special lectures (researchers providing lectures on cutting-edge knowledge in relevant fields).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Arclev is a high-commitment researcher network that matches Japanese companies (from large enterprises to SMEs and startups) with part-time academic researchers from universities worldwide to support corporate R&D efforts. Its five tailored service lines — Researcher Assignment, Evidence Acquisition, Workshops, Prototype Proposal, and Visiting Lectures — are powered by the AASN (Arclev Academic Strategist Network) of promising young researchers.

Product overview

Arclev operates as a high-commitment researcher network offering five distinct R&D consulting services: Researcher Assignment (matching researchers to project teams), Evidence Acquisition (scientific verification and data collection), Workshops (expert-facilitated brainstorming), Prototype Proposal (idea and prototype development), and Visiting Lectures (researcher-led knowledge transfer). These services are powered by the Arclev Academia Strategist Network (AASN), a curated network of young researchers across academic institutions worldwide covering diverse fields such as biology, medicine, engineering, environmental science, machine learning, and generative AI.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AASN (Arclev Academic Strategist Network): A network of young researchers from universities worldwide who support Arclev's solutions for industry-academia collaboration.

Products and services

• Researcher Assignment (研究者アサインメント) Project teams of world-class academic researchers from domestic and international universities are assigned as immediate-deployable, part-time contributors to a client's R&D efforts. The service is targeted at companies that lack specialized in-house R&D talent or need additional high-impact research capacity.
• Evidence Acquisition (エビデンス取得) Researchers design appropriate experiments and measurement methodologies to scientifically verify the efficacy of a client's products or services and to reliably acquire and analyze related data. The service is targeted at companies needing scientific validation of offerings.
• Workshops (ワークショップ) Academic researchers participate in client brainstorming and workshop sessions to explore new ideas and assess feasibility from an expert perspective. Targeted at R&D and new-business teams seeking expert input on innovation challenges.
• Prototype Proposal (プロトタイプ提案) Researchers develop ideas and prototypes tailored to client challenges, leveraging their own technologies and assets for new business opportunities. Targeted at companies seeking to commercialize internal seeds or address specific business challenges with researcher-led design.
• Visiting Lectures (出張授業) Researchers with cutting-edge knowledge deliver lectures and presentations at the client on topics related to the client's business areas and emerging technologies. Targeted at organizations that need ongoing education on relevant-field developments and new technologies.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• NineSigma: Open-innovation consultancy that connects large companies with external researchers, solution providers, and experts to solve R&D challenges — directly comparable to Arclev's researcher-matching value proposition.
• yet2.com: Global technology-transfer and open-innovation services firm connecting corporates with patented technologies, research outputs, and academic expertise — comparable service portfolio to Arclev's evidence-acquisition and prototype work.
• Wazoku: Operator of the IdeaScale-style crowdsourced innovation challenge platform (formerly InnoCentive), brokering demand between corporate R&D buyers and a global network of solvers and researchers — same buyer, same mechanism as Arclev.
• IdeaConnection: Expert network and open-innovation platform that assembles teams of researchers and technical experts to address corporate innovation challenges, mirroring Arclev's project-team formation and consulting model.
• Science Exchange: Marketplace for outsourced scientific services that matches buyers with qualified contract research organizations and researchers; directly comparable to Arclev's evidence-acquisition and research-assignment offerings.
• Kolabtree: Freelance expert and researcher marketplace (now part of Indegene) that matches companies with vetted PhD-level freelancers for scientific and technical projects — closely parallels Arclev's AASN matching model.
• Creww: Japan's largest open-innovation platform matching corporates with startups and academic talent for co-creation; operates in the same Tokyo market and targets the same enterprise R&D buyers as Arclev.

Emerging players

• BenchSci: AI-driven platform that helps biopharma R&D teams select research reagents and methods by aggregating scientific evidence — an emerging tech-enabled approach to accelerating corporate R&D, adjacent to Arclev's evidence-acquisition service.

Broad incumbents

• Mitsubishi Research Institute: Major Japanese think-tank-style research and consulting firm serving government and large enterprises on R&D strategy, technology assessment, and industry-academia policy — same buyer base as Arclev, much broader service portfolio.
• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting firm with extensive R&D advisory, expert-matching, and corporate-academic collaboration practices; competes for the same enterprise R&D transformation budgets as Arclev.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/AASNjp
• Facebookfacebook.com/aasnjapan
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arclev-aasn

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 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 Arclev