Quest Research

What Quest Research does

Quest Research (株式会社Quest Research) is a Japan-based, AI-powered research and consulting firm founded in November 2018 by former Boston Consulting Group and Booz Allen Hamilton consultants. The company develops and operates proprietary research platforms — Kork Interview (コルクインタビュー) for AI-assisted qualitative interviews, Kork Survey (コルクサーベイ) for quantitative surveys, and the newer Kork Talk (コルクトーク) freemium AI interview product — and offers end-to-end business consulting research from design through insight extraction. The firm reports compressing qualitative research timelines from roughly four weeks to as little as two days, and survey design-to-delivery in two days, by combining generative AI tools with human researchers from strategy-consulting and major research-firm backgrounds.

The company serves three primary customer segments in Japan: large enterprises (50.4% of clients, spanning insurance, finance, media, and advertising), consulting firms (37.4%, including global strategy and design consultancies), and startups (11.9%, including game companies and incubators). Go-to-market is hybrid: a sales-led enterprise motion where researchers lead proposal and design work, paired with self-serve SaaS access to the Kork platforms (qork.ai and talk.qork.ai) including free trials for Kork Talk. Distribution is augmented by a wholly-owned strategic consulting subsidiary, Quest (戦略コンサルティング), which cross-refers clients and integrates research with strategy engagements.

Quest Research is headquartered at LIFORK MINAMI AOYAMA in Minato-ku, Tokyo, with 101–250 employees. The firm obtained ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS certification (JQA-IM2230) in June 2026 and is led by CEO Kenta Minami with COO Ryusuke Kogaku and CFO Kazuya Takahashi, the latter explicitly responsible for IPO preparation. No public funding rounds or revenue figures are disclosed, and operations are presently Japan-domestic despite globally accessible SaaS endpoints.

Name

Quest Research

Legal name

株式会社Quest Research

Website

https://quest-research.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Quest Research is a Japan-based AI-powered research and consulting firm that builds proprietary platforms (Kork Interview, Kork Survey, Kork Talk) to compress qualitative and quantitative research timelines, serving large enterprises, consulting firms, and startups.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Services

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE)

Keywords

• Market research services
• AI survey platform
• Qualitative interviews
• Research consulting
• Consumer insights

Headquarters

HQ city

Minami-aoyama

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Research Consulting Services: Professional services providing qualitative interviews, quantitative surveys, and literature research. Full-service research projects from design through delivery.
2. SaaS Products (コルクインタビュー, コルクサーベイ): Software-as-a-service products for AI-powered interviews and surveys. Available as standalone tools or integrated with consulting services.
3. コルクトーク Beta Trial: New AI interview product offered with free trial period starting July 2025.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Quest Research is a Japan-based next-generation research platform provider that combines generative AI with traditional research methodologies. It offers proprietary SaaS products (Kork Interview for qualitative AI interviews and Kork Survey for quantitative surveys) alongside full-service business consulting research, covering design, execution, analysis, and insight extraction for corporate clients.

Product overview

Quest Research operates as a next-generation research platform provider combining AI with research services. The product portfolio centers on two core AI-powered SaaS products: Korku Interview (コルクリインタビュー, formerly qork) for qualitative research and Korku Survey (コルクスサーベイ, formerly Coemill) for quantitative surveys. These platforms are complemented by a new AI-first product, Korku Talk (コルクトーク), which isolates the AI interview function as a standalone 'talk form' offering. The company also provides business consulting research services and is supported by its wholly-owned strategic consulting subsidiary, Quest (戦略コンサルティング). All products are designed to streamline research operations, reducing turnaround times and enabling researchers to focus on higher-value analysis and design work.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• コルク (Kork): AI interview product for qualitative research. Formerly known as 'qork'. Enables rapid consumer interviews using AI technology.
• コルクサーベイ (Kork Survey)
• コルクトーク (Kork Talk)

Products and services

• Kork Interview (コルクインタビュー) AI-powered qualitative interview platform (formerly qork) that streamlines consumer interviews and qualitative research. Enables AI-assisted interview analysis and supports online interviews, ethnographic research, MROC, and focus group discussions for corporate research teams.
• Kork Survey (コルクサーベイ) Quantitative survey platform (formerly Coemill/コエムル) that completes survey design through distribution in as fast as 2 days. Supports brand awareness surveys, photo surveys, pricing surveys, and customer satisfaction surveys for enterprise and consulting clients.
• Kork Talk (コルクトーク) A new 'talk form' product that isolates the AI interview function from the Kork Interview platform. Uses AI as the starting point and integrates AI throughout the design-to-analysis workflow for qualitative research.
• Business Consulting Research (ビジネスコンサルティングリサーチ) Full-service research support covering diverse research initiatives directly linked to next actions, from design through reporting and insight extraction. Provided by the Quest Research team, integrating AI tools with human expertise.

Quantifiable outcome

• Qualitative research timelines reduced from 4 weeks to 2 days
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Quest (株式会社Quest)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQuest is a wholly-owned strategic consulting subsidiary of Quest Research. The consulting firm provides strategy consulting services with top-class consultants to accelerate business development. Cross-referrals between Quest Research's research services and Quest's strategy consulting create integrated client offerings.
• Mirai Works (株式会社みらいワークス)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerCo-hosted webinar on 'AI Customer Research' topics with Mirai Works in October 2025, demonstrating marketing collaboration in the DX and new business space.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Ginco: Japanese SaaS firm providing survey and market research tools (e.g., survey platforms similar in scope to Korku Survey). Competes in the same do-it-yourself research tooling space, though more focused on platform utility than consulting/research services.
• Baycurrent Consulting: Top-tier Japanese strategy consulting firm where Quest Research's COO previously worked. While Baycurrent focuses on strategy rather than research, Quest Research is positioned to feed Baycurrent's research needs and compete indirectly for the same enterprise decision-making budget.
• UserTesting Japan: Global SaaS platform for fast-turnaround qualitative and quantitative user experience research. Direct counterpart to Quest Research's Korku Interview AI platform for design-to-analysis research with short delivery times.

Others

• Quest (subsidiary): Wholly-owned strategic consulting subsidiary of Quest Research with BCG-grade consultants providing business development acceleration support. Provides cross-referrals and integrated offerings, not a competitor but a sister entity worth flagging for integrated service positioning.

Direct peers

• Macromill: Japan's largest market research firm offering consumer panels, online research, and global research services. Directly competes with Quest Research in AI-driven consumer and survey research, but as an incumbent with both consumer panels and traditional research methodologies—Quest Research's AI-speed differentiation is positioned against Macromill's legacy 4-week cycle.
• Hotto Link: Japanese data analytics firm combining social listening, AI-driven consumer trend analysis, and marketing research. Competes with Quest Research on the AI-driven consumer insights workflow, sharing a similar mid-size Japanese tech-services positioning.
• Intage: Leading Japanese market research company with deep consumer panel capabilities (SRI+) and custom research services. Directly competes in B2B research and syndicated consumer insights, but operates with larger, more traditional methodologies that Quest Research's AI-first approach aims to disrupt.

Broad incumbents

• NielsenIQ Japan: Global leader in consumer insights with strong Japanese presence in retail measurement and consumer research. Competes with Quest Research for large enterprise budgets across CPG/retail and increasingly in AI-driven research offerings.
• Kantar Japan: Global research and insights consulting arm offering brand tracking, consumer panel, and custom research. Sells to the same Japanese enterprise clients (insurance, finance, media, advertising agencies) as Quest Research; competes on brand research and consumer insights with global scale.

Regional players

• DENTSU (research arm): Japan's largest advertising group with extensive in-house research capabilities serving the same enterprise/agency clients as Quest Research. Indirect competition on consumer insights given scale and existing client relationships in media and advertising.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInjp.linkedin.com/company/%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%81
• Xx.com/quest_survey

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries1 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 Quest Research