（株）クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート

What （株）クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート does

株式会社クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート (Creative Resource Institute Co., Ltd., "CRI") is a Japanese creative and digital services firm founded on April 28, 2000, headquartered in Setagaya, Tokyo. It operates two service divisions: the Production Division (PD), which delivers branding, web design, corporate site production, landing pages, e-commerce sites, graphic design, and offline media for national clients; and the Digital Solution Division (DS), which provides embedded digital professional teams to clients, split between on-site contracting (~70%) and dispatch contracts (~30%). CRI also operates the Flap media site, the JOBREQ project communication tool, and the publicly available CBC-Study web-designer training curriculum, and runs an Imari, Saga regional revitalization initiative combining CRI, local IT firms, and local government.

Technology is built on standard industry frameworks and tooling — React, Vue, Laravel, Spring Boot, JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Java, Python, and Go for engineering; Figma, Adobe XD, Illustrator, and Photoshop for design — with no proprietary technical differentiation beyond the internally developed JOBREQ tool and the CBC training curriculum. CRI's primary go-to-market is direct client engagement and embedded team delivery through relationships with major advertising agencies; secondary channels include the LINE recruitment channel and Wantedly for talent acquisition. The business model is professional services: per-client annual transactions range from ¥1M to ¥30M JPY, with no public pricing.

CRI is a privately held subsidiary of Cross Marketing Group Co., Ltd. (Tokyo Prime Market listed). As of November 2025 it reported 257 employees (up from 180 in December 2022) and revenue of ¥1.3 billion JPY as stated on its recruitment materials. The company holds ISO 27001:2022 and Privacy Mark (P-Mark) certifications, a Labor Dispatch Business Permit, and operates from five locations across Japan: Tokyo HQ (Setagaya), Azabudai Lab (Minato), Osaka, Fukuoka, and Imari (Saga).

Name

（株）クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート

Legal name

株式会社クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート

Website

https://cri.ne.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CRI is a Tokyo-based Japanese creative services firm that delivers branding, web production, and embedded digital talent teams to national corporate clients via major advertising agencies, and trains its own entry-level hires into professionals through an in-house curriculum.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Advertising Production / Digital Creative Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

CRM Strategy & Consulting (BPAFAFAA)

Keywords

• Digital creative services
• Advertising production
• Digital talent staffing
• Web production services
• Brand design

Headquarters

HQ city

Setagaya, Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Digital Solution Services (DS): Providing digital professional talent teams on-site at client locations to solve digital business challenges. Mix of dispatch contracts (30%) and on-site contracting (70%). Covers contracted/outsourced development and on-site director/design team building.
2. Advertising Production (PD): Branding and creative production services including web design, coding, corporate websites, LP, EC sites, graphic design, and offline media. Annual client transactions range from 1M to 30M JPY through direct client relationships.
3. Web Promotion: Web content creation, application development, corporate website production, LP, EC site operations, and recruitment page production.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CRI provides two core service lines: the Digital Solution (DS) Division dispatches trained digital professional talent teams (developers, engineers, directors, designers) on-site at client locations to solve digital business challenges, combining dispatch contracts and on-site contracting arrangements. The Production (PD) Division delivers branding, web promotion, and creative production services including website design/development, corporate branding, landing pages, EC sites, graphic design, and offline media, serving national corporate clients primarily through relationships with major advertising agencies.

Product overview

CRI operates as a creative services company with three main divisions: PD (Production)事业部 handles advertising production and branding services including website development, digital content, and corporate branding; DS (Digital Solution)事业部 provides professional digital talent staffing and contracted software development services. The company also maintains CBC-Study, a free online web design learning platform originally developed for internal training, and JOBREQ, an internal project communication tool. Services span web production, application development, recruitment pages, and EC site production/operations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CRI BOOT CAMP (CBC): Web designer training curriculum opened to the public for free since 2019. An online learning platform for sustainable social contribution.
• CRI TECH SCHOOL
• JOBREQ（ジョブリク）®
• フラップ (Flap)

Products and services

• PD (Production) Division - Advertising Production & Branding Services Advertising production and branding division providing brand strategy, website design and development, corporate branding, landing page production, EC site operations, graphic design, and offline media creative services. Serves national corporate clients accessed primarily through major advertising agencies. Team comprises creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, web designers, and engineers.
• DS (Digital Solution) Division - Digital Talent Staffing & Contracted Development Digital Solution division that deploys trained digital professional teams (developers, engineers, directors, designers) on-site at client locations to address digital business challenges. Offers contracted/outsourced development, on-site director and designer team building, and dispatch/onsite contract arrangements.
• CBC-Study (CRI BOOT CAMP) - Free Online Web Designer Learning Platform Free online web design education platform originally developed as internal training curriculum for CRI employees, then opened to the public since 2019. Offers comprehensive web designer curriculum from basics to advanced levels, paired with a YouTube learning channel. Functions as both a talent pipeline and brand awareness initiative.
• JOBREQ - Project Communication Tool Proprietary project communication tool developed by CRI for internal and client project management, including recruitment management and project coordination. Trademarked as JOBREQ® in 2017.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90%+ of employees join without prior industry experience and are successfully developed
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Hakuhodo: One of Japan's two largest advertising agency networks, offering full-service advertising, digital, and creative production. As the intermediary channel through which CRI often reaches national clients, Hakuhodo is both a partner and a competitor at the broad marketing-services level.
• Septeni Holdings: Tokyo-listed holding company with digital advertising, creative production, and internet businesses. Competes with CRI on the digital creative/production side and operates at a significantly larger scale.
• Transcosmos: Large Japanese digital services and BPO company providing contact center, digital marketing, and staffing services. Comparable to CRI's combined production-plus-staffing model but at much greater scale and with broader service lines.
• Dentsu: Japan's largest advertising agency group with global operations and extensive digital/creative capabilities. Represents the largest incumbent competitor in the Japanese creative production and digital services market that CRI operates in.

Direct peers

• Sun Asterisk: Tokyo-headquartered digital creative studio with embedded engineering and design teams serving enterprise clients. Closest peer to CRI's hybrid model of dispatch/contracting digital professionals combined with creative production.
• Geekly: Tokyo-based IT engineer staffing and dispatch firm focused on placing engineers with corporate clients. Directly comparable to CRI's DS division dispatch/contracting motion.
• Goodpatch: Tokyo-based UI/UX design and digital product company offering design consulting and in-house product development. Comparable to CRI's PD division on the design/branding side, though Goodpatch leans more toward product design and fewer staffing services.
• Members: Japanese digital creative production company providing web/digital content and design services to enterprise clients. Overlaps with CRI's PD division on branding and web production, with similar B2B go-to-market.

Emerging players

• CARTA HOLDINGS (formerly VOYAGE GROUP): Tokyo-listed digital advertising and marketing technology holding company with creative production subsidiaries. Overlaps with CRI's PD division on digital advertising and creative production at the upper end of the mid-market.
• Digital Holdings: Japanese digital advertising holding company with subsidiaries in creative, media, and technology services. Provides a peer benchmark for vertically integrated digital services businesses targeting enterprise marketing budgets.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CRI_DS92
• Facebookfacebook.com/cri.ltd
• Instagraminstagram.com/creativeresourceinstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/%EF%BC%88%E6%A0%AA%EF%BC%89%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%82%A4%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%96%E3%83%AA%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%81%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88

Compliance3 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 （株）クリエイティブリソースインスティチュート