OUTLINE

Company name

Ac-Planta Inc.

Address

Chidori Building 3F, 2-16-9 Yushima, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 113-0034, Japan

TEL

03-4405-1625

Mail Address

info@ac-planta.com

Date of establishment

February 7, 2018

CEO & Founder

Kim, Jong- Myong

Business Description
  1. Research, development, manufacture, and sales of biostimulants that induce tolerance to environmental stress in plants, such as drought, high temperatures, and salt damage.
  2. Manufacture and sale of agricultural materials, lawn materials, horticultural materials, forest materials, and greening materials.
  3. Management of water-saving systems in plant factories and farms.
Awards and Grants
  1. Received a grant as an academic-based venture from Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo 2020.
    Title: “Biostimulant Materials for Making Plants Tolerant to Drought and High Temperatures.”
  2. Received Special Prize and Kansai Electric Power Award at Tech Sirius 2020 sponsored by Tech Axel Ventures, LLC.
    Title: “Skeepon,” Protecting Greenery with the Power of Science.”
  3. Received a R&D Grant from Mitsubishi UFJ Technology Development Foundation 2019 by Mitsubishi UFJ Technology Development Foundation.
    Title: “Development of safe products to protect plants from environmental stress”
  4. Received Grand Prize at the 6th Agritech Grand Prix hossted by Liberace Inc.
    Title: “Biostimulant materials (plant-activating agent) for plants using acetic acid to protect from high temperature and drought”
  5. Received Excellence Award at Innovation in Food, Agriculture, and Life 1st JA Accelerator 2019 sponsored by The Norinchukin Bank, JA Group, and 01 Booster Co.
    Title: “Skeepon,” a material that uses the power of acetic acid to protect plants from environmental stress”
  6. Received 2018 Research Encouragement Award by RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science.
  7. Selected as a publicly solicited project called “Development of Production Technologies for Bio-based Products to Accelerate the Realization of Carbon Recycling / Research and Development Item [3] Demonstration of an Industrial Material Production System“ run by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
    Project name: “Demonstration of a highly integrated sugar production system using epigenetic metabolic conversion technology”

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Jong-Myong Kim Ph.D. Founder / CEO

Dr. Jong-Myong KIM is the founder and CEO of Ac-Planta Inc. Dr. Kim received his Ph.D. in Bioscience from Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan in 2001. He then discovered an essential mechanism of amino acid metabolisms for mitochondrial DNA maintenance. Subsequently, Dr. Kim conducted an epigenetics study in yeast as a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Michael Grunstein’s Lab., Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA. After returning to Japan, he joined the RIKEN Plant Science Center, where he pioneered plant research linking environmental stress and epigenetics. Based on this research, he discovered that all plants could tolerate water deficit stress using acetic acid (Kim et al., 2017 Nature Plants). In order to expedite the application of his findings to benefit society and to help top resolve the global food crisis and environmental problems caused by global warming, he established Ac-Planta Inc. and became CEO. He is also an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

Biography 略歴

2001
Ph.D. (Bioscience), received from Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
2003
Research Scientist, Institute for Molecular Biology, University of California, Los Angeles
2005
Research Scientist, RIKEN Plant Science Center
2018
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo

TEAM MEMBERS

  • Koji Nakasaka COO

    While studying at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Hokkaido University, Nakasaka saw the deep relationship between environmental problems and society while researching forest fires in Mongolia. These observations led him to question the nature of a sustainable society.
    After graduating from graduate school, he worked for a trading and investment company for three years but decided that he needed expertise and colleagues with global exposure to create the business that he wanted. During his internship, he worked at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ghana to promote bio-inoculants.
    Later, after working in international development and smart agriculture, he joined Ac-Planta as COO to realize a sustainable global society.

  • Toru Kudo R&D Group Leader

    Dr. Kudo received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Science from the Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University. He was subsequently involved in biochemical, molecular biological, physiological, and genetic researches related to plant productivity at RIKEN and the University of Florida. In addition, he introduced bioinformatics to his research field of expertise at the School of Agriculture, Meiji University. His research included the construction of an original tomato gene structure model and the analysis of cis-elements involved in the regulation of gene expression.

    Later, he joined a bio-venture company involved in the field of the human intestinal environment. His primary duties were statistical analysis of omics data such as metagenome and metabolome obtained from clinical trials and in vitro experiments, and the development of solutions to understand and maintain the intestinal environment. He was also involved in a wide range of tasks, such as recruiting personnel, budget management, and networking with pharmaceutical industries. At Ac-Planta, he is in charge of R&D and information technology (R&D).

  • Ian Lawson Davis Legal manager & Business development strategist

    After graduating from the Mico Teacher University in 1997 with a professional certification in Teaching, Ian then attended the University of the West Indies where he obtained his B.A in Linguistics in 2001. He then went on to obtain his LLB from the University of Leeds in 2003, and thereafter completed the bar professional training course at the Northumbria University in 2004.

    Ian is a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and was called to the bar of England and Wales in 2004. He has over 15 years of legal experience, and has mainly worked for Japanese law firms and companies. He has handled and assisted with a wide range of domestic and international corporate and commercial matters, and has also served as legal advisor to a number of African embassies in Japan. He is currently working as the legal manager and business development strategist at Ac-Planta Inc.

  • Erina Isshiki PR Group Leader

    After graduating from the Faculty of Environment and Humanity at the University of Hyogo, Ms. Isshiki joined a major human resources company, where she worked as a sales representative and seminar instructor in the Education Business Division. After that, she became a newspaper reporter, and as an industrial and economic reporter, she interviewed business executives and reported on new products, technologies, and investments in the industries she covered, such as machinery, electronics and IT, construction and real estate, and universities and research institutes.

    Later, while working as a sales representative for a local Japanese company in India, she also gained experience as a writer.
    Since returning to Japan, she has worked as a writer and freelancer in the field of public relations and PR. At Ac-Planta, she is in charge of PR and overall internal and external communications.

  • Syoichi Ogushi Business Development

    After graduating from Kobe University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, he joined an Internet business company as a new graduate. In the Corporate Planning Department, he was engaged in corporate planning work with a focus on M&A.

    Industrial Growth Platform, Inc. (IGPI), where he was involved in consulting services such as new business development and M&A strategy formulation for the advertising, information service, and manufacturing industries. Later, he was in charge of venture investment operations and provided hands-on support to Ac-Planta Inc. from its inception.