Tokyo, Shibuya Ward
Our vision is “Sustainable Food and Agriculture in an Agritainment World.” We aim to democratize agriculture and food, creating spaces and opportunities to engage with farming and food everywhere—from home balconies and building rooftops to indoor spaces in apartments. We develop vegetable cultivation guide systems utilizing IoT, AI, and ICT, create content and programs related to agriculture and food, and provide consulting for community development centered around farming and food. A social impact startup selected for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's startup support program, ‘J-Startup’.
Until now, we had our proprietary IoT sensors to realize the vegetable cultivation guide called “grow CONNECT.” We are now significantly updating its core AI, the “Crowd Farming System,” by integrating it with cutting-edge technologies like generative AI. This will not only enable more precise vegetable cultivation guidance but also empower the sustainable practice of local production for local consumption—where everyone enjoys growing and eating together—expanding the world of agritainment.
| Representative |
Takanori SerizawaTakayoshi Serizawa ◎ After working as an entertainment content producer, he joined Seron Industries, the family business that first conceived, developed, and popularized the Japanese-made English term “planter.” In 2015, he founded Plantio Inc. to redefine and reinvent the original planter. Recognizing that the essence of his grandfather's invention lay not in developing a high-performance planter but in creating opportunities to engage with agriculture, he launched the “grow” brand in 2020, aiming to democratize food and farming. Kaoru Koyama × Forbes JAPAN's “25 People Shining the Future of Food” Final Presentation Judge for “Start Next Innovator 2020” hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) |
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| Main Achievements | Founded Plantio in 2015 Received the "MIRAI" Award at Mirai 2018 in 2018 Cookpad Accelerator Excellence Award in 2018 METI J-Startup Certified in 2019 METI "Start-up" Judge in 2020 Participated in the ICT Start-up League in 2023 |
| Childhood Dream | Toy store, a job that entertains people |
| Influential People, Things, and Events | John William Coltrane, Charlie Parker, John Towner Williams, Michael Crichton, Koichi Sugiyama, Akira Sakuma, Yuji Horii, Soichiro Honda, Konosuke Matsushita, Steve Jobs, Taizo Son |
| Motivation, Goals, and Ideal World | My grandfather invented the planter, and the essence of that invention was his desire to "let everyone experience food and agriculture," so I wanted to combine my expertise in entertainment and IT and implement it in modern society. https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/36449 |
| Company Name | PLANTIO, Inc. |
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| Representative Name | Takanori Serizawa |
| Address | SELON Bldg. 2F, 11-7 Shinsencho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo |
| Official Site and Social Media |
Note grow Official Website grow JOURNAL @PlantioI | X (Twitter) |
| Founding Date | June 16, 2015 |
| Awards | Received the "MIRAI" Award at Mirai 2018 in 2018 Received the Excellence Award at the Cookpad Accelerator Program in 2018 Received the Good Design Award in 2020 |