| Representative |
Masakazu Nakajima
Masakazu Nakajima, Representative Director of CurveGen, Inc. He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University. He worked in new business development and investment for the Asia-Pacific region at Itochu Corporation and was involved in new business development and corporate planning at CyberAgent shortly after its founding. After working at Schroder Ventures, Macquarie Capital, and other firms, he founded several startups in the medical and healthcare sectors and gained experience leading them through IPOs and exits. In 2021, he founded CurveGen to accelerate decision-making in the life sciences through AI and devices. The company has garnered recognition both domestically and internationally, including being selected as one of the Top 10 at the AI Impact Summit in India. |
| Main Achievements |
・Conducted over 20 joint research projects and proof-of-concept (PoC) initiatives in the life sciences and AI fields (since the company’s founding in 2021)
・Selected for multiple national projects by organizations such as AMED, NEDO, and JETRO
・Track record in developing microbial testing products that integrate hardware, AI, and cloud technology
・Track record of exhibitions and presentations at international conferences such as ASM Microbe and IDWeek
・Selected as one of the Top 10 at the AI Impact Summit in India (the only company selected from Japan) |
| Childhood Dream |
My dream was to become an engineer who would travel the world solving problems that no one had yet solved. As a boy, I was fascinated by devices that made the invisible visible, and that aspiration has led to my current work, which involves bringing Japanese technology to sites across Asia and the world. |
| Motivation, Goals, and Ideal World |
Throughout my career, I have gained experience on both sides of the equation: building businesses and evaluating them. I was involved in new business development and investment in the Asia-Pacific region at a major general trading company; I was in charge of new business and strategic planning at an early-stage Internet company; and subsequently, I worked on startup growth and M&A at investment funds and investment banks. What I learned from these experiences is that it is not the novelty of technology that drives the world forward, but rather the moment that technology becomes accessible to people on the front lines.
While founding several companies in the medical and healthcare sectors, I became deeply drawn to the challenges faced on the front lines of the life sciences. Valuable images and data are accumulated daily in research and diagnostic settings. However, these are scattered across various locations and remain dormant—unusable for decision-making without the presence of experts. Challenges that should be solvable through technology remain unresolved. Driven by this realization, I founded CurveGen in 2021.
We want to create a world where the quality of medical care and research is not determined by differences in location or access to talent. Devices collect data, AI analyzes it, and the cloud connects people and locations. If we can achieve this, we can support sound decision-making even when experts are not physically present. We aim to transform the research and diagnostic expertise cultivated in Japan into AI, devices, and cloud solutions, and deliver them to the front lines across Asia and the Global South. Our goal is to enable accurate and rapid decision-making in the life sciences, no matter where in the world you are. |
Media Produced by ASCII STARTUP
