New Business
Building Solutions-Based Business Models
Message from the General Manager of the New Business Incubation Center
We will accelerate our initiatives to create solutions businesses that leverage the strengths of the Mitsui Chemicals Group by enhancing our business design capabilities and promoting the creation of new businesses by pursuing cross-organizational ties and deepening cross-company partnerships.
The New Business Incubation Center has been creating new businesses through collaboration with external partners such as startups and academia that have a high affinity with the Mitsui Chemicals Group, and building and developing solutions-based business models, one of the Basic Strategies of VISION 2030. Launched as a new organizational structure in April 2022, it actively seeks to strengthen internal collaboration by participating in Group-wide strategy meetings in order to further accelerate the creation of new business.
In July 2022, we established a corporate venture capital (CVC) as a new initiative. This CVC, which is called 321FORCE™, will promote not only collaboration with internal and domestic partners, but also strengthen ties with external partners with an eye to the global market. In addition, by utilizing this CVC, we will model an intelligence platform across the entire Group to strengthen our business design capabilities, and through the sharing of entrepreneurial spirit among all employees, the New Business Incubation Center will become the driving force for business portfolio transformation in the VISION 2030 strategy. In this way, we will aim to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through chemistry.
SAIMOTO Yoshihisa
General Manager, New Business Incubation Center
Role of the New Business Incubation Center
- Collaborate with the R&D divisions, or build and strengthen collaborations with external partners such as domestic and overseas startups by leveraging corporate venture capital (CVC), in order to create and utilize technologies that will become the core of new businesses.
- Collaborate with the Group’s manufacturing divisions or with suitable external partners, in order to build an optimal supply system for the provision of goods and services.
- Collaborate with the four business sectors to promote market development and the construction and expansion of sales networks globally.
- Collaborate with functional divisions such as digital transformation, corporate sustainability, and finance & accounting, to improve efficiency and conduct organizational management that meets the needs of the times and society.
New Business Incubation Center Organization
Methodology for exploring and creating new businesses
The New Business Incubation Center is responsible for new business development in all fields, including the Group’s four business segments. As part of its activities, it actively engages in open innovation, in which we seek external partners, mainly startups, to co-create new businesses with technologies and business models that are not available in-house.
When it comes to new business, we often face technical and business challenges with which we have no experience, in processes of development, manufacturing, and sales. On the other hand, startups aim to create new markets and customers by solving social challenges based on their proprietary technologies and business models. The Mitsui Chemicals Group is actively promoting the “inside-out open innovation,” which refers to initiatives to co-create business while providing missing assets to and mutually complementing external partners such as startups that are approaching new markets and customers with these cutting- edge technologies and business models. In these initiatives, we believe that the key to new business development is to formulate business hypotheses together with our partners and implement Proof of Concept (PoC) as fast as possible.
New Business Incubation Center initiatives
Solar power generation diagnostic solutions
Using the Mitsui Chemicals Group's assets, which are knowledge, experience, and data related to solar power generation as described below, we have been providing services for forecasting solar panel degradation and expected power output calculation as a third-party institution in the financing of solar power generation plant.
- Mitsui Chemicals Tohcello, Inc. offers solar panel encapsulants, which it has manufactured and sold for more than 30 years, and technology for predicting solar panel degradation
- Experience in the development and operation of solar power generation plant as an operator in Tahara City, Aichi Prefecture since 2014
- Accumulation of power generation and weather data using demonstration solar power generation plant in Mobara City and Sodegaura City, Chiba Prefecture
As of June 2022, we have contributed to the financing of a cumulative total of approximately 2,000 solar power generation plants (5 GW in capacity). For small-scale solar power generation plants, which are expected to grow in the future, there has been no simple way to accurately forecast power generation. As a result, we were unable to forecast power generation in our portfolio of more than 100 small-scale solar power generation plants. To solve this issue, in August 2021, we began offering a service that enables any user to easily obtain expected power output calculations and reports online, using the latest AI and other technologies. As of June 2022, it has been utilized for acquisitions and financing of over 500 power plants.
Robot solutions
The Robot Solution Department contributes to the robot industry by providing one-stop solutions for functions such as material selection, design, mold fabrication, molding and processing, prototyping, mass production, and evaluation, leveraging the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s knowledge as a comprehensive chemical manufacturer to address social challenges such as resolving labor shortages due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and improving the quality of life of the elderly.
Jointly developed assist suit with Power Assist International Corp. Achieved weight reduction by replacing metal parts with plastic parts. Demonstration test underway at own works.
Developed a model eyeball for glaucoma surgery training (Bionic-EyE™) that faithfully reproduces the feel of the human sclera in partnership with Nagoya University and Tokyo University as part of the Cabinet Office’s ImPACT Program. Helped young physicians gain proficiency at an early stage.
Innovations in cell culture technology
The Marketing & Innovation Department has developed InnoCell™ (oxygen-permeable cell culture vessels) using TPX™ (4-polymethyl- 1-pentene polymer, PMP), which has the highest level of oxygen permeability among plastic materials. Making the base of the cell culture vessels from TPX™ enables about 200 times more oxygen supply capability than when conventional culture plates are used. TPX™ also offers superior releasability, in addition to which precision processing technology prevents the leaching of cytotoxic chemical substances and inhibits drug adsorption. As a result, InnoCell™ products are expected to be suitable not only for research applications but also as a drug discovery assay tool. InnoCell™ creates a way for a new in vitro culture method in which oxygen can be readily supplied. Hopes are high that this method will be used for regenerative medicine research and as a drug discovery support tool, specifically in toxicity testing, pharmacokinetic studies, and efficacy testing.
The high-density, large-scale stem cell culture device developed by startup FullStem Co. Ltd. optimizes the shape and material of nonwovens as scaffolding to enable the large-scale culture of stem cells.
In the next-generation business domain, we are strengthening our solutions business by leveraging our research and development capabilities and assets. We will contribute to the reduction of animal testing and the use of animal raw materials by developing a solutions business that solves customer issues in the medical and drug discovery fields, including testing and drug discovery applications such as culture plates and microfluidic devices, and the synthesis of high-quality stem cells using nonwoven materials.
TopicsInvestment in Shoulder Innovations, a Shoulder Replacement Implant System Company
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. has invested in shoulder replacement implant system company Shoulder Innovations Inc., headquartered in Michigan, U.S., via 321FORCE Global Innovation Fund L.P. (321FORCE™; managed by Global Brain Corporation).
Shoulder Innovations is a medical device development company that designs and commercializes innovative products which demonstrate the potential for improved patient care and reduced overall cost to the healthcare system.
Mitsui Chemicals has positioned the orthopedic surgery sector as a future growth field within its Life & Healthcare Solutions business strategy, which was outlined in the company’s VISION 2030 Long-Term Business Plan. And with shoulder implant regarded as a particular growth field within the orthopedic surgery sector, Mitsui Chemicals has decided to explore business opportunities in this realm by investing in Shoulder Innovations via 321FORCE™.