[Ashirase Inc.] Eliminating Navigation Accidents for the Visually Impaired. Honda-born Startup #1 Launches the World's First Wearable and Indoor 3D Mapping Revolution

Preventing Falls Caused by Divided Attention: A Concept Centered on Focusing 100% on Safety

Hello everyone, I am Ayumu Chino, Representative Director CEO of Ashirase Inc. We develop and sell \"Ashirase,\" a wearable walking navigation device attached to shoes that guides visually impaired users through foot-level vibrations. We are the first spin-off startup from Honda Motor Co., now in our fifth year.

Our mission is to create human prosperity centered on the act of \"walking.\"

Today, there are over 300 million visually impaired people worldwide. Many of them share a common, painful sentiment: \"I want to visit a new restaurant by myself, but it's too dangerous and impossible.\"

For instance, a visually impaired individual I met in Hiroshima used to navigate by touching telephone poles along the road. One day, a pole he always relied on was removed due to construction. He concentrated so hard on searching for the missing pole that he lost awareness of his surroundings, fell into a roadside ditch, and suffered a severe head injury.

When visually impaired people walk, they must process vast amounts of information simultaneously: tracking their location, finding the correct route, and avoiding obstacles. This division of attention is the leading cause of collisions and falls.

Ashirase guides users intuitively through vibrations in their shoes. This eliminates the need for users to look at smartphone screens or listen to audio directions. Our product concept is to provide an environment where users can focus 100% of their attention on physical safety, using their white cane and listening to surrounding sounds.

Just Wear Your Shoes: Direct Vibration UI Boasting a 0.5% Monthly Churn Rate

The Ashirase device consists of a thin, belt-shaped interface that fits inside the shoe. Once set up, users simply wear their shoes at the entrance as usual to start.

When navigation begins on the smartphone app, the device starts vibrating automatically. Users do not need to take out their phones or block their ears, enabling completely hands-free and eyes-free navigation.

The vibration design is highly intuitive. The device includes multiple actuators that vibrate three-dimensionally around the foot (e.g., the left side of the left shoe vibrates when the user needs to turn left). When the user faces the correct direction, the front of both shoes vibrates to indicate \"go straight.\" Additionally, the vibration tempo accelerates as a turn approaches, letting the user feel when to turn.

Thanks to this intuitive design, we have sold over 700 units since launching late last year. Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) reached 65 points—a exceptionally high score when 70 is considered the gold standard. Our monthly subscription churn rate remains extremely low at 0.5%, proving a solid Product-Market Fit (PSF).

Securing National Subsidies in Europe and Australia to Drive Global Distribution

Since Ashirase addresses a severe, global challenge shared by visually impaired individuals worldwide, we are pursuing aggressive international expansion.

Our Go-To-Market strategy centers on securing medical device certifications and national assistive technology subsidies in each country.

Countries like Germany and Australia have robust public subsidy systems for visually impaired assistive tools. We partner with major local distributors to supply our products to hospitals and organizations. We have secured agreements to introduce our device under these subsidy systems at a wholesale price of 600 Euros—approximately double our Japanese retail price—achieving high profit margins.

We have secured key partners in five countries, including European nations and Australia, with shipments starting in February 2026. This serves as a springboard to scale our target market of over 100 million people globally.

Hacking Indoor Environments: Beacon-Free 3D Camera Mapping and AR Navigation

During the development of Ashirase, the most common request from users was: \"We get lost inside train stations and underground malls where GPS is unavailable.\"

In response, we spent several years developing spatial recognition technologies that enable accurate indoor navigation. Once established, we received strong interest not only from visually impaired users but also from wheelchair users and general pedestrians. Consequently, we spun this technology off into a dedicated B2B spatial DX business—an \"indoor Google Maps.\"

This system requires no expensive indoor hardware installations, such as Wi-Fi or beacons. Users simply hold up their smartphones to determine their position instantly.

Technically, the system builds a \"3D map\" of the surrounding area using the smartphone's camera, combining it with our proprietary walking trajectory estimation algorithms (co-developed with the University of California) to determine location with centimeter-level accuracy. We also possess spatial mapping technologies that automatically identify signals, signs, and store shelves to update digital maps autonomously (co-developed with Zenrin and major automakers).

We built a custom, fully conversational voice UI for the app. Users do not need to touch the screen; they simply speak their destination (e.g., \"Take me to [X]\"), and the app launches AR navigation, guiding them along the optimal route avoiding steps or obstacles.

Our spatial DX business has generated diverse B2B pipelines, including wheelchair navigation integrations with elevator manufacturers, underground development projects with developers, and hotel staff training programs.

Minimizing Liability Risks via Automated Driving Safety Verification Methods

When expanding into litigation-heavy countries like the US, liability for navigation accidents is a critical risk for startups.

At Honda, I spent years handling safety verification (risk assessment) for autonomous driving systems. Leveraging this expertise, we thoroughly designed Ashirase's liability risk hedge.

First, we strictly limit Ashirase's function to \"route guidance (navigation)\" rather than \"active safety support\" (which we delegate to white canes and guide dogs). This legally separates the system from product liability (PL) in the event of an accident. We have achieved zero accidents across 60,000 runs in Japan, and all risk assessment documents required for European medical device certification have been audited and submitted. Furthermore, to hedge against high litigation costs in the US, we are establishing a US subsidiary to isolate the Japanese parent company from liability.

Our roadmap involves scaling through B2B pipelines and device sales, expanding into retail shelf-level navigation and automated inventory data services by mid-2026, aiming for a 10-billion-yen top-line by 2030.

We are currently raising our Series A round. We look forward to hearing from investors, municipalities, and developers who share our vision. Thank you very much.

Questions & Answers

Commentator (Mr. Fukutani): Thank you, Mr. Chino. Your wearable device that guides users via shoe vibrations and your beacon-free indoor mapping technology both present a bright future for solving social challenges.

To clarify, does the shoe vibration work such that if a user needs to turn left, the left side of their shoe vibrates?

Mr. Chino: Thank you for the question. The device is a thin, belt-shaped interface that fits three-dimensionally inside the shoe. This allows us to vibrate the front, back, left, and right sides of the foot independently.

For instance, when a user reaches a point where they need to turn left, only the actuator on the left side of the foot vibrates. The user intuitively understands: \"The left side is vibrating, so I need to turn left.\" Once they face the correct direction, the front of both shoes vibrates to indicate \"go straight.\" The vibration interval also accelerates as the turn approaches. This keeps the user's hands free, eyes free, and ears open to listen to traffic sounds.

Mr. Fukutani: I see. The sensor detects the direction of the foot and guides the user to face the correct way. This is highly safe.

However, when visually impaired users walk outdoors, what happens if they fall off a platform or enter an intersection due to a navigation error? How do you manage product liability and litigation risks?

Mr. Chino: That is a critical point. At Honda, I specialized in safety verification for autonomous driving, proving systems are safe. We designed Ashirase with robust risk hedges from the start.

We delegate active safety support to white canes and guide dogs, focusing Ashirase strictly on \"route guidance.\" This document-level logic separates our system from product liability.

All risk assessment documents for European certification have been audited and submitted. In litigation-heavy markets like the US, we operate through a local subsidiary to isolate the Japanese parent company and its technical assets from liability. We have had zero accidents across 60,000 test runs, proving our reliability.

Mr. Fukutani: Utilizing your autonomous driving safety background to secure legal and corporate hedges is very strategic.

Lastly, regarding indoor mapping, since you do not use Wi-Fi or beacons, how do you collect and update this vast spatial data? Do users collect it, or do you handle it?

Mr. Chino: Initially, we partner with companies like Zenrin and automakers to compile base spatial maps.

Once established, we utilize a crowdsourced mapping model, analyzing camera images captured in the background as users navigate to update maps automatically. We plan to implement this by mid-2026. The system minimizes battery consumption while extracting only key changes (like new shelves or signals) to keep the maps current. This automated update model is our key competitive advantage for providing data services to developers.

Mr. Fukutani: Having users generate 3D indoor maps simply by walking, which then fuels a B2B data business, has massive potential. We look forward to your growth.

Mr. Chino: Thank you. We will continue our challenge to enhance walking infrastructure.