【Hello Technologies Co., Ltd.】Preventing Solitary Deaths Just by Replacing a Light Bulb! "Hello Light" - The World's First IoT Monitoring Light Bulb Requiring No Construction or Wi-Fi, Covering 80 Countries

Monitoring Loved Ones Without Changing Daily Scenery. "Gentle Technology" Addressing the Issue of 68,000 Solitary Deaths Annually

Hello, everyone. My name is Akira Torii, Representative Director of Hello Technologies Co., Ltd. Thank you very much for having me today.

We are a startup developing a \"Life Tech\" business that supports people's lives and health. The \"Hello\" in our company name represents our strong desire to change the world for the better through gentle technology that is naturally accepted by people in their daily lives, like a simple greeting. I am a person who truly loves making things, and I drive our business with the vision of becoming a global manufacturer like Sony, Panasonic, and Honda, which Japan proudly boasts.

The first and largest theme we are tackling is resolving \"solitary death (isolated death),\" a serious social issue in modern Japan. Currently, approximately 68,000 elderly people die alone in their homes every year in Japan without anyone watching over them. This is tragic and also a serious issue for real estate owners and neighbors of apartments and condominiums. Once a solitary death occurs, it not only dampens the neighborhood but also causes a severe drop in the property value as an \"accident property,\" which becomes a fatal achilles' heel for real estate management.

Many monitoring devices already exist to prevent solitary deaths. However, most of them require Wi-Fi settings, power source construction, secure outlets, or periodic battery replacements, presenting high installation and operation barriers. Furthermore, there was a psychological barrier where elderly people strongly rejected installing security cameras or sensors, saying they felt like they were being watched.

Therefore, we developed \"Hello Light,\" the world's first IoT monitoring light bulb that allows you to monitor the health of elderly people simply by replacing existing light bulbs and sockets, requiring no construction or Wi-Fi.

Power Supply Directly from the Socket. A Patented Business Model Adopted by Major Corporations like Yamato Transport

The biggest feature of \"Hello Light\" is that a SIM module (communication device) is completely integrated inside the LED light bulb.

When the light is turned on, electricity is supplied directly from the socket to boot up the SIM, and lighting data is automatically transmitted to the mobile communication network (base station). In other words, you do not need Wi-Fi settings or complex wiring construction. You simply twist the bulb into the socket, and monitoring starts instantly.

Since the system detects the simple actions of turning lights on and off—which elderly people naturally do in their daily lives—it does not change the scenery of the room or daily habits at all. Without giving the person the psychological stress of being watched, it detects anomalies only when there is no turning on or off for a certain period (e.g., 24 hours) and notifies distant families or management companies via email.

This unique idea and mechanism of a communication device-integrated light bulb has obtained patents in Japan and the United States.

Currently, \"Hello Light\" is used by more than 16,000 elderly people, and the total number of monitoring (lighting detection) times has exceeded 100 million. Our business runs on two extremely simple pricing models. For individuals, we offer it on Amazon and other channels for an initial fee (bulb purchase) of 9,800 yen and a monthly fee of 450 yen.

The fastest-growing segment is the OEM (white-label) expansion for corporations. We offer this at an initial fee of 0 yen and a monthly fee of 750 yen.

As our largest achievement, Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. has adopted our bulb as the core device for their nationwide \"Kuroneko Monitoring Service Hello Light Visit Plan,\" and more than 10,000 people have already contracted through Yamato Transport alone. Since corporations can procure the bulb for 750 yen/month, partner companies can instantly launch their own monitoring businesses with zero initial investment on their PL by adding their services. For example, Yamato Transport offers their monitoring service at around 1,700 yen/month. Other companies with real daily contact with the elderly, such as home-visit care, housekeeping services, electricity/gas utilities, and transportation providers, use it as a powerful tool to generate new recurring revenue.

Achieving Over 6% Share in 3 Years to Build a Healthcare Platform. 80-Country Expansion and Next-Generation Device Development

We aim to expand our current 16,000 contracts to 40,000 soon, and achieve a 5-6% share in the elderly monitoring market in 3 years. Although the monitoring market itself is not huge at 38.1 billion yen, we position Hello Light not just as a \"light bulb\" but as the \"entrance to the healthcare market\" to acquire daily life data. By accumulating life rhythm data through light bulbs and expanding to various elderly healthcare businesses and medical collaborations, we will approach the trillion-yen healthcare market as a whole.

Furthermore, Hello Light is designed to be globally expandable from the beginning.

This product was born thanks to our collaboration with SORACOM, Inc., a listed IoT communication leader. Through our tight alliance with Soracom, our bulb supports LTE/LPWA communication standards in over 80 countries worldwide. We are eyeing entries into countries with rapidly aging populations, such as South Korea, and the US market—the birthplace of the light bulb—to address solitary deaths globally.

In addition, we are currently developing our second and third products—completely new, innovative healthcare devices that gently protect everyone from infants to the elderly.

As for our organization, we operate as a fabless company based on alliances with major business corporations, running with a lean team of about 15 members. For hardware manufacturing, we outsource to the Chinese factory of SORACOM's/our shareholder (a major LED manufacturing firm) to achieve both outstanding mass-production quality and low costs, allowing us to concentrate on patent and design development.

We once received a thank-you letter from a family stating that when an elderly person suddenly fell and fractured their lumbar vertebra, Hello Light detected the anomaly of \"not turning on,\" leading to a successful rescue. Our light bulb is saving lives. In Japan, where single-person elderly households are expected to reach 8 million by 2030, we want to accelerate this business with more companies to eliminate solitary deaths and protect families' peace of mind. We look forward to hearing from business partners, alliance partners, and investors. Thank you very much.

Q&A and Feedback

Commentator (Mr. Ito): Thank you very much, Mr. Torii, for the clear and excellent presentation. Most of all, the simplicity of the product and business model is outstanding. I previously participated in IP camera and communication device monitoring businesses, and the installation and setup costs in the field were the biggest barriers, forcing us to give up. Hello Light, which completes power supply and communication just by inserting it into a socket, brilliantly solves this issue.

On the other hand, if it only has a monitoring function, you will see a business ceiling (limit of market size). How do you plan to expand this light bulb touchpoint to second-generation services or healthcare businesses in the future? Please tell us about your specific vision and roadmap.

Mr. Torii: Thank you for the question. As you pointed out, if we just sell light bulbs to monitor, the market ceiling is relatively low. However, single-person elderly households will reach 8 million by 2030 in Japan alone, and aging is a global megatrend.

The roadmap we are drawing is a vision to acquire various biological and environmental data in living spaces using the communication/power supply infrastructure of Hello Light, which connects simply by inserting it into a socket. For example, providing algorithms to detect \"life rhythm disruption (early signs of dementia, etc.)\" from lighting patterns, and collaborating with next-generation devices we are developing to automatically measure sleep and health status non-invasively (without wearing devices).

By having one light bulb in each home, Hello Light becomes the gateway for smart home and healthcare in the home, allowing us to provide various sensors and services as add-ons (up-sells).

Mr. Ito: I see. Taking the physical privilege of the light bulb socket already inside the home as a gateway, and connecting healthcare data and next-generation devices to it. Providing hardware cheaply to build a platform is a very smart strategy.

Could you tell us about the organization and manufacturing structure that allows you to win contracts with over 10,000 users with a major company like Yamato Transport despite a lean team of 15 members? As you outsource manufacturing to China, how do you manage supply chain risks and quality control?

Mr. Torii: We thoroughly practice \"open alliance\" and \"patent management\" without trying to do everything ourselves.

For manufacturing, SORACOM/our initial shareholder, which specializes in LED planning and manufacturing, is deeply involved as a partner and mass-produces at their partner factories in China. Major lighting manufacturers worldwide also produce in China, which gives us outstanding cost and quality efficiency. Since we own 100% of the design and patents, we can maintain high profit margins unique to fabless companies while preventing dependency risks on specific factories.

The reason why our alliance with major companies is successful is that we provide an extremely low-cost, easy-to-attach white-label scheme at \"initial cost 0, monthly fee 750 yen.\" The fact that partner companies like Yamato Transport can freely set prices and customize services combined with their own resources (such as delivery visit infrastructure) is the biggest reason why we can move major corporations with only 15 people.

Mr. Ito: A model where you remain behind the scenes and distribute profitable infrastructure to partners. In Japan, many hardware startups fail due to self-sufficiency, but your fabless and patent-oriented management is highly rational and has great potential. I look forward to your global expansion.

Mr. Torii: Thank you very much. We will do our best to become a daily life infrastructure worldwide.