【MOVIN Inc.】A Mobility Revolution at 1,500 Yen for 12 Hours: Solving Regional Transportation Shortages Through Sports Teams & Corporate Sponsorship
A Former Avispa Fukuoka Intern Tackles Regional Mobility and Surging Rental Car Prices
Hello everyone. I am Mitsuo Aramaki, CEO of MOVIN Inc.
Our company is a mobility startup headquartered in Fukuoka, currently operated by a team of four, including myself. Our founding team also includes a co-CEO who has experience selling a business to a listed company, giving us a strong management foundation.
As for my background, during my student days, I spent three years as an intern with the professional soccer team "Avispa Fukuoka," where I was mainly involved in campaigns to attract student fans to the stadium. Through these activities, I caught the eye of the CEO of Apaman Group, a top sponsor of Avispa, and joined the group with the intention of eventually starting my own business. After a one-year training period, I spun off and founded MOVIN.
Initially, we operated a B2B matching service. However, by a turn of events, we took on a rental car subcontract, which led us to launch our own brand two years ago and enter the rental car market.
What we focused on was the massive imbalance in the current rental car market and the transportation issues faced by regional areas.
Japan’s rental car market is projected to grow to over 1 trillion yen by 2030, driven in part by a surge in inbound tourism. However, many of you may have experienced high prices or the inability to book a car when traveling to regional areas.
Why are rental car prices skyrocketing?
The root cause lies in the asset-heavy franchise (FC) business model used by major rental car companies. Majors carry massive fixed and running costs: store maintenance, staff payroll, rising parking fees, and vehicle purchasing costs for new and used cars. As a result, when expanding into regional areas, they cannot turn a profit unless they operate a large fleet with high utilization rates. Furthermore, due to labor shortages, it is difficult to secure staff even for vehicle maintenance in regional areas.
Consequently, major parking operators and car-sharing services are forced to raise prices, passing the burden onto the users.
Meanwhile, public transportation in regional areas is in a critical state. Bus routes are being discontinued due to deficits, and driver shortages have left locals and tourists with fewer options. Despite decreasing disposable income among young people, the cost of renting a car for essential travel continues to rise.
We solved this issue by combining "local entertainment (local sports teams)" and "thorough DX," creating a new rental car system that users can access for "1,500 yen for 12 hours"—less than half the price of traditional services.
The 1,500 Yen for 12 Hours Impact: Breaking the Major Fixed Cost Model via Sponsorship and DX
We are rolling out "Sports Apo Rental Car."
In this model, we partner with local professional and amateur sports teams to wrap vehicles in the team’s emblem and mascot designs. We then sell "sponsorship spaces" on part of the wrap to local corporate sponsors to generate advertising revenue. Additionally, we return 10% of the rental car sales directly to the partnered sports team to support their local activities.
This model provides incredible benefits to the users (renters).
Users can rent a clean, beautifully wrapped car showing their favorite team for just "1,500 yen for 12 hours"—one of the lowest rates in the industry.
The secret behind this low price is our "unattended operation" and "extremely low fixed costs" achieved through thorough DX.
We have fully digitalized the rental car check-out process. Users apply through their everyday tool "LINE," uploading their driver's license, verifying identity, and making payments entirely on their smartphones. We have also built a system utilizing unmanned key boxes and smart keys integrated via APIs, allowing users to pick up and return cars 24/7 without interacting with staff.
Typically, major rental car companies spend about 100,000 yen per month to maintain a single vehicle, including store and staff overheads. Therefore, they must generate 140,000 to 150,000 yen in monthly sales per car to avoid going into the red.
In contrast, because we have minimized fixed costs and automated operations, our cost structure remains highly profitable even with low rental sales. Furthermore, by placing a corporate sponsorship space on the vehicle for about "60,000 yen" per month, our profit margin jumps dramatically even if we drop the rental fee to the absolute limit.
This lightweight operation, which can run profitably in regional areas with just a few cars, is a powerful weapon to support regional mobility.
Regional Revitalization via "IP x Mobility" Involving JTB, Local Governments, and Banks
There is a compelling reason why we partner with "sports teams"—a form of local entertainment.
During my internship at Avispa, I met with sponsors from over 50 companies. I noticed that many companies wanted to support local teams and contribute to the community, but felt that putting a signboard in the stadium made it difficult to visualize the impact of their contribution.
By having our wrapped rental cars drive around town, the corporate sponsors' regional contribution is visualized in the daily scenery.
Moreover, if it were a plain corporate advertisement vehicle, young travelers wouldn't want to drive it. However, if it’s a car supporting their favorite local sports team, and offered at the incredibly low price of "1,500 yen for 12 hours," they drive it gladly. This creates a win-win-win relationship where all stakeholders benefit.
Local governments and regional banks have highly evaluated this regional contribution model. As a means of solving regional transit shortages, partnerships with municipal budgets and regional funds are underway. Currently, we have decided to roll out in 20 teams and 17 regions across Japan, and the speed of our alliances is accelerating.
Our biggest challenge moving forward is accelerating "vehicle procurement."
To rapidly expand our rental car business, the biggest bottleneck is the capital required to purchase cars. To solve this, we are promoting four procurement schemes:
1. Ad-Pre-Sales Purchase: Selling corporate sponsorships (e.g., 600,000 yen for 2 years) in advance and using those funds to procure vehicles.
2. Investment Product for Used Cars: Having companies or individual investors purchase cars and delegate rental operations to us as an investment product.
3. Inventory Sharing with Used Car Dealers: Hosting long-term unsold inventory from used car dealers as rental cars, returning them in well-maintained condition after 2 years so the dealers can resell them.
4. Regional Mobility Funds: Establishing a "10-million-yen regional mobility fund" with regional banks and local governments to purchase 10 cars, returning principal and dividends to investors over 4 years through leaseback models.
We are not just a rental car company, but a platform business supporting regional transit and utilizing regional IP. We are aiming to expand to "5,000 vehicles," our IPO target. We look forward to hearing from sponsors, sports teams, and partner companies who share this vision. Thank you very much.
Q&A and Feedback
Commentator (Mr. Fukutani): Thank you, Mr. Aramaki, for the presentation. Providing rental cars at an overwhelmingly low price of 1,500 yen for 12 hours and combining it with sports team fan engagement and corporate sponsorship is a beautiful business model.
I have a question: regarding wrapping vehicles and selling them as ad space, there is a physical limit to the car body space. How do you plan to manage and scale past this limitation?
Mr. Aramaki: You are absolutely correct; there is a physical ceiling to the wrapping space on a single vehicle.
Therefore, we are designing our next ad and data business model, which does not rely solely on exterior wrapping ads.
Specifically, we are working on in-car DX. We collect driving data to predict and visualize "what kind of people (e.g., a group of four young women) are heading where." Based on this data, we can deliver targeted ads on digital signage installed inside the car or play audio promotions near their destination. By expanding from exterior signboards to in-car personalized ad-tech, we aim to break through the limits of ad unit prices.
Mr. Fukutani: I see. Expanding into in-car signage and audio ads tailored to driving data and passenger demographics is a smart way to scale past wrapping limits.
Also, the biggest hurdle in the rental car business is "vehicle procurement." Could you share the specific steps for expanding to a larger scale nationwide?
Mr. Aramaki: Yes. To overcome the procurement hurdle, we are currently testing several parallel schemes.
The most solid model is pre-selling ad spaces (e.g., 600,000 yen for 2 years) to corporate clients and using that ad revenue as capital to purchase cars one by one.
In addition to this, we are partnering with used car dealers. Dealers have long-term inventory sleeping in their lots. We take these cars as rental vehicles for free or at low cost, operate them, and return them in well-maintained condition after 2 years. For dealers, it generates profit instead of letting assets sit, and they can resell them as used cars after 2 years.
We are also pilot-testing a regional financial scheme where we partner with regional banks and local governments to establish a "regional mobility fund" of around 10 million yen, purchase 10 cars at once, and return principal and dividends to investors from lease revenues.
Mr. Fukutani: Utilizing dealers' long-term inventory and partnering with regional banks for mobility funds are smart approaches to procure assets without heavy upfront capital.
Lastly, from the sponsor's perspective, they might demand clear "ad effectiveness" (how many inquiries or sales were generated). How do you address proving ad effectiveness?
Mr. Aramaki: Actually, we do not pitch our service to sponsors in terms of "conversion-oriented ad effectiveness."
If we competed with web ads on conversion metrics, our cost-performance would inevitably look weaker.
Instead, we position our service as a tool for "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)" and "Recruitment Branding."
For example, on in-car stickers and LINE screens, we display a message: "The reason you can rent this car for 1,500 yen for 12 hours is thanks to the sponsorship of Company X." This is designed to generate gratitude from users toward the sponsor.
Furthermore, 70% of our users are in their 20s, and 80% are under 30. Having an Avispa-branded car sponsored by a local SME driving around town serves as powerful branding for young job-seekers. They see it and think, "This company supports the local sports team and helps young people with cheap mobility." This "intangible but powerful value for company image and recruitment" is what we sell to sponsors who appreciate this impact.
Mr. Fukutani: I see. By pitching it as "recruitment" and "CSR" branding rather than "advertising," you create a unique sponsorship value that doesn't compete directly with digital ads. Recruitment branding for youth is a highly compelling pitch for SMEs facing labor shortages.
Your business model is beautifully structured, and I look forward to your nationwide rollout of 5,000 vehicles. Thank you very much.
Mr. Aramaki: Thank you very much.