【WeGlobal Co., Ltd.】"Cross Border Works" Accelerates Overseas Expansion by Connecting Japanese Companies with Local Experts Holding Primary Information

Self-Introduction and Mission in the Global HR Field

Hello everyone. I am Ruoyi Zhou (Shu), the representative of WeGlobal Co., Ltd. Thank you for having me today. Under our mission "Make Cross-Border Exciting, Bring New Possibilities," we aim to break down boundaries of nations, cultures, and working styles between Japan and the world to foster new collaborations and values.

I spent my youth crossing borders, living and working in China, Japan, and Singapore. Over the past five years, I have worked extensively in the global HR field, supporting foreign companies and global startups in their overseas expansion and Japan market entry. Through this journey, I witnessed firsthand the significant information and talent challenges Japanese companies face during international expansion. Driven by a strong mission to bridge these gaps, I founded WeGlobal in 2021.

Our core strength lies in our team members, who all have rich, personal cross-border experiences. Currently, I am working with four core members (such as Fujita and Imamura), who are highly experienced in international business development, to quickly build our platform and grow our business.

The Walls of Information and Time Japanese Companies Face in Overseas Expansion

Traditionally, when Japanese companies expand overseas, they rely heavily on public support organizations like JETRO, local agencies, or major consulting firms.

However, this conventional process has a fatal flaw: it consumes massive amounts of indirect costs and time simply to gather local "primary information," find trustworthy local partners, and validate their market entry strategy. It is very common for companies to spend months just doing preliminary interviews on-site, exhausting their resources before actually launching their business.

Direct Access to Local Experts Holding Primary Information via "Cross Border Works"

To break down these barriers of information and time, we developed "Cross Border Works," a matching platform for cross-border side jobs and business development.

We have built a network of local business professionals (experts) who live and work in the target countries and possess real, up-to-date primary information. Companies can directly access and hire these experts on a per-project or side-job basis, depending on their business phase and needs—such as conducting local competitive analysis, market research, or establishing initial sales pipelines with local decision-makers. This enables companies to bypass intermediaries and have local experts actively working within their teams in as short as one week, accelerating market validation and execution.

Strengths as a "Business Co-creation Partner" Embedded within the Client's Team

Our primary competitive advantage is that we do not offer simple task outsourcing or basic spot consulting (which are task-based services).

Instead, we focus on providing "business co-creation partners" who embed themselves directly into our clients' global teams. In the 0-to-1 phase of international expansion, having partners who actively co-create the business on the ground is far more valuable than simply receiving static reports.

Two Flexible Business Models and Current Traction

We offer two types of plans tailored to our clients' needs: - Light Plan (Spot Hands-on): Serves as a low-friction entry point where Cross Border Works delivers quality-assured, one-off deliverables (e.g., local research reports) to let clients experience the value first. - Agent Plan (Recurring Matching): Focuses purely on talent matching, charging a 30% margin on the local experts' project-based compensation in a recurring monthly revenue model.

Currently, our network boasts 531 registered local business experts spanning 25 countries. These are high-caliber, multilingual professionals ready to deliver immediate value. On the corporate side, traction is growing steadily, with about 10 mid-market and pre-enterprise clients currently preparing to deploy the service.

An Asian-First Growth Roadmap and The Ask for Seed Funding

We launched our beta version last October and are actively validating our plans and customer needs. In the short term, we are focusing on high-touch, quality matching. In the mid-to-long term, we will develop product features to automate matching and ensure quality control.

Our growth marketing strategy involves hosting online webinars and publishing digital media to share live business insights from global markets. We are also building offline, region-specific communities for cross-border business learning.

To democratize global expansion and enable any company to scale internationally alongside top global talent, we are raising a seed round of 30 million yen (The Ask). Our immediate priority is to solidify our talent pool in the Asian market (Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China). We welcome you to join us as clients, partners, or investors. Thank you.

Q&A and Feedback

Commentator (Hatenamori): Thank you for the presentation. Providing direct, fast access to local primary information is a highly attractive value proposition for Japanese companies expanding overseas.

I have three questions. First, in global talent matching, there is high demand for hiring affordable offshore software engineers (from countries like Ukraine, for instance) to resolve talent shortages. Do you plan to target this offshore software development domain? Second, how do you handle organic user acquisition on the talent side? Specifically, how do you discover and onboard these niche experts who understand both Japan and local markets? Third, which regions are you prioritizing for future growth?

Ruoyi Zhou (Shu): Thank you for your excellent questions.

First, regarding offshore software developers, we have decided "not to enter" this domain. Software developer matching is a crowded red ocean with numerous established players. Our value lies purely in "Business Development (BD)." We focus strictly on matching professionals who can analyze local markets, open distribution channels, and launch businesses from 0 to 1, completely differentiating ourselves from tech staffing companies.

Second, regarding our talent acquisition strategy, you are correct that professionals who can bridge Japan and local markets are highly niche. In addition to direct scouting on LinkedIn, our primary acquisition driver is "our hub-and-spoke referral network (network effect)". Top global business professionals in this space are highly connected. We onboard a few key, trustworthy local experts (hubs) first, and then build closed community events and high-value media that incentivize them to refer their peers. We do not spend money on mass advertising.

Third, regarding prioritized regions, while our ultimate goal is global coverage, our immediate priority is "the Asian market (Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China)". This is where Japanese companies have the strongest expansion needs and where we see the highest growth potential. We will focus our resources on establishing an dominant talent pool and brand presence in Asia.