As a citizen joint project with Yokohama City, Yokohama Mirai Organization supports the commercialization of excellent technologies and ideas of startups that will be responsible for the future growth of Yokohama's economy.Startup Social Demonstration/Implementation Support Program” was carried out.
This time, we spoke to Mr. Hiroyuki Otsu, CEO of Opera Co., Ltd., one of the selected companies.
Representative Director of Opera Co., Ltd.
Mr. Hiroyuki Otsu
Provides operation optimization AI "Opero Copilot" for chemical process plants (oil refining, petrochemicals, heat supply, power generation, waste incineration, etc.). Improves plant production efficiency (per unit), reduces production costs, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and reduces operational workload. Through this program, we were matched with Minato Mirai 21 Heat Supply Co., Ltd. and conducted demonstration experiments on our own products.
-Please tell us what made you decide to apply for this program.
When our company was first founded in February 2023, we wanted to receive some kind of support, and theStartup Social Implementation Promotion ProjectI applied. Unfortunately, our proposal was not selected at that time, but Yokohama Future Organization introduced us to Minato Mirai 21 Heat Supply Co., Ltd., which cooperated with this demonstration experiment. After that, we prepared for a demonstration experiment at our company, and applied as we did last year, hoping to use this as an opportunity to promote this product.
-Did you gain anything through this program?
The driving optimization AI developed by our company is adjusted to match actual driving, received feedback, adjusted again, and received feedback again, and so on.The product's effectiveness is verified by repeating the cycle of demonstration experiments over and over again. It was a huge success to be able to demonstrate the improvement in COP (energy consumption efficiency).
Another major achievement was that the data we obtained helped clarify issues for further improvement of COP, and revealed future development policies. In addition, we are continuing to communicate with other heat supply companies that we attempted to match with, but were unable to commercialize, and are proceeding with collaborative discussions for the future.
-Please tell us about your future plans.
First of all, we would like to explore collaboration with the heat supply companies that we have connected with this time, and after that, we would like to promote the introduction of this product to heat supply companies all over the country. Furthermore, in the medium to long term, we will utilize the knowledge gained from optimizing the operation of heat supply plants to develop applications for other chemical process plants (oil refining, petrochemicals, power generation, waste incineration, etc.). I would like to work on this.
-Please tell us your expectations for this project and Yokohama Mirai Organization.
We hope that this project will continue to grow as a proving ground for startup companies. I believe that by creating a flow of large companies that could be potential candidates for demonstration experiments, who feel at ease jumping in and thinking, ``If the company has been selected for this project,'' Yokohama will be revitalized as a city of innovation. We hope that Yokohama Future Organization will further expand its recognition as a center of the innovation ecosystem.
About the Startup Social Demonstration and Implementation Support Program