AIONA
Category: AI in Manufacturing
AIONA builds REVY, an AI agent that automates and supports manufacturing design workflows by digitizing veteran engineers' tacit design knowledge. AIONA was founded in 2024. The company is led by Tomoyuki Asano (浅野友行). Based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Total funding raised: $1.21M. Latest round: Seed. Key investors include ON&BOARD (lead, Seed), GxPartners, Crest Skill Partners (クレストスキルパートナーズ), Mizuho Capital (みずほキャピタル), Aichi Bank and Mizuho Bank (debt financing), Link Capital (lead, Pre-Seed), Hirotaka Matsuoka (松岡広隆, individual investor, Pre-Seed).
- Founded
- 2024
- Headquarters
- Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
- Total funding
- $1.21M
Value proposition
Captures and structures manufacturing design tacit knowledge (why a thickness/structure was chosen, past failure history) locked in veteran engineers' experience and technical documents, letting AI agent REVY assemble judgment materials so human designers can focus on higher-order decisions rather than searching/organizing.
Products and solutions
REVY (レビー) — AI agent automating/assisting quality function deployment (QFD), reuse-design selection, design FMEA/DRBFM, and drawing review (検図) across the design workflow, accumulates AI-human judgment history as new organizational knowledge.
Unique value
"AI-driven design" (AI駆動設計) philosophy: AI does not design in place of humans — it surfaces judgment material from historical technical documents/drawings while humans retain final decision authority, differentiating from full design-automation approaches.
Target customer
Manufacturing companies (large Japanese manufacturers) with design/engineering departments facing veteran engineer retirement and knowledge-transfer gaps.
Industries served
Manufacturing (automotive, industrial equipment, and broader Japanese manufacturing sector), already piloting with large manufacturers and selected for a NEDO GENIAC national R&D program on manufacturing data AI-readiness.
Technology advantage
Domain-expert team combining deep manufacturing design process knowledge with AI product development speed; proprietary approach to structuring unstructured tacit design knowledge and technical documents into an AI-usable knowledge base.
How they differentiate
Focused specifically on design-stage tacit-knowledge capture and human-in-the-loop judgment (not procurement/quotation like Caddi), spanning QFD, reuse design, FMEA/DRBFM and drawing review as one integrated agent workflow.
Main competitors
Caddi Inc. (キャディ) — manufacturing AI data/drawing platform, Akari Inc. (燈株式会社) — AI for construction/engineering drawing search and knowledge, large-vendor internal tools such as Panasonic Connect's in-house Manufacturing AI Agent for drawing/spec verification.
Key partnerships
Selected as an implementing partner for NEDO's GENIAC (製造業データ等のAI-Ready化に関する研究開発) national R&D program, pilot engagements with multiple major Japanese manufacturers, lending relationships with Aichi Bank (あいち銀行) and Mizuho Bank.
Major milestones
Founded October 2024, selected for NEDO GENIAC manufacturing AI-readiness R&D program (2026), pilots with multiple major Japanese manufacturers, ¥140M seed round closed September 2026 to scale product development team.
Market positioning
Early-stage vertical AI agent challenger targeting Japan's large but knowledge-transfer-constrained manufacturing design market, starting from individual design tasks with ambition to expand across the full design process.
Geographic focus
Japan (initially Chubu/Tokyo region manufacturers, expanding to Kyushu per investor commentary), no disclosed international expansion yet.
About Tomoyuki Asano (浅野友行)
Ex-Nichias Corp (auto parts/semiconductor equipment quality assurance); Ex-Nissan Motor (design/manufacturing quality management, marketing intelligence, cross-functional corporate reform team); Founder & CEO of Kai Co., Ltd. (2013, consulting/business production).
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Official website: https://aiona.co.jp/