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Imiron

Category: AI Developer Tools

Japanese startup developing SpecForge, an AI-powered formal specification and verification platform for mission-critical AI systems in autonomous driving, robotics, and medical devices. Imiron was founded in 2024. The company is led by Masakazu Adachi. Based in Tokyo, Japan. Team size: 1-10. Total funding raised: $2.0M. Latest round: Pre-Series A. Key investors include DG Daiwa Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Gogin Capital, Abelia Capital.

Founded
2024
Headquarters
Tokyo, Japan
Team size
1-10
Total funding
$2.0M

Value proposition

SpecForge converts ambiguous natural-language requirements into mathematically rigorous formal specifications, enabling continuous verification and monitoring of AI systems throughout the development lifecycle.

Products and solutions

SpecForge (AI-powered formal specification & analysis platform), Lilo (proprietary formal specification DSL), SpecForge for VS Code (IDE extension), Formal safety论证 framework for autonomous driving (GA-RSS based)

Unique value

Democratizing formal specification through AI (LLM + proprietary Lilo DSL) — making mathematically rigorous system verification accessible to non-specialist engineers, with specs that double as runtime monitoring rules.

Target customer

Enterprise engineering teams developing safety-critical AI systems (autonomous driving, robotics, medical devices)

Industries served

Autonomous driving, Robotics, Medical devices, Mission-critical AI systems

Technology advantage

World-class research in temporal logic and formal methods from NII/ERATO; proprietary Lilo DSL; LLM-assisted natural language to formal spec conversion; Signal Temporal Logic (STL)-based specification; GA-RSS (Goal-Aware Responsibility-Sensitive Safety) framework for autonomous driving safety proofs

How they differentiate

Combines world-class academic formal methods research (NII/ERATO) with practical industry deployment experience; SpecForge bridges the gap between formal verification experts and mainstream engineers via LLM-assisted spec generation; specs serve dual purpose as both design artifacts and runtime monitoring rules (SpecDevOps).

Main competitors

Ansys (SCADE/Medini Analyze), dSPACE, BTC Embedded Systems, Applied Intuition

Key partnerships

T2 (autonomous driving truck company) — joint project on formal safety论证 for Level 4 autonomous driving certification, National Institute of Informatics (NII), JST ERATO Hasuo Meta-Mathematical Systems Design Project

Notable customers

T2 (autonomous driving truck company)

Major milestones

Founded August 2024, Seed round ¥60M from Abelia Capital (Dec 2024), SpecForge product launch (Jul 2025), EdgeTech+ AWARD 2025 AI Design Support Excellence Award (Nov 2025), Joint project with T2 for Level 4 autonomous driving safety论证 (Aug 2025), Pre-Series A ¥140M led by DG Daiwa Ventures (Jun 2026)

Market positioning

Early-stage Japanese deep-tech startup targeting the emerging market for AI system verification and safety assurance, positioned at the intersection of formal methods, AI safety, and mission-critical system development.

Geographic focus

Japan (primary), with global ambitions

About Masakazu Adachi

Ex-Toyota Central R&D Labs (2007-); Ex-Denso (2017-); Ex-Denso Germany (Head of European R&D, 2020-). Osaka University graduate; postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University.

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