MPower Partners Fund, Japan’s first ESG-focused global venture capital fund, has invested in FastLabel (Tokyo, Japan) which provides the nation’s only all-in-one solution that encompasses annotation tools with advanced proprietary functions and highly convenient UI/UX, teaching data creation service, dataset and data collection service, and building of MLOps.

In the rapidly growing and expanding AI software application market, there is an ever-increasing need to quickly and efficiently create high-quality teaching data to improve accuracy, quality, and development efficiency. In addition, it is essential to create and manage teaching data in an appropriate manner for privacy and security reasons.

FastLabel is an AIPaaS (AI Process-as-a-Service) company that provides comprehensive support for each process of AI development, from the teaching data preparation phase to data management and operation, and AI development in general. The company's AI data platform, FastLabel, is Japan’s only all-in-one solution that encompasses annotation tools with advanced proprietary functions and highly convenient UI/UX, teaching data preparation services, dataset and data collection services, and building of MLOps.

FastLabel has been used by thousands of AI developers and has solved AI development problems for more than 200 companies in Japan, including some of the largest companies in the automotive, manufacturing, infrastructure, food, construction/real estate, IT, universities/research institutes, medical/pharmaceutical, and childcare industries. FastLabel has accelerated the PDCA cycle of AI development in these companies, resulting in a 70% reduction in development costs and time, and a 30% improvement in the accuracy of AI applications.

With the rapid development of Generative AI technologies, including LLMs such as OpenAI's GPT-4, there is a growing need for Japan's own LLMs and the development of Generative AI for images, video, and voice. FastLabel plans to actively provide data and software tools for the development of more efficient and higher-quality AI applications in these new fields.

MPower expects that FastLabel's high-quality, easy-to-use AI development infrastructure will help solve societal problems in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture and fisheries, IT, services, as well as academia and research. Through this investment, we will strive to support the further development of FastLabel in terms of both ESG and business growth.

Comments from Eisuke Ueda, CEO, FastLabel

"FastLabel is a company that aims to be a key player in Japan's AI revolution, with the purpose of "creating AI infrastructure and bringing Japan back to a 'world-class' position again".

Founded in 2020, FastLabel is now in its fourth year, has about 50 employees, and has grown its AI data annotation business into a service used by more than 200 companies, including some of the largest enterprises in Japan.

We strongly agree with MPower Partners' goal of integrating ESG and business strategy in terms of providing an environment where employees who support data governance and company growth - which are important in the safe and secure implementation of AI - and annotators who are the core of the AI data annotation business, can play an active role.

With this funding, we aim not only to expand our AI data annotation business, but also to broaden the scope of our services to the entire AI development process, thereby becoming a key part of the infrastructure that supports the AI revolution in Japan. In order to achieve further business growth and to realize our purpose, we will now focus on hiring and product development."

About AI Data Platform “FastLabel”

The AI data platform FastLabel is an integrated platform that includes a SaaS-type system with functions for automation of teaching data creation, quality control, project management, and model learning/evaluation, as well as services such as teaching data creation agency, data consulting, and model development. It is an integrated platform that includes services such as teaching data creation, data consulting, and model development.

The platform is currently being used by many companies that support domestic industries such as manufacturing, building, telecommunications, infrastructure, and IT services, and in the first year since its official release, the number of registered users has exceeded 1,000 workspaces. The use of FastLabel has realized a 70% reduction in data creation costs and a 30% improvement in AI accuracy in AI development.

FastLabel’s Press Release regarding this round (Japanese)

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000126.000065427.html

About FastLabel

• Location: Kitashinagawa 5-5-27-201, Shinagawaku, Tokyo

• CEO: Eisuke Ueda 

• Business: Development of AI data annotation platform

• Corporate URL: https://fastlabel.ai/

About MPower Partners

MPower Partners Fund is Japan’s first ESG-integrated global venture capital fund that aims to support entrepreneurs providing solutions to societal challenges through the power of technology, and to promote sustainable growth by incorporating ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) into their core business strategies.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mpower-partners.com

For inquiries, please contact: info@mpower-partners.com

This press release has been prepared for the purpose of providing information to qualified institutional investors and potential portfolio companies of the Fund, and is not a disclosure document pursuant to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and does not constitute a solicitation or recommendation to purchase the Fund.