Kajima Looking Outside of Just Contech Startups for Solutions

On Monday BuiltWorlds was treated to a visit from Dai Ohama, General Manager, Innovation and Incubation Office, Kajima for a presentation on how Kajima is pushing open innovation in the field of construction technology.

Kajima, which was founded in 1840 in Tokyo and currently has over 19,000 employees, has a long history of innovations in its construction workflow. Kajima got its start by installing some of the first railway systems in Japan and has since branched out into other large-scale infrastructure projects including dams, offshore wind farms, and large scale tunnel projects. Kajima recently continued the push for innovation through several initiatives including the Kajima Concrete Base which focuses on creating concrete that can benefit the environment by cutting the volume of C02 in our air.

In his presentation, Ohama highlighted that Kajima is being creative in its search for technology solutions - including by stepping outside of the construction tech ecosystem to find tech solutions that could be applicable in construction.

Many startups and tech solutions within the contech space are at an early-stage and due to this are faced with limitations on scalability. This challenge can often lead to difficulties for implementation on large-scale construction projects that are often plagued with complexities. Ohama pointed out that just because a tech company or solution was not born into the contech space, that doesn't mean the solutions aren't applicable to construction projects and, often times, technology suppliers outside of the contech ecosystem are more mature and scalable.

BuiltWorlds is excited to partner with Kajima in 2024 for our upcoming Venture West Conference taking place in San Francisco April 3-4, 2024. Kajima, a Gold Sponsor of the event, will participate in a panel discussion around the standardization of pilot programs in the contech space. Click here for more information and to sign up.

Later this year, we will be partnering with their team again for the second iteration of the BuiltWorlds Tokyo Summit. This multi-day event will allow attendees to get a glimpse of the Asian construction technology ecosystem. Click here for more information.