Dream Incubator: Creating Businesses for Sustainable Societal Transformation

On a mission to create businesses, reshape societies, and develop a social impact investment ecosystem, Dream Incubator (DI) is making waves in South East Asia (SEA). The renowned Japanese strategic consulting firm is at the epicenter of this progress by assisting public donor agencies like the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to remodel their social development strategies to include private sector engagement.

The firm leverages its multifaceted experience in private-sector strategy consulting and venture capital investment, guiding public agencies to collaborate with SEA’s private sector to foster social impact investment. Assuming the role of a ‘business producing company,’ DI is well aware that the private sector is a fertile ground that nurtures opportunities, promoting self-sufficiency in developing nations—a perspective strongly shared by public donor agencies.

In partnership with other Japanese public agencies, DI and JICA support startups from India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan, fostering significant social impact.

The firm also offers strategies conducive to the growth of new industries. This, in turn, facilitates the creation of a social impact investment ecosystem that leads to the development of a sustainable economy.

“The biggest difference between DI and other consulting firms is that we focus on creating new businesses in alliance with numerous partners. That is why we are called business producers,” says Kazuhiro Nakashoji, director of Dream Incubator Vietnam.

DI’s Multifaceted Mastery: The Triptych of Influence

DI’s capabilities manifest into three roles—a private sector consultant in Japan, a global venture capitalist, and a strategic ally helping the public sector forge a path toward sustainable development.

As a private sector consultant, DI works with government entities to reassess regulations that prevent private clients from expanding their operations. It mediates two-way communication between the public and private sectors to revise legal guidelines to cultivate an environment for business growth.

As a venture capitalist, DI gains insights into the needs and challenges of startups while providing seed capital. These first-hand observations enable the firm to ensure the new venture’s product/service prototypes align with prevailing market needs, a concept referred to as the product market fit (PMF). DI’s ability to bridge the communication gap between private and public stakeholders is built on this holistic understanding.

The firm’s current role as a strategic consultant for public entities blends the capabilities of its first two roles. Leveraging this combined expertise, DI spearheads the collaboration between JICA and other Japanese public agencies to amalgamate their strengths and create government-to-government (G2G) communication strategies and financial schemes for social development and business incubation initiatives. This formulates social development strategies that foster a sustainable social impact investment ecosystem.

“We offer JICA strategies on how to select and incubate a potential business project. We also encourage them to partner with private sectors in developing nations to drive sustainable growth,” states Nakashoji.

Creating the Social Impact Investment Ecosystem

To create a sustainable ecosystem, DI assists JICA in engaging with the local governments of recipient nations to identify social challenges that require intervention. This collaboration is strengthened by integrating local incubators and venture capitalists that pinpoint relevant challenges and discover startups capable of addressing these social shortcomings—primarily in the public healthcare field.

A three-dimensional filter forms the bedrock of the evaluation and selection process for startups that embody social responsiveness and innovation.

DI and JICA first undertake a comprehensive macroscopic analysis to identify the recipient nation’s private sectors that currently lack financial support.

The partners then make sure the startup’s scope of activity aligns with the expertise of the Japanese enterprises endorsed by other public agencies, which acts as a guide in the new venture’s product development process. After filtering through the initial two criteria, they seek out emerging firms that have not caught the interest of private investors due to factors like delayed ROI and geographical location. This pivotal component of the social development strategy enables public donor agencies to support social startups in rural regions or enhance the livelihood of the low and middle-income populace.

Once the ventures are selected using these criteria, DI leverages its expertise as a VC to facilitate market research and identify key trends and consumer insights. These findings aid in developing market strategies, ensuring the startup solution’s PMF and their ability to address identified social problems. DI develops an impact measurement framework upon the data collected during the product research and development phase to further assess the solution’s social success across various domains.

We offer JICA strategies on how they should select and incubate a potential business project. we also encourage them to partner with private sectors of developing nations to drive sustainable growth

“We understand how startups operate from a venture capitalist’s perspective. We apply our practical experience in supporting new ventures by setting practical KPIs to achieve PMF as a business and social venture,” says Nakashoji.

DI’s counsel also helps startups achieve business profitability while addressing social issues. Top Japanese technology experts assist them with the product development journey. The other public agencies also list eligible capacity-building program providers like local VCs, accelerators, and incubators, which the new ventures can access.

“By facilitating communication between governments, guiding public entities to create financial funds, supporting startups, and measuring social impacts, we provide the resources for the ecosystem’s autonomous development,” says Nakashoji.

Eliminating Social and Regulatory Barriers for Seamless Ecosystem Operation

Amid the rapidly evolving economy, DI diligently assists social startups in overcoming social and regulatory challenges to unlock their full potential and achieve sustainable business results. The firm achieves this feat by emphasizing the critical role and substantial advantages of regulatory reform within the marketplace while highlighting the prospective rewards government institutions can gain through their implementation.

DI substantiates the suggested regulatory reform by thoroughly analyzing the functioning of domestic and international stakeholders, including municipal governments and prominent donor agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Development and Programme (UNDP), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).It scrutinizes the benefits these entities have reaped upon similar policy evaluations, presenting the findings as compelling case studies to government entities of recipient nations.

The firm’s private sector consulting background further enables it to decode the methodology employed by industry peers and adapt and implement the change to the local context of JICA-supported communities. DI’s consistent support empowers local governments and public agencies in Japan and overseas to continue progressing toward sustainable development.
After identifying regulatory pain points and providing real-life examples of benefits reaped by public and private sectors upon policy revision, DI offers consultation services to government entities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the modified regulatory framework.

Translating Social Development Theory to Reality

To effectively showcase DI and JICA’s accomplishments in addressing societal issues by supporting the private sector, Nakashoji presents two startups from India and Japan— Nemo Care and Regional Fish.

Nemo Care aims to reduce preventable neonatal and maternal deaths in developing countries by creating innovative, affordable, and highly accurate monitoring solutions. The healthcare startup uses design-thinking principles to build life-saving, unobtrusive wireless, wearable IoT sensors, and big data tools to provide continuous high-resolution monitoring. The new venture aims to resolve the lack of manpower assigned to supervise patients, a concern in rural India.

DI and JICA chose Nemo Care for its potential to create a product that can solve a critical societal issue from a PMF standpoint. JICA’s assistance to improve its products enabled the startup to receive sequential investment from local private VCs. Being an ODA scheme facilitated the agency’s partnership with the local government, which eased the process of finding a hospital to test the wearable wireless sensor’s accuracy. The initial product pilot program enabled the partners to quantify the social impact, a feat difficult to achieve under the sole envelope of a donor campaign.

Regional Fish is a prime example of DI’s efforts in solving social and regulatory obstacles for the startup’s success. The Japanese biotechnology firm is on a mission to combat the shortage of protein sources and the decline of the Japanese aqua farming sector. Its breed improvement technology accelerates natural evolutionary changes and muscle growth in aqua farm produce, like shrimp and fish, from the DNA level.

JICA and DI believe that outstanding deeptech from Japan can contribute to developing countries’ social issue and this time, Regional Fish did product market fit for local aqua firming sector with 2 marine species: shrimp and Pangasius.

Paving the Sustainable Path for the Future

DI’s mission to harness the private sector’s potential and pursue business creation for a brighter future is deeply rooted in its commitment since its inception. Its decision to always look to the future has enabled the firm to succeed beyond the market’s conventional strategic consulting firms. Unlike the customary methods of organizational restructuring and cost-cutting to launch a startup’s business growth, DI actively works with public agencies and new ventures striving to improve their nation’s socio-economic development. This pursuit of reshaping societies by producing social impact businesses motivates the firm to incubate the dreams of numerous change makers and pave the way to self-reliance for developing nations.