VUILD Teams Up with Three Regional Businesses to Co-create New Businesses That Use Digital Technology to Bring Out Each Region’s Character

VUILD Inc. (Headquarters: Atsugi, Kanagawa; CEO: Koki Akiyoshi; hereinafter “VUILD”), an architecture startup, is pleased to announce that it has entered into business partnerships with three companies: 有限会社久米製材所 of Kurayoshi, Tottori (CEO: 門脇義樹), pukto of Matsukawa, Nagano (Representative: 田中大也), and AndForest, a general incorporated association in Okazaki, Aichi (Representative Director: 加藤隆人).

All three are players in regional revitalization who are working to create new industries and ways of living, each facing different challenges and possessing different strengths depending on their region. Drawing on the speed and digital technology that are a startup’s strengths, VUILD will bring out the character of each region and help accelerate the creation of new business models by regional businesses.

To date, VUILD has sold more than 260 ShopBot digital woodworking machines across Japan. Rather than simply selling them, we have supported the emergence of new businesses in each region by providing a design platform, developing talent and supporting business development.

What has become clear in the process, however, is that a “culture of co-creation,” in which people think through and put into practice solutions to regional challenges faced by local businesses, such as labor shortages, passing on skills and using local timber, has not yet sufficiently developed. Simply installing machines cannot solve such challenges.

VUILD aims for a world in which everyone “makes.” Leveraging our in-house capabilities spanning architectural design, construction and software development, we work alongside our partners all the way from design to commercialization. A further strength is that we have gathered people who have taken on challenges on site in many projects. Precisely because we have a culture of confronting challenges through making and enjoying new challenges, we believe we can keep machines from ending up as “mere tools” and transform them into a force that moves regions and businesses.

This collaboration with the three companies gives shape to VUILD’s philosophy and track record, and starts as an initiative to co-create new businesses that use digital technology to make the most of regional challenges and each business’s character.

有限会社久米製材所 (Kurayoshi, Tottori)

As a sawmill that has supported local architecture, it is turning the worsening shortage of craftspeople into an opportunity, combining digital technology and local timber to build a “new image of the sawmill.” While pursuing new uses for timber and higher added value, it is also working to develop the next generation of talent, taking on the challenge of sustaining local industry.

pukto (Matsukawa, Nagano)

Based in a former school building, pukto develops people to tackle regional challenges such as vacant house renovation and the decline of forestry. It creates systems in which local residents and newcomers work together hands-on, leading to actual renovations of vacant houses and the use of public spaces. Through these activities, it aims to nurture a new “related population” of people from inside and outside the region who stay involved, and to build a foundation for sustainable community development and industry.

AndForest (Okazaki, Aichi)

Taking advantage of an environment where the city and the forest are close together, AndForest uses a mobile fab car to bring forest resources into town, providing places where anyone can experience woodworking and digital making. Addressing challenges such as stagnant forestry and the divide between city and forest, it is creating a new regional model that, driven by fun, fosters a cycle between people and forests.

This partnership is an attempt to co-create new business models that make the most of each region’s character by combining “regional revitalization × business × digital.” We will further expand the initiatives starting from the three sites of Kurayoshi, Matsukawa and Okazaki.

Specifically, we will promote collaboration with ShopBot users at more than 260 locations nationwide and connect the challenges taking place in each region. We will further develop this into collaboration with the more than 10,000 ShopBots in use worldwide, linking the efforts of regional businesses to a global network. At the same time, we will work with local governments facing challenges in fields such as education and forestry, developing technologies tailored to the needs of each site, to strengthen the flow of new value created from the regions.

VUILD will link small, locally born practices and, together with the ShopBot network spreading in Japan and abroad, grow into a platform that connects regions and cities, and Japan and the world.

As an opportunity to see these efforts firsthand, VUILD will exhibit at the “Woodworking Machinery Exhibition (Mokkiten 2025),” held in Nagoya from October 2 to 4, 2025. We will introduce this collaboration along with projects underway across Japan and examples of how technology is being used, creating a place to think together with visitors about the future of making and of the regions. We look forward to seeing you there.

▶︎ For details on <Mokkiten 2025>, see here　

VUILD Inc.

Representative: Koki Akiyoshi (CEO)

Founded: November 21, 2017

Capital: 100 million yen

Headquarters: 1-7-24 Shimoechi, Atsugi, Kanagawa

Business: Architectural design, development and manufacturing of wood products, sales of CNC routers, digital talent development, business development support, IT service development

Corporate URL: https://vuild.co.jp/