Yukai to Co-Develop Service Products and Platforms with BOCCO-using Businesses

Yukai to Co-Develop Service Products and Platforms with BOCCO-using Businesses

The robotic startup hopes partnerships will help expand demand for consumer robots.

TOKYO (July 3, 2019) – YUKAI Engineering Inc., a Tokyo-based robotics startup known for creating robots that bring joy to life, has announced it has launched “BOCCO Partners Program.” Under the program, Yukai will work with companies that are interested in providing services to consumers via BOCCO emo – the new-generation BOCCO to be released later this year — and collaboratively develop new service products and platforms. The first three partners will be Tokyo Gas, a utility company providing energy to 11.9 million households, Yazaki Energy Systems, an equipment company, and necolico, an IoT platform provider. Yukai hopes the new partnership program will help expand demand for consumer robots.

Companies that have already signed up to be “partners”:

• Tokyo Gas will launch “Makasete (Got your back) BOCCO,” a subscription program designed to make it easier for parents to remotely talk with and monitor the activities of their young children at home via BOCCO emo.
• Yazaki Energy Systems, which develops, manufactures and sells equipment, will launch a safety program for truck and taxi drivers. The services will be provided via BOCCO emo.
• Necolico, will integrate BOCCO emo into “Necolico Plus,” a home IoT service program designed to enable a “worry-free” lifestyle. The company hopes the use of BOCCO emo will help them provide more personable services.

 

BOCCO partners have access to Yukai’s service platform, which can be customized to their specific needs. Yukai also assists its partners with crowdfunding for their new service products.

“Because IoT and robot-based consumer services are a relatively new business segment and lack data, people are often unsure what may be the most cost- and time-efficient way to launch their new products. We believe our robotics expertise, along with the platform and our crowdfunding assistance should make it easier for businesses to start new services,” Yukai Engineering CEO Shunsuke Aoki said.

 

“Robot services are said to become a 2 trillion-yen business by 2022. We believe the demand for quality robotic service products will continue to rise. BOCCO, which was released in July 2015, has become a popular communication robot for home and business uses. BOCCO emo is the culmination of our more than 10 years of experience in IoT and robot design. We hope BOCCO Partners Program will help more companies deliver new and unique user experiences to their customers.”

 

About BOCCO emo

BOCCO emo is the new-generation model of BOCCO, Yukai’s flagship family communication robot. BOCCO is widely used across Japan as an interface for child- and senior-monitoring programs. The company is currently in discussion with multiple prospective business partners that are interested in integrating BOCCO and BOCCO emo into their service platforms.