Finding an interesting startup is a starting point; deciding whether to develop a product together, enter a market or invest requires a different level of involvement. Working across 16 European countries, CROSSBIE helps companies navigate those decisions across different business cultures and corporate processes. Founder and Managing Director Chika Yamamoto explains what companies now expect from these relationships and the work required to make them commercially worthwhile.

Bridges: CROSSBIE was established in 2020 with offices in Berlin and Yokohama to connect the innovation ecosystems of Europe and Japan. What gap did you see in the market at the time, and how has the company’s role evolved since its founding?

Yamamoto: CROSSBIE started in Berlin in April 2020, and we opened our Japanese company, CROSSBIE JAPAN, in Yokohama in September of the following year.

I had spent most of my career outside Japan — mainly with Nokia in Helsinki, London and New York — and I settled in Berlin in 2010. After many years of looking at Japan from the outside, I started to feel a sense of urgency. I wanted to do something that would help open Japan up through business, and honestly, partly for my children’s generation.

To many Japanese companies, Europe still felt like a bit of a “black box.” I saw that again and again. There was interest in European startups, technologies and business opportunities, but it was not always clear where to start, who to talk to or how to turn that interest into actual business.

CROSSBIE did not begin as a business plan. Through our own network, people simply started asking, “Could you help us with this?” The company grew out of that demand.

There were already plenty of opportunities to network and make introductions. What was missing was what came afterwards: someone who understood both sides, and who stayed involved long enough to turn a first conversation into something real.

Our role has expanded quite a bit. Alongside connecting companies and startups, we now support market entry, startup and technology scouting, business development, partnerships and investment opportunities. We work with investors, local governments and other ecosystem partners as well.

But the principle has not changed. We help both sides move forward until that connection becomes a partnership, an investment, a new market opportunity or a project they build together.

CROSSBIE brings together companies, startups, investors, local authorities and other organizations to create cross-border partnerships. What are the greatest challenges Japanese companies face when entering Europe, and how does CROSSBIE help them move from an initial introduction to a meaningful commercial relationship?

Finding someone to meet is usually not the hard part. The hard part is establishing whether the two sides have a real reason to work together — and then keeping things moving after that first conversation.

From Japan, Europe can look like one market, but in reality it is highly fragmented. We work across European countries, and business cultures, regulations, industries and decision-making processes vary from one to the next. The differences that matter most are usually the ones you cannot see at first: culture, process, language, values. Equally, European startups and companies do not always understand how Japanese organizations make decisions, or how much has to be agreed internally before a project can move.

So we start with this very basic question: what is the actual business objective?

From there, we define the challenge, translate it into clear requirements, and only then identify the right startups, companies or investors — and help both sides see where they really fit.

And we stay involved after the introduction. Depending on the project, that might mean supporting negotiations, structuring a partnership, preparing market entry, setting up a proof of concept or shaping an investment opportunity.

Two examples show what that looks like. A European startup we supported started working with a Japanese flagship airline, which was looking for high-quality plant-based snacks for its business-class passengers — a gap the startup filled. And a Japanese technology and manufacturing company searched for its European partner together with us, set up its base in our Berlin office and has moved with that partner from joint R&D to product creation.

A successful match for us is not simply a meeting. It is when the relationship starts creating real value for both sides.

Your work spans startup scouting, acceleration, funding support, talent development and ecosystem-building. Which areas are currently generating the strongest demand, and what does this reveal about how innovation priorities are changing in Germany and Japan?

What I see most clearly today is a shift from networking to implementation.

A few years ago, companies often asked, “Which interesting startups should we meet?” Today, the questions are far more specific: “Who can solve this problem?”, “Can we build something together?”, “Can this company enter our market?” or “Is there an investment opportunity here?”

That changes the kind of support companies need.

Startup scouting is still important, but finding a company is only the beginning. Increasingly, clients want help judging whether an opportunity is worth pursuing, building the partnership, entering the market and, where it makes strategic sense, structuring an investment.

I don’t see investment as separate from business development. Our role is to connect companies with the right investors and to help shape the opportunity so that it works commercially for both sides. The right investment can help a company enter a new market, deepen a strategic partnership or give a startup the capital and relationships it needs to grow internationally.

Cities and public-sector organizations are also thinking longer term, rather than running one-off programs. Much of our work sits here. We established our Japanese company in Yokohama with the support of the city, and we have run programs such as The Next Kitchen with JETRO, Hyogo Prefecture and the City of Kobe, connecting European food-tech startups with Japanese companies. I also serve as a startup-support ambassador for Shibuya Ward in Tokyo and sit on Osaka’s innovation council. On the German side, I am a board member of the German-Japanese Business Association (DJW) and of AsiaBerlin Forum e.V., and an AsiaBerlin Ambassador. These are no longer one-off delegations or single events. Cities on both sides are asking how to build something that lasts.

Then there is talent — for Japan, less a market trend. This is a national challenge. This year we are running Women on the Rise (WOTR) together with EY Japan, as a partner of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s TOKYO SUTEAM program. It supports Japanese women founders scaling globally, in deep tech, health tech, femtech, food tech, DX services and fashion. Mentors in Japan and Europe work with them through the selection rounds, and the three finalists will travel to Berlin this November to pitch at the AsiaBerlin Summit 2026 in Berlin.

This is not a study tour. We stay with the founders from product-market fit through to go-to-market and funding.

All of this shows the conversation in both Japan and Germany is getting more practical and hands-on. It is shifting from “How do we connect?” to “What can we actually build together, and how do we make it last?”

As Germany and Japan commemorate 165 years of diplomatic relations, where do you see the greatest opportunities for deeper collaboration between their startup and innovation ecosystems over the coming years?

Germany and Japan already have something very valuable: a long history of trust. Today’s geopolitics makes that trust worth even more. As supply chains, energy and technology alliances are being redrawn, companies on both sides are looking for partners they can rely on. The opportunity now is to turn that trust into new business.

Both countries have strong industrial capabilities and deep technological expertise, and they face many of the same challenges — AI and digital transformation, mobility, energy, semiconductors, demographic change and global competitiveness.

For me, the one that matters most is sustainability – and alongside it, equality, both economic and cultural. I have long believed these are the defining questions of our generation. Both countries are working on them from different starting points, and each has a great deal to learn from the other. That is why I wanted to build this bridge in the first place.

When established companies, startups, investors, research institutions and local governments from both countries work on those challenges together, the potential is enormous.

I would also like to see investment play a bigger role in connecting the two ecosystems. Cross-border investment does much more than provide capital. It can open a market, create a strategic business relationship, connect technology with customers and support long-term international growth.

Both countries also face the same structural risk: their core industries — automotive, machinery, chemicals, semiconductors, aerospace — are being restructured at the same time. I see that as the strongest reason to work together. No two countries understand each other’s industrial situation better, and no two are better placed to help each other turn that restructuring risk into opportunity.

After 165 years, Germany and Japan do not need more connections simply for the sake of connecting. The next step is to build, invest and grow together — in a way that is sustainable for both sides.