ANA HOLDINGS Launches
Technology Venture "avatarin Inc."
Tokyo, April 1, 2020 - ANA HOLDINGS INC. (hereinafter "ANA HD") is proud to announce the launch of its new technology venture avatarin Inc. (hereinafter "avatarin") to accelerate the development, deployment and research of the world's first robotic avatar service platform. Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, who serve as Co-Directors of ANAHD's Avatar Division and have led the program since its inception, will assume the roles of CEO and COO of avatarin, respectively.
ANAHD has been leading global efforts into avatar research for the past four years, pioneering the development of globally deployable robotic avatar systems and avatar-based services. In 2018, ANA announced the launch of the $10M USD ANA Avatar XPRIZE to spark global interest and incentivize development of advanced robotic avatar systems. In 2019, ANAHD unveiled its avatar service platform avatarin.com, the original avatar robot "newme" and the avatar infrastructure plan to mass deploy robotic avatars as a new mobility service. From today, all avatar-related initiatives will be managed and operated by avatarin, including management of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition.
"We believe avatar technology will have a positive impact on the lives of everyone in the world and will bring us closer as a global community," said Akira Fukabori, Founder and CEO of avatarin Inc. "The new capabilities offered by this technology will allow the world to share human resources effortlessly and will usher in a new era of global collaboration and democratic access to necessary services," adds Kevin Kajitani, Founder & COO of avatarin Inc.
avatarin is ANAHD's first original technology startup and the company projects that its success will make it a new innovation model for other large corporations. By creating a new independent entity, ANAHD aims to encourage additional external collaborations and welcome new core partners and investors.
For press release related inquiries, please contact pr@avatarin.com. To inquire about employment opportunities at avatarin Inc., please contact recruit@avatarin.com.
Contact: ANA Corporate Communications, TEL +81-3-6735-1111, publicrelations@ana.co.jp
About ANA
Following the "Inspiration of Japan" high quality of service, ANA has been awarded the respected 5-Star rating every year since 2013 from SKYTRAX. ANA is the only Japanese airline to win this prestigious designation eight years in a row. Additionally, ANA has been recognized by Air Transport World as "Airline of the Year" three times in the past 10 years - 2007, 2013 and 2018, becoming one of the few airlines winning this prestigious award for multiple times.
ANA was founded in 1952 with two helicopters and has become the largest airline in Japan, as well as one of the most significant airlines in Asia, operating 77 international routes and 118 domestic routes. ANA offers a unique dual hub model which enables passengers to travel to Tokyo and connect through the two airports in the metropolitan Tokyo, NARITA and HANEDA, to various destinations throughout Japan, and also offers same day connections between various North American, Asian and Chinese cities.
ANA has been a member of Star Alliance since 1999 and has joint venture partnerships with United Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Austrian Airlines.
In addition to the full service and award-winning record of ANA, the ANA Group's subsidiary Peach Aviation Limited is the leading LCC in Japan, and has expanded following the integration of Vanilla Air Inc. in late 2019. The ANA Group carried 54.4 million passengers in FY2018, has approximately 43,000 employees and a fleet of 260 aircraft. ANA is a proud launch customer and the biggest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
For more information, please refer to the following link.
https://www.ana.co.jp/group/en/
