September 25, 2026 Announcement of the Winners for the Nippon Startup Awards 2026

　Sakana AI K.K. won the Information and Communications Startup Award (MIC Minister’s Award) at the Nippon Startup Awards 2026. This award recognizes and commends entrepreneurs and startups that have created impactful new businesses in the field of information and communications.

Note: The published materials are in Japanese only.

1．Overview

　The Nippon Startup Awards program recognizes entrepreneurs and startups for their creation of new businesses with socially positive impact that may provide role models for the next generation. The purpose of this program is to raise public awareness of the importance of proactively taking on challenges and the social recognition of entrepreneurs, both for aspiring business founders and society at large, thereby encouraging entrepreneurship for people throughout society.
　Following a public call for entries from Tuesday, December 23, 2025, to Friday, January 23, 2026, for this award, 317 applications were received. After review by the Nippon Startup Awards 2026 Judging Committee (chaired by FUKUSHIMA Michi, President of the Japan Academic Society for Ventures and Entrepreneurs; Professor, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University), the recipients of the “Information and Communications Startup Award (Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award)” have been decided.

2．Information and Communications Startup Award (MIC Minister’s Award)

〇Award recipient
 Sakana AI K.K.
 (Co-Founder & Chairman: ITO Ren, Established in 2023)

〇Business overview
　Sakana AI develops proprietary technologies, such as "Evolutionary Model Merge," which evolutionarily combines multiple AI models to generate new ones, and "The AI Scientist," which handles everything from generating research ideas and executing experiments to writing and peer-reviewing papers. The company strives to put these technologies into practical application across various fields.