Aww Inc.

We've been fascinated for a long time with the concept of virtual humans. We imagine the future to be one where real and virtual humans move, communicate, and interact in both digital and physical spaces. The seeds of this inevitable future have been sown fron decades of virtual worlds, RPGs, vtubing, avatars, and social networks, and also now accelerated by generative AI. Over the past several years, Kindred Ventures has been thrilled to back founders building different foundation models and tools for generative video AI to enable and accelerate this world view. Today, we are excited to share our investment in Aww Inc. , a Tokyo-based virtual human and storytelling company founded by Takayuki Moriyan. The company recently closed a $6M seed round, and we’re honored to have led this financing alongside our Japanese friends from Coral Capital and others. Aww is a storytelling platform which is pioneering AI-enabled virtual human characters and fandoms and unlocking a new form of interactive and social experiences. This level of innovation wasn’t possible until LLMs and generative video came into the picture, together with CGI and animation. To-date, their first virtual human character, Imma, has built a media and Internet presence with fandom spanning different social media platforms and generated millions in income. Read more about Aww’s vision for AI + CG + Storytelling, their recent partnership with NVIDIA, and their journey from concept to reality in our interview below with CEO and founder, Takayuki Moriyan.

We are pleased to announce that imma has become a special supporter of the Osaka-Kansai Expo2025. We at Aww Inc. will continue to take on new challenges. Here is what imma has to say. People from more than 160 countries and regions around the world will gather in Japan. I am excited about the opportunity to "bring the world together" by bringing together people from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds. What are the future issues that will bring about not only economic development, but also a better way for all of humanity to live together? I hope that this festival will be a place where we can confront fundamental questions about the "life" of all living things, including global-scale issues such as abnormal weather and climate change. So, everyone, let's look forward to one year from now!

ECAL, a Swiss art school, recently visited our company. This prestigious school is known for its international recognition in the fields of design, photography, graphic design, film, new technology, and the arts, and is consistently ranked in the top five art and design schools in the world. During their visit in Japan, they visited our company Aww Inc. Kojima Production, famous for its games, and the art collective Team Lab. I was happy that they chose us and that they contacted us about it firsthand, and most importantly, the students’ sharp questions were very stimulating. Aww consists of young and talented people. We have many students, and there are even high school age students who are in charge of CG and AI. Age does not matter at all in our company. There is no hierarchical relationship. We strive to ensure that people with high ideas and technical skills continue to be valued. We aim to have a team where only good people gather, not only to expand our business, which is very important to us as our hiring criteria.