ATOMica

株式会社ATOMica (ATOMica) is a Japanese company that plans, develops and operates what it calls the "social coworking" business (ソーシャルコワーキング®). Rather than leasing desks in its own shared offices, ATOMica produces and operates coworking and co-creation facilities inside spaces owned or occupied by partners such as corporations, local governments, universities and regional organisations, and stations resident "community managers" at each site to sustain encounters, exchange and collaboration. The company was established on 5 April 2019 and is led by two representative directors serving as Co-CEOs, Mizuki Shimada and Kazuki Nanbara, alongside a CXO, CFO, full-time auditor, CPO and CTO.

The business is organised around four areas: facility production and operation (PLACE), the design and running of programs at each site (PROGRAM), community planning and event operation (COMMUNITY), and technology (TECHNOLOGY). The technology layer is knotPLACE, an in-house SaaS platform for multi-site facility operation that also distributes the "WISH" records community managers log from users in real time across the national network of managers; generative-AI capability extensions and a CRM component were reported as under development. Alongside facility work, ATOMica runs entrepreneurship and startup support programs commissioned by prefectures and municipalities, university-linked internships and inquiry-based learning for high schools, and operates a KOMMONS company focused on customer-success communities.

ATOMica's facility portfolio spans Hokkaido/Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki, Chugoku/Shikoku and Kyushu/Okinawa, and includes both co-creation sites operated for partners (for example YUI NOS in Sendai, NETSUGEN in the Gunma prefectural government building, GYMLABO at Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fujitsu's Uvance Innovation Studio, multiple Mitsui Fudosan "Workstyling" locations and KDDI's TSUNAGU BASE) and directly operated sites branded ATOMica Miyazaki and ATOMica Kitakyushu.

Founding story

Established on 5 April 2019. Co-CEO Mizuki Shimada describes founding ATOMica after experiences including overcoming bullying in primary school, a first venture as a student and moving from his hometown to work in Tokyo, motivated by a belief that pivotal life moments come from chance encounters and that "rely-and-be-relied-upon" relationships are the root of happiness — including for reserved people, not only assertive self-starters. Co-CEO Kazuki Nanbara says his own turning points all stemmed from reunions with people he had earlier come to rely on, and explains the company name: just as identical atoms form different molecules depending on how they bond, changing how people connect changes outcomes — a process the company calls "atomi-ka".

Business model

ATOMica generates business by producing and operating coworking and co-creation facilities on behalf of third parties that own the space — companies, local governments, universities and regional bodies — with resident community managers, and by planning and running programs and community events at those sites. Additional lines include commissioned public-sector startup, entrepreneurship and regional-promotion programs, alliance and business-transfer activity (for example a services-office business acquired from Advalue and organisational development/recruiting support acquired from Syinc), and knotPLACE, its own facility-operation SaaS offered as a product.

Revenue comes from producing and operating facilities for partner organisations and from commissioned program and community operation for governments, universities and corporates, supplemented by SaaS provision of knotPLACE and acquired service businesses.

Traction

Reported 62 facilities in 28 prefectures with 259 stationed community managers at the March 2026 Series B close, rising to more than 70 facilities nationwide by August 2026; knotPLACE deployed at 91 sites and reported to have surpassed 55,000 users in June 2025. Its CS KOMMONS community passed 2,000 members in February 2026, and the directly operated ATOMica Miyazaki site is described as receiving about 20,000 visitors a year. The company was selected for Toyo Keizai's "Amazing Ventures 100" 2025 edition and its Iwate prefecture remote-side-job project won an excellence award at the Platinum Grand Prix in November 2025. Wantedly lists 267 members.

Latest developments

In August 2026 ATOMica announced funding from Hokkaido Co-Creation Partners (Hokuyo Bank group), which subscribed a third-party share allotment via the Hokuyo Startup No. 1 Fund, to expand activity in Hokkaido; in the same month the Sapporo startup hub "HooK" began full operation under joint management with DG FEELIST, and the company began a study project with Asahikawa City on a startup support facility. Other recent items include acquiring a services-office business from Advalue, taking on part of the operation of Uonuma City's "Nigiwai Creation Base" in Niigata, launching an entrepreneur co-creation division, starting BIRDS Coworking×FUKUROI in Shizuoka, a crowdfunding support tie-up with CAMPFIRE, a business partnership with LIGHTicht (relay business succession), a community-based market research project with Keihin Electric Express Railway at chilink WORK SITE MINATOMIRAI, and the WANDERIDE micro-sharing service launched with Fukuyama Dengyo and glafit at the tovio site.