フォトシンス

Photosynth (株式会社Photosynth / フォトシンス) is a Tokyo-based IoT and cloud company founded in September 2014 that originated from the University of Tsukuba. Its principal product is the Akerun access control system (Akerun入退室管理システム), a business-oriented service built on a retrofit smart lock that attaches over an existing door's thumb-turn without construction work. Users unlock doors with smartphones, employee ID cards or transit NFC cards, while key permissions, entry/exit logs and time- or day-restricted access rights are managed in the cloud. The product family also includes the consumer-oriented Akerun smart lock and the Akerun Controller, which directly controls existing electric locks, electromagnetic locks and automatic doors from the cloud.

The company positions Akerun as an identity and authentication layer rather than a lock alone: its API connects to external attendance-management, membership and payment, and facial-recognition systems, enabling labor management, cashless payment and biometric-based security. Since 2020 the company has articulated an "Akerun Access Intelligence" access-authentication platform strategy intended to connect any door to the internet and let a single Akerun ID move seamlessly across offices, housing, hotels and other spaces. Reported applications span offices, shops, shared offices and coworking spaces, rental spaces, fitness gyms, medical facilities, R&D facilities and server rooms, as well as unattended operations, self-guided property viewings and monitoring services.

Photosynth listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on 5 November 2021 under securities code 4379, with an initial-price market capitalization of ¥21,482 million; the listing later moved to TSE Growth. The company is headquartered at G-BASE Tamachi, 5-29-11 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, and reports subsidiaries Migakun and fixU.

Founding story

The idea came from a conversation among engineer friends about the inconvenience of physical keys — losing them, digging them out of a bag, handing spare keys to family or partners. Six engineer friends built a prototype as a weekend project using parts bought in Akihabara and completed it in about six months. Coverage by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in summer 2014, in which a smartphone-linked key for a housekeeping service was highlighted, produced a flood of purchase, partnership and investment inquiries while the team still had only a 3D-printed prototype and no company, prompting them to incorporate and pursue mass production. The name Photosynth derives from "photosynthesize," reflecting an intent to connect inorganic objects such as keys and doors into something organic through information.

Business model

B2B hardware-plus-software subscription. Akerun is sold as a rental/SaaS model with zero initial cost and a monthly fee — reported at ¥17,500 per Akerun Pro set per month — replacing the traditional buy-outright access control systems that required on-premise servers, network cabling and door construction costing roughly ¥1 million. Firmware and cloud software are updated remotely over the life of the subscription.

Recurring monthly subscription (rental) fees per installed Akerun unit, with no upfront hardware purchase required by the customer.

Traction

Cumulative deployments were reported at over 4,500 companies in early August 2020 and more than 5,000 companies by July 2021. Headcount grew from about 60 full-time employees around early 2019 to roughly 110 in 2021 and about 180 in company recruiting material, with the business described as around 150 people at the time of the July 2021 financing; a startup database lists up to 300 employees as of 2026. Cumulative funding reached approximately ¥7.0 billion with the July 2021 round, and the IPO initial-price market capitalization was ¥21,482 million. Awards include Good Design Award 2015 and 2018, HEAD Best Selection Award 2015, the 3rd CNET Startup Award (CNET Japan Award) and the Global Brain Award at TechCrunch Tokyo 2014.

Latest developments

In 2021 the company disclosed capital and business alliances with JR East Startup (including a Suica-based building access trial), Kokuyo and the Nomura Real Estate group CVC fund, closed a ¥1.75 billion third-party allotment led by Fidelity International and SBI Investment with Mitsui Fudosan CVC and NTT Docomo Ventures, appointed Eisuke Inoue as outside director and Takuya Oikawa as technical advisor, and listed on TSE Mothers in November 2021. MIWA Akerun Technologies released its first residential smart lock product in September 2021. More recent press releases describe an Akerun integration with the TeamPlace.CRM facility and membership management system for coworking and incubation spaces (August 2026), a collaboration with Kumahira targeting government and education institutions for digital identity credentials (July 2026), an integration with the rental-space booking site builder upnow (June 2026), and publication of a corporate vision video centered on creating physical spaces that do not depend on human staffing (June 2026).