株式会社ShiruBe
5 known investors
Japanese company offering 'Tetsugaku Cloud', a philosophy-based organizational development and consulting service for companies.
Also known as ShiruBe, Inc. · Tetsugaku Cloud · 哲学クラウド · 株式会社シルベ
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 3
Company profile
researched Aug 2026株式会社ShiruBe (ShiruBe, Inc.) develops and operates 哲学クラウド ("Tetsugaku Cloud" / Philosophy Cloud), a management platform and consulting service that applies academic philosophy to corporate organizational development. Employees post the doubts and discomfort they feel at work as free text in the application; philosophers holding doctoral degrees analyze these submissions to identify the underlying philosophy and thinking patterns, and a dashboard visualizes how autonomously a team is thinking and which underlying beliefs drive its state. The service then pairs executives and managers with a philosopher for 1-on-1 sessions ("philosophy sessions") to articulate the team's ideal state, and continues with team-wide philosophical dialogue and consulting to build critical-thinking habits [2].
The company positions its work as the "social implementation of the humanities" (人文知の社会実装). Its most-used offering is 哲学対話 (philosophical dialogue), a workshop format in which a philosopher facilitates a group in questioning taken-for-granted assumptions and jointly constructing meaning. Alongside human-resources and organizational-development use cases, demand has grown from new-business and research-and-development departments [4]. Stated business lines include philosophy consulting and organizational/individual development support [1][3]. The company is headed by representative director Seiya Uedate, who studied philosophy and founded ShiruBe after concluding that rigid notions of "correctness" were a source of personal difficulty; it is his second company after a student-era venture [1][4].
Founding story
Representative director Seiya Uedate studied philosophy and came to recognize that the sense of "how things should be" was a source of his own difficulty in living; the experience of being freed from that led him to found the company to give more people an opportunity to live in their own way [1][2][3]. ShiruBe is his second venture, following a company he started as a student [4].
Business model
ShiruBe sells philosophy-based consulting and organizational development services to corporate clients, delivered by employed and affiliated philosophers through a combination of software (posting and analytics dashboard), facilitated dialogue workshops, 1-on-1 sessions and ongoing consulting engagements [2][4].
Revenue comes from corporate contracts for philosophy consulting, philosophical dialogue facilitation, philosophy sessions and organizational development support delivered via the 哲学クラウド service [1][2][3].
Traction
Service has been offered since October 2022, primarily to large global manufacturers, and the company reports creating employment opportunities for humanities researchers [3]. Documented client engagements include Yamaha Corporation HR [1], Panasonic Connect HR/general affairs, Yamaha Motor technology development, and Honda new-business personnel [0].
Latest developments
In October 2024 the company completed a pre-Series A raise of approximately 30 million yen via third-party allotment and bond issuance from the Ritsumeikan Social Impact Fund, to strengthen its philosopher staffing through a new employment scheme and to expand recruitment and sales in the Kansai region, and announced the planned hiring of University of Tokyo UTCP project researcher Yosuke Horikoshi [3][0]. Subsequent items listed include philosophical dialogue engagements at Panasonic Connect and Yamaha Motor, a Honda participant in its philosophical innovator training course, and the founding of a center to connect academia and business [0].
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Positions itself in an area with few practitioners in Japan, contrasting with overseas precedents such as large technology companies employing philosophers and the existence of philosophy consulting firms; domestically it references NTT's establishment of the Kyoto Philosophy Research Institute as evidence of growing interest in philosophy and organizational development [1][4].
Delivery by credentialed academic philosophers, including doctoral-level researchers and an in-house philosopher affiliation with University of Tokyo professor Shinji Kajitani, combined with a proprietary methodology and database for applying humanities knowledge to business problems. The company also built a "quasi-employee" (準社員) scheme under which humanities researchers spend roughly half of standard working hours on consulting work and the remainder on their own research, intended as a career buffer for postdoctoral researchers [3][4].
Technology
A cloud/web application where employees submit written accounts of workplace discomfort; philosophers with doctoral training analyze the text to surface the underlying philosophy and present comparable philosophical positions, with the aggregated results shown on a dashboard measuring team autonomy and its causes. The company stated plans to pursue external integration with talent management systems and organizational diagnostic tools [2].
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise sales supported by press releases, published customer interviews on note, a free first-use campaign of its 哲学アナリティクス feature for the first 100 companies at beta launch, and a partnership with Ritsumeikan University to expand sales in the Kansai region [2][3]. Public visibility also comes from speaking at a University of Tokyo symposium [0].
Corporate clients in Japan, initially large global manufacturers, with engagements in human resources and organizational development departments and, more recently, new-business and R&D departments. A launch campaign targeted presidents of companies with 30 or more employees [2][3][4]. Named users include Yamaha Corporation's HR department [1], Panasonic Connect's HR and general affairs division, Yamaha Motor's technology development division, and a Honda new-business staff member [0].
Geography
Headquartered in Tokyo; the company was registered at Omori-Nishi, Ota-ku, Tokyo in 2022 and is later listed at Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo (co-lab Gotanda with JPRE) [1][2][3]. It stated plans to expand recruitment of humanities researchers and business in the Kansai area (Kyoto and Osaka) in cooperation with Ritsumeikan University [3].
History
The company was established on 2022-04-15 [1][2][3]. It closed a seed round totaling 41 million yen announced on 2022-10-19 and launched the beta version of 哲学クラウド on the same date [0][2]. In April 2024 it announced adoption of its philosophical dialogue by Yamaha Corporation's HR department [1]. In October 2024 it raised approximately 30 million yen in a pre-Series A round from the Ritsumeikan Social Impact Fund, alongside a plan to hire University of Tokyo UTCP project researcher Yosuke Horikoshi as the first hire under a new employment scheme [3][0]. Additional client engagements and initiatives reported afterwards include philosophical dialogue at Panasonic Connect's HR and general affairs division, at Yamaha Motor's technology development division, a Honda new-business participant in its philosophical innovator training course, and the establishment of a center for the social implementation of philosophy [0].
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 9
launches, deals, and filings哲学クラウド established a center intended to connect academia and business and explore new value.
ShiruBe raised approximately 30 million yen through a third-party allotment of shares and bond issuance in a pre-Series A round, subscribed by the Ritsumeikan Social Impact Fund (managed by Plus Social Investment Co., Ltd.), for philosopher staffing, Kansai-region researcher recruitment and business expansion.
ShiruBe announced it would welcome Yosuke Horikoshi, project researcher at the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP), as the first hire under its new 'quasi-employee' employment structure for humanities researchers.
Yamaha Corporation's human resources department implemented 哲学クラウド, holding a philosopher-facilitated philosophical dialogue on the theme of 'growth' for HR staff, followed by a philosopher's analytical report.
ShiruBe announced a third-party allotment of shares raising a total of 41,000,000 yen in a seed round, with investors including mint and W fund.
ShiruBe began offering the beta version of 哲学クラウド, a management platform for habitualizing thinking, together with a campaign giving the first 100 companies a free first use of its 哲学アナリティクス feature.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- 株式会社ShiruBe｜スピーダ スタートアップ情報リサーチinitial.inc · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does 株式会社ShiruBe do?
- Japanese company offering 'Tetsugaku Cloud', a philosophy-based organizational development and consulting service for companies.
- Who are 株式会社ShiruBe's investors?
- 株式会社ShiruBe's investors include mint VC, W Inc..