Accelerator Program "DraPla Innovation Lab"
Four companies selected for Phase IV

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January 29, 2025
East Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd.

NEXCO EAST (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; hereafter "the Company") has selected four companies from among 127 applicants for the Phase IV of its accelerator program 2024" DraPla Innovation Lab," which was open from August 1 to October 1. We will continue to promote further co-creation toward the creation of new value.

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Background to the program and its selection

The "DraPla Innovation Lab" is a program aimed at creating businesses that will realize next-generation Expressway services, revitalize local areas, and solve social issues by verifying technologies and business models with companies that have new technologies, services, and ideas. This year marks the fourth time the program has been held, and applications were accepted under seven themes, with four companies selected based on their future potential and feasibility. The selected companies will work toward creating new value by conducting demonstration experiments on Expressway and in fields along the expressways.

Adopted companies / Proposal content (company name in alphabetical order)

company name Overview
UrbanX Co., Ltd.
Technologies
Image of the UrbanX Technologies Inc. logo
AI-based lane marking separation rate measurement system
Aiming to improve road management and safety, we will conduct trial testing of a system that measures the peeling rate of lane markings from images taken with a general-purpose smartphone.
Infrastructure
Technologies, Inc.
Image of the Infrastructure Technologies Corporation logo
(2025年2月4日より
InfraX株式会社に社名変更)
High-precision deterioration diagnosis of structures using AI
We will trial and test deterioration diagnosis technology that utilizes AI, with the aim of improving the reliability of structures and streamlining inspection work.
Airlogy Lab Inc.
Image of the Airlogy Lab Inc. logo
Supporting disaster prevention and crisis management on Expressway using long-distance, autonomous drones
In order to enable rapid safety checks and recovery in the event of a disaster, we will conduct trial tests to verify the use of hybrid drones capable of long flight times to grasp abnormalities from the air.
Geofla Co., Ltd.
Image of Geofla Co., Ltd.'s logo
Promoting Expressway use and local travel through an entertainment app and app-linked capsule toys
We will hold events that involve touring the local area, and place capsule toys in collaboration with the local area as prizes at SA and PA, in order to test whether this will lead to Expressway.

Recruitment overview

  • Application period
August 1st to October 1st, 2024
  • Total number of applications
127 Results
  • Recruiting theme
  1. Updating Expressway projects for the next generation
  2. Improving the value of service areas and parking areas
  3. Strengthening regional collaboration and creating new businesses based on various assets
  4. Sustainable business operations and contribution to the SDGs
  5. Improving efficiency and labor-saving of road management operations using long-range drones
  6. Real-time detection of abnormalities and alerts on Expressway
  7. Streamlining and automating structure inspection work and document creation
  • Judging criteria
Significance, future potential, feasibility, etc. of the initiative
  • verification budget
25 million yen in total

NEXCO EAST Group has positioned the period from 2021 to 2025 as a period for contributing to the achievement of the SDGs and transforming toward a new future society, and is undertaking a variety of initiatives.
We believe that the DraPla Innovation Lab initiative will contribute to SDGs goals 8 and 17 as a business activity that will lead to the co-creation and social implementation of new services and products with partner companies.

Image of SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS logo and SDGs target 8th and 17th logos
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