CDIB Cross Border Innovation Fund II, L.P. (the "Fund"), managed under CDIB Capital Group (CDIB Capital), announced that it has completed an investment in find Inc., a Japanese startup specializing in lost-property management services. find's digital platform now connects more than 5,000 sites across Japan, including transportation operators, shopping malls and airports. It has registered over 7 million lost items and successfully returned more than 2 million. The platform can save businesses approximately 80% of the time spent on manual registration and inquiry handling, and has lifted return rates to more than three times previous levels. Building on the Fund's efforts to link the Taiwan and Japan innovation ecosystems, find's services will also be introduced in Taiwan.
Melanie Nan, President of CDIB Capital, said: "The solution find offers is exactly where the market is heading." Japan is facing the dual pressures of record-high inbound tourism and a shortage of service-sector labor, and transportation and commercial facilities are accelerating the digitalization of on-site operations. Nan noted: "Convenience stores using AI for restocking, shopping malls using generative AI for customer service, and railway operators using data to drive maintenance all point to the same shift. Venues are evolving from simple physical spaces into operating nodes that continuously generate data, and lost-property management is one part of that shift. Taiwan is also seeing growing foot traffic and faster smart upgrades of its transit hubs and facilities. This is an important basis for our confidence in this investment and our view that the model can be replicated in Taiwan."
Ryan Kuo, President of CDIB Capital Innovation Accelerator, said: "A good business model is only truly worth investing in if it still works after leaving its home market. find uses digital technology to solve a lost-property management problem that has long burdened transportation operators and shopping malls and has always relied on manual labor. This problem is just as pressing in Taiwan. What we value in find is not only its growth in Japan, but whether it can replicate the same efficiency and network effects once it enters Taiwan. This is a concrete example of how the Fund connects the Taiwan–Japan innovation ecosystems."
Beyond this investment, the Fund recently hosted the "Cross-Border Open Innovation Day" in Tokyo. The event brought Japanese corporates such as Yamato Holdings, Bricks Fund Tokyo and Teijin Pharma together with Taiwanese and Japanese startups for face-to-face exchanges on corporate needs and approaches to overseas expansion. As the Fund builds up its investment experience in Japan, CDIB Capital is evolving from a "cross-border connector" into a "local value creator." The purpose of Innovation Day goes beyond one-off exchanges. It aims to help corporates and startups cross market and industry boundaries, starting with getting to know each other and exchanging needs, and gradually turning these into real business collaboration. Going forward, the Fund will continue to help more startups with international potential expand overseas.
