Funds Partners with PKSHA Technology to Revolutionize AI-Driven Finance

Funds Partners with PKSHA Technology

Funds, a leading direct financing platform based in Tokyo, has recently announced a strategic partnership with PKSHA Technology, an AI development frontrunner. This collaboration aims to fully digitize the traditional and analog direct financing market.

The central focus of their initiative will revolve around loans (debt), merging the unique data accumulated by Funds since its inception with the innovative algorithm development capabilities of PKSHA. Together, they intend to create an AI agent designed to enhance business operations concerning credit assessments, pricing, and monitoring. As a result, this partnership seeks to offer investors more attractive investment opportunities while providing borrowing enterprises with smoother and more tailored funding options.

Background of the Partnership: Creating a Next-Generation Fundraising Environment

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has been actively reforming its policies, recently announcing that by September 26, 2025, it will be reviewing the listing maintenance standards for the Growth Market. A report from the Nikkei stated that approximately 69% of Growth-listed companies had an average market capitalization below the new benchmark of 10 billion yen as assessed from early January to April 3, 2025. This change suggests a high barrier for many companies, creating an urgent need to establish a growth fundraising environment that stimulates the re-growth of Japanese listed companies, particularly emerging firms focused on growth.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, it has become essential to have robust assessment capabilities to accurately and swiftly evaluate business feasibility and future potential for strategies like mergers and acquisitions and expansion efforts. Additionally, proper pricing functionalities that can calculate the right risk-return dynamics are also critical.

However, these activities have been highly dependent on individual expertise and are often encumbered by significant time and resource constraints. Funds aims to leverage the unique data and expertise they have accumulated to address these challenges in partnership with PKSHA, a leading player in AI development known for implementing advanced generative AI technologies in the realms of natural language processing and reasoning.

Overview of the Capital and Business Partnership: Advanced AI Development for Assessment, Sales, and Monitoring

The functions of the direct finance market can be divided into three main components: assessment, sales, and monitoring. However, in the traditional market, these functions remain disjointed, with most processes still operating via analog means, resulting in significant opacity.

This inflated data collection and processing time has forced issuers to incur higher expenses and substantial operating costs. The collaboration will produce an AI agent capable of autonomously conducting information gathering, analysis, judgement support, and credit evaluations for corporate financial assessments. This automation will streamline and elevate the efficiency of traditionally labor-intensive processes, allowing credit officers to concentrate on crucial analytical tasks demanding higher-level judgments. Furthermore, by analyzing extensive data from previous fundraising endeavors and market trends, the AI agent aims to forecast investor demand based on specific fund conditions, continually optimizing recruitment strategies and maximizing funding amounts.

Consequently, investors will be provided with more appealing investment opportunities based on refined assessments, while borrowing companies will receive funding solutions that are more aligned with their operational characteristics and financial needs.

Future Outlook: Establishing an AI Native Direct Financing Market

Funds envisions a global growth investment platform connecting individuals who wish to allocate assets with companies seeking funding. Hit milestones include raising over 100 billion yen, distributing more than 1 billion yen, and maintaining a zero-issue rate for delays or defaults as of the end of October 2025.

Their ultimate goal is to achieve full digitalization of the direct financing market through an AI-native approach. Rather than merely improving operational efficiencies, this partnership intends to radically redefine the primary functions of the direct finance market by developing algorithms driven by unique data and expertise, ensuring a next-generation direct finance experience.

In the long run, the intention is to achieve fully autonomous execution of each process so that the duration from application to funding transfer is nearly automated, redefining the user experience of fundraising activities. Additionally, Funds aims to incorporate even more AI native development philosophies, pushing the boundaries towards the introduction of positions such as 'AI Native Securities' and 'AI Native Rating' in traditional security and rating functions.

Recruitment Event Information: Online Discussion on December 22!

To commemorate this strategic partnership, Funds and PKSHA will host an online discussion event. This event will delve into the essence of the AI agent business, the future prospects between finance and AI, as well as the required business talent in the age of AI.

- Date: December 22, 2025 (Monday) from 19:30 to 21:00
- Format: Online (via Zoom)
- Registration Form: Event Registration

Participants can sign up via the registration link prior to the event. More details will follow soon. Registered participants will receive updates via email as the event approaches.

Note: Event dates and themes are subject to change without notice. Please be aware of this as you register.

About PKSHA Technology

Driven by their mission to "shape the software of the future," PKSHA provides a wide range of AI and AI agent solutions to tackle societal challenges, optimizing their offerings for various sectors such as finance, manufacturing, and education under the label of AI solutions. They also provide versatile AI SaaS products like the PKSHA AI Help Desk and PKSHA Chat Agent, supporting advancements in future working styles and fostering a society where humans and software evolve together.

- Company Name: PKSHA Technology
- Address: 2-35-10 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo
- Representative: Katsumi Uenoyama, CEO
- Website: PKSHA Technology

About Funds

Funds provides an online platform that enables individuals to lend to public companies starting from as low as 1 yen. They have successfully raised 551 funds comprising 113 public companies with zero delays in distributions or defaults as of October 2025.

For a detailed understanding of how Funds operates, check out this example video made for a taxi commercial: Funds Overview

Important Fee and Risk Information

- Funds does not charge fees for account opening, management, or investment. However, transfer fees incurred when moving funds from your financial institution to your deposit account will be at your own expense.
- Bonds held by Funds are not traded in financial markets and thus do not hold a market price, but market trends can influence third-party sale prices.
- Cooling-off is possible for 8 days from the application date in principle, but cancellations are not allowed. Furthermore, the resale of fund shares requires acceptances from both Funds and the fund’s formation companies.
- Funds’ bonds do not guarantee principal return, and losses may occur. Detailed evaluations of the terms and risks associated with each fund can be found in the important matters explanation document.