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Makuake Award 2025: Celebrating Innovation in Crowd-Supported Projects

Makuake, a pioneering service for supporting new ideas and experiences, recently announced the winners of the Makuake Award 2025, showcasing extraordinary projects executed through its platform. The awards highlight the contributions of both creators and partner businesses, celebrating exceptional achievements over the award period and recognizing significant impacts on society and industry.

What is the Makuake Award?

The Makuake Award aims to honor the most remarkable projects from a pool of approximately 5,000 initiatives executed on the Makuake platform during the eligibility period. With categories spotlighting the Makuake Of The Year, as well as special awards focusing on supporter engagement, social impact, and innovation, this annual ceremony emphasizes Makuake’s vision to cultivate a world where new ideas flourish and valuable products reach their potential.

Top Awards for Makuake Of The Year 2025

This year, 25 projects were honored as part of the Makuake Of The Year 2025. Among them, three standout projects were awarded the GOLD, SILVER, and BRONZE categories:

1. ### GOLD Award: A Toast to You in 20 Years - Kirin
- Project URL: A Toast to You in 20 Years
- Rationale: Kirin’s innovative whiskey project captured hearts with its theme of future celebrations, achieving an astonishing fundraising benchmark of over 270 million yen in just four minutes—a record in Makuake’s history. The initiative demonstrated a new culture of supporting future values, which played a pivotal role in its victory.
- Award Comment: The team expressed gratitude for this esteemed recognition, highlighting that their success stemmed from extensive support and marked a commitment to creating “new value” while tackling uncertainties in project development.

2. ### SILVER Award: iFLYTEK AINOTE
- Project URL: iFLYTEK AINOTE
- Rationale: This smart note device combines audio transcription with handwritten notes while offering AI features for summarization and translation, achieving significant user impact during its inaugural campaign on Makuake.
- Award Comment: The company credited their supportive partners and laid out aspirations for promoting innovative work styles, intending to refine their products in Japan's highly demanding market.

3. ### BRONZE Award: Private Cottage with Outdoor Bath and Sauna - Ochiai
- Project URL: Private Cottage Project
- Rationale: Celebrating its 150th anniversary, this registered cultural heritage inn launched a project for renting a private cottage with sauna facilities, surpassing 20 million yen in fundraising in mere minutes, re-defining possibilities in the lodging industry.
- Award Comment: The team shared their surprise at the warm response and emphasized their goal of providing exceptional service to guests while broadening their reach through Makuake.

The detailed list of other winning projects and special awards can be found on the Makuake Award 2025 special site.

Special Awards and Recognitions

In addition to the main awards, Makuake also honored several special prizes, including:

• - Makuake Supporter Award: Recognizing projects based on popular votes from supporters. The top project was COFO Chair Pro 2, which addresses ergonomic concerns with innovative design.
• - Repeat Growth Award: Awarded to companies like LG Electronics for demonstrating ongoing success through multiple projects on Makuake.
• - Business Impact Award: Recognizing projects that have continued to expand business post-Makuake campaign.
• - Makuake Partner Award: Celebrating collaboration with companies enhancing Makuake’s reach and impact.
• - Makuake Rookie Award: Honoring newcomers successfully launching their projects on Makuake.

Makuake continues to foster innovation by offering valuable opportunities for creators to share their visions and build supportive communities. Through the Makuake Award 2025, the commitment to realizing a world where products and ideas can grow and thrive remains steadfast. Thus, Makuake champions a dynamic landscape for emerging ideas.

For more details about the projects and awards, please visit Makuake’s official website and explore their new ventures.