UPWARD

UPWARD Inc. is a Japanese SaaS company that develops and provides "UPWARD," an AI-powered sales engagement service for field sales teams. The company was established in July 2016 by Ryusuke Kaneki, an expert in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Location-Based Services (LBS). Kaneki, born in 1973, had built over 200 GIS-related systems before founding UPWARD, initially as a software house developing location-specific web systems. The inspiration to shift to a SaaS model came after attending the Salesforce Dreamforce conference in 2012. The company now holds a top market share in Japan for field sales AI agent services and has been recognized with awards from Salesforce, Microsoft, and Forbes JAPAN.

The core of UPWARD's offering is a mobile-first platform designed to optimize the activities of field workers. It integrates with major CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, or can be used as an all-in-one solution with its own bundled CRM. A key feature is its patented technology that uses smartphone location information to automatically detect and log customer visits, significantly reducing the manual effort of activity reporting. The platform uses a map-based interface to visualize customer data, allowing sales representatives to identify high-priority targets, plan efficient routes, and discover nearby opportunities. Features include automatic daily report generation, real-time information sharing, and route planning.

In recent years, UPWARD has heavily invested in artificial intelligence, launching the "UPWARD AI EDITION". This suite of functions includes AI-powered speech analysis for automatic meeting transcriptions ("UPWARD AI Speech"), AI scanning for business cards and other documents, and an AI scheduler that suggests optimal visit plans. The business model is subscription-based, with pricing per user per month, and typically requires a minimum of 25 users. The company serves over 450 companies, primarily large enterprises, across various sectors including trading, wholesale, healthcare, and construction. UPWARD has raised a total of $11M over 6 funding rounds, with investors including Salesforce Ventures, JIC Venture Growth Investments, and Nippon Venture Capital.

Keywords: field sales automation, sales engagement, location-based services, geographic information system, CRM integration, mobile sales, sales force automation, route planning, activity logging, sales AI, sales productivity, sales analytics, Japanese SaaS, B2B software, customer mapping, lead management, sales reporting automation, UPWARD AI, sales data visualization, mobile CRM