He made US$950 million using AI to find successors for Japan’s ageing business owners

Shunsaku Sagami founded M&A Research Institute in 2018 to match ageing owners of small and medium-sized businesses with heirs using an AI algorithm

The 32-year-old is now worth US$950 million thanks to a three-fold surge in his company’s share price since its 2022 debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Reading Time:2 minutes

An elderly man is seen reflected in a stock indicator showing share prices of Japanese companies in Tokyo. M&A Research Institute aims to help the ageing owners of small and medium-sized businesses find successors. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:17pm, 17 May 2023Updated: 2:19pm, 17 May 2023

A Japanese millennial who uses artificial intelligence to help solve a problem in the rapidly ageing society has hit it big.

Since its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June 2022, shares of M&A Research Institute – a company that matches business owners in Japan with successors using AI – surged to more than three times its opening price. The stock rose 47 per cent this year alone.

Thanks to this surge, 32-year-old entrepreneur Shunsaku Sagami, who owns a 72 per cent stake in the company, is worth US$950 million as of May 16, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Founded in 2018, M&A Research Institute aims to help the ageing owners of small and medium-sized businesses whose businesses are forced to close when there’s no one available to take over. The company said in April that some 620,000 profitable companies in Japan risk closure due to a lack of successors.

Shunsaku Sagami said he was inspired to start his business because of how sad it made him to see the forced closure of his grandfather’s property agency. Photo: Handout via M&A Research Institute Holdings

Sagami told Bloomberg in a recent interview that he found the inspiration to start his business from his grandfather, who was forced to shut his property agency in the 1980s when he retired because he was unable to find a successor.