Delivered on February 9, 2026
Smart Building Integrator
Speakers:
Mitsuhisa Iwai, President and CEO of WHERE Inc.
Takahiro Aoki, General Manager of Planning and IoT Business Division
Affiliation and position information is as of the time of distribution
We will introduce the journey of the company, which was founded in 2013 with disaster prevention and tourism apps for local governments, and has since transitioned to indoor positioning in places like underground malls where GPS cannot reach, and then to networked devices that link beacons together. Currently, the company is promoting itself as a "smart building integrator," using location information as one piece of sensing information rather than the main focus. As a "hub" that aggregates a variety of equipment data such as air conditioning, lighting, and authentication, and delivers it to those who need it via API, we will discuss the "Multi-Building Connect" concept, which contributes to decarbonization, comfort, and improved owner profits, and our outlook for 2030.
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The History of WHERE Inc. and Its Expansion into Indoor Location Information
Founded in 2013, WHERE Inc. is now in its 13th year. In its early days, the company provided evacuation guidance services to local governments during disasters, leveraging location-based technologies using GPS and quasi-zenith satellites. During emergencies such as earthquake alerts and typhoons, the company developed a system that guided citizens to evacuation shelters based on their smartphone location information, and has since been adopted by numerous local governments.
However, since an app used only during disasters limited everyday contact, the company also began expanding its content to include everyday topics such as tourism and city events. In the process, the company faced challenges with determining location in underground shopping malls and indoor locations where GPS signals cannot reach. To guide and guide people in massive underground spaces like Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station, an alternative technology to satellites was needed.
In 2016, the company reached a major turning point: a full-scale shift to indoor location information services using beacons. At the time, beacons were battery-powered and therefore difficult to maintain. However, the company developed mesh network technology that allowed beacons to communicate with each other, dramatically improving maintenance performance. This led to a major shift in business toward improving on-site convenience by visualizing the movements of people and objects within buildings, such as offices, factories, and construction sites.
A New Concept: "Smart Building Integrator"
WHERE Inc. is currently entering its second stage. Going beyond its previous focus on "visualizing location information," the company has adopted a new concept: "Smart Building Integrator."
A smart building is an advanced building that combines comfort, safety, and reduced environmental impact, a requirement for large-scale redevelopment projects, particularly in Tokyo. Mr. Iwai defines a smart building as "a space where everyone, from building owners and managers to users and visitors, can spend their time smoothly and safely."
The company's role is not to create the buildings themselves or the building OS. The company's mission is to act as a "connector" that collects and aggregates the vast amount of data stored within a building and delivers it to the necessary locations in the necessary form. Working with general contractors and building management companies who build the buildings, the company aims to promote data utilization as an integrator, achieving social implementation by 2030.
Rethinking location information as "one piece of sensing information"
To realize smart buildings, the company is significantly updating its approach to location information. While location information itself was previously the main focus of the service, it now treats location information as "one piece of sensing information for understanding the building's status."
For example, location information that identifies "who is where" in an office can be used not only to simply confirm location but also to automatically control air conditioning and lighting. Linking it with conference room reservation information makes it possible to turn on the air conditioning before people arrive or automatically turn off lights in unoccupied areas.
In this way, combining location information with other sensor data (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, etc.) and authentication information can maximize building operational efficiency. The company's products, such as "X Office" and "X Keeper," which utilizes authentication information, embody this concept. The company's strength lies in its approach of positioning location information as a "tool" and utilizing it as a data source to enhance the added value of buildings.
Data Hub Function through Multi-Building Connect
Another key concept advocated by the company is "Multi-Building Connect." While its core technology has traditionally been beacon-based (the X Beacon Platform), the company is evolving it into a platform that integrates authentication, security, and various sensor information.
Current building developments typically employ "vertically integrated" systems, in which lighting and air conditioning manufacturers each install their own sensors and control their respective equipment. However, this hinders data sharing and makes it difficult to optimize the building as a whole. WHERE Inc.'s platform acts as a "hub" that aggregates this complex data in one place and provides it to external applications and the building OS via API.
This "hub" allows building owners to deploy applications from a variety of vendors in their buildings without being tied to a specific manufacturer. Furthermore, by feeding the highly accurate data collected by the company back into the building OS, more advanced energy management and facility operations become possible.
Improving Building Value and Contributing to a Decarbonized Society
The ultimate goal of smart buildings is to simultaneously increase profits for building owners and create value for users.
For owners, providing tenants with a more profitable or comfortable working environment increases building occupancy rates and maintains and improves asset value. For example, smooth building entry and exit using facial recognition, optimal office use based on occupancy levels, and efficient conference room management are highly attractive to tenant companies.
Facilitating the global trend toward decarbonization is also essential. The company's solutions enable precise control of air conditioning and lighting based on people flow data, significantly reducing wasteful energy consumption. In the future, the company also plans to develop a system that calculates and visualizes each tenant's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a daily basis. Such data-driven environmental contributions will likely become an essential element in building management going forward.
Summary
WHERE Inc., based on the location information technology it has cultivated since its founding, is expanding its scope to include "smart buildings." By redefining location information as not just "point" data but as a form of "sensing information" that governs building-wide optimization, it creates new value.
The company's role as a "smart building integrator" is to act as a "hub" for consolidating and effectively utilizing data from disparate locations within a building. This will enable building owners to increase asset value and users to enjoy unprecedented comfort and convenience.
Going forward, the company aims to realize "multi-building connect" not only for office buildings but also for all types of facilities, including arenas, stadiums, factories, hospitals, and warehouses. Under its new medium-term management plan for 2030, the company's activities as an integrator that transcends the boundaries of location information and supports the infrastructure of a smart society are expected to continue.