MEETSCUL Released: A "Hand-Raising" Matching Platform That Connects Companies with Local Regions
In October 2025, we released MEETSCUL, a "hand-raising" matching platform that connects companies with local regions, which we developed as a co-creation partner. The service directly connects companies planning retreats, offsite meetings, and workations with local tourism businesses. It was officially launched after about seven months of development, starting with the project kickoff in March 2025.
The Problems with Conventional Matching and the Project Background
When planning company retreats, offsite meetings, and workations, it was difficult to find the best region or facility among the many options across Japan. In particular, there were few ways to find attractive places beyond well-known tourist spots, or experiences unique to a region, so choices tended to be the same every time.
Local tourism businesses, for their part, found it hard to make contact with corporate groups that had not yet decided on a destination, and faced challenges in winning new customers and promoting the appeal of their region.
Conventional matching services mostly had the platform present options one way, which made it hard for companies to discover attractive regions and experiences they had not originally considered. Local businesses also had limited opportunities to make proactive proposals that played to their strengths.
In addition, arrangements and coordination after matching were cumbersome, and there was a growing need to digitize work that requires careful attention, such as payments, multilingual support, and allergy accommodations.
As a co-creation partner, we took on the development of MEETSCUL with the aim of building a new matching mechanism that solves these problems.
MEETSCUL's Features and Expected Effects
MEETSCUL is a "hand-raising" matching platform that changes the approach from passively "waiting" to actively "meeting." It creates new connections between companies and regions through the following features and functions.
AI-generated itinerary proposals
When a company posts an event request, AI automatically generates the best itinerary proposal based on conditions such as purpose (team building, training, workation, and so on), area, dates, number of people, and budget. This enables detailed planning that meets companies' diverse needs.
The "hand-raising" matching mechanism
For each generated itinerary proposal, local facility operators can make a proposal by "raising their hand," that is, putting themselves forward as candidates. Local businesses can take a proactive approach that plays to their strengths, enabling two-way communication that goes beyond the conventional one-way presentation of options.
Creating unexpected, attractive encounters
Companies can discover attractive regions and experiences they had not originally considered, and local businesses gain an environment where they can make contact with new customers. It is a mechanism that lets both companies and regions discover new value.
Operational efficiency through comprehensive features
By integrating the features both companies and local businesses need, such as payments, multilingual support, and allergy accommodations, it greatly streamlines arrangements and coordination after matching. It also supports DX for local tourism businesses.
The expected effects are efficient matching with the best regions for companies, new customer contacts and promotion of regional appeal for local businesses, and more efficient operations and smoother communication for both.
Development History and Pilot Program
The project started in March 2025, beginning with pre-registration for facility operators in Nagano Prefecture. We expanded the features step by step while collecting feedback from actual users.
In July 2025, a pilot program began in partnership with BIGLOBE's "ONSEN WORK" service. Through this pilot, we verified the practicality and value of the service and repeatedly improved it into a more usable and effective platform.
In April 2025, the company also completed a ¥50 million funding round (¥100 million in total), which it used to accelerate feature expansion and business development, leading to this official release.
Technical Features and Development Approach
In developing MEETSCUL, we delivered the following technical features.
For cloud infrastructure and scalability, we used AWS to build a foundation that can provide a stable service even as matching between facility operators and companies across Japan grows.
The backend is written in Go for fast, efficient server-side processing. It efficiently handles a large volume of matching requests and itinerary generation.
The frontend is based on React and uses Next.js for server-side rendering and static site generation, speeding up the initial display and optimizing SEO.
The AI matching engine automatically generates the best itinerary proposals based on each company's conditions, achieving detailed matching that also takes into account the characteristics and strengths of local businesses.
For the hand-raising matching system, we built a two-way matching system where local businesses can make proactive proposals, instead of the conventional one-way presentation of options.
In the development process, we worked closely with our co-creation partner and drove the project end to end, from requirements definition through development and operations.
Next Steps
MEETSCUL will continue to expand its features after release. We aim to deliver even more value through a wider service area, further use of AI, and new features.
Through this project, we will establish a new way of delivering value that connects companies and regions, and contribute both to regional revitalization and to work style reform at companies.
If you are considering developing a matching platform, DX for regional revitalization, or digitalization for tourism businesses, please feel free to contact us. As a co-creation partner, we provide consistent support from requirements definition through operations.