Top 40 Local VC (Venture Capital) Funds in Asia in October 2023

Portfolio highlights

• Josys — Josys is an IT device and SaaS integrated management service that automates analog operations in corporate IT, reduces operational costs, and improves security levels.
• Spiral.AI — Spiral.AI offers services for large language models, AI language model platform, and customization features for ChatGPT for businesses.
• Pathos Logos — Pathos Logos is an HR co-creation platform that specializes in sales of SaaS and supply of human resources for corporations.

Portfolio highlights

• EX-Fusion — EX-Fusion develops the first commercial laser based nuclear fusion reactor for power generation.
• YourTrade — YourTrade helps cross-border e-commerce companies to resale rejected goods and backlogged inventory from overseas sales through local sales channels.It also provides services such as collection and inspection of returned items, as well as resale through local sales channels.
• Carnot — LLM, Autonomous Agent

Portfolio highlights

• Cerby — Collaborate without chaos. Cerby helps your team be productive while protecting your brand. Secure unmanageable applications. Only with Cerby.
• CYBO — CYBO provides products and services to understand cells deeply and to harness them widely.
• Bondy — Bondy is an HR Tech automation platform that specializes in connecting different HR processes.

Portfolio highlights

• Sollective — Sollective is an invite-only freelancer network where companies can directly hire talent inside and outside of Japan. Sollective connects freelancers and companies that are ready to work together to maximize each's potential and lead the business to success.
• Orange — About Us With a mission of Creating a world where everyone enjoys manga since our founding in 2021 Orange has been developing various manga specialized deep l
• Gojo & Company — We are enabling financial inclusion for everyone by partnering with financial service providers.

Portfolio highlights

• FUE Bioscience — FUE Bioscience is a medical robot R&D business that specializes in microsurgery above the head and neck. It continues to develop a product matrix of fully intelligent, high-precision, and anthropomorphic surgical robots based on the platform of macro-micro-controlled humanoid dual-arm robots.
• Life Wilderness — Life Wilderness reimagines human-computer interaction and is linked to the transportation and travel industries.
• Xintu Heterogeneous — Xintu Heterogeneous offers data storage solutions for heterogeneous computing.

Portfolio highlights

• Blacklane — Blacklane is the global chauffeur service that offers safety, sustainability, and stress-free travel. Since 2017, the company has been carbon-neutral, combining a five-star guest experience with care for the planet. The customers can book their travels using Blacklane’s mobile app or website.Blacklane was co-founded by Jens Wohltorf and FrankSteuer and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
• Steady — Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income Home Page Steady Your Income
• ZenBusiness — Start a new business today for $0 or grow your existing business with the ZenBusiness platform. Get to your first dollar faster without the stress.

Portfolio highlights

• Edgecortix — At Edgecortix, we automate the design of AI accelerators for on-device deep learning. Our Dynamic Neural Accelerator IP, and performance optimized AI Software & Hardware Co-exploration framework, reduces time to market and brings massive cost savings across multiple industry verticals.
• Habito — We're the Treating Customers Fairly Champion of 2023 as voted for in the British Bank Awards. We're here to make mortgages easier - no paperwork, no stress and no fees.
• Captain Fresh — Captain Fresh is a freshwater fish and seafood supply chain platform. Captain Fresh is a B2B marketplace leveraging technology to deliver the fastest harvest-to-retail in the industry. The company focuses on aggregating the fragmented retail demand across the country and linking them to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast.The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Bengaluru, India.

Portfolio highlights

• CaterSpot — Caterspot is an online B2B catering marketplace that connects companies with great local catering options. It also offers users the possibility to order 1,000+ catering menus and options from a curated list of caterers and restaurants in Singapore and Hong Kong.Caterspot was founded on January 18, 2016, and is headquartered in Singapore withoffices in Hong Kong.

Portfolio highlights

• JOKR — Grocery shopping is easier now with JOKR, your instant delivery app. Order your groceries and favorite products in our online supermarket and get them instantly at your door. Download the app now and make your first grocery order on us. Available in IOs and Android. Access www.jokr.com for more info
• Databricks — Databricks combines data warehouses & data lakes into a lakehouse architecture. Collaborate on all of your data, analytics & AI workloads using one platform.
• Harbinger — Founded by veterans of Canoo and Faraday Future, Harbinger is an automotive company that develops EV platforms optimized for medium-duty trucks and delivery vans.

Portfolio highlights

• ZEALS — ZEALS, a production company that attracts attention in system development of an interactive automatic communication tool "chatbot", which is widely used even for corporate user service. Its success also embodied "zeal" which means "enthusiasm" that got the name of the company, and fulfilled student entrepreneurshipfrom the great enthusiasm that "I want to support the revival of the Japanese industry with core technology in the IT field". They seem to be somewhat sailing, but they also taste various hardships and hardships. About ZEALS original step and future in terms of the young company's middle age in the mid 20's, the mission and development commitment imposed on himself.
• PayEm — PayEm helps finance teams get their job done and done quickly by offering control, transparency, and automation to company spending
• Ruiyun Cold Chain — It is a cold chain logistics service platform driven by domestic innovative technology.

Portfolio highlights

• Dremo — Dreamo is a leading game developer making great games for friends, family, and people around the world.
• Runbear — Runbear optimizes customer support with data-driven insights from past incidents and your product's knowledge base.
• Polestar Games — Polestar Games creates the MMORPG 'Project N' for PC and console platforms. Project N is an open-world game set in a medieval dark fantasy setting. Many believe that market aspirations for a AAA-level MMORPG that supports both PC and consoles are unrealistic.

Portfolio highlights

• Clodot — Clodot is an information technology company.
• Enliple — Enliple is an online advertising platform that provides AI business and B2C app services.
• Ziovision — Ziovision is a data analysis firm that uses artificial intelligence. advancement of social safety AI solution solutions, as well as licensing AI software and medical devices.

Portfolio highlights

• TripVillas — Largest holiday home rental portal in Asia. Browse your ideal vacation home from over 100,000 holiday homes spread across destinations.
• Twine Health — Fitbit Health Solutions' wellness and health solutions can help keep your population healthy and drive meaningful employee engagement. Learn more.
• littleBits Electronics — LittleBits is an open source library of over 60 electronic modules that snap together with magnets allows users to view, download, and share designs and make their own Bits through the use of prototypes. Deluxe kit, Smart home kit, Arduino coding kit, Synth kit, hardware development kit, and workshop set are some of the electronics learning modulesprovided by littleBits.LittleBits was launched by Ayah Bdeir in 2011 and is operated from New York, United States.

Portfolio highlights

• Fanhaoyue — Fanhaoyue provides local catering life and new retail services.
• maidiyun.com — maidiyun.com is an online platform that displays comprehensive information for manufacturing equipment and peripheral products as component 3D model samples, helping industrial designers find the products and resources they need.

Portfolio highlights

• Bytebeam — Accelerate your IoT initiatives with Bytebeam - our platform makes it 10X simpler and quicker to build cutting-edge smart products
• Showroom B2B — SHOWROOM B2B is building the largest B2B “Phygital” platform for India’s $108 Bn fashion industry by connecting Tier 2+ clothing retailers directly with small to mid-scale apparel manufacturers and providing all parties with solutions for distribution, credit, logistics, and marketing.Showroom works on “Touch & Feel” mode of selling where itsunique distribution model ensures that there is almost NO RETURN of products sold. It creates Experience Centres for its retailers which gives them the confidence to buy without any iota of doubt about product quality.Showroom's offerings = Better Margins for Clothing Retailers + Aggressive Growth for Clothing Manufacturers
• Testsigma — Powerful open source test automation platform that lets you automate tests for web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs in minutes. Sign up for free today.

Portfolio highlights

• Astroscale — Astroscale is the first private company with a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations, and the only company solely dedicated to on-orbit servicing across all orbits.
• Synspective — Synspective provides one-stop-solutions by satellite gathered geospatial data. The core technology was developed by the ImPACT program led by The Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, building small SAR satellites and constellations, allowing frequent observation of areas of interest (AOI). Synspective uses its satellites to produce SAR data which can be provided to both government and commercial clients as-is, as well as transform that data through AI solutions to produce insights and user-friendly information across industries.
• Clean Energy Connect — Clean Energy Connect is into offering green energy solutions. It invests in its own generation capacity for a stable electricity supply by not harming nature.

Portfolio highlights

• Robosense — RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) is the world leading environment perception solutions provider of autonomous driving LiDAR. The company is striving to deliver the world with cutting-edge robotic perception solutions which can perfectly integrate premium LiDAR hardware, 3D data processing algorithms, and deep learning technology.Through constant technology innovation, the company has made possible for robots to “see” the world with excellent environment perception capability.Registered in 2014, RoboSense is founded by a group of PhDs from Harbin Institute of Technology who have been working on LiDAR technology for more than 7 years. Over the past 4 years of commercialization, RoboSense, centered around LiDAR environment Perception technology has set up a complete operation system integrating R&D, Production, and Marketing.Besides an R&D center with Operation team headquartered in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China, the company has an R&D center in Beijing and Silicon Valley. Until April 2017, the employee base of the company has exceeded 200 people(production employee excluded) with more than 60% are Postgraduates and PhDs. For a long time, the company has maintained cooperation with world-class educational and research institutes including MIT, HKUST, Tsinghua, and HIT on talent sourcing and academic exchanges.
• GrandeurRF — GrandeurRF is a new technology company that combines RF device design, R&D, manufacturing, and sales. It supplies microelectronic devices.
• Yuantong Technology — Yuantong Technology is a company that specializes in superior photoelectric sensors and intelligent optical perception systems. It provides superior optical perception solutions for businesses such as smartphones, medical devices, machine vision, and self-driving cars.

Portfolio highlights

• OKHOME — OKHOME adalah penyedia jasa kebersihan terbaik untuk rumah, apartemen dan berbagai tempat yang membutuhkan pembersih profesional.
• Dexalot — A revolutionary decentralized exchange aiming at bringing the traditional centralized exchange look and feel through a decentralized on-chain application
• Fintech Farm — Fintech Farm is a newly launched fintech startup based in the U.K. that creates digital banks in emerging markets.

Portfolio highlights

• Brhino — Brhino provides planning, development, and management of web services. The company's product, Monokabu, is a site where people can buy and sell sneakers and things like stock. Brhino is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
• MICOLY — MICOLY is a operator of a website aimed at publishing and selling creative video lessons. The company hosts lectures that are presented by the creators of all categories who are keen on sharing their techniques and philosophies in areas of nail art, Japanese calligraphy, flower arrangement, knitting and many more, as well as interacting with theirpassionate fans, enabling users to take creative lessons and start a new hobby.
• MiddleField — MiddleField is a team to make cars the best entertainment and to make the lives of everyone involved in cars into entertainment. They creates a society where a lot of people are involved as a middle point of all people's dreams. MiddleField owns and operates an e-commerce platform offering cars.

Portfolio highlights

• Sietium — Sietium is a high-tech company that independently designs and develops GPU chips and GPU solutions.
• Jingda Bio — Jingda Bio is a biological cell drug developer dedicated to the research and development of general-purpose NK/CAR-NK cell drugs.
• Dragonfly Automation Software — Dragonfly Automation Software provides management and control system product solutions for customers in aerospace, machinery manufacturing, factory automation, and high-end precision instruments.

Portfolio highlights

• Che Dada — Che Dada is a community-based aftermarket car service brand.

Portfolio highlights

• Xinsu Technology — Xinsu Technology develops, designs, and sells industrial machine vision sensor devices. It is specialized in new energy battery and automobile manufacturing industries. It engaged in intellectual property rights of decoding and reading algorithms and has launched a series of industrial high-performance fixed code readers such as R275-A.
• Ant Workshop — Ant Works is an e-commerce platform integrating industrial automation products, the Internet, and supply chain services.It aims to build a new industrial product marketing method with "industrial cloud components + Internet + supply chain SAAS services" as the main body. An integrated platform for online and offline transactions,services, and support. It has the characteristics of high cost performance, authentic guarantee, fast shipping, free 3D download, and so on. Through diversified product categories and sufficient inventory, customers can efficiently search for and purchase suitable products.
• Yixin Technology — Yixin Technology focuses on R&D of image software, with the goal of flattening image processing technology to promote the design revolution.

Portfolio highlights

• KAUCHE — KAUCHE is a social commerce app. They provide services for online and mail-order retail shops. Their customers' inquiries are addressed through phone, email, and online applications.
• Beatrust — BeaTrust helps each employee to connect easily, accelerating collaboration, and driving innovation. The company was founded in 2020 and based in Tokyo, Japan.
• CraftBank — CraftBank, Inc. is the start-up that operates online matching platform between constructors with having relations with 22k specialty constructors (10% coverage in the market). The company was succeeded in Management BuyOut in April 2021.

Portfolio highlights

• Zhuomuniao — Zhuomuniao is an appliance repair service platform.

Portfolio highlights

• Asuene — Asuene involves in clean power retail business, retail SaaS business, etc.
• Fondo — Fondo is an all-in-one accounting platform for startups. We'll handle your bookkeeping, tax, and tax credits so you can focus on building your startup.
• Habitto — SJML is a new financial services venture. The team and its advisors have a breadth of experience ranging from insurance, banking, e-commerce, adtech and ventures across five continents. This provides them with a unique approach to entering new markets and building valuable businesses.

Portfolio highlights

• Neotaste — Neotaste is the developer of the restaurant-finding app that provides free marketing services for restaurateurs.
• Nord Security — Nord Security is the leader in the field of online privacy and security. Our security tools have earned praise from respected experts and tech outlets.
• Patronus Group — Rethinking elderly healthcare

Portfolio highlights

• OKHOME — OKHOME adalah penyedia jasa kebersihan terbaik untuk rumah, apartemen dan berbagai tempat yang membutuhkan pembersih profesional.
• Hexlant — Hexlant - Blockchain Laboratory. Build Blockchain Security Environment in just few days. With Simple Installation, Expand your Business onto Blockchain.
• Deepbrain AI — Deepbrain AI has proven its world-class conversational artificial intelligence technology to be highly utilizing in many areas, including broadcasting, education, and in service industry. State-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology, analogous to real people say, can be applied in a wide variety of areas. Also, it is expected that demandwill increase significantly with differentiated technology in the age of diversification.In recognition of its competitiveness and value, the company has received $2M investment from IDG Capital in 2019, and up to date, it has accumulated $9.5M. In addition, the company is currently growing in partnership with major companies such as Microsoft, Kakao Partner, and SK Telecom. It is expected to accelerate its external growth and profit expansion in the new market as it is set to make inroads into the global market based on its performance so far.

Portfolio highlights

• JX Press — The JX PRESS Corporation is Japan’s“virtual news agency.”JX PRESS’s “FASTALERT” service provides breaking news bulletins for urgent information on accidents, natural disasters, and other incidents detected by AI to all six of the major television broadcast stations in Japan, including NHK, and the majority of the 100+ local broadcast stations.FASTALERT works with more companies than any other service that utilizes information gathered from social networking sites for news reporting in Japan.The version offered to ordinary consumers, an app called “NewsDigest,” is the biggest news bulletin app in Japan, boasting over 1 million downloads. It is gaining popularity because of its ability to use AI to automatically detect and deliver news bulletins on information worth reporting. Alongside FASTALERT, it is also gaining more widespread use by news reporters as a standardized service for information.Stakeholders in the JX PRESS Corporation include KYODO NEWS, the leading news agency in Japan, two of the leading commercial broadcast stations (TV Asahi and Fuji TV), and the Nikkei Group. We are a new kind of news agency that provides computerized news reporting to all of the major media groups in Japan.Bloomberg - This Media Startup Is Beating the Competition With a Newsroom Run by Robots https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-27/the-airline-geek-trying-to-build-a-media-giant-with-no-reporters
• Oceans — Oceans Inc. was incorporated on September 16th, 2010 as an internet service company with the expressed goal of making the Internet more useful, more local, more here and now. Specialists from the fields of user interface, user experience, creative, programming and monetization gathered to make this possible. Currently, these development and serviceoperations professionals operate Eyeland(http://eyeland.in), a popular local communications platform.

Portfolio highlights

• Sucheon — Sucheon is an artificial intelligence high-tech enterprise that focuses on machine noise recognition and non-contact production process monitoring and equipment failure prediction.The main solution for the company's product machine auscultation master is to collect machine noise from the SC Box, which is placed in an industrial environment, toextract sound feature values, and to use machine learning to identify the real-time operating status of industrial equipment and the various components. Health indicators .
• Starwhale — Starwhale is an MLOps platform to manage machine learning projects, models and datasets.
• Beacon Education — Beacon Education their marketing, recruitment, support, and analytics technology services platform is a single-point solution for outstanding teaching and learning.

Portfolio highlights

• Hybr1d — Hybr1d is an end-to-end workforce management system. Manage everything from onboarding, procurement, devices, and attendance to offboarding from a single platform.
• Orderli — Orderli is the platform for restaurants, we help you sell more and efficiently through our QR based ordering solution.
• Careloop — Berlin-based HR-tech and EduTech startup with a focus on the German healthcare industry.

Portfolio highlights

• Xingchenhai — Xingchenhai is a technology company that focuses on technology research and development of drone scenario applications for the field of low-altitude security, and major scientific research projects in military and government-related fields.
• Xiangke Intelligence — Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, computer and robotics professionals, and industrial serial entrepreneurs founded Xiangke Intelligence. It was established by the former founder of "Speed Technology" and the general manager of SharkNinja China Robot R&D Centre.
• Extreme shell technology — Extreme shell technology helps in creation and development of exoskeleton equipment for consumers. It uses data to drive exoskeleton innovation.

Portfolio highlights

• NetBase Solutions — Empower your business with Quid's Generative AI platform to gain a holistic view of customer context. See data through the lens of the future. AI-powered consumer and market intelligence.
• Invincea — Invincea is the leader in advanced endpoint threat protection, protecting more than 25,000 customers and 3 million active users.The company provides the most comprehensive solution to contain, identify, and control the advanced attacks that evade legacy security controls. Invincea protects enterprises against targeted threats, includingspear-phishing and Web drive-by attacks that exploit Java, Flash, and other applications. Combining the visibility and control of an endpoint solution with the intelligence of cloud analysis, Invincea offers the only market-deployed solution that defends against 0-day exploits, file-less malware, and previously unknown malware.The company has been in market with its award-winning technology since 2009. In 2011, Invincea was recognized as "Most Innovative Company of the Year" at RSA Conference, and since then the company has won numerous awards for its technology and business.Invincea maintains an OEM agreement with Dell to ship a customized version of Invincea's award-winning endpoint security solution, under the Dell Data Protection | Protected Workspace brand. This offering ships on Dell's entire line of commercial PCs and tablets, comprising 20 million devices per year.The company, which was founded by Dr. Anup Ghosh to address the rapidly increasing security threat from nation states, cyber criminals, and rogue actors, has commercialized technology originally built under DARPA funding. The company is venture capital-backed and based in Fairfax, VA. For more information, visit https://www.invincea.com.
• Space Market — Space Market is a service that can easily lend and borrow from conference rooms to uninhabited islands.

Portfolio highlights

• wakuwaku — WAKUWAKU is a Japanese real estate tech company that focuses on developing a platform that helps users to search for and renovate used housing. In addition, the company offers platforms for building materials e-commerce and marketing automation for the real estate and construction industries.
• Aqua System — AQUA SYSTEM manufactures mil-kin, a microscope that enables the real-time visualization of bacteria. The company also handles the slightly acidic electrolytes water Purester system for agricultural field usage, generates equipment for hypochlorous water, and more.
• Receptionist — Delighted develops an application for reception services. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Portfolio highlights

• Funds — Funds is an online marketplace for lending funds.
• Bloomo Investment — Bloomo Investment is a software company that specializes in the development of smart and fun investment apps.
• LexxPluss — LexxPluss develops an automatic transfer software system and robot hardware.

Portfolio highlights

• Matchuda — Matchuda is a service that digitizes existing learning methods and applies AI technology to help students pass exams quickly
• Stockeeper — Stockeeper creates and operates a Korean beef asset platform, Bankau, that connects consumers and producers.
• Stress Solution — Based on unique medical and scientific information and ECG waveforms, Stress Solution creates sound that regulates and initiates the equilibrium of the autonomic nervous system. Currently, Healing Bit is utilizing wearable technology to detect stress in real time. Through this, an autonomous feedback system that uses artificial intelligence topredict individual stress level situations and take preventative measures is being developed.

Portfolio highlights

• USIMSA — USIMSA is a mobile sim company that offers eSIM-based overseas roaming service.
• Panmnesia — True composable resource disaggregation, CXL hardware/software infrastructure from the beginning to the end.
• Velymonkeys — Blimonkids has created and run its own retail platform to aid the expansion of Korean cosmetics in India. In particular, it offers a one-stop service for the introduction of Korean beauty products into India, distribution, and sales, as well as marketing and sales, through its own mall, Maccaron.

Portfolio highlights

• Skysys — Skysys is a company that focuses on data acquisition and analysis services for drones. It provides customers with complete solutions for automatic charging, automatic scheduling, automatic acquisition and automatic analysis. It is committed to becoming the leading enterprise in data collection and analysis of Chinese civil rotary aircraft. From thedata and services to gold mining, the development of mature rotorcraft drone automatic driving artificial intelligence.
• Boshang — Boshang focuses on vertical industries, building low-cost and high-quality private LTE/5G private networks for enterprise customers, and providing slicing and in-depth customized services for different business needs.
• DEEPEXI — Beijing Dip Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Drip Technology”) is a leader and builder of digital transformation of enterprises, providing enterprise-level business consulting, solutions, products and technology research and development based on leading Internet architecture. The company was incorporated in May 2018 with aregistered capital of 20 million. At present, the company has 160 employees and its headquarters is located in Beijing. It has branches in major cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Chengdu. The R&D team is over 80%, mainly in Guangzhou, Nanjing and Chengdu. People, masters dozens of people, have the top domestic AI team and open source team to join.

Portfolio highlights

• UUPaotui — UUPaotui is a mobile internet errand service platform based on the concept of crowdsourcing to share labor and time.
• Yidianling — Yidianling is a psychological counselling platform that provides free mental health services such as free questions and answers, psychological tests, expert services, and training lectures.
• Interhouse.cn — Don Quixote is a commercial digital platform that provides digital integration of design, construction, and operation delivery service. It uses BIM, cloud computing, big data, IoT, AI, and other information technologies to build a platform for chain commercial spaces.

Portfolio highlights

• Bagoai — Bagoai is an operator of smart shared coffee and tea rooms.
• Bloomberg — Bloomberg is the leader in global business and financial information. They give influential decision makers the data, analytics, news and insight to give them a critical edge. Bloomberg connects influential decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. Their strength - quickly and accurately delivering data, news andanalytics through innovative technology - is at the core of everything they do. With over 15,500 employees in 192 locations, Bloomberg deliver business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Bloomberg was founded in 1982 and within 10 years had over 10,000 customers for the Bloomberg Professional service, a ground breaking private network with data, analytics and other financial information. In the same decade, Bloomberg launched Bloomberg News and opened offices around the world. Subscriptions to the Bloomberg Professional service skyrocketed in the next decade and the company launched Bloomberg Tradebook and Bloomberg.com. This past decade saw the development of technological advances in key products and services such as email and instant messaging that have made the Bloomberg Professional service the leading choice of more than 320,000 business and financial professionals globally.Today, Bloomberg is applying its extensive data, news and technology to offer new tools in the fields of government, law, energy and sports. The company's hallmark, innovation and a passion for getting things right, remains strong and is the inspiration behind Bloomberg's award-winning products and solutions.
• Beijing Weilan New Energy Technology — Beijing Weilan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the development and production of next-generation all-solid-state batteries. One of the battery companies with patents and technologies for all solid-state battery cores. With the core concept of “Huijuwei Blue, Leading Solid State”, the company has a leadingdomestic and international leading technology and development team.

Portfolio highlights

• LABOT — LABOT is a Japanese company that combines the power of finance and technology to create future education possibilities.
• DENDOH — DENDOH specializes in branding and promotion business using AR technology and 3D design.
• microverse — Microverse offers NFT-related services such as content creation, distribution, and customer service.