KitchHike, which handles businesses centered on regional and food communities, announced on the 16th that it has raised funds through a third-party allotment of shares to ANA Holdings (ANAHD)’s CVC fund “ANA Future Creation Fund” and the CVC funds of Sekisui House and Sekisui House Innovation & Communication.
KitchHike’s current main business, “Nursery School Study Abroad”, is a system where children attend a local nursery school for 1-2 weeks, and parents can stay in the region with their family while working remotely. It started in Assabu Town, Hokkaido in 2021, and has now expanded to about 50 regions, with more than 6,000 people using it.
In future collaboration with ANAHD, they will create new experiences in the air and encounters with regions for families with children, generating new flows of people.
In October 2024, Makiko Kawakami, director and CRRO of KitchHike and director of the “Future of Children and Regions Research Institute,” was appointed as the chair of the childcare department of the “National Dual Residence Promotion Public-Private Partnership Platform,” which is co-represented by ANAHD. They are working to create new people flows to regions, centered on households with children, by promoting “dual residence,” having living bases in both urban and rural areas.
On the other hand, in collaboration with Sekisui House, which advocates being a “Kids-First Company,” they will proceed with collaboration centered on expanding the “Nursery School Study Abroad” business and proposing “soft settlement” as a new option, where families live in regions for the medium to long term, though not permanently, according to their life stages and lifestyles.
In Assabu Town, Hokkaido, there has been an increase in cases where families live in the region only during the period when their children are preschoolers, triggered by Nursery School Study Abroad.
In regions accepting Nursery School Study Abroad, in addition to shortages of accommodation facilities and migration properties, the utilization of vacant houses and idle real estate has become a challenge. Therefore, KitchHike has established “Machizukuri Studio” and is also working on housing development that can seamlessly consider migration, as regional architectural design and real estate production linked with Nursery School Study Abroad.
The company also began accepting Nursery School Study Abroad at the “Corporate Nursery School Kiraboshi” within Adventure World in Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture, on the 4th. They provide a special environment as Japan’s only nursery school within a zoo. Shirahama Town started the first Nursery School Study Abroad in the Kansai area in 2023 and has also introduced the “Ryugakusaki Nozei” system, which allows for Nursery School Study Abroad through hometown tax donations.
As a recent development, on the 14th, they also announced additional investment from Giftee. Based on the capital and business alliance with Giftee since 2022, the company has started “Ryugakusaki Nozei®,” which allows part of the cost of “Nursery School Study Abroad” to be paid with hometown tax return gifts, and has expanded to 15 regions nationwide.
Founded in 2012, KitchHike started its business from food communities, and is now in its second founding period, developing businesses that regard depopulating regions as cutting-edge. They aim to create advanced models based in regions, with an eye on responding to globally progressing challenges.
via PR TIMES
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