Shunji Sugaya’s company Optim Corp provides business-management platforms using artificial-intelligence and internet-of-things technologies. Sugaya is moving ever closer to joining the ranks of billionaires in Japan alongside Son. Optim’s shares have gained 79% this year after rising as much as 7.9% Wednesday, as doing business remotely became a necessity during the coronavirus pandemic. According to a calculation by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index that excludes shares pledged as collateral Sugaya’s net worth, derived mainly from his roughly 64% stake in the company, has surged to about $990 million.
At 23, Shunji Sugaya had a “life-changing episode, in March 2000, and Sugaya had just won an award at a business contest where Masayoshi Son, the founder of what was then called SoftBank Corp., was a judge. He sent Son an email to thank him, the two met up, and before long SoftBank offered to buy Sugaya’s idea for $2.8 million or for Sugaya to join the company and receive stock options. Sugaya turned it down.
In a video interview he said, “It gave me a big boost in confidence as I was a student -- I was so happy I could dance. We were very grateful for the offer but we politely declined and decided to do it ourselves.”
According to Sugaya, who is Optim’s President. “Digitalization has progressed at great speed during the past three months,” he said. “It feels like quite a tailwind.” Optim has since expanded its remote-control technologies. Its Optimal Biz line, a management platform for multiple devices including smartphones and tablets, helps companies control and secure employees’ mobile equipment, with functions such as remote locking and the ability to wipe lost or stolen devices to prevent data leakage. The product accounts for about 40% of Japan’s mobile device management market.
