"I gave up on going to
the store two blocks away"

Considered alternative

Our journey started when a wheelchair user said this back in 2010.
The reason for not going to the store only two blocks away was
because he did not want to be seen as a wheelchair user because
wheelchairs have negative perception of being ill or weak.
To solve this, we started to create an original mobility device just for him.
After a year of development, we created the first prototype of WHILL.
We exhibited WHILL at Tokyo Motor Show 2011 and received
overwhelming positive reaction from all over the world.
We got overwhelming positive reaction from all over the world.
Then, we realized that our initial user was not alone in desiring
such kind of innovation for people with walking difficulties.
So, we started a company to create a new world of mobility.

Watch the making movie >

Our team

Our team focuses on making technology that's minimal, safe and helpful.
We are composed of solid engineering, design and manufacturing experience at Toyota,Sony,
Nissan Olympus and world wide various experience team.

Satoshi Sugie

CEO

After working at the NISSAN Technical Center, He co-founded the WHILL Project in 2011. World Economic Forum Davas Meeting and a GSC Japan member.

Junpei Naito

CDO

Junpei joined Sony Corporation in 2008 as a product engineer developing automotive cameras. He co-founded Sunny Side Garage, an engineering innovation unit, in 2009 and produced several products with his team. In 2011, he co-founded the WHILL Project.

Muneaki Hukuoka

CTO

Mune joined Olympus Corporation as a medical device engineer in 2008. Alongside Junpei and Naoto, he was also a co-founder of Sunny Side Garage in 2009 and eventually started the WHILL Project in 2011. After co-founding WHILL, he resigned from Olympus and joined WHILL Inc. as the Chief Technology Officer in 2012.

Atsuhi Mizusima

Director of Business Development

Atsushi Mizushima is the Director of Business Development at WHILL Inc. He is a recent MBA graduate from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (Class of 2013) and has received a bachelor law degree (LL.B) from the University of Tokyo. Before Stanford, he worked as an M&A lawyer, representing and negotiating with a number of blue-chip international corporations.

Kazuo Bando

Senior Engineer

Kazuo Bando has worked for Kanto Auto Works of the Toyota Group as a mechanical engineer with over three decades of experience in manufacturing mobility devices. He has also developed power wheelchairs for 15 years.