COMPANY

HISTORY

Oct. 1990

Step One Limited founded by 10 experienced software engineers in Kobe, Japan, with the mission "to provide the highest quality software development services available."

Nov. 1990 Company operations begin in earnest.
Sep. 1991

Developed and commercialized an I/O library for PC monitors nation-wide.

Sep. 1991

Following the burst of the economic bubble in Japan, the Japanese economy began its 10-year decline, but Step One forged ahead and continued to expand its business amid harsh economic conditions.

Aug. 1993

Step One breaks even for the first time since its foundation. Since then, the company has consistently been profitable every year.

Apr. 1993

Step One begins specializing in embedded technologies with its first large-scale embedded development project for a major Japanese eletronics maker.

Dec. 1994

Due to its continually expanding business, Step One relocates to Sannomiya (downtown Kobe), the current location of the company's headquarters.

Step One expands its business into medical devices and takes on projects for the development of various devices, such as for blood control testing.

Jan. 1995

Major earthquake hits Kobe! Step One establishes a temporary office inOsaka and Akashi cities in order to continue its operations.

Apr. 1995

After restoration of basic public infrastructure, Step One moves its headquarters back to Kobe. Despite the difficult working conditions (interrupted public transport and other infrastructure services), Step One continues its expansion and hires more new employees.

Apr. 1996

Step One continues to expand its embedded development business by embarking on a large-scale car audio development project.

Apr. 1997

Step One doubles the size of its office to accomodate its expanding business.

Apr. 1997

Received award of recognition from the Hyogo Prefectural Administration New Industrial Creation Program for work on the theme "Random Access Memory Disk".

Jul. 2000

Awarded Chusho Kigyo Sogo Jigyodan, a prestigious government grant awarded by MITI for advanced research in the area of biometrics (face recognition).

Aug. 2001

As its semiconductor engineering business continues to expand, Step One establishes a regional office in Tokyo.

Mar. 2003

Step One expands embedded development into home networking.

Mar. 2005

Step One expands further into the life sciences by helping to establishBioscene Informatics Inc., a joint venture with Kyoto University's LSD projectand Konova Solutions Inc. of Montreal, Canada.

May 2005

Step One continues to expand its business through the foundation of a fully-owned subsidiary, Join Next Inc.

Aug. 2005

Awarded the Sangaku Renkei Shinsangyo Soshutu Shienjigyo grant by the Hyogo Prefectural Governemnt, in collaboration with Kyoto University, for research and development of a multi-lingual information retrieval system.

Mar. 2006

Step One acts as sales agent for Kyoto University's LSD project.

Apr. 2006

StepOne further expands its software development in the area of car navigation systems.

Nov. 2020

Mr. Shinya Kadonosono has been promoted to CEO.

Jun. 2023

Step One establishes a regional office in Osaka.



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