Global Brain has invested in Metro Weather Co., Ltd. (Metro Weather), a startup developing doppler lidar, through its JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund L.P. (JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund) and KURONEKO Innovation Fund L.P. (KURONEKO Fund). Metro Weather is a startup, founded in 2015, which is developing compact and high-performance doppler lidar, based on technology seeds originated from remote sensing nurtured over 30 years in Kyoto University. Doppler lidar is a hardware device which can calculate relative position and instant velocity of a target object based on Doppler effect, irradiating infrared light from its laser module and receiving scattering light from the target object. In case that target objects are air microparticles, doppler lidar can measure position and velocity data of winds within around 10-km radius from the lidar. It is expected that doppler lidar could be utilized not for only understanding of wind conditions for wind-power generation and prediction of torrential downpour for urban disaster prevention, but also for wind condition data service for drone flight control. In the airspace of within 150 meters height where drones are permitted to fly, wind condition varies greatly according to position, because many turbulences with variety of size are generated, influenced by change of ground surface including mountains and buildings. In the airspace with this kind of nature, it would be crucially important for flight safety that drones could utilize high-resolution wind condition data in terms of time and space. As existing wind condition data does not have enough resolution, it is expected that doppler lidar could be the solution for drone flight safety. The technological strength of Metro Weather’s doppler lidar is that it can extract necessary data from received signals with a lot of noise. Accordingly, it can measure wind conditions at long distant positions with a relatively small laser power. Utilizing this strength, Metro Weather realizes not only best-class measurement distances and but also unparallelly compact and low-priced product. Metro Weather is highly recognized in these strengths and has achieved best track records in the number of joint experiment projects with Japanese enterprises in the doppler lidar space. In addition, Metro Weather has started the joint research project with NASA since last summer. Global Brain has invested in Metro Weather, being highly impressed by its technological strengths against global competitors and its strong positioning in the global doppler lidar market. Global Brain will provide hands-on support to Metro Weather, pursuing its potential to become a global leading company in the doppler lidar market. ## About Metro Weather

Location: Uji City, Kyoto, Japan

Representative: Junichi Furumoto

Founded: May 2015

URL: https://www.metroweather.jp/en/

## About JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund

Name: JGC MIRAI Innovation Fund L.P.

General Partner: Global Brain Corporation

Fund Size: JPY 5 billion

## About KURONEKO Fund

Name: KURONEKO Innovation Fund L.P.

General Partner: Global Brain Corporation

Fund Size: JPY 5 billion

## About Global Brain

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Representative: Yasuhiko Yurimoto

Founded: January 1998

URL: https://globalbrains.com/

Global Brain has invested, as the co-lead investor, in Metro Weather Co., Ltd., a startup developing doppler lidar for applications including wind condition data service for drone flight control