In the glass-walled offices of Tokyo’s Shibuya district, a quiet revolution in data privacy is taking place. While the global conversation around Artificial Intelligence often centers on large language models and generative art, a specialized team at EAGLYS Inc. is focused on a more fundamental barrier: the "Data SILO" problem.

Founded in late 2016 by Hiroki Imabayashi, EAGLYS (a portmanteau representing the "Eyes of an Eagle") was born out of a frustration familiar to any data scientist. During his research at the University of Tokyo and his subsequent time in Silicon Valley, Imabayashi realized that while AI algorithms were becoming increasingly sophisticated, the sensitive data needed to feed them remained trapped behind layers of bureaucracy, regulation, and security fears.

Today, EAGLYS is bridging that gap through a technology that sounds like science fiction: Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)—the ability to analyze data without ever decrypting it.

Profile Box
Name: Hiroki Imabayashi
Title: Founder & CEO
Company: EAGLYS Inc.
Industry: Cybersecurity / AI / Privacy-Enhancing Technology (PET)
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan

The Challenge: The Intelligence Bottleneck

Before EAGLYS entered the scene, companies faced a binary choice: share data and risk a privacy breach, or keep data locked away and lose out on insights. In highly regulated sectors like chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and finance, this resulted in a "collaboration freeze."

"Free and unfettered data utilization is fundamental to AI advancement," Imabayashi often notes, "yet most organizational data remains restricted." Traditional encryption protects data while it's sitting on a hard drive or moving across a wire, but the moment you want to perform a calculation on it, you have to unlock it. That "unlocked" moment is the point of greatest vulnerability.

The Interview: Designing a Global Culture in Tokyo

EAGLYS doesn’t look like a traditional Japanese startup. Step into their headquarters—or join one of their virtual stand-ups—and you’ll hear a mix of Japanese and English. Nearly 40% of their workforce is international, hailing from the US, France, Thailand, and beyond.

"Our mission is to create a secure data infrastructure akin to a 'private data version of Google,'" says Imabayashi. "To build that, we needed to go beyond the borders of Japan to find the world's best cryptographers and AI engineers."

The company’s recruitment philosophy is built on three pillars: Technical Depth, Personal Initiative, and Radical Flexibility.

1. The Power of "Personal Initiative"

Project managers at EAGLYS describe a culture where moving across traditional departmental boundaries isn't just allowed—it's expected. "What motivates me is the organizational flexibility that permits proactive action," one PM shared in a recent company interview. "If you see a way to make the secure computation process more efficient for a client in the chemical industry, you don't wait for permission. You build the prototype."

2. Bridging Theory and Reality

For many of the company’s AI Security Engineers, the draw is the chance to take academic concepts like "Lattice-based Cryptography" out of textbooks and into the real world.

"There is a profound satisfaction in moving from a proof-of-concept to seeing DataArmor [the company's flagship product] running in a production environment," says a senior engineer. "We aren't just protecting data; we're enabling discoveries in materials science and medicine that wouldn't have been possible because the data was too sensitive to share."

3. An Environment Built for Humans

Recruiting global talent to Tokyo requires more than just high salaries. EAGLYS has implemented a "Remote-First" optionality that is still rare among Japanese tech firms. From child-rearing benefits that exceed legal requirements to an "Anniversary Leave" policy where employees take paid time off for personal milestones, the focus is on long-term sustainability.

"We have team members from their 20s to their 60s," Imabayashi explains. "We value the wisdom of experience as much as the drive of youth."

The Results: Beyond the Lab

EAGLYS’s results are measurable not just in their successful $7.6M funding rounds from investors like Mitsui and Panasonic, but in their impact on industry:

Materials Science Revolution: Through their Alchemista platform, manufacturers like Kioxia can now share encrypted proprietary data with researchers. This allows for "Materials Informatics"—using AI to discover new materials—without any party ever seeing the other’s trade secrets.
Quantum-Ready Security: In 2024, EAGLYS announced a partnership with Quantinuum to integrate quantum-resistant encryption, ensuring that data protected today remains secure even against the supercomputers of tomorrow.
Global Efficiency: By pivoting to English as an official internal language alongside Japanese, the company has reduced the "communication lag" that often plagues Japanese firms trying to go global, allowing for 24/7 development cycles across different time zones.

"The challenge isn't just mathematical; it's psychological. We have to prove to the world that they don't have to choose between privacy and progress." — EAGLYS Leadership Team

Key Takeaways for the Future of Work

Talent has no borders: To solve the world’s hardest technical problems (like FHE), companies must build "Global-Ready" cultures from day one, including language support and flexible work-from-anywhere policies.
Privacy is a Business Enabler: Secure computation is shifting from a "compliance cost" to a "revenue driver" by unlocking datasets that were previously untouchable.
Values-Driven Recruitment: High-tier talent in AI and Cryptography is motivated by "The Why." EAGLYS succeeds because it offers engineers a chance to solve a fundamental infrastructure problem for the entire digital economy.

Conclusion

As the world enters the era of "Q-Day" (the point where quantum computers might break traditional encryption), the work being done at EAGLYS is more than just a business—it’s a necessary evolution of the internet. By creating a culture where global researchers feel at home in Tokyo, Hiroki Imabayashi is ensuring that the future of AI is not just intelligent, but fundamentally secure.

Are you ready to join the future of secure computation? Explore open roles at EAGLYS by getting in touch with our team via the JINZ.AI Candidate Contact Form.