Arches

The Arches expert network started in 2019 by former consultants at Accenture and YCP Solidiance. It sprung out of the Japanese consumer research firm Needsarch.

The company offers four types of expert network services:

• Phone consultations

• Expert surveys

• On-site consultations/ seminars

• Short-term staffing

• Transcript library (Expert Knowledge Bank)

Arches is headquartered in Japan, with eight offices globally: Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo, Singapore, Tashkent, Seoul, Bogotá, and Hong Kong. The company focuses on recruiting experts across Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and India. It partners with recruiting/head-hunting firms to accelerate the search process.

Arches competes with other Singapore-based and Japanese expert networks ShareFair, Mimir Uzabase, Resory, and Hudson Research, as well as regional players such as Nodes Global, Liahnson & Company, and Nathan Research Group. Users of Inex One can access multiple Asian expert networks on one platform, pay-per-call.

Arches fundraising

In December 2021, Arches raised ¥ 230m ($1.6m) from Mimir Uzabase and a number of other corporate venture and angel investors. The funding announcement includes plans of combining Arches' database with that of Mimir Uzabase and its SPEEDA service. At the time, Arches had 50,000 database experts.

In June 2024, Arches raised $3m (¥ 410m) from multiple corporations, VCs, and angels. At the time, Arches said they had 300 clients and 100,000 database experts. It is intended to build both an expert call transcript library business, and one for HR/recruitment and "Other HR-related business"

Arches partnerships

As of June 2025, Arches has now integrated its call transcript library (Expert Knowledge Bank) into the Bloomberg Terminal. At this time, they're only sharing interviews related to Japanese stocks with the hopes of expanding to other topics soon. Similarly, Third Bridge has also recently set up a Bloomberg partnership.