In 2011, he came to Estonia to assess local business opportunities and soon joined several projects - from FPGA board development for Japanese companies, to a lactic acid bacteria project at the Bio Competence Center. These projects confirmed to him that Estonia had a lot of potential and in October 2015 he established ESTLANDING OÜ with 4 business partners to introduce the latest Japanese technology to the Estonian market, and to help interesting Estonian products access the Japanese market. In November 2015, Sunagawa discovered the innovative Japanese technology created by Your Energy Development Co Ltd and has since focussed on using this technology for bioenergy production projects in Estonia.
Mati is an Electrical Engineer with long-term managerial experience. He started his career in the electrical engineering and consultation sector working as an inspector and a project manager for some of the biggest energy companies in Estonia. From 1997-2009 he worked as an executive and board member for a number of different companies in the energy sector, mainly working on international projects in Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. From 2010 until 2016, when he co-founded MFM Energy, Mati shared his experience as a CEO and project manager in the mechanical engineering industry.
Maarja is one of the co-founders of MFM Energy. She ensures smooth communication between Japan and Estonia and performs the complex task of balancing out differences in business culture. She studied in Tsukuba and Waseda universities and worked as a communication specialist at the University of Tokyo. After five years in Japan she has been working with Japanese clients interested in Estonia in various fields from business to cultural exchange.