Born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in 1973, Kaname Hayashi joined Toyota Motor Corporation in 1998. He worked on aerodynamic development for the Lexus LFA supercar and Formula One, before moving on to lead mass-production vehicle development management.

In 2012, he joined SoftBank and became a core member of the Pepper robot project.

In 2015, he founded GROOVE X Inc. In December 2018, the company unveiled LOVOT, a family companion robot designed to nurture emotional connections, with commercial shipments beginning in 2019.

LOVOT has received numerous international awards, including the CES 2020 Innovation Award, Refinery29's Best of CES, and the Good Design Gold Award.

Hayashi is also the author of several books, including Warm Technology: Stories of the Future (published in May 2023, only in Japanese).