Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3660), the company behind Japanese popular cosmetics review portals @Cosme, announced yesterday that it acquired Beauty Trend Japan, the operating company of GlossyBox Japan.
GlossyBox was started by Germany-based investment company Rocket Internet, and has been providing subscription-based cosmetics delivery service to female consumers in several Asian countries. In a related story, Singapore-based subscription service startup VanityTrove acquired GlossyBox Taiwan last year in order to expand their operations in Southeast Asia.
While GlossyBox Japan has 53,000 users, iStyle has 2.8 million users and has partnered with some 850 cosmetics manufacturers in Japan.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Vinclu has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise $30,000 to produce its new appcessory product called Ayatori. The product plugs into a smartphone earphone jack and allows users to enjoy communicating with others by changing illumination patterns using the Ayatori app. VVinclu develops appcessories that help people connect. In 2013 they raised more than $6,000 on Japanese crowdfunding site campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire last year, and it was successfully closed with more than their $6,000 initial goal raised. Vinclu is active in the Tokyo startup scene, and have taken part in many local incubation initiatives like Incubate Camp (seasonal bootcamp event by Incubate Fund) and IVS (Infinity Venture Summit) Launch Pad. By combining with the Ayatori app the device will allow users to enjoy several never-seen-before experiences, where you will be notified by the illumination when any of other users having the same interest or the same hobby with you passes nearby. Japanese toy startup Moff has successfully leveraged software/hardware combinations. Besides the uniqueness of their product characteristics, they find value in metrics that can be obtained from the product when users play it.
Tokyo-based startup Vinclu has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise $30,000 to produce its new appcessory product called Ayatori. The product plugs into a smartphone earphone jack and allows users to enjoy communicating with others by changing illumination patterns using the Ayatori app.
VVinclu develops appcessories that help people connect. In 2013 they raised more than $6,000 on Japanese crowdfunding site campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire last year, and it was successfully closed with more than their $6,000 initial goal raised. Vinclu is active in the Tokyo startup scene, and have taken part in many local incubation initiatives like Incubate Camp (seasonal bootcamp event by Incubate Fund) and IVS (Infinity Venture Summit) Launch Pad.
By combining with the Ayatori app the device will allow users to enjoy several never-seen-before experiences, where you will be notified by the illumination when any of other users having the same interest or the same hobby with you passes nearby.
Japanese toy startup Moff has successfully leveraged software/hardware combinations. Besides the uniqueness of their product characteristics, they find value in metrics that can be obtained from the product when users play it.
One item of the Vinclu product costs $25, two for $45. Shipping and delivery will start in December.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Exchange Corporation (ExCo for short) announced yesterday that it has launched a new payment solution called Paidy and raised about 330 million yen (or $3.3 million) from Arbor Ventures (Hong Kong), CyberAgent Ventures (Japan), Recruit Strategic Partners (Japan), 500 Startups (USA), and Cherubic Ventures (Taiwan). ExCo has developed various personal finance services including P2P loan market Aqush. Paidy allows you to complete an online payment without entering credit card numbers or login procedure. To buy something online with Paidy, all you need is to enter your name and e-mail address. You can also choose a lump-sum payment or installed payments up to 36 months. When you use Paidy at a retailer to buy something, ExCo pays them first and bills you later. In this way, the company reduces the risk of default in payment for retailers, but the simplicity of payment process makes consumers more easily to buy items online. In this space, we’ve seen similar services by companies like Klarna. This Swedish company mainly serves retailers and consumers in Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Austria, where the simplicity and speed-up of its purchasing process have improved the consumer conversion rate at online…
ExCo has developed various personal finance services including P2P loan market Aqush. Paidy allows you to complete an online payment without entering credit card numbers or login procedure. To buy something online with Paidy, all you need is to enter your name and e-mail address. You can also choose a lump-sum payment or installed payments up to 36 months.
When you use Paidy at a retailer to buy something, ExCo pays them first and bills you later. In this way, the company reduces the risk of default in payment for retailers, but the simplicity of payment process makes consumers more easily to buy items online.
In this space, we’ve seen similar services by companies like Klarna. This Swedish company mainly serves retailers and consumers in Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Austria, where the simplicity and speed-up of its purchasing process have improved the consumer conversion rate at online retail stores.
Coinciding with this launch, the company also announced that it has started hiring people for the new business.
See the original story in Japanese. SeedStars World is an initiative touring 33 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. In Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on 25 July at a co-working space in Harajuku, Tokyo. A number of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches to qualify for the final global competition next February in Geneva, Switzerland. Here is a rundown of the three teams selected. 1st Place: StudyPact StudyPact is a service that lets users set a study goal and monetary stakes as a sort of bet with themselves. They graduated from the 8th batch of an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab. To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx. 2nd Place: Casy Casy offers crowdsourced housekeeping services. They were recently launched by Beenos, the incubation arm of Japanese internet company Netprice.com, and also announced that they have raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Beenos last month. 3rd place: AppTrader AppTrader is an auction house for apps. It allows users to buy and sell the property of apps listed on AppStore and…
SeedStars World is an initiative touring 33 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. In Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on 25 July at a co-working space in Harajuku, Tokyo.
A number of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches to qualify for the final global competition next February in Geneva, Switzerland. Here is a rundown of the three teams selected.
1st Place: StudyPact
StudyPact is a service that lets users set a study goal and monetary stakes as a sort of bet with themselves. They graduated from the 8th batch of an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab. To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx.
2nd Place: Casy
Casy offers crowdsourced housekeeping services. They were recently launched by Beenos, the incubation arm of Japanese internet company Netprice.com, and also announced that they have raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Beenos last month.
3rd place: AppTrader
AppTrader is an auction house for apps. It allows users to buy and sell the property of apps listed on AppStore and GooglePlay. Listing and bid submission are free. When a deal is closed, the platform allows a user to move the ownership of a user base as well as development resources.
The event website has more information on the many startups that have been selected in other participating cities. After Tokyo, the next local event will take place on August 1st (Friday) in Seoul, Korea.
See the original story in Japanese. The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year. This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University. Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues. Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or…
The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year.
This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University.
Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues.
Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or child. It is in fact a biped walking robot equipped with a web camera, as well as a speaker and a microphone, all controlled via a .NET MicroFramework board in the toy. Cuddly Connect is part and parcel of the IoT (Internet of Things) industry that is receiving global attention. As such, whether the furry toy will make it to the top at the world finals will be of much interest.
The finals will start at 8:30am on August 1, Friday (Pacific Standard Time), or 1:30am on August 2, Saturday (Japan Standard Time). It will be livestreamed here if you’d like to tune in.
The Cuddly Connect team from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. From the left: Kikuya Miyamura, Palin Choviwatana, and Kenta Hamaguchi
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Rinn has started selling Petly, an automatic pet feeder. The first 500 production lot of the feeder was availed today over its online store for 31,860 yen including consumption tax (about $310). The product is built not to topple even if the pet tampers with it. It can load up to one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of pet food, with a feeding portion being set in five-gram increments for a maximum of 50 grams per feeding. The feeding time is specified by the hour. While the startup is a one-person outfit, for product development it is partnered with popular Japanese creators and established electronics manufacturers. Company owner Masahiro Ryohara outlined his business strategy: Petly was carefully designed not only to match room interiors but also to make it easy to operate even for those not mechanically-oriented. The first production lot contained 500 products, with another 500 to be provided by the next lot. Upon marking the third production lot, we’ll commence sales worldwide. Similar products like Remoca (Japan) and Single Pet (Korea) can be found on the market already, but obviously Yanahara sees its design and difficult-to-topple features attracting fashionable pet owners…
Tokyo-based startup Rinn has started selling Petly, an automatic pet feeder. The first 500 production lot of the feeder was availed today over its online store for 31,860 yen including consumption tax (about $310).
The product is built not to topple even if the pet tampers with it. It can load up to one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of pet food, with a feeding portion being set in five-gram increments for a maximum of 50 grams per feeding. The feeding time is specified by the hour.
While the startup is a one-person outfit, for product development it is partnered with popular Japanese creators and established electronics manufacturers. Company owner Masahiro Ryohara outlined his business strategy:
Petly was carefully designed not only to match room interiors but also to make it easy to operate even for those not mechanically-oriented. The first production lot contained 500 products, with another 500 to be provided by the next lot. Upon marking the third production lot, we’ll commence sales worldwide.
Similar products like Remoca (Japan) and Single Pet (Korea) can be found on the market already, but obviously Yanahara sees its design and difficult-to-topple features attracting fashionable pet owners widely.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Shintaro Eguchi
