Asia’s regional startup news media e27 will hold its annual conference Echelon 2015 this June in Singapore. Towards a startup competition at the conference, the media company held Echelon Top 100 Japan Qualifiers at NTT Docomo Ventures in Tokyo on Tuesday to choose delegates from Japan. Wovn.io won the Judge’s Choice award while the People’s Choice award was given to SynchroLife.
Wovn.io co-founder Jeff Sandford (left) receives the Judge’s Choice award from Global Brain partner Nobutake Suzuki
Wovn.io allows website owners to translate their websites into multiple languages simply by adding a one-line JavaScript code to their HTML files. Since launch in June 2014, they have translated more than 120,000 pages. Website owners can choose from two types of translation – machine translation using Google Translate and human-powered crowdsourced translation using Gengo.
SynchroLife is a mobile app for foodies, allowing users to follow other like-minded foodies or patronized restaurants by continuously making check-ins and ranks for restaurants visited. It is now available in Japanese for use in Japan, but the team is working on a multilingual version for expansion in the Asian region where locals are likely to post food photos and be eager to find good restaurants in the neighborhood.
In addition to Japan, e27 is hosting local Echelon qualifiers events in Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Echelon Asia Summit 2015, the main event with the competition finals, is scheduled to take place in Singapore on 23rd and 24th June, where delegates from every participant country will come together and compete with each others to win the top honor.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Asoview (previously known as Catarizm), the company behind an online leisure booking site under the same, announced today that it has partnered with Japanese travel agent company JTB Group. Upon this announcement, Asoview also announced it has secured 600 million yen ($5 million) funding in the round led by JTB Group with participation from YJ Capital, Jafco, and Globis Capital Partners. Asoview and JTB Group will join forces in online sales, running promotional campaigns to motivate more foreigners to visit Japan towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, as well as developing additional services such as benefit packages for businesses. Asoview was incorporated in March 2011. Since the launch of the service back in July 2012, Asoview has been providing 6,000 excursion programs in 300 genres in partnership with more than 2,000 companies nationwide in Japan. The company previously fundraised about 200 million yen (about $1.7 million) from Global Capital Partners and Jafco in March 2014. See also: Asoview partners with Yahoo Japan, proposes more weekend leisure options CNet Japan Startup Award nominees: Travel startups Asoview and Trippiece Translated by Masaru Ikeda
From the left: Asoview CEO Tomohisa Yamano, JTB Group vice president Hiroki Furuno
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Asoview (previously known as Catarizm), the company behind an online leisure booking site under the same, announced today that it has partnered with Japanese travel agent company JTB Group. Upon this announcement, Asoview also announced it has secured 600 million yen ($5 million) funding in the round led by JTB Group with participation from YJ Capital, Jafco, and Globis Capital Partners.
Asoview and JTB Group will join forces in online sales, running promotional campaigns to motivate more foreigners to visit Japan towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, as well as developing additional services such as benefit packages for businesses.
Asoview was incorporated in March 2011. Since the launch of the service back in July 2012, Asoview has been providing 6,000 excursion programs in 300 genres in partnership with more than 2,000 companies nationwide in Japan. The company previously fundraised about 200 million yen (about $1.7 million) from Global Capital Partners and Jafco in March 2014.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Coubic, the Japanese startup best known for its scheduling and appointment booking solution under the same name as well as last-minute beauty salon booking app Popcorn, announced today that it has fundraised 310 million yen (about $2.6 million) from DCM and Gree Ventures. Upon the funding, former Goldman Sachs vice president Yuki Maniwa and DCM’s general partner Osuke Honda joined the management board, aiming to strengthen Coubic’s management setup and corporate governance. This funding follows their previous round securing about $500,000 almost a year ago from DCM and Gree Ventures, the same investors at this funding round. Since its launch in April last year, Coubic has acquired over 10,000 merchants using the booking solution. They will use the funds to develop additional functions like customer relation management. Maniwa was a classmate for Coubic CEO Hiroshi Kuraoka when attending his university. Kuraoka told The Bridge that he expects Maniwa’s business skills and vitality with the proven background.
Tokyo-based Coubic, the Japanese startup best known for its scheduling and appointment booking solution under the same name as well as last-minute beauty salon booking app Popcorn, announced today that it has fundraised 310 million yen (about $2.6 million) from DCM and Gree Ventures. Upon the funding, former Goldman Sachs vice president Yuki Maniwa and DCM’s general partner Osuke Honda joined the management board, aiming to strengthen Coubic’s management setup and corporate governance.
This funding follows their previous round securing about $500,000 almost a year ago from DCM and Gree Ventures, the same investors at this funding round. Since its launch in April last year, Coubic has acquired over 10,000 merchants using the booking solution. They will use the funds to develop additional functions like customer relation management.
Maniwa was a classmate for Coubic CEO Hiroshi Kuraoka when attending his university. Kuraoka told The Bridge that he expects Maniwa’s business skills and vitality with the proven background.
Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation company Gengo announced earlier this week that it has secured funding worth US$5.4 million in series C round led by Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) with participation from SBI Investment, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, CrowdWorks (TSE:3900, online crowdsourcing platform), Allied Architects (TSE:6081, internet service company), and Libertad K.K. (business execution consulting firm). The company’s existing investors include Intel Capital, Iris Capital (the investment arm of Orange, a leading French telco), STC Ventures, and Singapore’s Infocomm Investments. The company plans to fund the upscaling of sales and marketing operations in existing and new markets. According to a statement from the company, on announcing this funding result, Gengo co-founder Matthew Romaine will take over the new role of CEO to carry the company into its next phase of growth, with former CEO Robert Laing shifting his role to Special Projects. See also: Tokyo Office Tour: Gengo’s Matthew Romaine talks translation Translation startup Gengo relocates its home base, has some changes in store Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation company Gengo announced earlier this week that it has secured funding worth US$5.4 million in series C round led by Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) with participation from SBI Investment, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, CrowdWorks (TSE:3900, online crowdsourcing platform), Allied Architects (TSE:6081, internet service company), and Libertad K.K. (business execution consulting firm).
The company’s existing investors include Intel Capital, Iris Capital (the investment arm of Orange, a leading French telco), STC Ventures, and Singapore’s Infocomm Investments. The company plans to fund the upscaling of sales and marketing operations in existing and new markets.
According to a statement from the company, on announcing this funding result, Gengo co-founder Matthew Romaine will take over the new role of CEO to carry the company into its next phase of growth, with former CEO Robert Laing shifting his role to Special Projects.
See the original story in Japanese. At the press conference last month, Tokyo-based IoT (Internet of Things) product developer Photosynth announced that it will start shipping a new smart lock product called Akerun on 23 April. They have been accepting pre-orders on their website since almost one month ago. The product will be available for 36,000 yen (about $300) excluding consumption tax. The company aims to sell 10,000 devices in the fiscal year 2015. Akerun is a smart lock that you can attach over an existing thumb turn-type door lock, controllable from smartphones via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). It has also the automatic lock function, will automatically detect whether the door is open and lock it when needed just in case that a user forgot to do so. Photosynth is currently applying a patent for the product as an attachable smart lock system as well as the aforementioned automatic lock function. Users can generate spare keys via the mobile app; these keys can be shared with other selected persons using communication channels such as Line or Facebook messaging apps. The target of the product includes hotels, real estate agencies, and shared rooms which typically need to give multiple persons access to…
Photosynth CEO Kodai Kawase unveils Akerun at the press conference.
At the press conference last month, Tokyo-based IoT (Internet of Things) product developer Photosynth announced that it will start shipping a new smart lock product called Akerun on 23 April. They have been accepting pre-orders on their website since almost one month ago. The product will be available for 36,000 yen (about $300) excluding consumption tax. The company aims to sell 10,000 devices in the fiscal year 2015.
Akerun is a smart lock that you can attach over an existing thumb turn-type door lock, controllable from smartphones via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). It has also the automatic lock function, will automatically detect whether the door is open and lock it when needed just in case that a user forgot to do so. Photosynth is currently applying a patent for the product as an attachable smart lock system as well as the aforementioned automatic lock function.
Users can generate spare keys via the mobile app; these keys can be shared with other selected persons using communication channels such as Line or Facebook messaging apps.
The target of the product includes hotels, real estate agencies, and shared rooms which typically need to give multiple persons access to a room. This spare key function also supports one-time password and designation of key activation date and time.
Akerun allows users to record room entry and exit logs, so it can be integrated with other services to monitor their children’s home return hours or manage attendance at companies. In partnership with Docomo Ventures, Japan’s largest property search portal company Next (TSE:2120), and Japan’s leading property developer Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801), Photosynth will launch derived services based on the smart lock solution, such as 39hotels (allowing hotel guests to enter their room using their BLE-enabled smartphone), Smart Nairan (real estate mediation), and short-time rentals of vacant office spaces.
Regarding future plans, Photosynth CEO Kodai Kawase said that they aim to make the device be something more than a smart lock, like a ‘smart lock robot.’ In the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, we could hear many announcements made in the smart home sector. So it will be interesting to see how Akerun can expand business range beyond more than that of a smart lock.
See the original story in Japanese. IBM BlueHub, IBM Japan’s startup accelerator program in association with Tokyo-based incubator Samurai Incubate, held a demo day for its first batch earlier this week, showcasing five teams graduated from the recent three-month program starting in December. According to Catherine Solazzo, Director for Performance Marketing at IBM, who leads the accelerator program, the best team from the first batch will be selected upon voting at IBM XCITE Spring 2015, which will take place in Tokyo on 19 and 20 of May. As I wrote when the first batch was started, IBM Japan is expecting to help these startups foster their services as the one representing the Japanese tech industry by the year of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. So Norihiko Nakabayashi, big data and analytics architect at IBM Japan, who also leads the acceleration initiative, confirmed that the company will keep supporting these startups even after their graduation from the batch. Yoshiaki Ishii, Director of New Business Policy Office, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, delivered a guest speech in the beginning of the event, where he claimed that the Japanese government wants to massively support a global company like IBM conducting…
IBM BlueHub, IBM Japan’s startup accelerator program in association with Tokyo-based incubator Samurai Incubate, held a demo day for its first batch earlier this week, showcasing five teams graduated from the recent three-month program starting in December.
According to Catherine Solazzo, Director for Performance Marketing at IBM, who leads the accelerator program, the best team from the first batch will be selected upon voting at IBM XCITE Spring 2015, which will take place in Tokyo on 19 and 20 of May.
Catherine Solazzo, IBM BlueHub
As I wrote when the first batch was started, IBM Japan is expecting to help these startups foster their services as the one representing the Japanese tech industry by the year of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. So Norihiko Nakabayashi, big data and analytics architect at IBM Japan, who also leads the acceleration initiative, confirmed that the company will keep supporting these startups even after their graduation from the batch.
Yoshiaki Ishii, Director of New Business Policy Office, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, delivered a guest speech in the beginning of the event, where he claimed that the Japanese government wants to massively support a global company like IBM conducting such an activity in the country.
So now let’s have a quick look down about how the participating startups have been advanced in the last three months.
Gene Quest
From the left: Gene Quest’s Shoko Takahashi, her mentor IBM BluHub’s Norihiko Nakabayashi
Gene Quest provides a large-scale human genome analytics service for consumers via the Internet. The company’s personal genome service can detect the largest variety of detectable potential diseases in Japan, which can be adopted to many areas including disease prevention, custom-made medical treatment, avoiding from prescribing medicines which may cause a side effect for a patient by learning his/her genetic risk beforehand.
When you ask for analyze your genome sample using a genetic inspection kit, your ‘my page’ will be provided on the company’s website where precautions for your health are provided in addition to continuously updating when a new medical or pharmaceutical update comes in.
Gene Quest analyzes and anonymizes genetic data collected from users, planning to provide the analytics to pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations with the aim of contributing to the invention of new medicines and the development of medical industry. As differentiation from competitors, the company can offer the service on a white-brand basis, so they have been partnering with the Health Data Lab service on Yahoo Japan since last October.
Shoko Takashi, who leads the company, has been majored in molecular biology at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo. She shared her passion that her team wants to contribute to society by providing feedback to the medical and pharmaceutical research rather than pursuing profitability.
Brand Pit
From the Left: BrandPit’s T. T. Chu, his mentor Samurai Incubate’s Mariko Yazawa
About 1.8 billion photos are being posted on social media every day, but 80% of them has no text profiles such as hash tag. Brand Pit analyzes visual context in these photos, helps brand managers understand consumer behaviors and learn new markets that they consider to expanding into. Brand Pit CEO T. T. Chu showed the audience a sample data as an example, which was acquired using Dutch beer brand Heineken as a keyword (see below [in Japanese]).
Brand Pit has already partnered with global big companies such as health care manufacturer Unilever and marketing agency Ogilvy & Mather. The company offers customer-made reporting and online dashboard for brand managers on a monthly charging but an annual subscription basis. Their technology can recognize context in still images for now, considering to advance it to motion images.
While it is said that farmer’s earnings are decreasing every year, the Japanese market is still as big as valued at 8 trillion yen ($67.3 billion) in agriculture, seeing a 100 trillion yen ($841 billion) market if consolidated with the food industry. Yuichi Ikoma, CEO of Terrace Mile, believes that they can help farmers make their business more profitably by offering them a data-driven agriculture methodology. Upon a series of interviews with more than 200 people farming 100 different types of crops, Ikoma has been devoted to developing the solution which helps farmer better run their business with visualized management system, sales forecast, and metrics showing how supply chains work.
The company has developed an iOS app called TeraScope during the accelerator program, which will be released in late April. With the app, farmers can visualize data about their business just only by entering the amount of harvested crops to be shipped or produced. TeraScope was developed aiming to increase a farmer’s income to 140% for the current state.
The company intends to offer the service consisting of the mobile app and the crowd service for free for three years from now. They will also provide an analytics service called TeraReport for JA Zen-noh(Japan’s National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations) and local governments, giving them three-times detailed metrics for the one-third cost of other conventional services. They will participate in Jump Start Nippon, the entrepreneurship encouragement program by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), from April to further polish up the service.
Link Sports
From the left: Link Sports’ Shinya Koizumi, his mentor Samurai Incubate’s Mariko Yazawa
People enjoying sports in a casual way tend to have a common problem. When they have a team match with other teams, they typically have the following problems:
Hard to share updates and adjust schedules among team members because more than a half of them still use feature phones.
Hard to record and manage scores. 95% of amateur sports players record scores on paper, copy them to an Excel file to share with other team members.
Hard to collect money or for splitting the bills for match venue rent and drinking party after the match.
Link Sports has developed a mobile app to solve all these issues, which will be released in late April. When a manager posts updates like the schedule of an upcoming team match game, it will be delivered via push notification from the app, in-app alert as well as e-mail so as to enable even feature phone users updates to be kept.
Planned monetization streams include crowd storage for sport-training movies, paywalled features, recruiting supplementary members for a game match as well as sales of sports items, uniforms, and sports insurance. Based on assumption that 5% of all sports teams in Japan use the service, Link Sports expects to generate a 150 million yen ($1.26 million) monthly sales in the future.
The company has already partnered with Nihon University, Waseda University, Japan’s National Institute of Fitness and Sports, Bluetag.jp (online athlete supporting platform), Mizuno (sports equipment and sportswear company), YKK Group (manufacturing company famous for making zippers), and Jognote (cloud-based exercise tracking platform).
Yamap
From the left: Yoshihiko Haruyama, his mentor Samurai Incubate’s Ryo Tamaki
Yamap is a mobile app that lets users find where they are even when outside mobile telephony range. The app was to develop a system to prevent mountain climbers, anglers and outdoor-goers from getting lost.
Since it launched back in March 2013, the app has acquired 100,000 downloads while map data for the app have surpassed 430,000 downloads. The app will hit the 300,000 downloads and 1 million map downloads milestone in 2015, where more than 1 million photos are uploaded by users onto the app’s social network function.
Going forward, Sefuri, the company behind the app, expects to generate annual sales of 100 million yen ($841,000) sales from premium membership and that of 600 million yen ($5 million) from Yamap Gears, a planned price comparison site that reviews mountain climbers and outdoor gears. Our readers may recall that the company won a pitch competition at B Dash Camp 2015 Spring in Fukuoka last week.
Following a series of these pitches, Samurai Incubate’s CEO Kentaro Sakakibara delivered a closing speech to participating startups and the audience. In relation to his current base in Israel, he joked that IBM has started this accelerator program in Japan as the second market following Israel.
He sent hearty cheers to the graduating teams and explained that Samurai Incubate join forces with IBM because he thought leveraging the power that such a huge global company has would definitely help startups better gain the potential in making their business more successful.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
