Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has fundraised about 270 million yen (about $2.2 million) in a series A funding round. This round is led by Global Brain (GB) with participation from Nippon Technology Venture Partners (NTVP), and Lead Capital Management (LCM), anticipating additional funds from other investors to secure the final total of 400 million yen ($3.3 million).
Coinciding with this funding, Takashi Kato, NTVP CEO Kazutaka Muraguchi and GB venture partner Hidetaka Aoki will join the board of directors while GB CEO Yasuhiko Yurimoto will be appointed as an outside auditor. Kato is renowned as the co-founder of Japanese robotics company Schaft which was acquired by Google in 2013.
LifeRobotics was founded in December of 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team have been developing cooperative working robots which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse or a game pad without complicated programming skills.
Along with the funding announcement, the company just unveiled a co-robot for picking work called Coro, which will be showcased at International Robot Exhibition 2015 taking place in Tokyo from December 2nd to 5th. Its sales will start in January 2016. Coro uses the company’s patent-pending Transpander technology, allowing placement of the co-robot in small manufacturing spaces where conventional-type robots are difficult to locate. In this way, this brand new robot will help people improve their productivity as well as automate processes in manufacturing.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Okan provides an on-demand delivery service for Japanese deli foods for corporate customers. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised an undisclosed amount from YJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, and CA Mobile. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) while CA Mobile is a mobile-focused subsidiary of Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from CyberAgent Ventures and food delivery company Oisix (TSE:3182) in June of 2014. With the service Office Okan, corporate customers will receive Japanese deli once a month, since the deli lasts about a month. These can be refrigerated, and users can buy it by dropping coins to the collection box on the fridge and prepare it in about minutes. Having been attracting many local businesses since its launch back one and a half years ago, the service is now adopted at many offices without massive promotion efforts. In addition to people’s raising awareness of health, the company claims that this was supported by the recent transition about how companies provide welfare for their employees; the shift from providing recreation facilities and other asset-based services…
Tokyo-based startup Okan provides an on-demand delivery service for Japanese deli foods for corporate customers. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised an undisclosed amount from YJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, and CA Mobile. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) while CA Mobile is a mobile-focused subsidiary of Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from CyberAgent Ventures and food delivery company Oisix (TSE:3182) in June of 2014.
With the service Office Okan, corporate customers will receive Japanese deli once a month, since the deli lasts about a month. These can be refrigerated, and users can buy it by dropping coins to the collection box on the fridge and prepare it in about minutes. Having been attracting many local businesses since its launch back one and a half years ago, the service is now adopted at many offices without massive promotion efforts.
In addition to people’s raising awareness of health, the company claims that this was supported by the recent transition about how companies provide welfare for their employees; the shift from providing recreation facilities and other asset-based services to providing the service that employees can use on a daily basis.
Okan CEO Keita Sawaki says,
Not only specific sectors like IT venture companies but also many companies from various industries, including listed companies, are using our service. We believe that our service can be a ‘defacto standard’ to companies to improve their work environment and support employees’ lives.
In addition to Office Okan, we will develop more solutions to support companies and their people in various ways. We want to keep making efforts to lead the industry providing B2E (business to employees) solutions.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kabuku, the startup known for its 3D printing service brand Rinkak, announced today that it has fundraised 750 million yen ($6 million) from Japanese VC firm Global Brain, Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH), and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital. Since having secured 400 million yen ($3.3 million) in August from Global Brain, Kabuku has been exploring additional funding opportunities from other sources together with the VC firm, the lead investor in this round. Kabuku has closed the latest round by securing 350 million yen ($2.8 million) funding from DDH and Mitsui Sumitomo Capital. Kabuku fundraised 20 million yen from angel investors in June of the same year, followed by securing 200 million yen ($1.7 million) funding from CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) and Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV) in June 2014. With the latest funding, Kabuku has fundraised 600 million yen ($4.8 million) 950 million yen ($7.8 million) to date. [1] In September 2014, Kabuku partnered with Dentsu, an ad agency company under DDH, to develop a solution in the digital fabrication space, aiming to support hardware inventing activities between startups and corporates. In July, Global Brain, one of the investors in the latest round, invested in…
Since having secured 400 million yen ($3.3 million) in August from Global Brain, Kabuku has been exploring additional funding opportunities from other sources together with the VC firm, the lead investor in this round. Kabuku has closed the latest round by securing 350 million yen ($2.8 million) funding from DDH and Mitsui Sumitomo Capital.
Kabuku fundraised 20 million yen from angel investors in June of the same year, followed by securing 200 million yen ($1.7 million) funding from CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) and Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV) in June 2014. With the latest funding, Kabuku has fundraised 600 million yen ($4.8 million) 950 million yen ($7.8 million) to date. [1]
In September 2014, Kabuku partnered with Dentsu, an ad agency company under DDH, to develop a solution in the digital fabrication space, aiming to support hardware inventing activities between startups and corporates. In July, Global Brain, one of the investors in the latest round, invested in HWTrek, Taiwan-based online community platform for hardware developers, so expect a business synergy with Kabuku through supporting forming the ecosystem of digital fabrication startups.
Kabuku was established in January 2013. Originally launched as a showcase and marketplace of 3D printing products, Kabuku has diversified its business to providing other solutions such as Rinkak 3D Printing PPP (Printing Partner Program) that connects orders to relevant printing factories based on manufacturing needs, and Rinkak 3D Printing MMS (Manufacturing Management Service) that provides a cloud-based production management system for 3D printing factories. The company will use the funds to strengthen development and global marketing of these new services.
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Updated based on feedback from CyberAgent Ventures. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Monomy is an iOS app that offers an online marketplace for creatives, allowing people to make accessories they like with ease using smartphones. The platform was recently launched by Fun Up, the Tokyo-based company which has been running several online services since 2011. We interviewed Eri Yamaguchi, the company representative, about their upcoming app. Users can design accessories with over 1,500 parts The Monomy app enables users to design their own accessories by putting accessory parts together in your own style. Over 1,500 kinds of parts including rhinestones, natural gemstones and charms are provided in the app. More design-active users put up their accessory designs for showcasing on “Monomy MyPages” for other users. When one finds a design one likes, it can just be purchased by inputting credit card and address details. The difference between trendy marketplaces for handmade goods and Monomy is that users only need to design the accessories they want. What happens is that Monomy takes care of the whole process from receiving orders through production in their own workshop. They can take large orders such as orders for 1,000 items and make them all in their workshop, with the accessories…
Monomy is an iOS app that offers an online marketplace for creatives, allowing people to make accessories they like with ease using smartphones. The platform was recently launched by Fun Up, the Tokyo-based company which has been running several online services since 2011.
We interviewed Eri Yamaguchi, the company representative, about their upcoming app.
Users can design accessories with over 1,500 parts
Eri Yamaguchi
The Monomy app enables users to design their own accessories by putting accessory parts together in your own style. Over 1,500 kinds of parts including rhinestones, natural gemstones and charms are provided in the app. More design-active users put up their accessory designs for showcasing on “Monomy MyPages” for other users. When one finds a design one likes, it can just be purchased by inputting credit card and address details.
The difference between trendy marketplaces for handmade goods and Monomy is that users only need to design the accessories they want. What happens is that Monomy takes care of the whole process from receiving orders through production in their own workshop. They can take large orders such as orders for 1,000 items and make them all in their workshop, with the accessories being made by experienced craftspeople by hand.
Yamaguchi explained:
The market for handmade items has been growing a lot recently with some items surpassing 1,000 orders a month. However, they are all handmade items so individual craftspeople make the accessories, meaning that even if they worked without any sleep, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with production; it’s not unusual to see items sold out or with a waiting time of several months.
Using the Monomy app, it takes about a week on average for a product to arrive after placing the order. The whole process is taken over by Monomy’s operation department so users can just enjoy designing and gaining their own accessory brands. The app offers a system where the item one wants to give someone can be delivered when one wishes.
The impression Monomy gives is one of femininity and cuteness, but its user interface is very simple. The main focus is on the user’s own accessory brands. The company aims to offer an app design and user interface that is reasonably simple so that their platform doesn’t distract users from the true function of the site.
Also, the key factor when representing real items and actions online is how to replicate the actual feel on a flat smartphone display. A good example is an electronic book reader which emulates reality by turning pages on books and magazines using fingertips. It is indeed a challenge.
Touching the app, you can see how well it has been made by gaining a feel of ‘making accessories by hand’: through use of a gaming engine with technology that can calculates truelife physics and replicates gravity, parts can be moved delicately using fingertips while naturally wobbling a little when parts are added. A lot of time has been spent to make this app, so the feel of making something seems real.
Yamaguchi added:
I think that the most important thing is for users to experience joy by making items and enjoy being part of the community before selling. There are some users that just silently design on the app when they can’t really get to sleep. We are aiming for a service where users get into designing so much that they can’t keep their hands from designing.
Building a platform for creating things
When Yamaguchi was studying at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and experienced purchasing and sales, product development and commerce business, she thought about challenging the apparel field one day by creating something new. She traveled around the world and visited parts of Asia including Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong for two years to conduct market surveys, enabling her to come up with the inspiration for making the Monomy app.
Yamaguchi elaborated:
It is not easy to find accessories that one likes in accessory shops and online in Japan. For example, without pierced ears even if what one finds and likes earrings if they are only for pierced ears, you couldn’t buy anything. Similarly if one is allergic to metals there is no alternative. There still isn’t a market that specializes in accessories, so it would be great if we could solve such problems through Monomy.
17 parts distributors are associated with Monomy; it has created its own system for receiving orders and delivering products without the risk of carrying stocks of accessory parts. By applying this system, it can lessen the burden on the user by making it cost almost nothing. Yamaguchi’s concept is to laterally expand the model by associating with production plants in Japan in a variety of areas, including made-in-Japan furniture, bags, glasses, nail polish and ceramics. Accessories are just the beginning.
Yamaguchi continued:
There are so many areas that cost too much from planning through to product sales at the shop. I could have made the name prettier-sounding than Monomy, but I gave it a name that is unisex, Monomy, to make it mean “starting a revolution” on ordinary production in the future. I hope to build a new ‘platform for making things’ which is closely intertwined with production plants and general consumers.
Community building first, group buying in the future
Monomy is going to add more functions like following users or items. Another function is trying-on items to let users find what they want. For promotions, the plan is to utilize Fun Up’s existing business, influencer marketing, while mulling brand development through reader models and bloggers. Also, the plan aims to enhance the community by holding a contest for posting accessories that suit the new releases of popular brands.
After establishing the community, introduction of a group-buying and incentive system is on the drawing board. Currently the scale has difficulty handling orders that take time and effort. Group-buying could allow a certain number of people who want the same products during a period to decrease the cost per item as they’d be made in bulk, allowing items to be offered at reasonable prices.
Accessories where the cost price is cheap can be halved in price if the number of items being produced increases to 20. If the number of buyers increases, then the price could decrease by 30% to 80%. We are considering something where any user who post their designs could be given incentives in the future.’ Upon launch monomy is just an MVP (Minimal Viable Product).
Yamaguchi says.
The focus is on user experience first, so ‘users can enjoy designing accessories and Monomy can receive recognition’; the next move will be deliberated upon a look at user reactions and feedback, she added.
If you make the design and deliver it, then that limits how much they can produce and how many people would want to do it. But Monomy’s ‘design only’ business model can allow more things to be made. We look forward to the feedback from people and how many ladies will go for Monomy.
Translated by Chieko Frost via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. When trying to find a good, new doctor, many of you may ask your friends or coworkers for recommendations. Because if you try to find them using Google or other search engines, links to curated sites introducing hospitals usually come out in an upper level of results, which typically provides unreliable information. Information sources regarding doctors and hospitals are overwhelmingly few, so it’s quite different from the way of finding good restaurants online. “Clintal” database site Clintal is a site to browse for “renowned doctors” in order to find the optimally skilled medical practitioners, which was launched in May of 2015. As of the end of October, 2015 information on over 500 skilled doctors covering 56 disease categories could be retrieved – this was followed by the addition this November of a doctor’s suggested visits referral service to the browser service. The target patients of Clintal are those suffering from “diseases that are appreciably altered by the quality of medicine,” namely those requiring surgery or those whose treatment options are limited due to the small number of specialist practitioners available. In contrast, diseases not dependent upon the quality of medicine are those having clear…
When trying to find a good, new doctor, many of you may ask your friends or coworkers for recommendations. Because if you try to find them using Google or other search engines, links to curated sites introducing hospitals usually come out in an upper level of results, which typically provides unreliable information. Information sources regarding doctors and hospitals are overwhelmingly few, so it’s quite different from the way of finding good restaurants online.
“Clintal” database site
Clintal is a site to browse for “renowned doctors” in order to find the optimally skilled medical practitioners, which was launched in May of 2015. As of the end of October, 2015 information on over 500 skilled doctors covering 56 disease categories could be retrieved – this was followed by the addition this November of a doctor’s suggested visits referral service to the browser service.
The target patients of Clintal are those suffering from “diseases that are appreciably altered by the quality of medicine,” namely those requiring surgery or those whose treatment options are limited due to the small number of specialist practitioners available. In contrast, diseases not dependent upon the quality of medicine are those having clear guidelines as to treatment like for hypertension and diabetes. For these the treatment quality can be sustained, as long as experts are involved, since there are strong guidelines in place. To reiterate, Clintal specializes in offering info as to diseases whose level of quality of medicine depends upon the skills of the practitioner.
The selection of “skillful practitioner” is a three-step process: first, screening upon looking at achievements based on third-party “assessors” like having specialist qualifications or not and the position within the relevant medical society; then, canvassing several specialists from within the same treatment sector in order to fathom the recognition and reputation among peers… such canvassing from the specialist perspectives will for example flush out doctors who are no longer fully practicing or are focused on publishing general research papers rather than treating patients for removal from the pool.
Concludes Dr. Reimu Sugita, Clintal’s CEO,
The final step of quantitative screening by meticulous scrutiny on the number of operations handled as well as that on clinically-based papers published is implemented on the remainder of those listed. By combining qualitative and objective data both we can find the skilled practitioners to be recommended.
Database reliability and recommendation speed
Clintal CEO Dr. Reimu Sugita
Clintal’s competition are provided by those services providing second opinions. The major difference between Clintal and such service providers is speed. Rival firms often take at least 2 months and in some cases up to 4 months in proffering a recommendation.
Sugita elaborated:
Though it depends on the disease, there are many patients who can’t afford to wait for 4 months, like those suffering from cancer. At Clintal we aim to recommend appropriate doctors within a week’s time. We will inform which doctor should be sought out and the reasons for this too.
Another feature is that the information on skilled practitioners are open. Conventional services keep the doctors’ assessment in a black box, not clarifying why these specific doctors are recommended. Clintal makes public its selection methods and if requested offer access to its browser site where other doctors who can treat the same disease may be located.
Upon selection it is said that the patient condition and physical distance from the hospital are considered as well. It might be possible to travel far away for surgical operations by a skilled surgeon but visiting a distant location once a week for post-op observations might not be practical.
Moreover the recommendation will be tailored in view of the need for wheelchair or family assistance among other things to enable the doctors to understand patient conditions upon selecting the skilled practitioner for recommendation.
Business establishment based upon years of doubt and parents’ illnesses
Clintal CEO Sugita has worked as an opthalmologist and after becoming a hospital physician thought of ways to improve hospitals and healthcare industry issues. Then he obtained an MBA from Duke University’s business school (North Carolina) and upon return to Japan joined the Boston Consulting Group and became a hospital management consultant.
He worked at regional hospitals to decisively improve their treatment units upon providing managerial advice to hospitals. For this, renowned doctors and skilled practitioners had to be brought in, which was only possible if there are enough patients in the field. In order to have such patients visit a specific hospital there was a need to highlight the quality of medical practice and the doctors involved. He thus places his attention on the second opinion services that were growing in the US and other markets.
Sugita continued:
While I was considering issues in the medical sector, my parents came down respectively with retinal detachment and shingles respectively, so I had to start looking for their hospitals; it was a formidable task even for a doctor. Then I realized that for ordinary patients it must be even more formidable. Soon others around me also were asking me on behalf of their relatives about finding skillful medical practitioners, and I decided Clintal would provide one of the solutions to such problems.
Early treatment by an appropriate medical practitioner will as a result not only reduce treatment time but also lower the costs involved. For patients bent on finding the right doctor, they are now even looking to work together with health and life insurance outfits on assumption that more people can make use of Clintal. Over the next year they plan to expand the skilled practitioners’ list which is centered now on the Japanese capital’s region to the nationwide level.
Translated by “Tex” Pomeroy
Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup 7th heaven&Co. officially released a new mobile app for fans of Japanese League (J. League) soccer teams called Joooy (pronounced simply ‘Joy’). The app is available for iOS for free on the iTunes App Store. Joooy’s features include news curated from over 3,000 media sources in Japan specialized for the teams you support, chat rooms where people who are fans of the same teams can communicate, and and a friend request system to connect fans to one another. Until now, team supporters typically would gather at bars or diners near the stadiums in real life while they were dispersed and disconnected from each other online because their communication channel is not centralized but rather varied, such as Facebook or popular mobile chat app Line. By constructing Joooy as a place where the opinions of Japanese soccer fans and those of actual team managers can interact, 7th heaven&Co. wants to be the de facto presence in the field. By getting involved with Japan’s soccer clubs, we can also expect there will be interaction between participating players and fans in the future. 7th heaven&Co. was co-founded by CEO Hiroki Tenjo and managing director Yoshitaka…
Tokyo-based startup 7th heaven&Co. officially released a new mobile app for fans of Japanese League (J. League) soccer teams called Joooy (pronounced simply ‘Joy’). The app is available for iOS for free on the iTunes App Store.
Joooy’s features include news curated from over 3,000 media sources in Japan specialized for the teams you support, chat rooms where people who are fans of the same teams can communicate, and and a friend request system to connect fans to one another.
Until now, team supporters typically would gather at bars or diners near the stadiums in real life while they were dispersed and disconnected from each other online because their communication channel is not centralized but rather varied, such as Facebook or popular mobile chat app Line. By constructing Joooy as a place where the opinions of Japanese soccer fans and those of actual team managers can interact, 7th heaven&Co. wants to be the de facto presence in the field. By getting involved with Japan’s soccer clubs, we can also expect there will be interaction between participating players and fans in the future.
7th heaven&Co. was co-founded by CEO Hiroki Tenjo and managing director Yoshitaka Nomoto.
Tenjo played soccer from elementary school through high school with dreams of playing professionally in Japan. After graduating from high school, he then decided he wanted to be a musician and made his debut as the frontman of a band. His band toured in China and Taiwan, even managing to draw a crowd of 40,000 in Taiwan as one of the most popular punk bands from Japan. Nomoto, who also has participated in Japan’s inter‐high school competition as a soccer player, has been a radio DJ, and has also been involved in producing TV shows and events. Most recently he has been involved in planning the establishment of Ponpare, a group-buying site by Japanese internet company Recruit.
What the two have in common is their experience as young boys engrossed in soccer, and the hope to add even more excitement to the Japanese pro soccer league.
Hiroki Tenjo explains in a press release:
Hiroki Tenjo
With the Premier League and other leagues that open at the same time as the J. League, the business scale and level of excitement that vastly exceeds the J. League is something that is often boasted about. We think that this fact isn’t derived just from the culture gap or the market potential for soccer business between the the UK, the Mecca of soccer, and Japan. We think that the cause of this is the weak relations between supporters and club teams (indirectly localized marketing). […] We’ve created a place where, based on the state of soccer in Japan, clubs and supporters can get connected and form closer bonds, and fans can openly express their feelings and thoughts about soccer. We’ve begun offering our ‘lifestyle communication app’ for fans with our future mission to build foundation of regional support through soccer.
Joooy is being offered as a free app, however they are currently considering ten or more different monetizations methods, including ad placement on each different club’s news feed. As for hardcore fans, touring from stadium to stadium in support of your team can be costly, but it’s possible that, through Joooy, something like a ‘sharing economy service’ between fans could be created.
7th heaven&Co. is aiming to have two million app downloads for Joooy within a year from now.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Yukari Mitsuhashi
