Tokyo-based Coiney, the Japanese mobile payments startup, announced today that it has completed a 800 million yen funding as the sum of investment from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), SBI Investment and Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH) as well as bank borrowing from Seibu Shinkin Bank. Financial details of the deal such as the investment ratio and the payment date have not been disclosed.
The company claims that it will use the funds to increase engineers as well as strengthen their sales and marketing team for expanding their payments solution and services: Coiney Terminal (smartphone-based payments solution for real stores), Coiney Payge (web-based payments solution for online transactions) in addition to Coiney Engine.
Coiney Engine uses artificial intelligence to offer an evaluation of business enterprises based on the accumulation of payments history and various statistical data from the Coiney Terminal and Coiney Payge services. It is used to see the credibility of a company when they apply for business loans from banks partnering with the payments startup.
See the original story in Japanese. One year ago FinTech startup hub Finolab opened in the Tokyo Bankers Association Building in Otemachi of Tokyo facing the Imperial Palace. Numerous financial institutions and FinTech startups participated in this project, which was born from a collaboration between Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Dentsu (TSE:4324), and Information Services International-Dentsu (ISID for short, TSE:4812), and helped to expand business in the FinTech field and promote open innovation. Around the same time, Heiwa Real Estate (TSE:8803), known as the owner of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building, developed FinGATE, an event space located in their own building in the Kabuto-cho Financial District. In Nihonbashi (the center of life sciences rather than FinTech) Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) opened several startup bases. Put it all together and it shows the leading real estate companies are competing to support startups in the Tokyo station area. See also: Tokyo’s FinTech startup hub FINOLAB holds its first growth hack seminar A European perspective on Japan Fintech (Rude Baguette) In the meantime, the Tokyo Bank Association Building that housed Finolab was billed for demolition in the renewal of the Marunouchi 1-chome district, with Finolab moving to the nearby Otemachi Building. Finolab officially reopened after the…
One year ago FinTech startup hub Finolab opened in the Tokyo Bankers Association Building in Otemachi of Tokyo facing the Imperial Palace. Numerous financial institutions and FinTech startups participated in this project, which was born from a collaboration between Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Dentsu (TSE:4324), and Information Services International-Dentsu (ISID for short, TSE:4812), and helped to expand business in the FinTech field and promote open innovation. Around the same time, Heiwa Real Estate (TSE:8803), known as the owner of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building, developed FinGATE, an event space located in their own building in the Kabuto-cho Financial District. In Nihonbashi (the center of life sciences rather than FinTech) Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) opened several startup bases. Put it all together and it shows the leading real estate companies are competing to support startups in the Tokyo station area.
In the meantime, the Tokyo Bank Association Building that housed Finolab was billed for demolition in the renewal of the Marunouchi 1-chome district, with Finolab moving to the nearby Otemachi Building. Finolab officially reopened after the relocation and renovation and held a renewal opening event on the first, inviting their startup members, participating financial institutions, and the media.
About 40 startups such as Crowdcast, Warrantee and Caulis are participating in Finolab and this includes those that set up offices after the move. The area is 2,145 meters squared which is nearly 2.4 times larger than their previous location, so it features not only independent office spaces for each company, but also a shared environment with an event space, a kitchen, and a lounge. As FinTech often deals in security sensitive areas, the fingerprint verification security system developed by biometrics technology startup Liquid is installed at various gates and doors throughout the space.
In addition, as a result of the relocation, Finolab renewed its membership program, and established a menu that includes project members, venture capitals, accelerators, and so on, and they are offering open API from major companies, while also launching a new business consortium comprised of various industries. As a forerunner, the Mizuho Financial Group (Mizuho FG for short, TSE:8411), one of Japan’s leading maga-bank conglomerates, plans to set up a laboratory in Finolab that will create an environment for the development of Open Bank API for startups. The headquarters of Mizuho FG is one stop from Finolab so it is a clear sign they are pursuing more aggressive activities by creating a laboratory where promising startups gather.
An event space that can accommodate more than 100 people.A panel on regional revitalization and FinTech took place on the stage.The daily event schedule is posted at the entrance.Books by members and media appearances are displayed. It appears they have partnerships with overseas accelerators such as London’s Level 39 and Seoul’s Hanwha Group’s Dream Plus.The lounge and kitchen area can be used as a party venue during event openings.Thanks to the phone booth, phone calls can remain confidential and there is no need to worry about disrupting others.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Folio is currently developing an online asset management platform under the same name leveraging theme-based stock investment models and a robo-advisor service. The company announced on Thursday that it has secured 1.8 billion yen (about $16 million) from JAFCO (TSE:8595), Monex Ventures, Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Venture Capital, and Rakuten Fintech Fund, in addition to its current investors DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus. The investment ratio and the payment date are undisclosed, and this funding is subsequent to its seed round raising 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) conducted last March. The money secured will be spent for marketing and securing human resources related to development of the product which is planned for launch this spring. The entire image of the brand-new online securities company has been gradually become clarified after the preparation in a stealth mode since last year. Founded in December 2015 by Shinichiro Kai who was formerly working at Goldman Sachs as a trader, the FinTech startup is aiming to make asset management more accessible without requiring advanced financial literacy to leverage the power of technology. There are two pillars to Folio’ services: theme-based stock investment models and a robo-advisor-enabled…
Folio CEO Shinichiro Kai Image credit: Takeshi Hirano
Tokyo-based startup Folio is currently developing an online asset management platform under the same name leveraging theme-based stock investment models and a robo-advisor service. The company announced on Thursday that it has secured 1.8 billion yen (about $16 million) from JAFCO (TSE:8595), Monex Ventures, Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Venture Capital, and Rakuten Fintech Fund, in addition to its current investors DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus. The investment ratio and the payment date are undisclosed, and this funding is subsequent to its seed round raising 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) conducted last March. The money secured will be spent for marketing and securing human resources related to development of the product which is planned for launch this spring.
The entire image of the brand-new online securities company has been gradually become clarified after the preparation in a stealth mode since last year.
Founded in December 2015 by Shinichiro Kai who was formerly working at Goldman Sachs as a trader, the FinTech startup is aiming to make asset management more accessible without requiring advanced financial literacy to leverage the power of technology. There are two pillars to Folio’ services: theme-based stock investment models and a robo-advisor-enabled asset management platform. Each service requires both a type I financial instruments and an investment management business licenses issued by Japan’s Financial Services Agency.
Kai explains that the applications of registration have been currently accepted and if the registration is successfully completed, the firm commences its business operation as an online securities company this spring. According to The Nikkei, Folio is an online securities company dealing domestic stocks to be established after a ten-year blank since the authorization of security business shifted to a system based on registration under Financial Instruments and Exchange Acts, appearing to be a matter fraught with great emotion.
Console of the Folio platform under development
I actually tried the platform under development and the impression was, in short, so simple. Users can invest only by choosing a favorite theme out from among a plurality of ones and adding it into the cart. Users with advanced skills are allowed to change the purchasing ratio of each stock.
Although the concept of a theme-based stock investment itself is not particularly new, I found that this platform selected major promising stocks using its own algorithm based on each company’s data including corporate performance and presented to me quickly, even for topics which are easily influenced by current situations such as “automatic driving” or “Tokyo Olympics.”
As Kai said “60% by algorithm and 40% by human”, the platform will be tuned by human in the end but gave me a modern impression having a system capable of creating large number of themes from transitory trends. In addition, the participating-type method to invite public participation in themes may cause a novel outlook as well.
By the way, users can invest 100,000 yen (about $880) at least into each theme.
While the theme-based stock investment allows users who enjoy investment in matching with their own interest, the robot-advisor function offers fully entrusted asset management. It provides management at a professional investor level where high-return can be expected with lower-risk than investment to individual stocks. Folio features a balance of a theme-based stock investment and a robo-advisor-based management, as well as user interface to visualize the two.
Kai talked about the view of his company:
It is important to make investment methods easier off course, but I think people cannot increase their knowledge or senses about the finance without a kind of passion. We aim a securities company allowing users to obtain financial literacy while enjoying investment rather than just a full automation.
Although the firm’s vision of offering asset management while enjoying is clear, an investment is just an investment and involves the risk of principal loss, as a matter of course. In some cases, situations like increased impulse to gamble may occur depending on the theme configuration. Kai regards this point to be quite serious an issue and emphasizes the establishment of internal compliance rules.
It looks like FinTech-related matters are so interesting this year. Can it flush the money out from under the mattress — the so-called “bedrock of Japanese economy” — with the power of technologies? For the moment, best wishes for a smooth start to their operation.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy, Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lifestyle Design, running the LaFabric online store focused on made-to-measure shirts and custom business suits, based on pre-obtained user measurements stored on the cloud, announced last week that it has completed a 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding as the sum of investment and bank borrowings from its current investors: Nissay Capital, IMJ Investment Partners Japan, Chibagin Capital, Future Venture Capital (TSE:8462) and individual investors. The individual investors include Kotaro Chiba, who is founder of Colopl and currently an angel investor, and Shingo Iwata, who is CEO of Gifu-based manufacturer Mitsu-boshi Textile Group. The money secured this time will be used for enhancement of the firm’s organization, expansion of the customized-apparel business and development of a production platform. A newcomer utilizing online takes the next step. To fathom what LaFabric is aiming for, it may be helpful to understand the keyword D2C (Direct to Consumer). It is a kind of direct sales style, but seeks a business model different from just optimization with disintermediation by owning highly-detailed personal data including physical information and preferences. Other than LaFabric, Japan’s apparel brand Factelier or online glasses marketplace Oh My Glasses are known as domestic…
Tokyo-based Lifestyle Design, running the LaFabric online store focused on made-to-measure shirts and custom business suits, based on pre-obtained user measurements stored on the cloud, announced last week that it has completed a 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding as the sum of investment and bank borrowings from its current investors: Nissay Capital, IMJ Investment Partners Japan, Chibagin Capital, Future Venture Capital (TSE:8462) and individual investors.
The individual investors include Kotaro Chiba, who is founder of Colopl and currently an angel investor, and Shingo Iwata, who is CEO of Gifu-based manufacturer Mitsu-boshi Textile Group. The money secured this time will be used for enhancement of the firm’s organization, expansion of the customized-apparel business and development of a production platform.
A newcomer utilizing online takes the next step.
To fathom what LaFabric is aiming for, it may be helpful to understand the keyword D2C (Direct to Consumer). It is a kind of direct sales style, but seeks a business model different from just optimization with disintermediation by owning highly-detailed personal data including physical information and preferences. Other than LaFabric, Japan’s apparel brand Factelier or online glasses marketplace Oh My Glasses are known as domestic players in this field.
As social media has developed, the stage finally seems set for emerging players like them. Lifestyle Design aims to keep abreast with this trend. According to CEO Yuichiro Mori, the number of repeat customers are steadily increasing as three years have passed since the service launch.
He said:
90% of users who had purchased tailored clothing at stores purchased our products repeatedly online. Shirts had been much popular before, but recently the sales weight is shifting to suits and the sales amounts of the two have become reversed. The average price of suits are about 40,000 yen (about $350).
When the service was started, “the first measurement problem” was concerned; I also doubted if the service will become common due to the extraordinarily high hurdle for the first measurement. However, this problem was slightly solved through sales promotion at real retailers or pop-up stores. There was no easy way but steady business activities have eventually worked effectively.
In addition, sales promotion as a strong brand is required for D2C business as a matter of course. Although once the firm had regarded customer trends as one category of a periodically purchasing, the quality of the products is rarely ignored just because it is easy to order having pre-measured data in such an expensive apparel business. Mori has a strong preference as to this point.
He continued:
We do not only stock products directly from sewing factories, but also undertake joint development of clothing materials. For example, see washable suits of THE TECH series. We aimed at what you put into washing machines and can wear on the next day. THE SOCIAL series dyed with natural blueberry are popular among IT people due to its denim-like feel.
Besides this, THE ROOTS series, using a fabric manufactured at factories in Gifu Prefecture, are produced by a streamline method from filature to dyeing, making the clothing have a story as an addition value. Mori says that “experience” like the story will be an important point required for D2C in the future, in addition to production areas, factories and the accumulation of all sorts of user data. By the way, Lifestyle Design have been partnered with more than 100 filature / garment factories.
Mori said that the firm will develop a platform based on the ecosystem which it has gradually constructed.
He added:
After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, more and more people discovered or re-acknowledged the merit of the Japanese manufacturing. I also found a lot of great products all over Japan while going the rounds of factories or production areas. However, the manufactures have been losing the power to spread their products. Indeed the first measurement of our service may be troublesome, but once you registered, we can improve the convenience or the excellence in experiences from the next time. Three or five years later, I expect that most people become to transfer their physical data to online.
Once a factory receives the clothing data ordered by a user with smartphones, a product tailored in the unique partner factory will be delivered. Mori notes that craftsmanship is still necessary upon cutting or detailed works. This topic showed us that the backside of an emerging brand is established by a combination of human and technologies.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Correction: In the first paragraph, there was an error in the number of digits of the funding amount in the original currency. (Updated on February 2nd at 2pm JST) Tokyo-based Xtreme Design, the Japanese startup cloud-based virtual supercomputing on-demand service called Xtreme DNA, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 70 million yen (about $620,000) in its pre-series A round. This round is led by Freebit Investment and includes individual investors, namely Kotaro Chiba (former Vice President of Japanese mobile game developer Colopl) and Yasumasa Manabe (CEO of Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway). This funding is subsequent to the one of 30 million yen (about $260,000) conducted last January and March from its founders and angel investors. Xtreme Design started in February of 2015. On November of the following year, it demonstrated Xtreme DNA at the global supercomputer conference SuperComputing 2016, providing an unmanned service of operations monitoring / dynamic change of the configuration for effective system utilization of supercomputers by deploying virtual supercomputers on the cloud. According to CEO Naoki Shibata, functions of Xtreme DNA have been attracting a lot of attention as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) from enterprise users, showing “so good sales.”…
Correction: In the first paragraph, there was an error in the number of digits of the funding amount in the original currency. (Updated on February 2nd at 2pm JST)
Tokyo-based Xtreme Design, the Japanese startup cloud-based virtual supercomputing on-demand service called Xtreme DNA, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 70 million yen (about $620,000) in its pre-series A round. This round is led by Freebit Investment and includes individual investors, namely Kotaro Chiba (former Vice President of Japanese mobile game developer Colopl) and Yasumasa Manabe (CEO of Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway). This funding is subsequent to the one of 30 million yen (about $260,000) conducted last January and March from its founders and angel investors.
Xtreme Design started in February of 2015. On November of the following year, it demonstrated Xtreme DNA at the global supercomputer conference SuperComputing 2016, providing an unmanned service of operations monitoring / dynamic change of the configuration for effective system utilization of supercomputers by deploying virtual supercomputers on the cloud.
Te Xtreme Design team at SuperComputing 2016. Image credit: Xtreme Design
According to CEO Naoki Shibata, functions of Xtreme DNA have been attracting a lot of attention as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) from enterprise users, showing “so good sales.” It is available for Microsoft Azure supporting InfiniBand (a high-speed bus architecture between servers and clusters), and is also used on AWS (Amazon Web Service) by purchasing spot instances in some cases due to costs and convenience (on AWS, it is implemented in an environment interconnected via 10Gbps Ethernet on behalf of InfiniBand).
The firm has a neutral standpoint on cloud sevices which XTREME DNA supports. The know-how to yield the best performance on the cloud shows the true worth of Shibata and his team who had been involved in development and operation of supercomputers for many years.
CEO Naoki Shibata appeared at a pitch competition held at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016 in September of 2016. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Although Xtreme Design has been focused on back-end technologies, it appears to be switching gears for the next stage, as can be called “Xtreme DNA 2.0.” Shibata explains the attempt to supplement the visualization with well-designed UI/UX (user interface / user experience) to Xtreme DNA.
Shibata said:
We plan to develop our service to be used not only in genome or simulation analysis but also in various fields such as IoT (Internet of Things), image analysis or stock price prediction in FinTech. The purpose of UI/UX implementation is to make it easier to be used by a wide range of users.
Although a few startups exist in the US seemingly providing competitive services, Shibata expects that Xtreme Design can win out if a good product with UI/UX can be offered. With a view of dominating the global market, the brand-new Xtreme DNA is scheduled to be exhibited at the SXSW Trade Show which will be held in Austin, Texas from March 10th.
Regarding the funding this time, we can easily imagine a business synergy between Xtreme Design and Freebit (TSE:3843), which is the parent company of lead investor Freebit Investment providing IaaS as its business. The participation of Chiba and Manabe was due to both wishing to be involved in its business development. Since Chiba had invested in startups dealing with Big Data, the synergy in this field can be expected as well.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy, Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based FinTech startup Credit Engine announced on Monday that it raised 110 million yen (about $970,000 US) in total in a seed round. The company had raised 50 million yen (around $440,000 US) from Draper Nexus Ventures and Voyage Group (TSE:3688) in September of 2016, and as a result of the Financial Services Agency issuing them a business license for lending money necessary for their business development, this time around they procured 60 million yen (about $530,000 US) from 500 Startups and 500 Startups Japan as well as Freebit Investment, the investment arm of Japanese leading Internet service provider Freebit (TSE:3843). While the fundraising occurred on two separate occasions, in both cases the terms for funding (valuation, etc.) meet that of a seed round. In addition to this, the company announced the beta launch on the 30th for their online loan service Lendy. Credit Engine was established in July of 2016 by CEO Seiichiro Uchiyama (See above photo, the person on the right sitting in a chair) and CFO Tatsuki Inoue (Above photo, first person on the left). After a stint at Shinsei Bank, Uchiyama worked with an NPO offering financing support for small…
The Credit Engine team with investors Image credit: Credit Engine
Tokyo-based FinTech startup Credit Engine announced on Monday that it raised 110 million yen (about $970,000 US) in total in a seed round. The company had raised 50 million yen (around $440,000 US) from Draper Nexus Ventures and Voyage Group (TSE:3688) in September of 2016, and as a result of the Financial Services Agency issuing them a business license for lending money necessary for their business development, this time around they procured 60 million yen (about $530,000 US) from 500 Startups and 500 Startups Japan as well as Freebit Investment, the investment arm of Japanese leading Internet service provider Freebit (TSE:3843). While the fundraising occurred on two separate occasions, in both cases the terms for funding (valuation, etc.) meet that of a seed round. In addition to this, the company announced the beta launch on the 30th for their online loan service Lendy.
Credit Engine was established in July of 2016 by CEO Seiichiro Uchiyama (See above photo, the person on the right sitting in a chair) and CFO Tatsuki Inoue (Above photo, first person on the left). After a stint at Shinsei Bank, Uchiyama worked with an NPO offering financing support for small and mid-sized businesses in Sendai after the Tohoku earthquake, and then went on to get his MBA from UCLA. Until last year he was a manager in the Business Promotion Department at Japanese FinTech startup Money Forward. Inoue hails from Accenture, and has worked with Tokyo-based business incubation company Netage (now known as startup-focused VC firm United), among others. He also has experience starting his own mobile CRM service, leading to Yahoo Japan’s president office followed by managing a buyout fund, which had a hand in the formation of Credit Engine.
This makes it a so-called “neo-bank” in the field of financial inclusion, in the US Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) provides loans to manufacturers, and in Indonesia there is a service in which Taralite cooperates with Uber’s API to offer loans to drivers dependent upon their earnings.
Lendy hopes to provide an environment where small and medium companies and individual business owners can borrow money in the event that funds are needed quickly so that they can concentrate on business management rather than cash flow. Currently, the service mainly covers restaurants, barber shops, hair salons, online shop operators, and the planned average loan amount per customer is 1.5 million yen (about $13,000 US) (maximum 10 million yen ≒ about $88,000 US). The average loan period is 3 months (maximum 1 year) and the interest rate is expected to be about 10-14% (the amount of the loan is specified at the beginning of service). As it is not so-called peer-to-peer lending, it appears Credit Engine obtains the funds necessary for lending from ordinary financial institutions, etc.
Even at FinTech events in Japan we have begun hearing of new financial inclusion services using artificial intelligence. Keep an eye out on The Bridge for more in the future.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
