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Japan’s Awakens gets seed funding to allow users to manage entire genome in the cloud

Awakens

Masaru Ikeda 2017.08.22

See the original story in Japanese.

Silicon Valley-based Awakens, the startup run by Japanese founders developing services and research platforms leveraging full genome data, announced today that it has secured a seed funding round. This round was led by 500 Startups Japan with participation from M3 (TSE:2413), Japanese Organization for Medical Device Development, in addition to several angel investors focused on life science-centric businesses.

M3 runs Japan’s largest portal site for healthcare professionals. Angel investors participating in this round include Tomihisa Kamada (inventor of the Japanese feature phone web browser ‘i-mode‘), Tsunegoro Nishino (CEO of healthcare service company MRSO), and Hiroaki Kitano (CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories).

The amount of the funding has not been not disclosed. Awakens will use the funds to accelerate the development of Genome Link, the company’s software for developing integrated services on genome, with aiming to partner with more companies in Japan and the rest of the world.

The Awakens management team: L to R – CTO Kensuke Numakura, CEO Tomohiro Takano, COO Yuta Matsuda

Awakens was established in January of 2017 by three prominent scientists: CEO Tomohiro Takano who previously launched a genome-based personal medicare business called G-TAC at his previous company M3, COO Yuta Matsuda who was involved in launching the MyCode genome business at Japanese Internet giant DeNA (TSE:2432), and CTO Kensuke Numakura who is familiar with Genome Infomatics and previously worked at P5, a joint venture of Sony and M3.

Based out of genome startup-focused Illumina Accelerator in San Francisco, the team is dedicated to developing the Genomic Explorer genome data management platform for individuals as well as the Genome Link API (application programming interface) for genome service developers.

Compared to Japan, the US in fact has a larger market yet in the genome and related preventive medicine industry. Bidding on investment and business opportunities in this space, the Awakens team is devoting ttself to business and technology developments at an incubation office in Mission Bay, San Francisco. With the funds, it seems that the team is hiring several people who can work in San Francisco or remotely. For details about their recent activities and hiring positions, check out their recent blog posts on Medium.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Startups spring into action to secure apex access

KDDI

The Bridge 2017.08.19

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. It was in 2015 that the city of Gotemba led by young Mayor Yohei Wakabayashi availed climbers scaling Mt. Fuji from the Shizuoka side with sturdy lavatory structures able to double as emergency shelters in the event of natural disasters (now, the sheds could be equipped with alarm-sensors to turn them into better sanctuaries…). But since April this year there has been a major push in Gotemba to harness technology emanating from a Japanese startup ー albeit via major telecommunications carrier KDDI, which has just announced the buyout of said startup. Soracom, established in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services (AWS) evangelist Ken Tamagawa, has been offering Internet of Things (IoT) service over circuits leased from the giant NTT group ー formerly the Japanese phone monopoly. The startup last year decided to help KDDI, which has a mobile telephony service called au, build its own IoT network. It is upon this technology that Mt. Fuji entryway Gotemba decided to collaborate in realizing a system to keep track of climbers using the pathway leading up to the mountaintop. Beginning on August…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.

It was in 2015 that the city of Gotemba led by young Mayor Yohei Wakabayashi availed climbers scaling Mt. Fuji from the Shizuoka side with sturdy lavatory structures able to double as emergency shelters in the event of natural disasters (now, the sheds could be equipped with alarm-sensors to turn them into better sanctuaries…). But since April this year there has been a major push in Gotemba to harness technology emanating from a Japanese startup ー albeit via major telecommunications carrier KDDI, which has just announced the buyout of said startup.

Soracom, established in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services (AWS) evangelist Ken Tamagawa, has been offering Internet of Things (IoT) service over circuits leased from the giant NTT group ー formerly the Japanese phone monopoly. The startup last year decided to help KDDI, which has a mobile telephony service called au, build its own IoT network. It is upon this technology that Mt. Fuji entryway Gotemba decided to collaborate in realizing a system to keep track of climbers using the pathway leading up to the mountaintop.

Beginning on August 10, 2017 (a day before the newly-instituted Japanese Mountain Day holiday) an IoT-based tracking experiment is being conducted. IoT sensors have been placed along the hiking route, enabling a more accurate count by the municipal authorities as to those trekking up the Mt. Fuji pathway… search & rescue helicopters in particular being faced with hazards when flying near Japan’s highest mountain.

With technical support from KDDI’s research institute, a Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network being run on the KDDI LoRa PoC Kit ー underpinned by Soracom tech prowess utilized to develop said kitー will be tried out until the end of this mountain-climbing season.

It is said KDDI had been eyeing a sizable corporate buyout within the information-communication sector after being beat to the punch by SoftBank in the attempt to acquire mobile carrier eAccess some years ago. Interestingly, KDDI until recently has been working with another startup Colopl, which is strong in games but in past few years have pushed drone use, aiming to utilize IoT and VR/AR for promotion of rural communities in Japan. Furthermore, KDDI has been working with another startup, Fukuoka-based SkyDisc, regarding tropical fruit cultivation as well. It remains to be seen how startups will handle their relations with KDDI.

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Japanese blockchain startup Nayuta raises $1.3M round for “Lightning Network for IoT”

Jafco
Nayuta

Masaru Ikeda 2017.08.18

See the original story in Japanese. Based in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka, Nayuta has been offering new technologies that combine IoT (Internet of Things) and blockchain. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 140 million yen (about $1.3 million) in a seed round from Tokyo-based VC firm Jafco (TSE:8595) and a single unnamed individual investor. For the Fukuoka company which had been running on bootstrap mode relying on its two founders’ resources, this is the first financial injection from investors. Using the funds, the company will be focused on developing “the 2nd layer technologies” and related applications. Named from the Sanskrit word meaning novemdecillion, Nayuta was founded back in March of 2015 by its CEO Kenichi Kurimoto who had been working on development of SoC (System on Chip) and research of software algorithm for LSI (large scale integration) circuits. The company has been dedicated to developing blockchain technologies (especially around public blockchain) for actual use in the real world. Blockchain is under the spotlight as a scheme for developing decentralized platforms. The concept is surely good but it still has various problems to solve for actual use, such as requiring users to wait 10 minutes on…

Nayuta’s founder and CEO Kenichi Kurimoto
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Based in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka, Nayuta has been offering new technologies that combine IoT (Internet of Things) and blockchain. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 140 million yen (about $1.3 million) in a seed round from Tokyo-based VC firm Jafco (TSE:8595) and a single unnamed individual investor. For the Fukuoka company which had been running on bootstrap mode relying on its two founders’ resources, this is the first financial injection from investors. Using the funds, the company will be focused on developing “the 2nd layer technologies” and related applications.

Named from the Sanskrit word meaning novemdecillion, Nayuta was founded back in March of 2015 by its CEO Kenichi Kurimoto who had been working on development of SoC (System on Chip) and research of software algorithm for LSI (large scale integration) circuits. The company has been dedicated to developing blockchain technologies (especially around public blockchain) for actual use in the real world.

Blockchain is under the spotlight as a scheme for developing decentralized platforms. The concept is surely good but it still has various problems to solve for actual use, such as requiring users to wait 10 minutes on average to confirm a transaction, needing to lower the dealing cost to enable micropayments and the maximum capacity of seven transactions per second, among others. Until these problems are solved, blockchain is unlikely to support massive IoT and social infrastructures.

As one of the solutions, US-based Blockstream and other brockchain startups have succeeded in enabling rapidly-processable end-to-end micropayments services by developing Lightning Network technologies. Leveraging Kurimoto’s background, Nayuta specializes in developing the 2nd Layer technologies for IoT products along with the Lightning Network concept, planning to develop the necessary utility tools for every app in partnership with user companies. The company has unveiled that it is in potential partnership talks with a certain leading company, but Kurimoto says they will leverage the funds and focus more on acquiring additional partners and engineers.

While Nayuta had been operating based out of co-working spaces like Tenjin Color in Fukuoka as well as Finolab in Tokyo, the company will soon set up an independent office space so that their current and future employees can work more comfortably and conveniently. However, the company says it is flexible about where its engineers will work and where to hire developers.

Nayuta recently won the runner-up at the MUFG Digital Accelerator 2nd Batch Demo Day.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Nayuta won the runner-up at the MUFG Digital Accelerator 2nd Batch Demo Day.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

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Sekai Lab secures $6.4M in 4th round led by Yahoo Japan’s VC to boost global expansion

Masaru Ikeda 2017.08.18

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Monstar Lab, the company providing crowdsourced offshore app development service Sekai Lab, announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 700 million yen (about $6.4 million US) in the fourth round. This round was led by YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689), with participatin from VC firms including Shinsei Corporate Investment and Fenox Venture Capital, in addition to Shimane-based local businesses like San-in Chuo TV Broadcasting and Tanabe. This round follows their previous $2.5 million funding from Shimane-based Gogin capital and others back in November of 2016, $3.3 million funding from Pasonatech and DG Incubation back in November of 2015, and about $1 million funding from East Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital back in 2014. With the latest funding, the company has raised at least a total of 1.45 billion yen (about $13.2 million) from investors to date. Similar to the reason why Gogin Capital participated in the previous round, getting companies like San-in Chuo TV Broadcasting and Tanabe as a shareholder may have something to do with the fact that Monstar Lab has a development location in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. While offering existing offshore app development services…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Monstar Lab, the company providing crowdsourced offshore app development service Sekai Lab, announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 700 million yen (about $6.4 million US) in the fourth round. This round was led by YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689), with participatin from VC firms including Shinsei Corporate Investment and Fenox Venture Capital, in addition to Shimane-based local businesses like San-in Chuo TV Broadcasting and Tanabe.

This round follows their previous $2.5 million funding from Shimane-based Gogin capital and others back in November of 2016, $3.3 million funding from Pasonatech and DG Incubation back in November of 2015, and about $1 million funding from East Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital back in 2014. With the latest funding, the company has raised at least a total of 1.45 billion yen (about $13.2 million) from investors to date.

Similar to the reason why Gogin Capital participated in the previous round, getting companies like San-in Chuo TV Broadcasting and Tanabe as a shareholder may have something to do with the fact that Monstar Lab has a development location in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. While offering existing offshore app development services as well, the company plans to invite more engineers from overseas to these locations within Japan, looking to help improve the situation in and around Shimane where companies still struggle with lack of system engineers.

With the recent acquisition of Danish app agency Nodes, the Tokyo company now has 17 locations worldwide for sales and app development efforts. With the latest funding, the company says it will aim to help Japanese companies expand into the Europe and US markets (localization and digital marketing), curate cutting-edge technologies and products from the global market, as well as expecting to receive more orders of outsourced app development work in the Europe and US markets.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Taiwan’s GliaCloud, AI video creation startup, gets $500K seed funding for Asia expansion

Masaru Ikeda 2017.08.15

See the original story in Japanese. Taiwan-based AI startup GliaCloud told The Bridge today that it has secured $500,000 in a seed round. This round was led by Infinity Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from unnamed several angel investors. GliaCloud has been developing a AI-powered video creation and editing platform called GliaStudio. By understanding a topic that a user presents in form of sentences, the platform can automatically curate and edit images, video clips and infographics, also adding auto-generated subtitles or synthesized narration to them. The company’s signature technologies enabling these functions include content management, natural language processing, computer vision and video search. The company has partnered with 10 media companies in the Greater China region, keeps generating more than 1,000 video clips each day. Partnering companies include Toutiao, the Chinese news curating app which recently fundraised $2 billion, in addition to Taiwanese leading tech news media BusinessNext. GliaStudio supports English, Chinese and Japanese languages, aiming to primarily target e-commerce platforms and merchants as well as media companies in Greater China and Japan. With this funding having Japan-based IVP participate in as an investor, further massive expansion into the Japanese market can be probably expected. Especially for distributed media leveraging…

See the original story in Japanese.

Taiwan-based AI startup GliaCloud told The Bridge today that it has secured $500,000 in a seed round. This round was led by Infinity Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from unnamed several angel investors.

GliaCloud has been developing a AI-powered video creation and editing platform called GliaStudio. By understanding a topic that a user presents in form of sentences, the platform can automatically curate and edit images, video clips and infographics, also adding auto-generated subtitles or synthesized narration to them. The company’s signature technologies enabling these functions include content management, natural language processing, computer vision and video search.

The company has partnered with 10 media companies in the Greater China region, keeps generating more than 1,000 video clips each day. Partnering companies include Toutiao, the Chinese news curating app which recently fundraised $2 billion, in addition to Taiwanese leading tech news media BusinessNext.

GliaStudio supports English, Chinese and Japanese languages, aiming to primarily target e-commerce platforms and merchants as well as media companies in Greater China and Japan. With this funding having Japan-based IVP participate in as an investor, further massive expansion into the Japanese market can be probably expected. Especially for distributed media leveraging a bunch of video clips to attract viewers, the platform allows media companies to create and upload their clips to social media platforms autonomously.

GliaCloud was founded in July of 2015 by Taiwanese Canadian entrepreneur David Chen, who is strong in engineering cloud technologies and previously founded Taipei-based AdTech startup Tagtoo. The company won the Aliyun Award at the Tech in Asia Singapore startup competition back in 2016.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Phil Libin sets up AI startup studio in SF, adding bases in Tokyo and Paris next spring

All Turtles

Masaru Ikeda 2017.08.14

See the original story in Japanese. Phil Libin, the Russian-born tech entrepreneur raised in the US, left Evernote which he nurtured into one of the most successful startups to commence his career in startup investment and entrepreneur support last year. He recently founded a AI startup studio called All Turtles this year. At the debut event of All Turtles held in Tokyo in late July, Libin stated the reason for the establishment of All Turtles: I think the innovation model centered upon Silicon Valley is not enough. The ideas that can raise billions of dollars are only required there, and creators are needed to be CEO in addition to creating ideas and products. A person with writing ability is never required to found a publisher, or a person who loves music is never required to found a music label, and yet a creator is required to possess so many abilities beside making an excellent product and popularizing it in the world of startups. Most of startups’ failure can be due to work outside of making the product such as management or fundraising. The AI startups studio which supports and allows startups to concentrate on their products leading to success –…

See the original story in Japanese.

Phil Libin, the Russian-born tech entrepreneur raised in the US, left Evernote which he nurtured into one of the most successful startups to commence his career in startup investment and entrepreneur support last year. He recently founded a AI startup studio called All Turtles this year.

At the debut event of All Turtles held in Tokyo in late July, Libin stated the reason for the establishment of All Turtles:

I think the innovation model centered upon Silicon Valley is not enough. The ideas that can raise billions of dollars are only required there, and creators are needed to be CEO in addition to creating ideas and products. A person with writing ability is never required to found a publisher, or a person who loves music is never required to found a music label, and yet a creator is required to possess so many abilities beside making an excellent product and popularizing it in the world of startups.

Most of startups’ failure can be due to work outside of making the product such as management or fundraising. The AI startups studio which supports and allows startups to concentrate on their products leading to success – is All Turtles.

Eight projects shown below have already joined All Turtles which got started in San Francisco.

Growbot……chatbot for improvement of employees’ incentive
Replika……personal AI friend, learns through text conversations
LEADE.RS……conference / event organization platform
Edwin……chatbot for online English learning
DoNotPay……online lawyer bot
OCTANE AI……bot creation platform
butter.ai……company knowledge sharing bot
sunflower labs……drone-based home security

In addition to the eight projects above, two stealth projects have been ongoing in San Francisco. LEADE.RS is a pivot of the new startup conference organized by Loic Le Meur who had formerly managed Le Web.

Regarding the Tokyo base, All Turtles is going to open its office this fall, and start accepting applications for the first batch which will start with five teams from April 1st of 2018. Japan’s Digital Garage (TSE:4819) having much experience in incubation support through Open Network Lab will support its operation. All Turtles will also start operations at the Paris base in the same program timeline with the Tokyo base.

Phil Libin shows a mug repaired by the Kintsugi technique.

All Turtle has fundraised more than $20 million in total, and the investors include Xavier Niel who recently completed the world’s biggest startup campus Station-F, Boston-based VC firm General Catalyst which Phil Libin serves as a Senior Advisor, Hiroshi Mikitani who is CEO of Japan’s Rakuten (TSE:4755) and Digital Garage. Since the full announcement of its operation is planned at a later date, the number of investors or supporters is expected to increase further.

In this event, Libin mentioned the chance to create new value from failure referring to “Kintsugi”… the Japanese art of restoring broken pottery… and said there are so many concepts applicable to startup policy in Japanese culture.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Awakens gets seed funding to allow users to manage entire genome in the cloud

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