Tokyo-based Preferred Networks (PFN), the Japanese startup offering deep learning technologies for Internet of Things (IoT), announced today that it would receive an additional 10.5 billion yen (about $95.4 million)investment from Toyota Motor (TSE:7203). The cash injection will make Toyota an eternal largest shareholder for PFN. Based on this, both companies will further work on the joint development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in autonomous driving and other mobility business fields.
Since its launch back in March of 2014, PFN has been proposing Edge Heavy Computing, the distributed data processing scheme dealing with an enormous volume of data from various IoT devices, aiming to let devices interact each others so that each device can autonomously make a higher level decision making. The company has been focused on serving transportation, manufacturing and bio healthcare industries by partnering with Toyota, Fanac, National Cancer Center and other institutions.
This funding from Toyota follows the previous one receiving 1 billion yen in December of 2015 after both companies started joint research back in October of 2014.
According to the press release from PFN, the investment was led by Toyata’s understanding that object-recognition technology and analysis technology of vehicle information, both of which have been co-developed by the two, is something essential for the motor company looking into the next-gen mobility society. PFN will use the funds to enhance computational environment and accelerate talent acquisition.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. The Fintech Accelerator program run by Startupbootcamp, based in Singapore and lasting three months long, held its first ever Demo Tour in Asia. Commencing with its home base in Singapore on July 5th, the 10-day “Odyssey” of 11 participants from seven countries entailed visits to Chengdu and Hong Kong in China before winding up on July 14th in Tokyo, Japan (albeit on the final day only eight startups gave pitches, three firms of AIM from Korea, Fugle from Taiwan and Smartfolios from Russia being absent). In Tokyo, the Demo Tour was hosted by Finolab, with support from local partners. Startupbootcamp is the accelerator arm of venturebuilder/design studio/consultancy Rainmaking, which has 11 offices on three continents. In Asia they seek to promote entrepreneurial problem solving within corporate teams across multiple industries. The Tokyo visit was opened by a Startupbootcamp Asia representative who outlined the endeavor and paved the way for the startups that had made it to Japan, with the day being ended by the Startupbootcamp FinTech Program Director summing up the tour. See also: Startupbootcamp FinTech Singapore demo day showcases…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Steven Tong, Managing Director of Startupbootcamp FinTech
The Fintech Accelerator program run by Startupbootcamp, based in Singapore and lasting three months long, held its first ever Demo Tour in Asia. Commencing with its home base in Singapore on July 5th, the 10-day “Odyssey” of 11 participants from seven countries entailed visits to Chengdu and Hong Kong in China before winding up on July 14th in Tokyo, Japan (albeit on the final day only eight startups gave pitches, three firms of AIM from Korea, Fugle from Taiwan and Smartfolios from Russia being absent). In Tokyo, the Demo Tour was hosted by Finolab, with support from local partners.
Startupbootcamp is the accelerator arm of venturebuilder/design studio/consultancy Rainmaking, which has 11 offices on three continents. In Asia they seek to promote entrepreneurial problem solving within corporate teams across multiple industries. The Tokyo visit was opened by a Startupbootcamp Asia representative who outlined the endeavor and paved the way for the startups that had made it to Japan, with the day being ended by the Startupbootcamp FinTech Program Director summing up the tour.
An overview of the pitches by the eight are as follows:
CherryPay (Singapore)
Singapore’s CherryPay presented their international Peer-to-Peer money transfer matching platform, which has the backing of Amazon Web Services as well as Cisco Systems. Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wu said her company provides reasonable rates and affordable service fees in addition to quick receipt of funds via local bank accounts through leveraging of its transborder network.
Smallticket (Korea)
Another businesswoman, who stood out in an attention-grabbing garb emblazoned with her company logo, was Julie Kim Jung Eun, Founder and the top officer at Smallticket of Korea. This online social insurance broker outfit, which minimizes risks using Peer-to-Peer rewarding platform, underscored the merits for micro-segment groups that utilize their system.
Vesl (the Philippines)
An all-Filipina management team as represented by the lady in charge of product development spoke on behalf of Vesl. It was noted that trade credit insurance at bite size was being availed to SMEs and others such as farmers cooperatives hitherto ineligible to gain access to cheaper financing. The startup from the Philippines now has an agreement with a global insurance broker.
Morakot (Cambodia)
Speaking of the Philippines, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Sophorth Khuon, of Cambodia’s Morakot offering microfinance, unveiled his company’s expansion plan into the island nation in 2018, following this year’s entry into Myanmar. He highlighted the problems faced by emerging markets, which his startup seeks to address with a business model based on core banking.
Scalend (India)
Regarding solutions for difficult challenges as exemplified with dealing with Big Data, Scalend showcased its AI-backed data and insights discovery platform for financial services companies. Ravi Madhira, who is one of the two co-founders, talked about how he and his business partner had over forty years of collective experience in building internet scale systems.
Jumper.ai (India)
As for AI, Jumper.ai co-founder Yash Kotak of jumper.ai outlined their social media-use e-commerce enabler which realizes Instant Checkout among other things. The auto-engage sales based on jumper tech can be used on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, with planned adoption on other social media like Line in the near future.
Tixguru (Singapore)
Another Artificial Intelligence user, Singapore-based startup Tixguru, focuses on quantitative trading recommendations for financial institutions. Its robot advisor, according to Chief Operating Officer James Ong, is grounded in a decade-long experience in this business sector.
Smart Trade (Japan / China)
Smart Trade, with a base in both Japan and China, is also involved in “quant trading” although in this startup platform’s case the target market comprises individual investors. CEO@Japan and co-founder Tomoyuki Uchida highlighted their Algorithm Store and Algorithm Factory lines. The company CMO and co-founder Guangzhen Li is also known for being active in this arena.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Xenoma, developing a smart apparel product called E-skin, recently announced that it would start sales targeting individual users. E-skin has been sold for $1,000 targeting enterprise users in healthcare or sports training industries thus far, but the firm has established a mass production structure that makes it possible to provide the product at a lower price for individual users. The firm just kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter today and the product is priced at $479 for the first 100 orders. See also: 77: The Real Reason Japan Can’t Innovate & What to Do About It – Xenoma (Disrupting Japan) Xenoma was spun out from Someya Group of the University of Tokyo / JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) ERATO Someya Bio-harmonized Electronics Project in 2015. In April of 2016, the firm fundraised 180 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Beyond Next Ventures and JST SUCCESS Program, and was chosen as an STS (Seed-stage Technology-based Startups) Support Program of NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). E-skin consists of a compression-fit E-skin shirt with 14 stretch/strain sensors and a controller named E-skin Hub which is attachable to the shirt. These sensors…
Xenoma CEO Ichiro Amimori speaks at the press conference. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Japan’s Xenoma, developing a smart apparel product called E-skin, recently announced that it would start sales targeting individual users. E-skin has been sold for $1,000 targeting enterprise users in healthcare or sports training industries thus far, but the firm has established a mass production structure that makes it possible to provide the product at a lower price for individual users. The firm just kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter today and the product is priced at $479 for the first 100 orders.
E-skin consists of a compression-fit E-skin shirt with 14 stretch/strain sensors and a controller named E-skin Hub which is attachable to the shirt. These sensors are directly mounted on shirts, so that it is lightweight and can detect the user’s motion accurately. The controller has a 3-axis accelerometer and is able to monitor overall body motion without requiring Lighthouse or other 3D scanner motion capture devices.
Additionally, Xenoma has developed apps for E-skin this time, and a case study combining the E-skin shirt and HoloLens was introduced at the press conference. The firm had initially been developing an app to provide a VR (Virtual Reality) experience, but slightly changed the concept of the app into one having more exercise factors rather than VR because the action experience wearing the shirt was more physically demanding than expected. If this crowdfunding campaign reaches its goal, the users will be rewarded with an E-skin shirt, an E-skin Hub controller and their choice out of the three mobile apps.
The users can enjoy the E-skin experience with using the app, as well as developing their own experience using SDK (Software Development Kit) provided by Xenoma. The supported platforms include Windows 10, Android, .NET C# and Unity as before, but in addition is to be available for Mac OS X, iOS 10, Java and Unreal Engine. For the convenience of developers, the firm provides the package in a form exportable to the TensorFlow deep learning library.
Xenoma is currently exhibiting these products at SIGGRAPH, the interactive technology show taking place in Las Vegas, aiming to draw the interest of early adopters from the US and global markets.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. In view of Panasonic celebrating its centennial in 2018, the Osaka electronic company has set up this July with startups Loftwork and Cafe Company – under the banner of “setting up an experimental space that seeks to enrich the world over the next hundred years” – a collaborative space in the area just south of Japan Railways Shibuya station. The three-story structure dubbed 100BANCH comprises the “Loft” collab space on the top floor supported by Panasonic and the “Garage” work space for members on the second floor. The ground floor will be occupied by “Kitchen” which will be a cafe space operated by Cafe Company. Shibuya is a hotbed of startup in Japan, and Panasonic, which started out small a century ago, wishes to support such companies taking on business challenges. The opening ceremony brought together some of the slated occupants of the building, ranging from an aquaponics venture with the backing of Assoc. Prof. Hiroyoshi Iwata of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Science, to a Non-Profit Organization project (Re:recipe) looking to invigorate regional cities…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
In view of Panasonic celebrating its centennial in 2018, the Osaka electronic company has set up this July with startups Loftwork and Cafe Company – under the banner of “setting up an experimental space that seeks to enrich the world over the next hundred years” – a collaborative space in the area just south of Japan Railways Shibuya station.
The three-story structure dubbed 100BANCH comprises the “Loft” collab space on the top floor supported by Panasonic and the “Garage” work space for members on the second floor. The ground floor will be occupied by “Kitchen” which will be a cafe space operated by Cafe Company. Shibuya is a hotbed of startup in Japan, and Panasonic, which started out small a century ago, wishes to support such companies taking on business challenges.
The opening ceremony brought together some of the slated occupants of the building, ranging from an aquaponics venture with the backing of Assoc. Prof. Hiroyoshi Iwata of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Science, to a Non-Profit Organization project (Re:recipe) looking to invigorate regional cities by introducing to travelers unique local dishes that can be found all over Japan.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. The Voyager accelerator program Demo Day was held on July 14th in Shibuya. Run by the Nomura group of companies under the auspices of Nomura Holdings, support from the Nomura side with an eye to producing synergy – in addition to outside private-sector mentors (like former Intel Japan chief Ikuo Nishioka) as well as advisors such as academics and field professionals helped five startups gain traction in their business. The five firms presented their plans, as below: Chikaku, which offers a service providing links for senior citizens to their relatives as exemplified by their grandchildren via video tech (“Mago” in Japanese, hence “Mago Channel” as the service name), tried out their productline at half a dozen Nomura Securities branches. Much positive feedback from the trial participants and the securities sales staff was gained. Chikaku hopes to expand their service further in cooperation with Nomura Securities. Simulatio, a venture business born out of research at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), unveiled its natural language-grounded “Logic & Arithmetic Network Database” (LAND). The startup aims to promote analysis and…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
The Voyager accelerator program Demo Day was held on July 14th in Shibuya. Run by the Nomura group of companies under the auspices of Nomura Holdings, support from the Nomura side with an eye to producing synergy – in addition to outside private-sector mentors (like former Intel Japan chief Ikuo Nishioka) as well as advisors such as academics and field professionals helped five startups gain traction in their business.
The five firms presented their plans, as below:
Chikaku, which offers a service providing links for senior citizens to their relatives as exemplified by their grandchildren via video tech (“Mago” in Japanese, hence “Mago Channel” as the service name), tried out their productline at half a dozen Nomura Securities branches. Much positive feedback from the trial participants and the securities sales staff was gained. Chikaku hopes to expand their service further in cooperation with Nomura Securities.
Simulatio, a venture business born out of research at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), unveiled its natural language-grounded “Logic & Arithmetic Network Database” (LAND). The startup aims to promote analysis and solution provision for the financial sector while improving the reliability of financial information for users. By collaborating with the Nomura group of companies, it looks to realize further enhancement of its services.
Giftee in conjunction with Nomura Securities Koshigaya (Saitama Prefecture) branch gave a trial run of its casual gift service “eGift” which focuses on the grandparents generation wishing to provide younger family members with small gifts. The Nomura group also stands to gain by making in-roads into the elder generation through jointly marketing the “eGift” services.
A10 Lab is offering the “MinChallenge” (meaning “Take on the challenge with everyone”) software which seeks to motivate those involved in various activities but prone to possibly dropping out. The startup hopes to improve people’s lifestyles so the general public will be motivated to be active in society. Research work on this endeavor was carried out jointly with Nomura Research Institute.
Nagoya University Medical School-spawned Prevent wishes to set up a health-oriented community where residents can lower insurance, medical and other social costs based on proper diet or training. Such communities are to be establish by working together with real estate developers such as Nomura Real Estate.
The Nikkei reported early this morning that Japan’s second largest telco KDDI will acquire a full stake in Tokyo-based Soracom, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) startup offering data service optimized for IoT (Internet of Things). The acquisition price is reportedly about 20 billion yen ($180 million US). Founded in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services engineer Ken Tamagawa, the mobile company has now become a 40-people team serving about 7,000 businesses in Japan as well as around 800 companies in the US and Europe. See also: Japan’s Soracom launches SIM cards and services for IoT service operators in US Japanese IoT-focused MVNO Soracom snags additional $5.8M funding for series B round Japan’s IoT-optimized cellular operator Soracom raises $22M series B for global expansion Japan’s Soracom launches cellular network service for Internet of Things developers KDDI started working on IoT-optimized services last year including several efforts like a massive partnership with Toyota for serving connected cars. In February of this year the Japanese telco acquired Iret, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based solution suite Cloudpack, while the former also announced in March that it would jointly set up a new company called ARISE Analytics with Accenture, aiming to promote data analytics…
The Nikkei reported early this morning that Japan’s second largest telco KDDI will acquire a full stake in Tokyo-based Soracom, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) startup offering data service optimized for IoT (Internet of Things). The acquisition price is reportedly about 20 billion yen ($180 million US). Founded in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services engineer Ken Tamagawa, the mobile company has now become a 40-people team serving about 7,000 businesses in Japan as well as around 800 companies in the US and Europe.
KDDI started working on IoT-optimized services last year including several efforts like a massive partnership with Toyota for serving connected cars. In February of this year the Japanese telco acquired Iret, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based solution suite Cloudpack, while the former also announced in March that it would jointly set up a new company called ARISE Analytics with Accenture, aiming to promote data analytics businesses.
Takeshi Hirano
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
