Bangkok-based Flare, offering an ad-wrapping service for car owners under the same name, announced today that it has secured seed round funding from KLab Venture Partners and Framgia Holdings. Framgia Holdings is an Asia-focused investment arm of Japanese system integrator Framgia. Financial terms have not been disclosed but Flare said it will use the funds to strengthen system engineering and international expansion efforts.
The Flare users owning automobiles log onto the service via a mobile app available, and selects a desired one from among campaigns offered by advertisers. After applying for the campaign through uploading photos of the auto and driver license, a wrapper will come and wrap the auto in the ad. The GPS information of driving record while putting the ad will be sent to Flare via the app.
A car wrapped with an Flare ad Image credit: Flare
Each campaign budget is set by advertisers in advance and when an auto with the ad drives on a busy main street on a weekend, the budget will be greatly spent. Conversely, the budget will be spent less in local areas having minimal traffic under Flare’s charge system. Advertisers can confirm the spending pace of the budget or the progress of the campaign via the dashboard.
Since its launch back in August of 2017, the service has seen continuous growth and acquired more than 6,000 cars as registrants while temporary registration restrictions were imposed due to the rush of car registrations. In addition, the number of advertisers using Flare is also increasing.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Until recently, space industry around the world has been propelled by government but private companies’ roles are gaining momentum in a movement called “New Space.” On May 10, SPACETIDE Association of Japan held its third event underscoring the role of private sector in space-related activities at Nihombashi Mitsui Hall, in central Tokyo. Supported by the Japanese government and in cooperation with the realtor Mitsui Fudosan and newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, it was sponsored (monetarily, for the first time) by ANA, JAL, SKY Perfect JSAT, Keio University System Design and Management Faculty and TBS plus Asahi Shimbun. See also: Riding the Startup Wave in Space The morning events comprised a panel overview at space business through 2030 followed by a presentation from OneWeb (SoftBank-backed startup) by Hidebumi Kitahara, then followed by a panel session with Infostellar and Axelspace representing Japanese space startups being joined by AWS and Orbital Insight plus Japanese government program outlined by a Keio professor. The latter panel had space Big Data as the theme. The afternoon saw presentations by Space Frontier Foundation chief Jeff Feige and former…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Panel session: Shaping the Future of Space Industry towards 2030 and beyond Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
Until recently, space industry around the world has been propelled by government but private companies’ roles are gaining momentum in a movement called “New Space.” On May 10, SPACETIDE Association of Japan held its third event underscoring the role of private sector in space-related activities at Nihombashi Mitsui Hall, in central Tokyo.
Supported by the Japanese government and in cooperation with the realtor Mitsui Fudosan and newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, it was sponsored (monetarily, for the first time) by ANA, JAL, SKY Perfect JSAT, Keio University System Design and Management Faculty and TBS plus Asahi Shimbun.
Hidebumi Kitahara, Director of OneWeb Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The morning events comprised a panel overview at space business through 2030 followed by a presentation from OneWeb (SoftBank-backed startup) by Hidebumi Kitahara, then followed by a panel session with Infostellar and Axelspace representing Japanese space startups being joined by AWS and Orbital Insight plus Japanese government program outlined by a Keio professor. The latter panel had space Big Data as the theme.
Panel session: Space Big Data brings new markets Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The afternoon saw presentations by Space Frontier Foundation chief Jeff Feige and former astronaut Koichi Wakata, representing JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), as well as a panel discussion on a new era of spaceflight. Another panel on New Space Economy, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada of Hakuto X Prize challenge fame, took place. The day ended with a panel on space as growth driver for other industries, after a Startup Pitch.
Dr. Koichi Wakata, Japanese engineer and JAXA astronaut Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The Startup Pitch actually turned out not to be a competitive one, including a special pitch-like talk by an ANA employee who had won a government award for an innovative idea related to the aerospace field (though her presentation, along with those of Telexistence COO Yuichiro Hikosaka and Space BD CEO Masatoshi Nagasaki, would likely have been one of Top Three). WARPSPACE, ALE, Space Bio-Laboratories and Institute for Q-Shu Pioneers of Space also took part in the “Pitch.”
MC and pitch presenters at SPACETIDE 2018 Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. d10e — dubbed “The Leading Conference On Decentralization” — held the 21st Global Edition from April 28 to May 1, 2018. The venue, Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel located near Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, gathered numerous participants who foresee far-reaching changes being brought on by adoption of blockchain technology, especially by localities and businesses. The first and second days were spent by Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC), one of the main event sponsors, familiarizing d10e-goers with Tokyo. Keynote speeches were presented on the third day. On the final day, 22 teams gathered to present their revolutionary wares during the 1st Edition in Japan Startup Pitch (MC: Ms. Naomi Brockwell). Leonardo Render Chief Strategy Officer Delon de Metz, the energetic (enough to jump off the stage and safely too) young man with the winning message at this year’s inaugural Japan pitch competition, got First Prize. The visual rendering services company headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York convinced all that their business is ready to roll. The runner-up was Ms. Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer for Black Insurance, the digital insurance company on blockchain….
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Randy Hencken, Co-founder of floating seasteading company Blue Frontiers, delivered his keynote speech. Image credit: Kurt Hanson / The Bridge
d10e — dubbed “The Leading Conference On Decentralization” — held the 21st Global Edition from April 28 to May 1, 2018. The venue, Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel located near Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, gathered numerous participants who foresee far-reaching changes being brought on by adoption of blockchain technology, especially by localities and businesses.
Image credit: d10e
The first and second days were spent by Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC), one of the main event sponsors, familiarizing d10e-goers with Tokyo. Keynote speeches were presented on the third day. On the final day, 22 teams gathered to present their revolutionary wares during the 1st Edition in Japan Startup Pitch (MC: Ms. Naomi Brockwell).
Delon de Metz, Chief Strategy Offier of Leonardo Render Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy / The Bridge
Leonardo Render Chief Strategy Officer Delon de Metz, the energetic (enough to jump off the stage and safely too) young man with the winning message at this year’s inaugural Japan pitch competition, got First Prize. The visual rendering services company headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York convinced all that their business is ready to roll.
Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer of Black Insurance Image credit: d10e
The runner-up was Ms. Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer for Black Insurance, the digital insurance company on blockchain. The demure pitch for the Estonian outfit gained Second Prize as it explained elegantly how its platform connects insurance brokers directly with capital, enabling them to launch their own virtual insurance agencies.
Cereal Finance CEO Sergey Vart (left) and a pitch judge Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy / The Bridge
Third Prize was garnered by Cereal Finance Co-founder & CEO Sergey Vart, who heads the St. Petersburg-based provider of blockchain ecosystem for asset-based loans. Finally, the Audience Award went to ZPER (according to Marketing Manager DK Yoon, pronounced ‘Zee-per’) of Singapore, offering a decentralized ecosystem for P2P finance.
George Hahn, co-founder and CGO of ZPER Image credit: d10e
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka, Japan-based Good Luck 3, jointly with Tokyo-based internet marketing company Ceres (TSE:3696), held a press conference on Friday in Tokyo, where they will be soon releasing Ethereum-based game DApp called Crypto-Oink. The app will be available on the web and via mobile app but the exact launch date is not yet confirmed. The app allows users to collect pig characters to breed and create new species, or buy and sell them with other users. With the crypto-wallet function, the app can prove these transactions and store them on a blockchain so that users can buy/sell cryptos at Ethereum exchanges or trade pigs with other users. Good Luck 3 plans to monetize by selling characters and auction commissions. With the Crypto-Oink app, the company wants to help even non-blockchain savvy people get familiar with DApps by leveraging a familiar topic like games to lower the hurdles. Ceres has recently invested in crypto exchanges such as Bitbank and Coincheck in addition to blockchain startups like Orb (Distributed Ledger Technology developer) and Sivira (blockchain app developer). Kazuhisa Inoue, CEO of Good Luck 3, said in the conference that his company wants to make the DApp successful…
From left: Kazuhisa Inoue (CEO of Good Luck 3), Satoshi Takagi (CEO of Ceres) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Fukuoka, Japan-based Good Luck 3, jointly with Tokyo-based internet marketing company Ceres (TSE:3696), held a press conference on Friday in Tokyo, where they will be soon releasing Ethereum-based game DApp called Crypto-Oink. The app will be available on the web and via mobile app but the exact launch date is not yet confirmed.
The app allows users to collect pig characters to breed and create new species, or buy and sell them with other users. With the crypto-wallet function, the app can prove these transactions and store them on a blockchain so that users can buy/sell cryptos at Ethereum exchanges or trade pigs with other users.
Good Luck 3 CEO Inoue introduces Crypto-Oink Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Good Luck 3 plans to monetize by selling characters and auction commissions. With the Crypto-Oink app, the company wants to help even non-blockchain savvy people get familiar with DApps by leveraging a familiar topic like games to lower the hurdles.
Ceres has recently invested in crypto exchanges such as Bitbank and Coincheck in addition to blockchain startups like Orb (Distributed Ledger Technology developer) and Sivira (blockchain app developer). Kazuhisa Inoue, CEO of Good Luck 3, said in the conference that his company wants to make the DApp successful by joining the forces of their capability of an entertainment content developer with those of Ceres owning multiple blockchain startups.
Since its launch back in February of 2013 in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka, Good Luck 3 has released outstanding game apps like Touch Gudetama! and Aerial Legends, and also recently been developing a blockchain-focused social platform called LuckyMe (to be launched this summer).
While blockchain transactions generally take some time to confirm, Good Luck 3 has also developed a private blockchain network called LuckyMe Reward System, expecting to reduce user churn with a smooth in-app purchase process for blockchain-based game apps. Going forward, they try to form an ecosystem involving third-party developers of DApps.
With an aim to promote Crypto-Oink and LuckyMe globally, Good Luck 3 plans to exhibit at Latitude 59, a global startup conference in Tallinn, Estonia on May 24 and 25th.
Tokyo-based Raksul, an online printing and delivery startup, announced today that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 31 May with plans to offer 2,500,000 shares for public subscription and to sell up to 1,642,100 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 8,449,900 shares. Daiwa Securities will lead the underwriting. Led by the company’s CEO Yasukane Matsumoto (21.55%), its major shareholders include OPT Holding (17.78%, TSE:2389) and Development Bank of Japan (8.91%). According to the consolidated statement as of July of 2017, they posted a revenue of 7.68 billion yen (about 70.2 million) with an ordinary loss of 1.16 billion ($10.6 million) and a net loss of 1.18 million yen ($10.8 million). Founded in 2009, Raksul is a Japanese company which provides printing services in partnership with printing facilities across its home country as a fabless operator. Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders. Additionally, the company provides the Hacobell on-demand delivery service as well as a flyer delivery service for small and medium-sized enterprises. See also: Japanese…
Raksul and Hacobell Image credit: Raksul
Tokyo-based Raksul, an online printing and delivery startup, announced today that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 31 May with plans to offer 2,500,000 shares for public subscription and to sell up to 1,642,100 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 8,449,900 shares. Daiwa Securities will lead the underwriting.
Led by the company’s CEO Yasukane Matsumoto (21.55%), its major shareholders include OPT Holding (17.78%, TSE:2389) and Development Bank of Japan (8.91%).
According to the consolidated statement as of July of 2017, they posted a revenue of 7.68 billion yen (about 70.2 million) with an ordinary loss of 1.16 billion ($10.6 million) and a net loss of 1.18 million yen ($10.8 million).
Founded in 2009, Raksul is a Japanese company which provides printing services in partnership with printing facilities across its home country as a fabless operator. Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders. Additionally, the company provides the Hacobell on-demand delivery service as well as a flyer delivery service for small and medium-sized enterprises.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Plaid, the Japanese startup offering a real-time data analysis of website visitors called Karte, announced last week that it has secured funding from Femto Partners, Eight Roads Ventures Japan, Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and others. Combining funds through the investment aforementioned with loans from Mizuho Bank and other financial institutions, the company secured about 2.7 billion yen (around $25M US) at this time. Details including stock holding ratios were not disclosed. The latest announcement means that the company has thus far raised 3.4 billion yen (about $32M) in total, including previous funds from Femto Growth Capital and Eight Roads Ventures Japan. Plaid employs 90 people when all contract forms are included. Since its launch back in March of 2015, Karte had been introduced to 1,430 companies by March of 2017. The number of user companies has been undisclosed since the third year after the launch; instead, the company released the cumulative number of users analyzed by the service, which is 2.2 billion. Also, since around half of the companies introducing Karte are commerce enterprises, the company revealed that the total transactions…
Tokyo-based Plaid, the Japanese startup offering a real-time data analysis of website visitors called Karte, announced last week that it has secured funding from Femto Partners, Eight Roads Ventures Japan, Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and others.
Combining funds through the investment aforementioned with loans from Mizuho Bank and other financial institutions, the company secured about 2.7 billion yen (around $25M US) at this time. Details including stock holding ratios were not disclosed. The latest announcement means that the company has thus far raised 3.4 billion yen (about $32M) in total, including previous funds from Femto Growth Capital and Eight Roads Ventures Japan.
Plaid employs 90 people when all contract forms are included. Since its launch back in March of 2015, Karte had been introduced to 1,430 companies by March of 2017. The number of user companies has been undisclosed since the third year after the launch; instead, the company released the cumulative number of users analyzed by the service, which is 2.2 billion. Also, since around half of the companies introducing Karte are commerce enterprises, the company revealed that the total transactions dealt with through the platform was 548 billion yen (nearly $5.1B US). Furthermore, as confirmed by CEO Kenta Kurahashi, this total reflects the total value of products actually purchased after users visit the websites of companies using Karte.
According to the press release, the company also achieved a monthly surplus in March of 2017, and the funds raised this time will be used mainly for marketing, strengthening recruitment for all positions, and overseas service expansion.
Turning into customer experience platform
In the past, Karte used access analysis and marketing-related tools to create simple figures expressed as “1 PV (page views)” and “1 UU (unique users)” and use them as actual visiting opportunities, and opened up the category of “better taking care of online customers” to respond to this while analyzing finer actions.
In its third year the company will now use these existing concepts to provide a new “CX Platform (customer experience platform)” that is a more customer-centered marketing analytics service. Kurahashi explains the difference between Karte and other marketing tools by relating that the total use distribution among companies using Karte becomes larger.
(When talking about companies using Karte) Karte makes people visible, so it can take on the customer’s perspective, what they want, who they want to buy it, and why they want it. Many of the conventional tools (for raising sales and setting indicators) are corporate-oriented, and there is nothing to prompt action by understanding the user’s voice.
Every year since 2011 the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog has been creating and publishing a marketing chaos map (see below), and as the map shows, the number of available tools continues to increase every year. While many claim to automate, there are times when companies must pay high-cost consulting fees to actually introduce the tools. Kurahashi also said, “It’s strange that you have to give it all you’ve got to master them,” but that is the exact world-view.
Karte is based on the idea of returning marketing to the customer’s viewpoint, which must first be realized by thoroughly visualizing the customers who are hard to see on the web. The company takes what is natural for customer service in spaces with physical stores and brings it to the web. The increase in companies using Karte and the total amount of distribution, as well as the number of users analyzed, demonstrates that this idea is accepted.
Karte has undergone a great renewal in April, and in particular the visualization of user behavior in real time has become more useful. The company introduced a score function this time which measures users’ experiences as satisfactory and unsatisfactory, and adds visibility that allows them to bring forward the users who need support.
Additionally, up to now the company has visualized each user who visited a site as 1 UU on a timeline, and with the renewal it has strengthened this function by introducing mirroring capabilities that allow administrators to see which site flow lines the user actually traced. With this, it has become possible to judge at a glance when, where, and in which situation the user took action.
Kurahashi creates a customer-centered analysis culture through these renewals and aims to acquire and expand Plaid’s own positioning.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
