Tokyo-based Dely, the Japanese video-centric culinary media startup offering recipe discovery portal Kurashiru, announced today that it has been acquired by Yahoo Japan. YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan, acquired a 15.9% stake of the media startup with their first investment back in 2016. By additionally injecting 9.3 billion yen ($83.8 million US) at this time, Yahoo Japan has agreed to acquire a 45.6% stake of the startup.
Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, they pivoted to video curation media last year, their current business model.
Since its launch back in February of 2016, Kurashiru has published 18,000 recipe movies, attracting 2.9 million users via social network channels, and has acquired 12 million mobile app downloads, mainly by attracting female consumers in their 20s to 40s. Tokyo-based Every, the Japanese startup behind online recipe media Delish Kitchen which is considered to be one of Kurashiru’s closer competitor services, has raised a total of 5.43 billion yen (about $48.2 million) to date.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-headquartered Monstar Lab, the Japanese company sourcing app developments around the world, announced on Monday that it has agreed with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) regarding on-site survey of business potential based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). JICA announced five companies including Monstar Lab as being selected for the program in July of last year. This survey is aimed at creating employment opportunities for refugees in Jordan affected by the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. In order to help their economic independence, Monstar Lab will explore hiring software developers from among the Syrian refugees in Jordan as well as young people from the Palestinian autonomous territory of Gaza to connect them to digital product development work for Japan and the Middle East region. From the SDGs perspective, Monstar Lab says their proposed project is categorized in No. 8: Decent Work and Ecoonmic Growth as well as No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure while JICA is aiming to contribute through this survey especially to No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure as well as No. 10: Reduced Inequalities. Monstar Lab has opened multiple overseas bases, including in Bangladesh, and has the knowledge and experience…
From the left: Eiji Kubo (Director of the Private Sector Partnership Division, Private Sector Partnership and Finance Department, JICA), Hiroki Inagawa (CEO of Monstar Lab), Eyad Al-hindi (Councilor, the Permanent General Mission of Palestine in Japan), Rami Alkharabsheh (Second Secretary, the Embassy of Jordan in Japan)
Tokyo-headquartered Monstar Lab, the Japanese company sourcing app developments around the world, announced on Monday that it has agreed with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) regarding on-site survey of business potential based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). JICA announced five companies including Monstar Lab as being selected for the program in July of last year.
This survey is aimed at creating employment opportunities for refugees in Jordan affected by the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. In order to help their economic independence, Monstar Lab will explore hiring software developers from among the Syrian refugees in Jordan as well as young people from the Palestinian autonomous territory of Gaza to connect them to digital product development work for Japan and the Middle East region.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (click to enlarge)
From the SDGs perspective, Monstar Lab says their proposed project is categorized in No. 8: Decent Work and Ecoonmic Growth as well as No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure while JICA is aiming to contribute through this survey especially to No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure as well as No. 10: Reduced Inequalities.
Monstar Lab has opened multiple overseas bases, including in Bangladesh, and has the knowledge and experience of maintaining local employment and expanding business in developing countries. Based on these points and the high demand for the creation of employment opportunities due to high unemployment in the Jordan/State of Palestine regions, Monstar Labs will make the refugee problems known to Japanese companies and provide opportunities to use them as CSR (corporate social responsibility) through this project, while keeping the acquisition of the Middle East market in mind.
Eiji Kubo, Director of the Private Sector Partnership Division, Private Sector Partnership and Finance Department, JICA, gave his comment in a statement:
The IT industry has the advantage of being able to do business with the outside world without having to move people and goods. As Monstar Lab seeks to make use of this feature and create employment for the local youth including Syrian and Palestinian refugees and aims for their economic independence, we would like to cooperate with the company and its business plan through this survey.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. AG/SUM (Agritech Summit) 2018 was presented by Nikkei from June 11 in Tokyo’s Nihombashi area, which from the Edo era has been home to Shinto shrines dedicated to medicinal plants. The district, under redevelopment by Mitsui Fudosan which was a major event sponsor, also has a concentration of pharmaceuticals firms ranging the gamut from Daiichi-Sankyo (with its Kusuri [Medicine] Museum) to Takeda Pharmaceutical’s newly-opened global headquarters building. The three-day event is part of the newly-launched “summit” series run by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the flagship daily newspaper of the NIKKEI news concern; originally focused on finance and regulation, it is now aiming at such fields as life sciences and transportation, with an eye to the expansion of business activities in reflection of the Rugby World Cup next year in Japan as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics. The agriculture-centered event comprised a Symposium, an Exhibition and a Start-up Pitch Run plus a Reverse Pitch, in addition to a Marche where stalls lined the underground passageway leading from the main venues of Nihombashi Life Science Building and Nihombashi Mitsui Hall to the…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
AG/SUM Pitch Run finalists Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
AG/SUM (Agritech Summit) 2018 was presented by Nikkei from June 11 in Tokyo’s Nihombashi area, which from the Edo era has been home to Shinto shrines dedicated to medicinal plants. The district, under redevelopment by Mitsui Fudosan which was a major event sponsor, also has a concentration of pharmaceuticals firms ranging the gamut from Daiichi-Sankyo (with its Kusuri [Medicine] Museum) to Takeda Pharmaceutical’s newly-opened global headquarters building.
The three-day event is part of the newly-launched “summit” series run by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the flagship daily newspaper of the NIKKEI news concern; originally focused on finance and regulation, it is now aiming at such fields as life sciences and transportation, with an eye to the expansion of business activities in reflection of the Rugby World Cup next year in Japan as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics.
The agriculture-centered event comprised a Symposium, an Exhibition and a Start-up Pitch Run plus a Reverse Pitch, in addition to a Marche where stalls lined the underground passageway leading from the main venues of Nihombashi Life Science Building and Nihombashi Mitsui Hall to the nearest railway stations, namely Mitsukoshimae subway station for Ginza and Hanzomon Metro lines as well as the JR Shin-Nihombashi station, nearby Nihombashi Information Center.
AG/SUM Reverse Pitch Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The Pitch Run was held with 26 participants, in two parts (a.m. and p.m.) on June 12, with the Reverse Pitch being gathered in the early evening of the same day. The competitors vied for the main Nikkei Award while the Mizuho Award (namesake after Mizuho Bank, Mizuho standing for the Japanese phrase meaning plentiful harvest, roughly equivalent to “cornucopia”) was subsidiary. The Reverse Pitch was more of a participant feedback and follow-up session for pitch participants.
The a.m. session judges were Plug and Play Tech Center’s Seena Amidi, World Innovation Lab’s Namiko Kajiwara, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings’ Uraki Fumiko and Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s Keiichi Murayama while the p.m. judges were Bits x Bites’ Matilda Ho, RocketSpace’s Shaina Silva, Mistletoe’s Eriko Suzuki and euglena’s Akihito Nagata; Mizuho Bank’s Naoto Oohitsu was a judge for both sessions.
Musca CEO Mitsutaka Kushima Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The joint winners of the Mizuho Award turned out to be three companies, all from Japan – graft biotech outfit Gra & Green, plant factory maker PlantX and insect-tech Musca [“musca” meaning fly in Latin]. The Nikkei award went to the international quartet of U. California Berkeley-affiliated Sugarlogix, Stanford-related Agribody Technologies, vineyard support tech provider Biome Makers and non-fermentation winemaker AVA Winery.
Speaking of wine, along with visitors from Israel (though only contaminant detector manufacturer Inspecto showed up this year, MBR-supported hydroponics firm FreightFarms opting out this year, depriving me of a chance to ask about Kosher foodstuff) and elsewhere in the Middle East (Turkish agro-finance service Tarfin and sensor data processor Tarsens [with NVIDIA backing], where Halal is a huge market), afficianados of the beverage like myself found AVA tech intriguing for such diets.
It is hoped that next year the event can be expanded and brings more general visitors to the Marche and other public outreach aspects – as for example the Turkish start-ups in fact stayed on through Monday after in order to gain more information and further exchange. In addition perhaps more start-up involvement from South American and even Africa, not to mention elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, could be possible.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup behind sports entertainment app “Player!”, earlier this month announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount from NTT Docomo Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Asahi Media Lab Ventures and Asics Ventures in its series B round. The raised amount is estimated to be several millions of US dollars as surmised from information emanating from various quarters. It is the fundraising subsequent to the one with 30 million yen (about $270,000) in total from investors including Dai Tamesue (athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Opt) and Toshiaki Komtasu (co-founder of Photo Create) in its angel round (in June of 2014 and March of 2015), the one with an undicslosed amount from Gree Ventures in a seed round (in April of 2016), and the one with an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (now Spiral Ventures Japan), Gree Ventures and The Asahi Shimbun in a series A round (March of 2017). With this secured money, Ookami is going to strengthen human resource recruitment / development in designer, finance / management and marketing sector. Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In the following year, the team launched the…
Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup behind sports entertainment app “Player!”, earlier this month announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount from NTT Docomo Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Asahi Media Lab Ventures and Asics Ventures in its series B round. The raised amount is estimated to be several millions of US dollars as surmised from information emanating from various quarters.
It is the fundraising subsequent to the one with 30 million yen (about $270,000) in total from investors including Dai Tamesue (athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Opt) and Toshiaki Komtasu (co-founder of Photo Create) in its angel round (in June of 2014 and March of 2015), the one with an undicslosed amount from Gree Ventures in a seed round (in April of 2016), and the one with an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (now Spiral Ventures Japan), Gree Ventures and The Asahi Shimbun in a series A round (March of 2017).
With this secured money, Ookami is going to strengthen human resource recruitment / development in designer, finance / management and marketing sector.
Team members of Ookami Image credit: Ookami
Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In the following year, the team launched the mobile app Player! for iOS, pivoting its concept from sports news platform to sports SNS which distributes progress or results of games and allows users to share the excitement in real time with other users watching the same game. The app was winner of both App Store Best of 2015 and Good Design Award in 2016. Player! for Apple Watch was launched in September of 2016 and that for Android will be likewise, soon. Coincidentally with this fundraising, Ookami announced that it has added the following three functions to Player!.
Enhancement of content coverage as to college / amateur sports
Ookami participated in Tokyu Accelerate Program 3rd batch last year and won NewWork Award on its demo day. As a demonstration in the program, the team tested a real-time distribution of process of Japan vs. North Korea of E-1 Football Championship last December 9th, using the outdoor large-display Q’s Eye in Shibuya.
Now that FIFA World Cup is being held in Russia, Player! has been distributing proceedings of the games over a two-week period beginning June 18th at digital signage at major railway stations in Tokyo and Osaka.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced today that it has raised 4.25 billion yen (about $38.4 million) in a series C round. Participating investors are SBI Investment, Daikin Industries, TBS Innovation Partners, Topcon, Japan Post Capital and Musashi Seimitsu Industry, in addition to existing investors including PNB-Inspire Ethical Fund, Nvidia and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). The company uses the funds to set up AI (artificial intelligence) management locations in ASEAN countries and the US for their flagship cloud Abeja Platform, enhance their vertical-focused SaaS (Software as a Service) platform Abeja Insight, strengthen R&D efforts and improve intellectual property management, plus hire talented staffers in the deep learning space. Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing 700 million yen (about $7 million at the exchange rate then)…
Abeja CEO/CTO Yosuke Okada explains about Abeja Platform Partner Ecosystem (Photographed at Docomo Innovation Village in November of 2016) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced today that it has raised 4.25 billion yen (about $38.4 million) in a series C round. Participating investors are SBI Investment, Daikin Industries, TBS Innovation Partners, Topcon, Japan Post Capital and Musashi Seimitsu Industry, in addition to existing investors including PNB-Inspire Ethical Fund, Nvidia and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ).
The company uses the funds to set up AI (artificial intelligence) management locations in ASEAN countries and the US for their flagship cloud Abeja Platform, enhance their vertical-focused SaaS (Software as a Service) platform Abeja Insight, strengthen R&D efforts and improve intellectual property management, plus hire talented staffers in the deep learning space.
Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing 700 million yen (about $7 million at the exchange rate then) in a series B round from INCJ, Archetype, Inspire-PNB Partners. The funding at this time is seen making the amount raised to date total at 5 billion yen (about $45 million).
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on. In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round. The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during…
Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on.
In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round.
The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during the latest insurance period or has a high score indicating a lower risk, one gets a 30% discount on average for payment.
A Screenshot of the new app. Image credit: JustInCase
JustInCase tried to deal with P2P (peer-to-peer) insurance though the fact of the matter is that they virtually adopted it due to regulatory limitations.
Generally speaking, P2P applies the concept of a sharing economy to insurance, i.e. friends and groups of users (pools) who are interested in insurance against the same risk pay the insurance premiums, and a system is adopted whereby insurance money is paid out from this pool. P2P insurance has various merits including the risk being easier to calculate compared with conventional insurance, insurance products that were impossible in the past can be easily developed, insurance money fraud and moral hazard problems are less likely to occur, and ex-post facto premiums can be kept cheap (through cashback, etc.).
Meanwhile, JustInCase took a while to get approval from the regulator because it was the first attempt to launch a (virtual) P2P insurance in Japan where users can complete all application steps in the app and require no interaction with any insurance representative. The company says that it actually needed 467 days to complete the registration as an insurer on June 25th while its application process started back in March of 2017.
In this space, we’ve seen emerging P2P insurance startups such as Sure (having raised $10.6M US so far), Lemonade (recently raised $120M US from Softbank, GV or Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Allianz last year-end) or Berlin-based Friendsurance (raised more than $15M US from Horizon Ventures, the investment firm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing).
Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
