Shintaro is Japanese editor and planner based in Tokyo. He’s active in the community as an event manager, and does his best to play matchmaker in local ecosystem — not only startups but also people and entities in culture and government. Find him on Twitter, at @eshintaro.
See the original story in Japanese. LCO-Creation Singapore (LCO for short), the Japanese startup behind mobile app Travel Door, announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum from Tokyo-based Internet company Digital Garage (TSE:4819). Since its launch in August 2012, LCO has been funded by Singapore’s technology incubator TechCube8 as well as National Research Foundation, the technology incubation scheme by the government of Singapore. The company is based in Blk71, a startup hub in Singapore, expanding their business into the Asian market, primarily focused on its home turf of Japan. Travel Door is a mobile app serving local travel information, maps, and a route planning function for 55 cities from 31 countries worldwide. Travelers can use it offline so that no international data roaming charge is required while being away from their home country. In partnership with local travel agents and other companies, the app offers coupons, tour packages, rewards services at travel destinations, travel search functions, and other campaigns allowing users to earn airline mileage points. In this way, the company explores O2O (online-to-offline) business models focused on the overseas travel sector. With the partnership with Digital Garage, LCO will focus ways to better serve tourists to Japan,…
LCO-Creation Singapore (LCO for short), the Japanese startup behind mobile app Travel Door, announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum from Tokyo-based Internet company Digital Garage (TSE:4819).
Since its launch in August 2012, LCO has been funded by Singapore’s technology incubator TechCube8 as well as National Research Foundation, the technology incubation scheme by the government of Singapore. The company is based in Blk71, a startup hub in Singapore, expanding their business into the Asian market, primarily focused on its home turf of Japan.
Travel Door is a mobile app serving local travel information, maps, and a route planning function for 55 cities from 31 countries worldwide. Travelers can use it offline so that no international data roaming charge is required while being away from their home country. In partnership with local travel agents and other companies, the app offers coupons, tour packages, rewards services at travel destinations, travel search functions, and other campaigns allowing users to earn airline mileage points. In this way, the company explores O2O (online-to-offline) business models focused on the overseas travel sector.
With the partnership with Digital Garage, LCO will focus ways to better serve tourists to Japan, aiming to build a new business model using sightseeing content provided by local governments in Japan.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool Repro, recently stated that the company has fundraised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697). DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while Brain Pad is a Japanese big data analysis company and Shift runs a software testing business. Repro provides SDK (software development kit) for supporting the development of apps for the retention rate of users and UI (user interface) improvement based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation, and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded. Unlike websites, it is very difficult to update apps real time once they are released. Therefore, it is important to improve the app as much as possible before release. Hence, these days an increasing number of startups and companies are strengthening their UX (user experience) design based on user tests and hearings. However, in group tests for running user tests, the situation can often differ from the…
Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool Repro, recently stated that the company has fundraised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697). DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while Brain Pad is a Japanese big data analysis company and Shift runs a software testing business.
Repro provides SDK (software development kit) for supporting the development of apps for the retention rate of users and UI (user interface) improvement based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation, and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded.
Unlike websites, it is very difficult to update apps real time once they are released. Therefore, it is important to improve the app as much as possible before release. Hence, these days an increasing number of startups and companies are strengthening their UX (user experience) design based on user tests and hearings.
However, in group tests for running user tests, the situation can often differ from the everyday, natural atmosphere. Even direct observation of behavior and interview with users still can be artificial due to it being a face-to-face interaction in an interview setting, which means that there is still the chance of a mismatch between the interaction produced there and the users’ actual thoughts and actions. In response to these problems, Repro saves voice recording data and takes photographs with a built-in camera, thus recording the user’s natural behavior. In addition, Repro also accumulates data on how users swiped and clicked on the screen, which makes it possible to see when and where the user decided to depart. Test users can use the app in natural settings such as the user’s home, as opposed to places such as a meeting room.
Unlike existing crash-detection tools, Repro can reproduce the crash based on video recordings from the start to the crash of an app, providing fact-based feedback and making debugging more efficient. The accumulated data support the improvement of the app not only through quantitative analyses such as click rates, roaming time and departing points, but also through qualitative analyses based on video recordings. Needless to say, Repro also assures privacy protection. The text fields of the app detect text input and runs an image processing. Also, it is possible to place a survey either at the beginning or the end of the tests.
Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata explained:
Many customers who introduced Repro into their systems voice how they were able to learn the users’ behavior which were not visible through mere quantitative data and became visible by knowing the living behavior of users. Of course, most of these lessons seemed to have been quite shocking for them. (Laughs.) I mean, learning the manner in which the majority of users move away from the app in a matter of seconds, and learning it through the qualitative data of video recordings, one can directly confront actual reality. We believe that app improvement begins with a proper confrontation of such reality. Indeed, most people who introduce Repro are able to find concrete solutions.
Moreover, in addition to traditional funnel and retention analyses, the administrator screen shows real-time analyses based on video recordings of the users’ behaviors within the app. With previous quantitative data, the only way to analyze user behavior was to look at behavior represented by numbers alone. Over the Repro administrator screen, on the other hand, video allows for a much more concrete representation of user retention and conversion and of where, when, and how users depart or stumble.
Hirata explained:
Live user behavior is a goldmine of hints for app improvement. I would like others to reflect such live information on their apps and understand the true behavior of users. Once analyses are done carefully, one could discover the magic number for letting services grow. For example, users may become active after the number of friends on Facebook passes a certain threshold, or when a certain number of follows are made on Twitter, or the number of saves on the Pocket app (formerly known as Read It Later), and so forth.
If there existed a magic number for increasing the growth of all services and user activity rates, and if it were possible to discover such numbers, then they could be used as KPIs. Enabling analysis of data, discovering the interrelationships. Therefore, Repro can allow observations which can capture the live voice and behavior of users with greater accuracy, by combining quantitative data with qualitative ones.
Repro graduated from the 6th batch of KDDI Mugen Labo, the accelerator program by a Japanese leading telco. During the eight months from the program’s demo day up to the present, Repro has already released a beta version, been introduced into companies such as Mixi and Rakuten, and been used by more than 400 e-commerce and news apps from various genres.
Based on the present release, Repro began providing an official version from its beta version. Plans include a free plan, 12,000 yen ($100) per month plan for startups, 60,000 yen ($500) per month basic plan, 120,000 yen ($1,000) per month gross plan, 360,000 yen ($3,000) per month plan for businesses, and more. The recorded videos and the quantity of data varies according to price.
Moreover, the funding will foster an expansion of the supply of developers, which will lead to creating business overseas, primarily in the US, by 2016.
Notes Hirata,
Analytics service such as MIXPanel and Lookback exist overseas, but Repro has demonstrated high performance in SDK storage, CPU usage, memory usage, etc. As a product, it has been developed to compete on the world market. Taking the present funding as an opportunity, we will build the foundations for expanding our business overseas.
See the original story in Japanese. Slush Asia, the first Asian edition of the Finnish tech conference, was held in Tokyo on Friday, attracting 3,000 attendees from around the world. Accompanied by a number of keynote presentations by speakers and demo booth exhibitions by startups, some 50 teams from Japan and the rest of the world presented their pitches in a huge dome tent venue called The White Rock. See also: Finland’s startup conference Slush announces its first Asian edition in Tokyo Ten startups competed in each of five categories; cloud and marketplace, entertainment, education, tool, and hi-tech and hardware. The five teams selected out of 50 applicants were AlpacaDB, VMFive, Bento Bioworks, Fastmedia, and Fove. Taiwan startup VMFive won the first Slush Asia Pitching Competition. Slush Asia Pitching Competition Winner Entertainment category finalist: VMFive (Taiwan) VMFive provides a virtual environment solution for mobile apps. Their solution AdPlay lets users demo an app before purchasing it with no pre-installed software or SDKs from developers. The company partnered with Japan’s Adways and started a service that lets users demo an app before its launch on Adway’s Yoyaku Top 10 solution (also known in English as PreLaunch Party). They also recently partnered…
Slush Asia, the first Asian edition of the Finnish tech conference, was held in Tokyo on Friday, attracting 3,000 attendees from around the world.
Accompanied by a number of keynote presentations by speakers and demo booth exhibitions by startups, some 50 teams from Japan and the rest of the world presented their pitches in a huge dome tent venue called The White Rock.
Ten startups competed in each of five categories; cloud and marketplace, entertainment, education, tool, and hi-tech and hardware. The five teams selected out of 50 applicants were AlpacaDB, VMFive, Bento Bioworks, Fastmedia, and Fove.
Taiwan startup VMFive won the first Slush Asia Pitching Competition.
Slush Asia Pitching Competition Winner
Entertainment category finalist: VMFive (Taiwan)
VMFive provides a virtual environment solution for mobile apps. Their solution AdPlay lets users demo an app before purchasing it with no pre-installed software or SDKs from developers.
The company partnered with Japan’s Adways and started a service that lets users demo an app before its launch on Adway’s Yoyaku Top 10 solution (also known in English as PreLaunch Party). They also recently partnered with Japanese digital ad agency D2C to accelerate efforts to partner with ad networks and app introduction sites.
They mainly target game publishers, generating revenue on a cost-per-trial basis. According to VMFive founder Jessie Wu, the mobile game app market in Russia is 2.5 times larger than that of the US, where the company’s solution delivers two to five times better performance to game developers compared to conventional banner ads or video ads. VMFive has three clients, offering them the service for less than a few US dollars per API (application programming interface) call.
Based in San Mateo, California, AlpacaDB provides a deep learning platform that allows systems to associate tags with or sort non-structural data, such as images leveraging image analyzing technology.
The company serves more than 10 companies including e-commerce platforms and stock photo providers. When users label their photos via the online dashboard, the platform will learn their actions and generate an algorithm to automatically sort photos. The service is free, but a fee will be charged when using based on the algorithm generated.
Education category finalist: Bento Works (UK)
Based in London, Bento Bioworks develops a hardware for biotechnology experiments for individuals. For example, the device allows you to find out what animal’s meat and ingredients are used in a hamburger by analyzing DNA sequence.
The company, founded just a few months ago, is targeting university students majoring in biology.
Tool category finalist: Fastmedia (Japan)
Fastmedia has developed a platform called Yappli that allows users to develop a mobile app via drag-and-drop operations. No need to code, but it is available for developing apps for cross-platform such as iOS and Android. SME users are charged $100 a month, while enterprise users pay $1,000.
Seeing 70% QoQ sales growth, the platform is being used in enterprise offices, non-profit organizations, TEDx events, and other citizens’ projects.
Hi-tech & Hardware category: Fove (Japan)
Tokyo-based Fove is developing a consumer-oriented head-mounted display (HMD) under the same name.
Their product allows users to control with their eyes a 360-degree virtual world using a leading-edge display, eye tracking, orientation sensing and head position tracking via integration of a high refresh rate gyro, accelerometer, and magnetometer sensors.
By detecting a 3D position which a user is looking at, the product will draw a more unblurred image around the position, giving the one a natural and immersive feeling even in the virtual reality space. It also enables users to enter characters via eye-tracking.
The company is expanding to the medical industry to help the physically challenged enter characters, or operate real objects in combination with other IoT (internet of things) devices.
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Reevo, a company that provides a smartphone-based car rental service called Veecle!-experience (Veecle), announced in February that it had fundraised from Daiwa Corporate Investment and Sagin Capital & Consulting. [1] While details of the investment have not been disclosed, Reevo’s capital was increased to 93.3 million yen ($768,000) after securing the funds. Some resources say that the funding amount was estimated to be $570,000. Veecle provides a wide variety of vehicles, ranging from camper vans to imported luxury cars, allowing users to complete the entire process from search to booking confirmation using their smartphones. Reevo has acquired about 3,000 automobiles available for rent in partnership with 80 car rental service providers as of February 2015. Veecle had been initially delivering vehicles to user’s homes upon their booking via smartphones, but subsequently pivoted its business model. In their current model, they are a fabless company but can provide users with car rental services in Kyushu as well as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Shimane, and Ehime, in partnership with other car rental service providers. Reevo CEO Ryoma Matsuo told The Bridge what is behind the funding: Japan’s domestic car rental market is valued at 510 billion…
Fukuoka-based Reevo, a company that provides a smartphone-based car rental service called Veecle!-experience (Veecle), announced in February that it had fundraised from Daiwa Corporate Investment and Sagin Capital & Consulting. [1] While details of the investment have not been disclosed, Reevo’s capital was increased to 93.3 million yen ($768,000) after securing the funds. Some resources say that the funding amount was estimated to be $570,000.
Veecle provides a wide variety of vehicles, ranging from camper vans to imported luxury cars, allowing users to complete the entire process from search to booking confirmation using their smartphones. Reevo has acquired about 3,000 automobiles available for rent in partnership with 80 car rental service providers as of February 2015.
Veecle had been initially delivering vehicles to user’s homes upon their booking via smartphones, but subsequently pivoted its business model. In their current model, they are a fabless company but can provide users with car rental services in Kyushu as well as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Shimane, and Ehime, in partnership with other car rental service providers.
Reevo CEO Ryoma Matsuo told The Bridge what is behind the funding:
Japan’s domestic car rental market is valued at 510 billion yen ($4.2 billion). In addition, I believe it will grow because of the change of consumers’ mindset from ownership to usership in the use of vehicles for their daily lives. On the other hand, more than half of all 500,000 vehicles for rent in Japan are dealt by fragmented service providers that are typically small, and their systems are outdated and cause low operational efficiency. Leveraging special-purpose trucks or low-priced autos that these providers have, we can help improve their business and acquire more customers.
The company plans to use the funds to increase the number of available vehicles and expand its coverage area of car rental services. They want to expand the service nationwide in Japan by this summer, aiming to partner with 500 car rental service providers with 10,000 automobiles.
Matsuo added:
Daiwa Corporate Investment has love and passion for us, especially for our business and relationship with each other. It is said that the ideal relationship between an investor and an entrepreneur is like a marriage, so I asked Daiwa “Would you marry us?” when we decided to receive the funds from them. Regarding Sagin Capital, a key factor in the decision was we wanted to make a solid connection with local businesses in the Kyushu region through the deal.
Car rental service is obviously part of the vibrant “sharing economy” movement. So it may give the younger generation more chances to enjoy leisure activities or holiday trips.
Sagin Capital & Consulting is the investment arm of Saga Bank, a regional bank in Japan’s Kyushu Island. ↩
Translated by Sumi Yo via Mother First Edited by Masaru Ikeda and Kurt Hanson
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Nulab has developed web-based collaborative tool for use with remote workers. On Wednesday, the company released Cacoo for Business, the cloud-based enterprise version of their flagship diagram drawing and sharing tool Cacoo. According to Nulab, Cacoo has acquired 1.5 million users, many using it for business. See also: Changing gears: How Japan’s Nulab pulled off the slow pivot With Cacoo for Business, users can separate private diagrams from organizational diagrams, which are managed by the organization’s administrators. Organizational diagrams can only be shared among the organization, preventing any accidental leakage of important diagrams. Other security and sharing settings include the options to “publish the diagram with URL” option and to give other users permission to view, but not edit, the diagrams. Cacoo for Business provides several additional premium options, such as features allowing users to export their diagrams in PDF or PowerPoint format. Nulab offers a free 30-day trial for the premium option upon the launch of the enterprise edition. Nulab CEO Masanori Hashimoto told The Bridge how Cacoo has been successfully penetrated since its beta launch back in November 2009: Cacoo’s use cases include creating wireframes, sitemaps, network charts, architecture diagrams, as…
Fukuoka-based Nulab has developed web-based collaborative tool for use with remote workers. On Wednesday, the company released Cacoo for Business, the cloud-based enterprise version of their flagship diagram drawing and sharing tool Cacoo. According to Nulab, Cacoo has acquired 1.5 million users, many using it for business.
With Cacoo for Business, users can separate private diagrams from organizational diagrams, which are managed by the organization’s administrators. Organizational diagrams can only be shared among the organization, preventing any accidental leakage of important diagrams. Other security and sharing settings include the options to “publish the diagram with URL” option and to give other users permission to view, but not edit, the diagrams.
Cacoo for Business provides several additional premium options, such as features allowing users to export their diagrams in PDF or PowerPoint format. Nulab offers a free 30-day trial for the premium option upon the launch of the enterprise edition.
Nulab CEO Masanori Hashimoto told The Bridge how Cacoo has been successfully penetrated since its beta launch back in November 2009:
Cacoo’s use cases include creating wireframes, sitemaps, network charts, architecture diagrams, as well as reviewing user interfaces, creating design order documents, and many other purposes.
Before launching Cacoo for Business, Nulab had been providing the on-premise version of Cacoo for notable Japanese internet companies like DeNA, DMM, and Cookpad, where the company understand how much these users want to secure their assets and resources.
Hashimoto continued:
For example, we have received feedback for more efficient user management, more flexibility for user permissions, how to take over diagrams created by a retired employee to a new designer. We have made these possible in the brand new cloud edition (Cacoo for Business) to better serve our users.
Nulab will keep providing individual user plans as they have been in the past. In view of offering multiple service plans like individual use, business use, or freemium option, our readers may think that Cacoo has a business model similar to DropBox and Evernote.
Hashimoto added:
Going forward, we will add more features aiming to reach corporate users. Specifically speaking, these efforts include strengthening security policy setting such as two-factor authentication as well as integration with other third-party tools and services.
Global expansion
86% of Cacoo users are from outside Japan. US users account for 15% of the user base, and Japanese users take an almost equal share. Considering this, Nulab established a local subsidiary in New York City last October to strengthen marketing in the US.
Hashimoto elaborated:
Our user base in Japan and the US is almost the same size. In the number of paying users by country, Japan is ranked tops, followed by the US, which is far higher than other markets. So we see that many people are using our service in business in the US as well as Japan. That’s why we set up an office in New York for more intimate communication with users. Now we have two local employees there to develop community engagement.
Nulab has been making increased efforts in user engagement in the global market, including holding their recent meet-up in Taiwan last month where local users are rapidly increasing. The company plans to bring the brand new enterprise edition to global companies and other high-profile organizations.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese sewing techniques are one of the things that may be considered to be world-class. While Japanese garment factories support top global apparel brands behind the scenes, many of these factories are faced with financial woes due to cost reductions. Furthermore, Japanese garment factories are facing recruitment difficulties for engineering positions due to the lack of opportunity to promote high-quality manufacturing prowess. On the other hand, many individuals and small businesses have recently launched their independent fashion brands, selling their items over instant online storefronts like Base and Stores.jp. These businesses are always looking to outsource production of fashion items. In order to meet such needs, the Japanese firm Sitateru launched a crowdsourced platform under the same name last March, looking to link independent fashion brands/retailers with garment factories. Sitateru is based out of Kumamoto, a prefecture located in the center of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island. Kumamoto traditionally had many garment factories, but have faced many challenges in recent years. Sitateru CEO Hidekazu Kono says that his team has been building a business network based upon a vision to expand opportunities for highly-skilled workers there. First, independent fashion brands/retailers upload their sample images of the intended outsource item using the service; these images need not be clear, rough…
Japanese sewing techniques are one of the things that may be considered to be world-class. While Japanese garment factories support top global apparel brands behind the scenes, many of these factories are faced with financial woes due to cost reductions. Furthermore, Japanese garment factories are facing recruitment difficulties for engineering positions due to the lack of opportunity to promote high-quality manufacturing prowess.
On the other hand, many individuals and small businesses have recently launched their independent fashion brands, selling their items over instant online storefronts like Base and Stores.jp. These businesses are always looking to outsource production of fashion items. In order to meet such needs, the Japanese firm Sitateru launched a crowdsourced platform under the same name last March, looking to link independent fashion brands/retailers with garment factories.
Sitateru is based out of Kumamoto, a prefecture located in the center of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island. Kumamoto traditionally had many garment factories, but have faced many challenges in recent years. Sitateru CEO Hidekazu Kono says that his team has been building a business network based upon a vision to expand opportunities for highly-skilled workers there.
First, independent fashion brands/retailers upload their sample images of the intended outsource item using the service; these images need not be clear, rough designs or image collages are enough, with even just conceptual ideas being acceptable. Using uploaded base designs, Sitateru’s designers and pattern makers decide which garment factory is relevant and matchmake them with received orders. If there is no problem with a sample product from the test production, both sides will enter into a mass production agreement. Acceptable minimum production volume starts with 10 pieces for one size pattern, 20 pieces for one production lot. Leveraging the platform with a capability of receiving these orders, garment factories can reduce their downtime and work their way out of financial woes.
Sitateru CEO Hidekazu Kawano explained:
Our main target is multi-brand store owners and online-only fashion retailers typically wanting to produce unique products despite the small production lot. We help them leverage highly-skilled manufacturing forces. We have now partnered with a dozen factories across the country, planning to acquire 1,000 fashion retailers as our users.
Sitateru CEO Hidekazu Kawano
He also added that the company wants to partner with over 50 companies and to grow a user base to more than 10,000 retailers by 2016. Sitateru recently started working on a new feature called Premium Product Order, which allows independent brand owners to produce limited-edition items in the same quality level as top global fashion brands, by leveraging high sewing techniques that Japanese garment factories have acquired.
Sitateru secured funds from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Nippon Venture Capital, and Japanese internet company Livesense (TSE:6054). Details of the investment have not been disclosed but the raised sum likely ranges around hundreds of thousand US dollars. The investment from Livesense is part of the Startup 50 incubation initiative, where entrepreneurs can receive mentorship from Livesense CEO Taichi Murakami and Japanese online recipe site Cookpad CEO Yoshiteru Akita.
Kawano continued:
In view of global fashion trends, starting with tailor-made production, we have experienced the era of mass production and mass consumption represented by the fast fashion industry, but I believe we are now in the era of optimized production and optimized consumption.
“Made by imagination” is our mission. These days people can create what they want to wear, to match their lifestyle. So my company wants to help sustain manufacturing capabilities for fashion items that people want.
Kawano noted that they can receive orders from the global market when they complete their network of garment factories, all across Japan. In addition, they aim to help increase “Made by Japan” brand (rather than “Made in Japan” brand) presence in the future.
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based startup Shikumi Design unveiled a next-gen musical instrument called Kagura on 14 January. The app allows users to play instrumental music by intuitive operations leveraging distance and gesture recognition technologies. The Kagura app won the grand prize at the Intel Perceptual Computing Challenge competition in 2013. The new version introduced at this time has been upgraded to support Intel RealSense 3D, a new technology available on PCs from Lenovo, Acer, and others, enabling an app to understand and respond to natural movement in 3D with a built-in camera. However, vision analysis for playing instruments is conducted in 2D, so if you are satisfied with playing instruments only, the app can work with any Windows PC with a built-in camera regardless of whether it supports the RealSense technology. Below is a Kagura promotional video, produced in cooperation with another Fukuoka-based startup Koo-ki. Shikumi Design CEO Shunsuke Nakamura demonstrated Kagura at a press briefing on Wednesday. Upon this release, they have brushed up several functions including new interface roll-out, five pre-installed sound-sets, as well as YouTube video uploads so that even non-savvy users can enjoy playing it as soon as they install the app. Shikumi Design specializes…
Shikumi Design CEO Shunsuke Nakamura demonstrates Kagura.
Fukuoka-based startup Shikumi Design unveiled a next-gen musical instrument called Kagura on 14 January. The app allows users to play instrumental music by intuitive operations leveraging distance and gesture recognition technologies.
The Kagura app won the grand prize at the Intel Perceptual Computing Challenge competition in 2013. The new version introduced at this time has been upgraded to support Intel RealSense 3D, a new technology available on PCs from Lenovo, Acer, and others, enabling an app to understand and respond to natural movement in 3D with a built-in camera. However, vision analysis for playing instruments is conducted in 2D, so if you are satisfied with playing instruments only, the app can work with any Windows PC with a built-in camera regardless of whether it supports the RealSense technology.
Below is a Kagura promotional video, produced in cooperation with another Fukuoka-based startup Koo-ki.
Shikumi Design CEO Shunsuke Nakamura demonstrated Kagura at a press briefing on Wednesday. Upon this release, they have brushed up several functions including new interface roll-out, five pre-installed sound-sets, as well as YouTube video uploads so that even non-savvy users can enjoy playing it as soon as they install the app.
Shikumi Design specializes in image displays and digital signage, and has been demonstrating the Kagura app at various live performance events, including collaborative performances with DJs, VJs, and vocal percussion artists.
Nakamura said,
Unlike non-music players like me, I’m often impressed at how DJs or VJs play music using various instruments in a professional manner. We’ve been receiving great support from human beatboxers as Kagura is giving them a new way of expression. In addition to professional music players, children can also enjoy creating music with Kagura simply by moving their bodies. Start with exploring the potential of our app with professional musicians, we want to expand the concept of music.
The Kagura app is available for free in order to make the experience open to more people. They aim to monetize the app by selling additional sound-sets and tool kits for professional musicians.
He continued:
Another possibility is a platform that allows users to share their post about playing music. There are many possibilities out there, but we want to develop the app with users while enjoying music.
Kagura has introduced a new way of music expression that will give birth to next-generation musicians and performers. Nakamura wants to kickoff a trend that encourages people to enjoy music and create new expressions similar to Hatsune Miku, the Japanese vocaloid platform from Crypton Future Media.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson and Masaru Ikeda
Proofread by Chris Ames Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based video recognition technology startup Abeja has installed a functional digital signage at Tokyo Metro’s Shinjuku station, the busiest subway station in Japan. This is to promote the movie from popular Japanese anime TV series Psycho-Pass, reproducing a system within the episodes that measures the populace’s mental states or vocational aptitudes using a “cymatic scan” of the brain, which is called the The Sibyl System.This system detects those looking at the ad and capture their faces with a camera. When captured, the captured face as well as the profile sheet stating your Psycho-Pass Coefficient index will be displayed on screen. If the Coefficient exceeds 100 points, you will be virtually executed on-screen by Public Safety Bureau officers carrying hand weapons called Dominators (see the video below). This signage is in place until next Sunday (11 January), so please check it out if there is any chance to use Shinjuku station by then. The presentation has conscientiously reproduced the world of the anime series, so not only ardent anime fans but also many passers-by of all ages can enjoy (possibly) being “blown away” by the experience. Abeja CEO Yousuke Okada explained that this can prove the possibility of a new advertising medium applying their video recognition…
Tokyo-based video recognition technology startup Abeja has installed a functional digital signage at Tokyo Metro’s Shinjuku station, the busiest subway station in Japan. This is to promote the movie from popular Japanese anime TV series Psycho-Pass, reproducing a system within the episodes that measures the populace’s mental states or vocational aptitudes using a “cymatic scan” of the brain, which is called the The Sibyl System.This system detects those looking at the ad and capture their faces with a camera. When captured, the captured face as well as the profile sheet stating your Psycho-Pass Coefficient index will be displayed on screen. If the Coefficient exceeds 100 points, you will be virtually executed on-screen by Public Safety Bureau officers carrying hand weapons called Dominators (see the video below).
This signage is in place until next Sunday (11 January), so please check it out if there is any chance to use Shinjuku station by then.
The presentation has conscientiously reproduced the world of the anime series, so not only ardent anime fans but also many passers-by of all ages can enjoy (possibly) being “blown away” by the experience. Abeja CEO Yousuke Okada explained that this can prove the possibility of a new advertising medium applying their video recognition technology. This is also considered remarkable because it is rare for a startup to leverage their core technology in collaboration with established companies or entertainment businesses.
See the original story in Japanese. The Bridge learned earlier this week that Warrantee, an Osaka-based startup that aims to digitalize product warranties, announced that Japanese recipe site Cookpad has taken a 16% stake in the former company. Details of the investment has not been disclosed but it’s likely to be a seed funding worth six-digits in US dollars. Warrantee proposes a one-stop process, registering personal data in advance on their service. In this way warranties for a specified user can be quickly registered regardless of products or companies. There are many cases where retail stores offer additional paid warranties, so the startup plans to earn a service charge from retailers by motivating users to opt into such additional warranties. Another business opportunity lies in tying up with retailers, allowing them to utilize user data accumulated on Warrantee for the retailer promotions. Warrantee CEO Yusuke Shono elaborated their business potential: By collecting warranty data users, we can learn when and what they have bought as well as predict their next replacement period. With warranty data inputs of multiple home appliances rather than a single one, we can even estimate how they use these appliances in their lives. Such information was out of reach for appliance manufacturers despite extensive partnering efforts with retailers. He thinks…
The Bridge learned earlier this week that Warrantee, an Osaka-based startup that aims to digitalize product warranties, announced that Japanese recipe site Cookpad has taken a 16% stake in the former company. Details of the investment has not been disclosed but it’s likely to be a seed funding worth six-digits in US dollars.
Warrantee proposes a one-stop process, registering personal data in advance on their service. In this way warranties for a specified user can be quickly registered regardless of products or companies. There are many cases where retail stores offer additional paid warranties, so the startup plans to earn a service charge from retailers by motivating users to opt into such additional warranties. Another business opportunity lies in tying up with retailers, allowing them to utilize user data accumulated on Warrantee for the retailer promotions.
Warrantee CEO Yusuke Shono elaborated their business potential:
By collecting warranty data users, we can learn when and what they have bought as well as predict their next replacement period. With warranty data inputs of multiple home appliances rather than a single one, we can even estimate how they use these appliances in their lives. Such information was out of reach for appliance manufacturers despite extensive partnering efforts with retailers.
He thinks that one possibility with the platform is proposing interior styling and decoration to potential furniture buyers.
See the original story in Japanese. Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment firm of Tokyo-based broadcaster Fuji TV’s stock holding company, announced on Thursday that it has invest in Plumzi, a US-based entertainment technology company. Funding details have not been disclosed but it’s likely worth around a six-digit number in US dollars. Plumzi is a platform for animation studios, allowing them to adapt TV anime series into other formats suitable for tablets or smartphones, by restructuring videos, graphics, and audios from an original format in an easy way. With the platform, animation studios can quickly create a variety of content for smart devices as well as provide reproduced content back to their original rights owners for their secondary use. Fuji Startup Ventures recently launched a game-focused crowdfunding platform in partnership with Sega Networks and Goopa, called Crowdrive. Through the partnership with Plumzi, Fuji wants to strengthen edutainment app developments leveraging their huge visual content library. This investment round was led by US-based Quest Venture Partners with participation from Walt Disney and Turner New Media Investments, which proves that the animation technology company draws great attention in the US. Starting with this investment, Fuji Startup Ventures aims to build an alliance across…
Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment firm of Tokyo-based broadcaster Fuji TV’s stock holding company, announced on Thursday that it has invest in Plumzi, a US-based entertainment technology company. Funding details have not been disclosed but it’s likely worth around a six-digit number in US dollars.
Plumzi is a platform for animation studios, allowing them to adapt TV anime series into other formats suitable for tablets or smartphones, by restructuring videos, graphics, and audios from an original format in an easy way. With the platform, animation studios can quickly create a variety of content for smart devices as well as provide reproduced content back to their original rights owners for their secondary use.
Fuji Startup Ventures recently launched a game-focused crowdfunding platform in partnership with Sega Networks and Goopa, called Crowdrive. Through the partnership with Plumzi, Fuji wants to strengthen edutainment app developments leveraging their huge visual content library.
This investment round was led by US-based Quest Venture Partners with participation from Walt Disney and Turner New Media Investments, which proves that the animation technology company draws great attention in the US. Starting with this investment, Fuji Startup Ventures aims to build an alliance across media companies in Japan and the US.
