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Japan’s screen capture and sharing platform Gyazo fundraises $2 million

Gyazo
Nota

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.11.11

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Kyoto- and Silicon Valley-based Nota, the company that provides screen capture and cloud storage platform Gyazo, announced today that it has fundraised $2 million from Japanese Internet company Opt, as well as two VC firms; YJ Capital and Miyako Capital. Gyazo allows users to capture a screenshot and share it with other users via a simple URL. Since its release in 2011, the service has acquired 3.75 million monthly unique users and about 13 million monthly uploads of screenshots. The service is available for free, but premium membership menu for corporate users provides additional features like enabling access privilege for their files, user support, as well as integration with Microsoft Office applications. In a view of geographical distribution, Nota has about 3,000 premium and freemium users – North America (33%), Europe (37%), Japan (14%), and Russia (4%). Prior to launching Gyazo, Nota developed a book search engine called Calil that allows users to make retrievals across libraries in Japan. CEO Isshu Rakusai started programming when he was 12. He has introduced news clipping software Kamicopi and has been approved as a “super creator” by the Japanese governmental IT promotion authority,…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Kyoto- and Silicon Valley-based Nota, the company that provides screen capture and cloud storage platform Gyazo, announced today that it has fundraised $2 million from Japanese Internet company Opt, as well as two VC firms; YJ Capital and Miyako Capital.

Gyazo allows users to capture a screenshot and share it with other users via a simple URL. Since its release in 2011, the service has acquired 3.75 million monthly unique users and about 13 million monthly uploads of screenshots.

The service is available for free, but premium membership menu for corporate users provides additional features like enabling access privilege for their files, user support, as well as integration with Microsoft Office applications. In a view of geographical distribution, Nota has about 3,000 premium and freemium users – North America (33%), Europe (37%), Japan (14%), and Russia (4%).

Prior to launching Gyazo, Nota developed a book search engine called Calil that allows users to make retrievals across libraries in Japan. CEO Isshu Rakusai started programming when he was 12. He has introduced news clipping software Kamicopi and has been approved as a “super creator” by the Japanese governmental IT promotion authority, IPA in 2003.

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Japan’s parking lot sharing platform Akippa secures additional funding from DeNA

Akippa
DeNA

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.10.28

See the original story in Japanese. Galaxy Agency, a Japanese startup behind peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa, announced on Monday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese Internet giant DeNA. Details about this round have not been disclosed, but the company has fundraised a total of 300 million yen ($3 million) since their launch, including 65 million yen ($650,000) from Jafco in September 2012, as well as an undisclosed sum from DeNA, Enigmo co-CEO Shokei Suda and other angel investors in 2014. See also: Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors Japan’s Akippa and Uber teamed up, proposing park-and-ride option for car owners Galaxy Agency will use the funds to strengthen marketing by increasing product listing ads and media exposure. Since its launch in April, they have acquired many parking lot owners. CEO Genki Kanaya said that the number of parking lots available on the platform as of September has tripled since August. We are focused on acquiring parking lots in areas where user demand is high, such as city centers and near sports stadiums. For instance, there were only three parking complexes available within 1.8 kilometers of Nagai Stadium, but via…

See the original story in Japanese.

Galaxy Agency, a Japanese startup behind peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa, announced on Monday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese Internet giant DeNA. Details about this round have not been disclosed, but the company has fundraised a total of 300 million yen ($3 million) since their launch, including 65 million yen ($650,000) from Jafco in September 2012, as well as an undisclosed sum from DeNA, Enigmo co-CEO Shokei Suda and other angel investors in 2014.

See also:

Galaxy Agency will use the funds to strengthen marketing by increasing product listing ads and media exposure. Since its launch in April, they have acquired many parking lot owners. CEO Genki Kanaya said that the number of parking lots available on the platform as of September has tripled since August.

We are focused on acquiring parking lots in areas where user demand is high, such as city centers and near sports stadiums. For instance, there were only three parking complexes available within 1.8 kilometers of Nagai Stadium, but via our platform this number has increased fivefold to 15 parking complexes.

In addition to Akippa, Galaxy Company has been providing several online services such as part-time job board Rebaito, so they have an excellent reputation for strong sales. The company had been allocating almost 50% of their sales team to Akippa, but has raised this to 80% since August in order to boost marketing.

They plan to use the additional funding to launch a new C2C-based service in November to solve parking problems by leveraging the spare time of individuals, Kanaya said.

Finding a parking space is an issue everywhere in the world. It will be interesting to see how the Galaxy Agency team markets their solution to car owners not only in Japan but also the rest of the world.

news

Hankyu Corporation to launch startup incubation office in Osaka

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.10.25

See the original story in Japanese. Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex. See also: Osaka City Government establishes incubator and fund for local entrepreneurs Can Osaka be a startup hub? Translation app Waygo wins HackOsaka pitch contest They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services. Several incubation initiatives have begun in cities in Japan, represented by the declaration of Fukuoka city to be a startup hub or launching their incubation space. It will be interesting to see how the railway company can generate synergy in the local startup scene.

hankyu_featuredimage — Cc-licensed picture via Flickr.

See the original story in Japanese.

Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex.

See also:

They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services.

Several incubation initiatives have begun in cities in Japan, represented by the declaration of Fukuoka city to be a startup hub or launching their incubation space. It will be interesting to see how the railway company can generate synergy in the local startup scene.

news

Japan’s Akippa and Uber teamed up, proposing park-and-ride option for car owners

Akippa
Uber

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.09.06

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Japan’s peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa announced on Friday that it has launched a joint promotion campaign with Uber so that Akippa users can receive a complimentary first ride worth 4,000 yen (about $38) with Uber hired cabs. See also: Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors This campaign aims to give users more options to transport in central Tokyo areas. When you are going to a big event or conference in these areas by car, you may not always easily find an avaiable parking lot near the venue. However, if you alternatively park a car a bit far from the venue, you will need to take time to move from the parking lot to the venue. With the campaign, Uber wants to propose a new user experience where you can park a car at a parking lot using Akippa and then use Uber get to the final destination. As many city dwellers in Japan know, parking a car in the central urban areas may cost as high as more than $10 per hour, which is difficult to use to park over several…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Japan’s peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa announced on Friday that it has launched a joint promotion campaign with Uber so that Akippa users can receive a complimentary first ride worth 4,000 yen (about $38) with Uber hired cabs.

See also:

Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors

This campaign aims to give users more options to transport in central Tokyo areas. When you are going to a big event or conference in these areas by car, you may not always easily find an avaiable parking lot near the venue. However, if you alternatively park a car a bit far from the venue, you will need to take time to move from the parking lot to the venue. With the campaign, Uber wants to propose a new user experience where you can park a car at a parking lot using Akippa and then use Uber get to the final destination.

As many city dwellers in Japan know, parking a car in the central urban areas may cost as high as more than $10 per hour, which is difficult to use to park over several hours. Akippa wants to address parking issues for car owners in the urban areas, so both companies have agreed to launch this promotion campaign together. The campaign is effective until the end of October.

news

Japan’s ExCo raises $3.3M, launches cardless online payments platform

Exchange Corporation

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.07.31

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Exchange Corporation (ExCo for short) announced yesterday that it has launched a new payment solution called Paidy and raised about 330 million yen (or $3.3 million) from Arbor Ventures (Hong Kong), CyberAgent Ventures (Japan), Recruit Strategic Partners (Japan), 500 Startups (USA), and Cherubic Ventures (Taiwan). ExCo has developed various personal finance services including P2P loan market Aqush. Paidy allows you to complete an online payment without entering credit card numbers or login procedure. To buy something online with Paidy, all you need is to enter your name and e-mail address. You can also choose a lump-sum payment or installed payments up to 36 months. When you use Paidy at a retailer to buy something, ExCo pays them first and bills you later. In this way, the company reduces the risk of default in payment for retailers, but the simplicity of payment process makes consumers more easily to buy items online. In this space, we’ve seen similar services by companies like Klarna. This Swedish company mainly serves retailers and consumers in Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Austria, where the simplicity and speed-up of its purchasing process have improved the consumer conversion rate at online…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Exchange Corporation (ExCo for short) announced yesterday that it has launched a new payment solution called Paidy and raised about 330 million yen (or $3.3 million) from Arbor Ventures (Hong Kong), CyberAgent Ventures (Japan), Recruit Strategic Partners (Japan), 500 Startups (USA), and Cherubic Ventures (Taiwan).

ExCo has developed various personal finance services including P2P loan market Aqush. Paidy allows you to complete an online payment without entering credit card numbers or login procedure. To buy something online with Paidy, all you need is to enter your name and e-mail address. You can also choose a lump-sum payment or installed payments up to 36 months.

When you use Paidy at a retailer to buy something, ExCo pays them first and bills you later. In this way, the company reduces the risk of default in payment for retailers, but the simplicity of payment process makes consumers more easily to buy items online.

In this space, we’ve seen similar services by companies like Klarna. This Swedish company mainly serves retailers and consumers in Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Austria, where the simplicity and speed-up of its purchasing process have improved the consumer conversion rate at online retail stores.

Coinciding with this launch, the company also announced that it has started hiring people for the new business.

news

Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.06.23

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Osaka-based Galaxy Agency, the startup that operates online peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa and several online job sites, announced today it has fundraised from DeNA (TSE:2432) and several angel investors including Shokei Suda, co-founder of Japanese internet service company Enigmo (TSE:3665). Details of the investment have not yet been disclosed but it’s likely be several hundred thousand US dollars. This follows their previous funding of 65 million yen (about $650,000) from Japanese investment firm Jafco back in September 2012. Akippa helps customers find an available parking space online. When you book a time slot for it using your desktop or smartphone, you will be allowed to park your car there by paying up to 500 yen ($5) a day. It also allows parking lot owners to easily manage their venues via the platform as well. At the time of its launch back in April, Akippa started offering over 30,000 available parking lots nationwide. Using the funds raised at this time, the company plans to intensify efforts to acquire new users, such as by offering discount codes to their existing users when their friends sign up for the service….

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Osaka-based Galaxy Agency, the startup that operates online peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa and several online job sites, announced today it has fundraised from DeNA (TSE:2432) and several angel investors including Shokei Suda, co-founder of Japanese internet service company Enigmo (TSE:3665). Details of the investment have not yet been disclosed but it’s likely be several hundred thousand US dollars. This follows their previous funding of 65 million yen (about $650,000) from Japanese investment firm Jafco back in September 2012.

Akippa helps customers find an available parking space online. When you book a time slot for it using your desktop or smartphone, you will be allowed to park your car there by paying up to 500 yen ($5) a day. It also allows parking lot owners to easily manage their venues via the platform as well.

At the time of its launch back in April, Akippa started offering over 30,000 available parking lots nationwide. Using the funds raised at this time, the company plans to intensify efforts to acquire new users, such as by offering discount codes to their existing users when their friends sign up for the service.

Galaxy Agency CEO Genki Kanaya explained how they will proceed with the business:

We’ll be focused on providing more parking lots in areas in high demand as well as user acquisition. […] Our platform is a web app for now, but we’re planning to hire several engineers to develop native apps for mobile. We’ll introduce an iOS app early next month, and an Android version will also follow soon.

The company is planning to partner with car-rental and car-sharing companies because their typical users have no parking space at home but frequently use rental or sharing services for short outings. It will be interesting to see how they will fare in the shared-economy industry.

news

Japan’s e-commerce solutions company Aratana acquires security startup Gehirn

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.06.20

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal. Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year. With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn. Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently…

hamauzu-ishimori — From the left: Aratana CEO Shinji Hamauzu, Gehirn CEO Daiki Ishimori

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal.

Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year.

With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn.

Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently he attended the Security Camp training program run by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, where he got huge knowledge and experience about the server security.

In 2008, he moved into limelight since he pointed out mistakes in the hacking scene in Japanese TV drama series Bloody Monday, and later was hired by Japanese computer security company Cyber Defense Institute at his age of 18. He’s been providing consulting services in the computer security field to governmental institutions and major corporations in Japan, and subsequently established his own company Gehirn back in 2010.

When I visited Gehirn's office, they were displaying the earthquake early warning (EEW) system that they have developed. — When I visited Gehirn’s office, they were displaying the earthquake early warning (EEW) system that they have developed.

news

Tokyo-based startup Clear launches English news site focused on Japanese sake

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.06.20

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Clear, the startup best known for promoting subscription-based Japanese sake service Sakelife and acting as a consultant for a Japanese sake restaurant in Shibuya, launched a news site focused on Japanese sake called Saketimes today. Japan is receiving more attention from the world because Japanese cuisine has been added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list as well as the country is hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese government’s cabinet office launched a project called ‘Enjoy Japanese Kokushu‘ last year and started promoting export of Japanese sake products to the global market. The company aims to give people a more enjoyable drinking experience by sharing useful tips and interesting stories about the products. Since Japanese sake products are made at local breweries around the country, we may expect the company to partner with them and provide increased opportunities to taste many different local flavors.

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Clear, the startup best known for promoting subscription-based Japanese sake service Sakelife and acting as a consultant for a Japanese sake restaurant in Shibuya, launched a news site focused on Japanese sake called Saketimes today.

Japan is receiving more attention from the world because Japanese cuisine has been added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list as well as the country is hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese government’s cabinet office launched a project called ‘Enjoy Japanese Kokushu‘ last year and started promoting export of Japanese sake products to the global market.

The company aims to give people a more enjoyable drinking experience by sharing useful tips and interesting stories about the products. Since Japanese sake products are made at local breweries around the country, we may expect the company to partner with them and provide increased opportunities to taste many different local flavors.

news

Japan’s EventRegist raises $1.6 million from Nikkei

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.04.01

See the original story in Japanese.Tokyo-based EventRegist provides a mobile app for event organizers. It lets you announce events, handle ticketing, and collect admission fees from guests. The startup announced today that it has raised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nikkei. Since its launch back in November of 2011, EventRegist has been available to five markets, offering service in Japanese, English, Indonesian, Thai, and traditional Chinese. They will use these new funds to intensify product development and marketing efforts. Their platform has been adopted by notable events here in Japan, such as the New Economy Summit, Ceatec Japan, and Ad:tech Tokyo. It appears they will focus on adding more functions for event-organizing companies rather than just individual meet-up organizers. Update: Nikkei unveiled they are planning to integrate their digital edition’s subscribers with EventRegist, promoting events by helping them easier register to attend.

See the original story in Japanese.Tokyo-based EventRegist provides a mobile app for event organizers. It lets you announce events, handle ticketing, and collect admission fees from guests. The startup announced today that it has raised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nikkei.

Since its launch back in November of 2011, EventRegist has been available to five markets, offering service in Japanese, English, Indonesian, Thai, and traditional Chinese. They will use these new funds to intensify product development and marketing efforts.

Their platform has been adopted by notable events here in Japan, such as the New Economy Summit, Ceatec Japan, and Ad:tech Tokyo. It appears they will focus on adding more functions for event-organizing companies rather than just individual meet-up organizers.

Update: Nikkei unveiled they are planning to integrate their digital edition’s subscribers with EventRegist, promoting events by helping them easier register to attend.

news

Meet the Japanese startup developing a wearable solution to help the visually impaired

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.02.23

See the original article in Japanese On February 7th, an Osaka-based startup pitch event called Shoot took place. Nine startups pitched in total, and perhaps the most remarkable one was Mimimiru, presenting a wearable device designed for the blind and visually impaired. Mimimiru analyzes image data and lets users know what’s in that image by reading information aloud. Tomoyuki Hisada is a software engineer and the CEO of Another Brain, the startup behind this device. He has been considering how he could support a visually impaired friend of his through IT. Observing a rising trend in wearable devices like Google Glass, he came up with the idea for Mimimiru. He tells us: When I saw wearable devices, I thought this could be a tool for disabled people. If I could inform blind and visually impaired people about what they see in front of them, their everyday lives could be much improved. He presented Mimimiru for the first time at the MA9 Mashup Camp Osaka web development contest, where the device won the top award and moved on to the second stage where it won the NTT docomo Award, KDDI Web Communications Award, and the TechWave Award. At the Docomo Wearable…

See the original article in Japanese

On February 7th, an Osaka-based startup pitch event called Shoot took place. Nine startups pitched in total, and perhaps the most remarkable one was Mimimiru, presenting a wearable device designed for the blind and visually impaired. Mimimiru analyzes image data and lets users know what’s in that image by reading information aloud.

Tomoyuki Hisada is a software engineer and the CEO of Another Brain, the startup behind this device. He has been considering how he could support a visually impaired friend of his through IT. Observing a rising trend in wearable devices like Google Glass, he came up with the idea for Mimimiru. He tells us:

When I saw wearable devices, I thought this could be a tool for disabled people. If I could inform blind and visually impaired people about what they see in front of them, their everyday lives could be much improved.

He presented Mimimiru for the first time at the MA9 Mashup Camp Osaka web development contest, where the device won the top award and moved on to the second stage where it won the NTT docomo Award, KDDI Web Communications Award, and the TechWave Award. At the Docomo Wearable Hackathon held last December, it won the Award for Excellence. The startup is currently developing a prototype using a Docomo character recognition API.

Technology for reading image data aloud is still under development, and it is expected that it will be a few years before it can be really put to use. So Hisada sought and found another solution by turning to crowdsourcing and social media. He explains:

A user takes pictures with a wearable device and post the image(s) to Twitter. And his followers can then reply and tell him information about the picture, which the device will then read aloud. It’s essentially five-second volunteer work that can really help the visually impaired.

He’s receiving support from a volunteer group on Twitter, and he hopes to develop a system by utilizing the activity of social welfare corporations and NPOs who create lists of visually impaired Twitter users and blocks mischievous users. They could also gain support from corporations as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

We’d like to keep our eyes on Mimimiru, one of many interesting wearable tech startups here in Japan.

Shintaro Eguchi

Articles

Japan’s screen capture and sharing platform Gyazo fundraises $2 million

Japan’s parking lot sharing platform Akippa secures additional funding from DeNA

Hankyu Corporation to launch startup incubation office in Osaka

Japan’s Akippa and Uber teamed up, proposing park-and-ride option for car owners

Japan’s ExCo raises $3.3M, launches cardless online payments platform

Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors

Japan’s e-commerce solutions company Aratana acquires security startup Gehirn

Tokyo-based startup Clear launches English news site focused on Japanese sake

Japan’s EventRegist raises $1.6 million from Nikkei

Meet the Japanese startup developing a wearable solution to help the visually impaired

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