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Japan’s teen programming camp operator ‘Life is Tech’ raises $3 million

Life is Tech

Masaru Ikeda 2014.08.04

Tokyo-based Life is Tech runs a bootcamp program for elementary and junior high school students to master infotech (IT) skills. The company announced today that it has fundraised 310 million yen ($3 million) from Jafco, Mistletoe, KCJ Group, DeNA, and Recruit Holdings. [1] Life is Tech teaches mobile app development and movie-making in three different types of courses, such as intensive bootcamp, online, and year-round face-to-face courses. More than 5,000 students have participated in the courses, and about 1,300 students will also join the summer bootcamp program. Life is Tech was qualified by KDDI for the fourth batch of their incubation program last year. They received investment from CyberAgent and established a joint venture called CA Tech Kids with the latter company to provide programming courses for elementary school students. Life is Tech is planning to set up a local subsidiary in Singapore in October for strengthening global expansion in order to provide learning courses to students around the world. Via TechCrunch Japan Mistletoe is an investment fund by notable angel investor Taizo Son. KCJ Group is the Japanese local operating company behind family entertainment centers KidZania. ↩

Tokyo-based Life is Tech runs a bootcamp program for elementary and junior high school students to master infotech (IT) skills. The company announced today that it has fundraised 310 million yen ($3 million) from Jafco, Mistletoe, KCJ Group, DeNA, and Recruit Holdings. [1]

Life is Tech teaches mobile app development and movie-making in three different types of courses, such as intensive bootcamp, online, and year-round face-to-face courses. More than 5,000 students have participated in the courses, and about 1,300 students will also join the summer bootcamp program.

Life is Tech was qualified by KDDI for the fourth batch of their incubation program last year. They received investment from CyberAgent and established a joint venture called CA Tech Kids with the latter company to provide programming courses for elementary school students.

Life is Tech is planning to set up a local subsidiary in Singapore in October for strengthening global expansion in order to provide learning courses to students around the world.

Via TechCrunch Japan

Mistletoe is an investment fund by notable angel investor Taizo Son. KCJ Group is the Japanese local operating company behind family entertainment centers KidZania. ↩

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Opt unveils $150M investment plan, wants more companies to go public with new businesses

Opt

Masaru Ikeda 2014.08.03

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that Tokyo-based e-marketing company Opt will invest 15 billion yen ($146.2 million) in startups focused on cloud services for enterprise users, adtech, e-commerce, and edtech businesses. The company plans to invest amounts ranging from hundreds of thousand dollars to $3 million in each qualified startup and acquire over a 51% plus share in them. Opt has 17 group companies so far, and wants to have 100 within three years through the investment efforts. Besides the funding, Opt plans to help invested companies improve their back office operations in advertising, marketing, public relations, and hiring, with the aim to have an IPO within a few years after the investment. On a related note, Tokyo-based Hottolink, the company behind data analytics solutions Hottoscope, received investment from Opt in 2005, and went public on the TSE Mothers market earlier this year. Opt wants to increase this kind investment scenario in future group companies.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that Tokyo-based e-marketing company Opt will invest 15 billion yen ($146.2 million) in startups focused on cloud services for enterprise users, adtech, e-commerce, and edtech businesses. The company plans to invest amounts ranging from hundreds of thousand dollars to $3 million in each qualified startup and acquire over a 51% plus share in them.

Opt has 17 group companies so far, and wants to have 100 within three years through the investment efforts. Besides the funding, Opt plans to help invested companies improve their back office operations in advertising, marketing, public relations, and hiring, with the aim to have an IPO within a few years after the investment.

On a related note, Tokyo-based Hottolink, the company behind data analytics solutions Hottoscope, received investment from Opt in 2005, and went public on the TSE Mothers market earlier this year. Opt wants to increase this kind investment scenario in future group companies.

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Japan’s state-run fund to invest $9 million in eyeglass e-commerce startup Oh My Glasses

Masaru Ikeda 2014.08.02

Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on August 2 that Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), the Japanese state-run startup fund, will invest 900 million yen ($9 million) in Japanese eyeglasses-focused vertical e-commerce startup Oh My Glasses. This is part of the government’s aim to promote the optical industry in Sabae City, which has for centuries been a major supplier of eyeglasses. Since its start in 2011, Oh My Glasses has been providing an eyeglass e-commerce service that offers five sets of eyeglasses at a time upon order, and buy one if you can find any favorite among them. So customers can try them on before buying. See also: 8 entrepreneurs who quit to go their own way Top 50: Japanese Startups You Should Know Oh My Glasses procures most of its products from suppliers in Sabae. Companies in Sabae expertly handcraft eyeglasses to very high standards, but they need to streamline production to compete against cheaper eyeglasses from China and Korea. Oh My Glasses plans to use the funding to help factories in Sabae rationalize their business operations by developing systems for better inventory management and for sales updates/reports being regularly provided to local opticians and factories.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on August 2 that Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), the Japanese state-run startup fund, will invest 900 million yen ($9 million) in Japanese eyeglasses-focused vertical e-commerce startup Oh My Glasses. This is part of the government’s aim to promote the optical industry in Sabae City, which has for centuries been a major supplier of eyeglasses.

Since its start in 2011, Oh My Glasses has been providing an eyeglass e-commerce service that offers five sets of eyeglasses at a time upon order, and buy one if you can find any favorite among them. So customers can try them on before buying.

See also:

Oh My Glasses procures most of its products from suppliers in Sabae. Companies in Sabae expertly handcraft eyeglasses to very high standards, but they need to streamline production to compete against cheaper eyeglasses from China and Korea.

Oh My Glasses plans to use the funding to help factories in Sabae rationalize their business operations by developing systems for better inventory management and for sales updates/reports being regularly provided to local opticians and factories.

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Japan’s online fashion retailer Start Today to acquire e-publication company Yappa

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.31

Start Today (TSE:3092), the Japanese company behind the country’s leading online fashion retailer Zozotown, announced today that it will acquire Tokyo-based e-publishing company Yappa. The acquisition will occur　on October 1. Started in 2000, Yappa publishes online editions of over 900 magazines in partnership with Japanese leading publishers. Especially for folks in　the local startup community in Tokyo, the company is also known for publishing the Japanese translation of US-based tech news media ReadWrite.com. Through the acquisition, Start Today aims to leverage Yappa’s content publishing capability and explore sales and marketing synergy in the online fashion retail business. Via Venture Now

Start Today (TSE:3092), the Japanese company behind the country’s leading online fashion retailer Zozotown, announced today that it will acquire Tokyo-based e-publishing company Yappa. The acquisition will occur　on October 1.

Started in 2000, Yappa publishes online editions of over 900 magazines in partnership with Japanese leading publishers. Especially for folks in　the local startup community in Tokyo, the company is also known for publishing the Japanese translation of US-based tech news media ReadWrite.com.

Through the acquisition, Start Today aims to leverage Yappa’s content publishing capability and explore sales and marketing synergy in the online fashion retail business.

Via Venture Now

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Beauty products portal @Cosme to diversify business with GlossyBox Japan acquisition

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.31

Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3660), the company behind Japanese popular cosmetics review portals @Cosme, announced yesterday that it acquired Beauty Trend Japan, the operating company of GlossyBox Japan. GlossyBox was started by Germany-based investment company Rocket Internet, and has been providing subscription-based cosmetics delivery service to female consumers in several Asian countries. In a related story, Singapore-based subscription service startup VanityTrove acquired GlossyBox Taiwan last year in order to expand their operations in Southeast Asia. While GlossyBox Japan has 53,000 users, iStyle has 2.8 million users and has partnered with some 850 cosmetics manufacturers in Japan. via Shopping Tribe / TechCrunch Japan

Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3660), the company behind Japanese popular cosmetics review portals @Cosme, announced yesterday that it acquired Beauty Trend Japan, the operating company of GlossyBox Japan.

GlossyBox was started by Germany-based investment company Rocket Internet, and has been providing subscription-based cosmetics delivery service to female consumers in several Asian countries. In a related story, Singapore-based subscription service startup VanityTrove acquired GlossyBox Taiwan last year in order to expand their operations in Southeast Asia.

While GlossyBox Japan has 53,000 users, iStyle has 2.8 million users and has partnered with some 850 cosmetics manufacturers in Japan.

via Shopping Tribe / TechCrunch Japan

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Japan’s StudyPact qualifies for Seedstars World finals with learning goals achievement platform

SeedStars World

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.30

See the original story in Japanese. SeedStars World is an initiative touring 33 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. In Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on 25 July at a co-working space in Harajuku, Tokyo. A number of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches to qualify for the final global competition next February in Geneva, Switzerland. Here is a rundown of the three teams selected. 1st Place: StudyPact StudyPact is a service that lets users set a study goal and monetary stakes as a sort of bet with themselves. They graduated from the 8th batch of an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab. To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx. 2nd Place: Casy Casy offers crowdsourced housekeeping services. They were recently launched by Beenos, the incubation arm of Japanese internet company Netprice.com, and also announced that they have raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Beenos last month. 3rd place: AppTrader AppTrader is an auction house for apps. It allows users to buy and sell the property of apps listed on AppStore and…

See the original story in Japanese.

SeedStars World is an initiative touring 33 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. In Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on 25 July at a co-working space in Harajuku, Tokyo.

A number of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches to qualify for the final global competition next February in Geneva, Switzerland. Here is a rundown of the three teams selected.

1st Place: StudyPact

StudyPact is a service that lets users set a study goal and monetary stakes as a sort of bet with themselves. They graduated from the 8th batch of an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab. To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx.

2nd Place: Casy

Casy offers crowdsourced housekeeping services. They were recently launched by Beenos, the incubation arm of Japanese internet company Netprice.com, and also announced that they have raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Beenos last month.

3rd place: AppTrader

AppTrader is an auction house for apps. It allows users to buy and sell the property of apps listed on AppStore and GooglePlay. Listing and bid submission are free. When a deal is closed, the platform allows a user to move the ownership of a user base as well as development resources.

The event website has more information on the many startups that have been selected in other participating cities. After Tokyo, the next local event will take place on August 1st (Friday) in Seoul, Korea.

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Japanese team to pitch connected stuffed toy at Imagine Cup world finals

Cuddly Connect

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.29

See the original story in Japanese. The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year. This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University. Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues. Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or…

See the original story in Japanese.

The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year.

This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University.

Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues.

Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or child. It is in fact a biped walking robot equipped with a web camera, as well as a speaker and a microphone, all controlled via a .NET MicroFramework board in the toy. Cuddly Connect is part and parcel of the IoT (Internet of Things) industry that is receiving global attention. As such, whether the furry toy will make it to the top at the world finals will be of much interest.

The finals will start at 8:30am on August 1, Friday (Pacific Standard Time), or 1:30am on August 2, Saturday (Japan Standard Time). It will be livestreamed here if you’d like to tune in.

cuddly-connect-team-before-cake — The Cuddly Connect team from National Institute of Technology, Toba College.
From the left: Kikuya Miyamura, Palin Choviwatana, and Kenta Hamaguchi

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Japanese quiz app BrainWars ranks in the app store top charts

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.28

This is the abridged version of this and that articles. Tokyo-based Translimit, the startup behind Japanese social quiz app BrainWars, announced today that it has surpassed 400,000 downloads. This record was reached less than eleven weeks after the iOS app was unveiled on May 14th. Coinciding with this milestone, the company announced that the app has recently reached third place in the top grossing rank in the US App Store, with 95% of their users located outside Japan. BrainWars pits players against one another in three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs best. The app is currently available in Japanese, English and Spanish. They told us that they will add Chinese and Korean in the next version being released shortly, with an Android version to be introduced in mid-August. Meanwhile, Translimit also announced that it has started a promotion campaign with Tokyo-based lunch box delivery startup Bento.jp, , where Translimit gives you a complimentary lunch delivery from Bento.jp if you can win a quiz competition against Translimit’s official account. Even if you lose the game, you get a 10% discount coupon for the lunch delivery service. The campaign will run from today until…

This is the abridged version of this and that articles.

Tokyo-based Translimit, the startup behind Japanese social quiz app BrainWars, announced today that it has surpassed 400,000 downloads. This record was reached less than eleven weeks after the iOS app was unveiled on May 14th. Coinciding with this milestone, the company announced that the app has recently reached third place in the top grossing rank in the US App Store, with 95% of their users located outside Japan.

BrainWars pits players against one another in three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs best. The app is currently available in Japanese, English and Spanish. They told us that they will add Chinese and Korean in the next version being released shortly, with an Android version to be introduced in mid-August.

Meanwhile, Translimit also announced that it has started a promotion campaign with Tokyo-based lunch box delivery startup Bento.jp, , where Translimit gives you a complimentary lunch delivery from Bento.jp if you can win a quiz competition against Translimit’s official account. Even if you lose the game, you get a 10% discount coupon for the lunch delivery service. The campaign will run from today until July 30th (Wednesday).

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Japan’s Fove unveils eye-tracking HMD, to avail prototype in 2015

Fove

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.26

Tokyo-based startup Fove announced earlier this week the development of a consumer-oriented head-mounted display (HMD) under the same name. They have completed their first proof-of-concept development and are readying a developers kit release for next year. Earlier this month, the company was also accepted into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London where they will investigate possible future cooperation with Microsoft Xbox due to its global market potential. They aim to unveil their prototype and release preliminary details of their software development kit (SDK) during the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Pitch day in December. Fove, their product, will allow users to control a 360-degree virtual world with their eyes using a leading-edge display, eye tracking, orientation sensing and head position tracking [1]. The company wants to provide an SDK to gaming companies and encourage its adoption so that it will work with their gaming titles, while working with the rehabilitation industry to help autistic patients or the physically challenged communicate with others. Founded in May by Yuka Kojima (CEO) who had been directing popular gaming titles at Sony Computer Entertainment and Gree together with Australian image-processing engineer Lachlainn Wilson (CTO), Fove recently raised seed money from Tokyo University Industry-Academia Cooperation Intellectual Backyard and…

Tokyo-based startup Fove announced earlier this week the development of a consumer-oriented head-mounted display (HMD) under the same name. They have completed their first proof-of-concept development and are readying a developers kit release for next year.

Earlier this month, the company was also accepted into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London where they will investigate possible future cooperation with Microsoft Xbox due to its global market potential. They aim to unveil their prototype and release preliminary details of their software development kit (SDK) during the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Pitch day in December.

Fove, their product, will allow users to control a 360-degree virtual world with their eyes using a leading-edge display, eye tracking, orientation sensing and head position tracking [1]. The company wants to provide an SDK to gaming companies and encourage its adoption so that it will work with their gaming titles, while working with the rehabilitation industry to help autistic patients or the physically challenged communicate with others.

yuka-kojima-lachlan-wilson — L to R: Fove CEO Yuka Kojima, CTO Lachlainn Wilson

Founded in May by Yuka Kojima (CEO) who had been directing popular gaming titles at Sony Computer Entertainment and Gree together with Australian image-processing engineer Lachlainn Wilson (CTO), Fove recently raised seed money from Tokyo University Industry-Academia Cooperation Intellectual Backyard and plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2015.

Via TechCrunch Japan

Orientation sensing is made possible by an integration of a high refresh rate gyro, accelerometer, and magnetometer sensors. Head position tracking utilizes an external unit. ↩

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Japan’s Gree teams up with house builders, starts providing flat-rate renovation packages

gree
Ieplus

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.24

Japanese internet company Gree launched today a house renovation service called Ieplus. We understand that this is part of their efforts to launch new non-game businesses that Gree executive Naoki Aoyagi unveiled last week at B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2014. As part of this effort, Gree also launched online luxury pawnshop luxury goods consignment service Uttoku in May [1] and last-minute hotel discount booking app Tonight in June. Gree has partnered with house builders around Japan to provide flat-rate renovation packages to consumers. They provide a wide range of services including wallpaper and flooring replacements, kitchen unit replacements, and termite control. In addition, the company provides a flat-rate subscription package for renovation in partnership with Crasco Design Studio, where property owners can more easily manage their apartments and keep tenants happy and less likely to move out. In this space, we’ve seen more than a few startups like Shelfy, Suvaco, and Iemo. Osaka-based startup Sekaie fundraised 260 million yen ($2.6 million) from three Japanese VC firms in May to expand their low-price, flat-rate house renovation service Renoco. via CNET Japan Revised based on the information from Gree’s public relations. ↩

Japanese internet company Gree launched today a house renovation service called Ieplus. We understand that this is part of their efforts to launch new non-game businesses that Gree executive Naoki Aoyagi unveiled last week at B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2014.

As part of this effort, Gree also launched ~~online luxury pawnshop~~ luxury goods consignment service Uttoku in May [1] and last-minute hotel discount booking app Tonight in June.

Gree has partnered with house builders around Japan to provide flat-rate renovation packages to consumers. They provide a wide range of services including wallpaper and flooring replacements, kitchen unit replacements, and termite control.

In addition, the company provides a flat-rate subscription package for renovation in partnership with Crasco Design Studio, where property owners can more easily manage their apartments and keep tenants happy and less likely to move out.

In this space, we’ve seen more than a few startups like Shelfy, Suvaco, and Iemo. Osaka-based startup Sekaie fundraised 260 million yen ($2.6 million) from three Japanese VC firms in May to expand their low-price, flat-rate house renovation service Renoco.

via CNET Japan

Revised based on the information from Gree’s public relations. ↩

Masaru Ikeda

Articles

Japan’s teen programming camp operator ‘Life is Tech’ raises $3 million

Opt unveils $150M investment plan, wants more companies to go public with new businesses

Japan’s state-run fund to invest $9 million in eyeglass e-commerce startup Oh My Glasses

Japan’s online fashion retailer Start Today to acquire e-publication company Yappa

Beauty products portal @Cosme to diversify business with GlossyBox Japan acquisition