THE BRIDGE

Interview / News

In conversation with vice governor Manabu Miyasaka on City-Tech. Tokyo conference

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It has become my New Year’s practice to organize the schedule of startup conferences around the world to take place in the first half of the new year. I have suspended the practice since 2020 because of the cancellation of many conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I resumed it this holiday season, which made me recognize a few things. First, many conferences have been disappeared since the start of the pandemic (some of them are temporarily suspended but others were bankrupt or completely shut down) while new ones have been created. As livestreaming has become the norm, it’s no longer necessary to make a long-haul flight to take part in a conference if you are to only to hear keynotes. Conference organizers are now required to provide a new value proposition. Another thing is that it no longer makes less sense for each country to compete for the title of the world’s top startup hub each other. It has been a long time since so-called almighty Silicon Valley playbook was debunked while one of the reasons is that hubs for each industry vertical have come to stand out: London for finance, Los Angeles for entertainment, Chicago for Food…

Tokyo’s vice governor Manabu Miyasaka
Photo by Shun Sasaki / Bridge

It has become my New Year’s practice to organize the schedule of startup conferences around the world to take place in the first half of the new year. I have suspended the practice since 2020 because of the cancellation of many conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I resumed it this holiday season, which made me recognize a few things.

First, many conferences have been disappeared since the start of the pandemic (some of them are temporarily suspended but others were bankrupt or completely shut down) while new ones have been created. As livestreaming has become the norm, it’s no longer necessary to make a long-haul flight to take part in a conference if you are to only to hear keynotes. Conference organizers are now required to provide a new value proposition.

Another thing is that it no longer makes less sense for each country to compete for the title of the world’s top startup hub each other. It has been a long time since so-called almighty Silicon Valley playbook was debunked while one of the reasons is that hubs for each industry vertical have come to stand out: London for finance, Los Angeles for entertainment, Chicago for Food Tech, Boston for life sciences, Zug for web3, Tel Aviv for cybersecurity, and so on.

Entrepreneurs and investors alike are now thinking more critically about the benefits they can expect from attending conferences. After the cancellation of both WebSummit Tokyo and Barkation conferences, Tokyo has now no major international startup conferences. What kind of startup hub can the Japanese capital aspire to be?

It was around last fall when we began to hear the word “SusHiTech Tokyo” from the mouth of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The acronym stands for “Sustatinable High City-Tech. Tokyo,” a generic term for a variety of ideas and technologies for overcoming urban challenges. The abbreviation was chosen to stand for sushi, which is needless to say associated with Japan, to make it easier for foreigners to remember the brand.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will hold a startup conference called City-Tech.Tokyo at the International Forum on February 27-28 under the SusHi Tech concept. Since this is the first edition and they are so much focused on attracting foreign startups, the details of the conference have not yet well known to us. So, we could have a a chance to speak with Manabu Miyasaka, Vice Governor of Tokyo. He leads in organizing the conference.

Cities, the next battlefield for tech players

Miyasaka speaks at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, November 2022.
Image credit: Bureau of Digital Services, Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Unlike industry-specific terms such as FinTech or HealthTech, City-Tech is broadly defined as a concept that encourages technology solutions to unique urban issues. The term was perhaps not well received overseas at first for the vagueness, but subsequently it became very well received after Koike began saying SusHiTech and then Miyasaka introduced it at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

More than 10,000 people from Japan and abroad are expected to attend City-Tech Tokyo. Keynote speakers will include Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Kengo Kuma, one of the world’s renowned architects and a special professor at Tokyo University. In addition, 100 cities from 30 countries will participate while two-thirds of the 300 booths will be exhibited by startups coming from overseas.

Miyasaka says,

Various cities are working on climate crisis, energy issues, new transportation systems, and so on. These are issues for each city but also ones common to all humanity in the world. We also need to do more open innovation activities among local governments. The solutions that work in Tokyo may work in other cities, and vice versa.

I believe that cities will be the next battlefield for tech players. Seventy percent of the world’s population lives in cities, so I think the world will start competing in exploring how technologies can change cities. Therefore, not only startups and companies, but also governments will participate there. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been leading our open innovation activities, but there is no need to limit it to only Japanese startups as long as they can provide stable services.

In parallel with City.Tech Tokyo, the metropolitan government will hold the G-NETS (Global City Network for Sustainability) conference near their office building, which will bring together the heads of local governments from Japan and abroad. Each city may still have a different motivation and intention for their participation because this year’s City-Tech.Tokyo is the first edition but is expected to annually take place from now on.

What the conference aims at?

City-Tech.Tokyo website
Image credit: Tokyo Metropolitan Government

So, what is the goal of City-Tech Tokyo? In a typical startup conference, one of the ultimate goals is for entrepreneurs to find and attract investors, and for investors to find promising startups to invest in. In Web3 conferences, attendees may expect to increase connections with other startups. So what about City-Tech.Tokyo?

Miyasaka says,

On the risk side, the topic includes the climate crisis as mentioned before, but on the upside, I think it is the issue of new employment. There are many jobs that exist today but did not exist 30 years ago. For example, your media business could not have existed 30 years ago. The jobs that exist today were created by startups 30 or 50 years ago.

That’s true for the future too. It is startups that create the jobs for the future. If startups did not create the jobs of the future, we would be forced to just stay on the jobs we have now, which would result in lower wages. If startups can make their business successful, it can lead to creating affluent lifestyles from it and create more jobs. I think that is very important.

Startup Genome annually publishes a ranking of startup-friendly cities, and some of our readers may recall that Tokyo joined the top 10 ranking in 2021 while it dropped to the 12th place last year after being overtaken by Seoul. It is an index published by a private organization, but many officials in local governments are paying attention to the rank. Miyasaka is one such person.

He added,

Of course, we (Tokyo) would like to be ranked higher . But I don’t think there are any cities where only startups are active. Such a city should be vibrant in art, entertainment, and all kinds of things. I don’t think you can start up a business in a city that is culturally stagnant.

Tokyo vice governor MIyasaka speaking with Bridge’s Masaru Ikeda.
Photo by Shun Sasaki / Bridge

Paradoxically, in a society with mature infrastructure like Japan, it may be difficult to bring out a unicorn with a simple service like what we usually see in developing countries. However, since developing countries basically aim to advance themselves into developed economies over time, there could be opportunities for startups from developed countries can leverage the “Time Machine” business model even in emerging markets except for leapfrog phenomenon.

He said,

Ecosystems in developed countries tend to be found in rather affluent cities. I think Tokyo is on that side of them. What such a city needs is a challenger. You can challenge yourself in music, film industry, and whatever. But If you do it in business, it means a startup. Attracting challengers in all genres is an important part of a city.

Last year, the Kishida administration announced the strengthening of the startup policy, while the Tokyo Metropolitan Government also announced a strategy called Global Innovation with Startups. Since the launch of Bridge, we’ve seen neither the Japanese Government nor the Metropolitan Government have put startup support a top priority in their agenda in such a massive way. Miyasaka expressed his aspiration that the conference will give an opportunity to the world to witness such a historical turning point.

Japanese serial entrepreneur taking on post-pandemic rise of audio social media

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Since Taka Iguchi has developed so many products and services if you include those that already shut down, I don’t want to mention all of them in this story. But for the past four years he has focused on audio social services, starting with the Baby app in 2016 followed by its enhanced app Ball in 2017. After another pivot, his new app Dabel was launched in the US in January of last year under the previous name of Ear.ly. Iguchi has been based in San Francisco and Kyoto for some time now, but since the global pandemic of COVID-19, he has been unable to travel abroad and has been forced to stay mostly in Kyoto. I thought this may have been a headwind for him, but the app is apparently growing well. What is it about Dabel that attracts so many people? Last week I could have a chance to meet Iguchi in Kyoto to find out. Using audio social app to discover new friends It’s hard to find the best word to describe Dabel. Needless to say, the app’s name comes from the Japanese word meaning chatting but Iguchi himself describes it as “an app for well-side gossip…

Taka Iguchi stands in a temple in his neighborhood in Kyoto.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Since Taka Iguchi has developed so many products and services if you include those that already shut down, I don’t want to mention all of them in this story. But for the past four years he has focused on audio social services, starting with the Baby app in 2016 followed by its enhanced app Ball in 2017. After another pivot, his new app Dabel was launched in the US in January of last year under the previous name of Ear.ly.

Iguchi has been based in San Francisco and Kyoto for some time now, but since the global pandemic of COVID-19, he has been unable to travel abroad and has been forced to stay mostly in Kyoto. I thought this may have been a headwind for him, but the app is apparently growing well. What is it about Dabel that attracts so many people? Last week I could have a chance to meet Iguchi in Kyoto to find out.

Using audio social app to discover new friends

The Dabel app
Image credit: Doki Doki

It’s hard to find the best word to describe Dabel. Needless to say, the app’s name comes from the Japanese word meaning chatting but Iguchi himself describes it as “an app for well-side gossip meeting,” which gives me the impression that it allows you to be a radio anchor. Looking similar to other Japanese audio social apps like Voicy, Radiotalk and Stand.fm at first glance, what makes Dabel unique is that listeners can join the show and talk to each other upon the host’s approval.

It was only in May of last year that the app began to gain popularity in the US since AppleVis, a community website for the visually impaired, featured us. So, in June, we focused on the the Voiceover screen-reading function in the app (in aim to assist the visually impaired), and then more of them started actively using the app as a tool to find their new friends.

Iguchi continued.

In March this year, Mikke CEO Takumi Inoue (arranging an online meetup series called O-Cha) and apparel maker All Yours’ CEO Masashi Kimura started using the app, which triggered a boom in Japan. These users are often hyperactive and full of energy, having been looking for a place to release it. That’s why their content is interesting. You can listen to recording later on but 90% of listeners join their favorite shows live.

That’s probably the biggest advantage of audio social apps, although Dabel recommends that both the talking host and the listening listener use AirPods, so that you can deliver and listen to the show almost regardless of no matter where both of they are. There’s no need to set up your phone on a tripod or use a selfie stick like what YouTubers usually do. In fact, my friend Dabel host brought an afternoon talk show with three of her friends physically located apart each other while she broadcasted the show from the standing bar at a sushi bar on another occasion.

In my opinion, good sound quality and a sense of realism is one of Dabel’s hallmarks. When I heard the aforementioned talk show, I felt as if I, as a listener, were just standing before the sushi bar. There’s no need to shout so loudly, which doesn’t bother people around, and the minimal audio delay makes it easy to enjoy the interaction when the host allows the listener to join in.

Coronavirus pandemic reveals brutal truth

One of the things I like to talk about these days is the “what’s lost in looking for ways to coexist with the novel coronavirus may be serendipity”. With so many tech conferences going online, it’s hard to replicate online the “chance encounter” that might lead to an intimate relationship with someone you happen to meet at a party, as opposed to identifying and communicating with the person you want to talk to. Many of our current relationships are totally based on the result of these chances. Paul Graham explains that such uncertainty is essential to the fostering of the tech community.

But here a new insight: Dabel may bring a bright future to our world. Iguchi explains:

There’s a brutal truth that attracted our attention after the pandemic occurred.

Before the pandemic, we used to chat with acquaintances, family, friends and partners. But the pandemic prevented us from seeing each other. People started using Dabel to find new friends. And then, we found out that it doesn’t eventually matter whomever you chat with.

Originally, communities were often dependent on the physical environment where people found themselves. With the advent of the Internet and mobile, this physical constraint was removed to some extent, but the spread of the novel coronavirus spurred the loss of freedom of movement and caused people to start talking to the people they really wanted to talk to regardless of location.That person you are talking to might be someone you’ve never met, or it might be someone who lives on the other side of the planet. Dabel’s user experience, which relies on common interests to talk to each other but not on the physical environment or existing relationships, is also similar to that of Talkstand, another Japanese mobile app launched in beta back in May.

The world is catching up with the trends

Iguchi speaks at the 10841 launch event in Kyoto in February.
Image credit: Masahiro Noguchi

In May, Clubhouse, the US startup behind an audio social app under the same name, secured $10 million US from Andreesen Horowitz in a series A round, which raised their valuation to $100 million in just a couple of months after the launch. Clubhouse is recognized as one of the fastest growing startups in the region right now. In addition to an accomplishment for audio social networks to get some recognition from the market, it is perhaps a tailwind for Doki Doki, Iguchi’s startup behind the Dabel app, to secure the next round of funding in the not-too-distant future. Doki Doki raised 40 million from Skyland Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and Umeda Startup Fund in early 2016 followed by 50 million yen from Kyoto University Innovation Capital in a pre-seed round in February of 2017.

However, audio social is not all good because it’s a very new field. In the US, a recent closed discussion among venture capitalists on the Clubhouse app, in which they criticized Bay Area journalists for having too much power, has been leaked to the public and is causing a stir. There is always the risk that the whispering in the corner of the room can be exposed to the public via new technology. The future is unclear as the exchange of banter extends to issues such as gender and racial discrimination. Iguchi sees it as an object lesson to his venture.

Audio social is a highly intimate form of media. It’s easy to post emotions and passions, but it can also contain sensitive content when shared with the public. This is a double-edged sword, and the Clubhouse case was a bad pattern.

He added.

Dabel has also improved features such as the console banning users who violate the terms and conditions, but still we could experience “flaming cases” in the future. However, it’s not all bad. It’s a new medium, so there is always the risk of flamming, but Dabel is going to be on the offensive, aiming to become a safe and secure platform.

Of the 40,000 current Dabel users, about 30% are women while 67% are American and 10% are Japanese, which boasts a diversified demographic user base as a service by a Japanese startup. The total number of times people have participated in conversations on the app has reached 550,000, and the average dwell time per session on the app is around 57 minutes, which is much longer than that of Facebook.

Audio social is attracting a lot of attention because of its high level of user engagement. Pouring his energy into his enthusiasm, Iguchi wants to dominate the new field globally.

Japan’s Cluster secures $3.6M series B to develop own VR live show content

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cluster, the Japanese startup behind the social VR (virtual reality) app under the same name supporting thousands-scale events in VR space, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 400 million yen (about $3.6 million) in a series B round. The participating investors in this round are XTech Ventures, Global Brain and KDDI. Cluster also announced that Hiroki Teshima, General Partner at Tokyo-based VC firm XTech Ventures, will join the VR startup’s board as an outside director. With the funding at this time following the previous series A round, the company has raised a total of about 650 million yen ($5.9 million) to date. Using the funds, they will create a studio to produce their own content, aiming to spread their VR user experience to more people. VR live performances using the Cluster platform has been receiving favorable reviews. Virtual talent Luna Kaguya’s live event hosted (by Sony Music Labels’ Sacra Music) back in August sold a VR event ticket  for 5,000 yen ($45) and the public viewing ticket for 3,000 yen ($27). At the live event for another virtual talent Phi that took place in July, not only his on-stage performance but also…

cluster-investor-team
The Cluster exec team with investors particpating in a series B round
Image credit: Cluster

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Cluster, the Japanese startup behind the social VR (virtual reality) app under the same name supporting thousands-scale events in VR space, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 400 million yen (about $3.6 million) in a series B round. The participating investors in this round are XTech Ventures, Global Brain and KDDI.

Cluster also announced that Hiroki Teshima, General Partner at Tokyo-based VC firm XTech Ventures, will join the VR startup’s board as an outside director. With the funding at this time following the previous series A round, the company has raised a total of about 650 million yen ($5.9 million) to date. Using the funds, they will create a studio to produce their own content, aiming to spread their VR user experience to more people.

cluster-kaguya-luna-live
Live performance by virtual talent Luna Kaguya in August
Image credit: Cluster

VR live performances using the Cluster platform has been receiving favorable reviews. Virtual talent Luna Kaguya’s live event hosted (by Sony Music Labels’ Sacra Music) back in August sold a VR event ticket  for 5,000 yen ($45) and the public viewing ticket for 3,000 yen ($27). At the live event for another virtual talent Phi that took place in July, not only his on-stage performance but also staff meetings, backstage operations  and stage directions were being also held using the VR platform to showcase to the audience.

In an interview with The Bridge, Cluster CEO Naoto Kato told us one or two large events a month usually take place on the platform while mostly small events take place every week. Hosting an event on the platform doesn’t cost at all, which motivates organizers to conduct their shows as a profitable business or even on a test basis.

We’d been wanting to perform live music on the cluster platform, so we turned it into reality. However, we don’t mean to create a metaverse.

We want to develop a marketplace that allows users to sell and buy virtual experiences like space trips — Amazon for virtual experiences.

cluster-sora-live
Live perfomance by virtual talent Tokinosora (content modified for privacy protection)
Image credit: Cluster

Kato says, from the business model perspective, VR-based show business is similar to that for the social game industry. A social game title usually takes one to two years and costs at least several million US dollars to complete its development. Regarding whether it will be a smash hit or not, every bullet has its billet. Compared to social game development, virtual talents or their performances can conduct trial-and-error experiments in a shorter cycle and for a lower cost. The trending wave of social waves may turn its direction towards virtual talent-powered VR events in the near future.

Kato added:

We think we are in a “bonus stage” this year where we make it possible to host VR-powered live performances by virtual talents. We could convinece people that we can make a profitable business by offering these experiences.

We want to develop a good experience before the bonus stage ends. I guess it will be a do-or-die game for us next year. To make the first-ever experience in Japan or in the world, I want to massively continue working with my like-minded- colleagues full of energy.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Tokyo Office Tour: MUFG opens co-working space in birthplace of banking in Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Over the last year several FinTech startup activity bases were established around the Tokyo Station. Finolab relocated and renewed their space, and a number of events were held at FinGate, which was established by Heiwa Real Estate. There are also many FinTech startups at the Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT), which is also home to 500 Startups Japan among others. The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more. This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided…

MUFG Digital Accelerator’s “The Garage” was born in Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho, Tokyo. There are many people who enter under the impression that it is a bank on account of the conspicuous signage.

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

Over the last year several FinTech startup activity bases were established around the Tokyo Station. Finolab relocated and renewed their space, and a number of events were held at FinGate, which was established by Heiwa Real Estate. There are also many FinTech startups at the Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT), which is also home to 500 Startups Japan among others.

The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more.

This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided over by the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) opened up their first co-working space called The Garage. I popped in to see their space after the dust settled from renovations.

The MUFG Digital Accelerator currently operates a four month acceleration program about once a year, and it is time for them to finalize the batch for their second phase. The 7 startup teams currently participating in the batch have reached the final stage and are putting the finishing touches on their plans for collaboration for the demo day on July 28.

See also:

The five teams that participated in last year’s first batch, as well as the logo of the seven teams of the second batch currently in progress are displayed at the entrance.

On the premise of cooperating together, “Facilitators” from the MUFG Digital Accelerator assign MUFG employees called “MUFG Mentors” to each of the seven participating startups, as well as external collaborators from VCs and other accelerators who are participating as “Pro-mentors”. Over the course of the program, monthly pitch days, weekly and biweekly mentoring, API meet-ups and mini Hackathon gatherings are held at The Garage.

The first floor houses a desk space overflowing with the feeling of openness
In the basement a living room space gives off a relaxed air
The demo day countdown timer. There are about 3 weeks left.

(Unlike corporate accelerators) an independent accelerator is one that aims to support entrepreneurs trying to develop businesses from scratch with various resources, encourage market-ready products to be released to the world, and lead the companies to the next fundraising round. On the other hand, corporate accelerators will look for startups to collaborate with, the aim being to create some sort of output, but it is rare for truly productive collaborations to be born by merely matching up startups and in-house business personnel.

In the case of MUFG, each group company recently established a department called the “FinTech Promotion Office”, and each company has devoted active internal personnel to lead, thus creating a smoother environment for collaboration with startups. Much like a reality talent competitions such as American Idol, during the second stage representatives from each group company listen to pitches made by the startups, nominate teams they see as compatible for potential business collaborations, and commit themselves to supporting the team until the program ends (or even after that).

Some people from the management team and participating startups of MUFG Digital Accelerator

The MUFG accelerator program has evolved from its first batch as a FinTech accelerator, to a broader scope with the second batch as a digital accelerator. Until now, participation in the program was restricted to domestic Japanese startups, but starting with the next batch, they will actively focus on accepting overseas startups. But before that, we look forward to the demo day for the second batch on July 28th.

A sign in front of The Garage showing the place of origin of Japan’s banks

Translated by Amanda Imasaka

Kyoto’s Makers Boot Camp partners with La French Tech to help more IoT startups grow

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This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes. Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries. Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups. We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for…

sabrina-sasaki-150x150This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes.


L to R: Olivier Ginepro, Economic Counselor for the French Embassy of Japan,
Narimasa Makino, Makers Boot Camp CEO

Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries.

Our team had a prototype expert support from Emery Delmotte, French team member of KSN,
part of Saijo Inx Sales Team.
Thierry Dana, French Ambassador to Japan, visited our booth,
when Emery highlighted all the close ties between France and KSN.

Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups.

We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for a unique virtual reality experience. Recently, they exhibited a demo session at Nuit Blanche, a French event in Kyoto, with a special project involving IoT for cultural initiatives. Paris and Kyoto are already sister-cities in the fields of Fine Arts and Architecture and IoT should also be considered for the next projects.

Makers Boot Camp team with all the invited startups for the pitch session: Atmoph, PLENGoer and Kyoto VR.
Atmoph team members Chikaku Kato, Customer Relations, and Kyohi Kang, CEO and Co-Founder,
introduced their smart window already available for sale in Paris and other overseas markets.
PLENGoer team with their open-source robots that will be in a tour to US for CES 2017.
For Japanese makers like them, France is also a key market they plan to expand to.

During the two days of the event, there were sessions with key industry players from both countries, as Valeo, Michelin, Orange and Dassault Systems, Toyo Aluminium, SynphaTech Japon, and also a special session day focused on IoT startups. The purpose of the event was to bring stakeholders involved on the current discussions between France and Japan in order to achieve a plan for concrete actions in the next years.

With this spirit, Makers Boot Camp signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with La French Tech, represented by The French Embassy of Japan.

In May 2016, on behalf of Makers Boot Camp, I was invited to attend two outstanding hardware events in France: Connected Conference and Innorobo. It is clear the potential of disruptive projects in robotics and healthcare being created in France, so we’d like to partner with local players interested to reach a global market with high quality. Currently, there are players from both Japan and France willing to promote an exchange of technologies and resources.

From the French local governments,
Aix-Marseille Provence and Occitanie sent their representatives from both private and public sectors.

From Toulouse city, Julien Toulouse paid us a visit to our ecosystem in Kyoto, including our KSN factories with French team members involved. The tour was a way to illustrate Japanese small lot capabilities for French startups.

On Japanese side, Kansai representatives from local government and companies were also supporting the event. We hope the players involved can commit to a more active role in both countries, fomenting IoT industry all over the world.

Japan’s Seven Dreamers, developer of laundry-folding robot, secures $55 million

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See the original story in Japanese. A product from Japan created quite the stir at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and CEATEC JAPAN in Tokyo this year. It is Laundroid. The “harmony” of clothing analysis, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics blend together to produce a “fully automatic clothes folding machine.” Japan technological alliance “seven dreamers laboratories’ is the developer. The product details have been released in various places, so I won’t get into that, but as the name says, “It’s a robot that folds clothes. No further explanation is needed.” The company announced a partnership with Panasonic (TSE:6752) and Daiwa House (TSE:1925) last year, and together established the joint venture Seven Dreamers Laundroid with plans to begin sales by reservation for their first machine “Laundroid 1” in March of 2017. The developer, Seven Dreamers, announced on November 14th the securement of 6 billion yen (around $60 million US) in funds from SBI Investment, in addition to Panasonic and Daiwa House. The shareholding ratios and payment date remain undisclosed. The concept began in 2005, and with the realization of “folding” from 2013, Laundroid was born. I heard from Seven Dreamers CEO Shin Sakane about the road it took to get…

laundroid_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

A product from Japan created quite the stir at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and CEATEC JAPAN in Tokyo this year.

It is Laundroid.

The “harmony” of clothing analysis, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics blend together to produce a “fully automatic clothes folding machine.” Japan technological alliance “seven dreamers laboratories’ is the developer. The product details have been released in various places, so I won’t get into that, but as the name says, “It’s a robot that folds clothes. No further explanation is needed.”

The company announced a partnership with Panasonic (TSE:6752) and Daiwa House (TSE:1925) last year, and together established the joint venture Seven Dreamers Laundroid with plans to begin sales by reservation for their first machine “Laundroid 1” in March of 2017.

The developer, Seven Dreamers, announced on November 14th the securement of 6 billion yen (around $60 million US) in funds from SBI Investment, in addition to Panasonic and Daiwa House. The shareholding ratios and payment date remain undisclosed.

The concept began in 2005, and with the realization of “folding” from 2013, Laundroid was born. I heard from Seven Dreamers CEO Shin Sakane about the road it took to get here.

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Seven Dreamers CEO Shinichi Sakane

The reason for creating something never seen before was “a comment from my wife”

I came today with the idea of asking straight out, “What happened to make robots fold the laundry?” So, what happened? (with a laugh)

Well, to be straight, “It’s now possible to recognize clothes using artificial intelligence,” is maybe the simplest answer I can give.

I see. Let’s go through the process. How did the idea first come to you?

Before that, first permit me to talk a little about what criteria the Seven Dreamers esteem. For us, there are three criterion for “Things that have not been realized yet but could change our lives, and also enrich them.” The technological hurdles are high and our policy is to clear them.

That’s true. You’ve made something that sets high hurdles.

Since first coming up with the idea, I was thinking about different markets to satisfy all the criteria. Looking around we see many products targeted at men. Starting now and into the future, ‘women’, ‘the elderly’, and ‘children’ are the keywords that will become important.

After thinking, the idea that maybe the answer lies within the home came to me and, while I don’t usually talk with my wife about work, I casually mentioned it to her. What do you wish you had? She came back just as fast, “Of course, it has to be a machine that folds the laundry.

Ah, so your wife is the reason!

The hurdle was higher than I had imagined (laughingly). But, if it’s something I can do, if I use the then current mechatronics and neural networks, which is what AI was called at the time, I thought it might be possible.

This was that same day, right?

Yes. It was in 2005. But, after a number of years passing it was really hard to hear “You still haven’t managed it?” (laughingly)

laundroid-products
Seven Dreamers are the producers of “Things not already in this world”.
L to R: “Landroid” laundry-folding robot, “Nastent” nasal strips for less snoring sleep, carbon golf shaft

A Decade of Development and the impact of “Lehman Shock”

After that development began. It took about 10 years, right?

Yes. After my wife said it I had an aha moment, and the next day I lightly searched through patents and things and while there was evidence of it, it seemed like no one had really followed through on it.

So you thought you had a chance.

At the time, on the homepage of a certain home appliance maker there was a corner for ‘appliances 30 years in the future’, and it was there, so maybe.

That’s 2035.

Even after looking through global patents, no one was doing it, so that’s it, I’ll do it. At the time I thought it would take 5 years to come together. However, that estimate was too optimistic. And also with the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2009, we had to reduce our personnel.

In the first place you needed funds. Lots of people begin by accumulating funds, what about Laundroid?

At the time, the business I had launched in the healthcare field was earning money for me. Up until very recently this continued to produce a fair amount of money, making it easier for me to start companies like Laundroid.

I see. To what extent had the development proceeded before the personnel reduction caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers?

We were able to fold t-shirts. However, this was the premise of (robots) being able to understand that the clothing was a t-shirt. But, yeah, there’s no real meaning in that. From that start I was thinking to incorporate this into a dryer, but it wouldn’t work if the robot couldn’t recognize the crumpled clothing. This is where I hit a wall.

Did you ever think about quitting after the overlap of technical difficulties and the shock of the fall of Lehman Brothers?

I suppose normally management would make the decision to stop. But I really thought we could do it. Also, I couldn’t stop after working on it for four years straight. We seriously debated this within the company. In the end, after two years the company saw a V-shaped recovery and we were able to increase staff again.

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It took 10 years to realize the “clothing recognition” technology for Laundroid.

The Technical Team Overcomes the Barriers

About the problem of “recognizing crumpled clothing” that probably made the technical team want to pull their hair out, how did you clear this hurdle?

Even when laundry is all crumpled and mixed together, if you look at the collar you know what it is, right? Even I can do that, so a robot must be able to. We continued machine learning, but it was impossible.
Then I received a proposal from the development team, “Not mixed together, but if we try it one at a time we might be able to do it.”

Were you able to do it by separating them?

Because of that we changed our approach, but even then it was unrecognizable. There were too many patterns because of the flexibility (of clothing). We weren’t getting any closer to an answer.

It does seem impossible (with a laugh). How did you overcome it?

At the end of the process you come away with folded clothes, right? Then you can spread it out. This is what we needed to make recognizable. Then again and again we changed the circumstances. From here there were real challenges. (Writer’s note: The details are confidential here, so it will remain unwritten.)

From the folded state to the original crumpled state, one step at a time, it took 5 years. How many times did you have breakthroughs?

Hmm, about once every two years. Just as soon as we’d say, “Yes! We did it!” the next wall would come with an, “Ugh.” (laughingly)

That must have been difficult. But you did it. At what point were you able to say, “It’s folded! Yes!”

Actually it was done in stages, so it’s difficult to choose one point, but if we make it the day we were able to recognize a laid out t-shirt and then fold it, that was around the end of 2013. At that time, if we didn’t procure funds things would have become grave, so the day of the presentation for investors was unbearable. I was nervous about whether it would work well or not.

Thus, in May of 2014 with the first presentation of Laundroid they secured funds from their first outside shareholders. After this, they would go on to partner with Panasonic, Daiwa House, and SBI Investment, etc.

laundroid-clothes
When users put the crumpled clothing into the lowest box on the machine it folds it for them. There are plans to integrate it into washing and drying machines in future versions.

A Judgement Just in Time, The Last Requirements

To wrap it up, in a situation where most people probably would have quit, you made a judgement and now have created “a world where robots can fold clothes.” What do you think is important when making such a decision?

I am, after all, a man of science, so I make sure to accurately look at the numbers. But, when trying to make something that has never been made before, there are many things that can not be judged by numbers.

In university a professor told me something. For example, today is a day in October, right? Up to this point the preceding researchers have illuminated a bright path. From here on out the road we will travel is going to be dark.

What direction should you choose to go in on a road bathed in darkness, and the professor asked me, “Shin, how are you going to decide?” Then I answered, “Umm, experience right?” and he replied, “That is the answer of someone traveling on the bright path.”

I understand.

The answer is intuition.

So it comes down to human power?

Of course it’s not merely intuition. We should exhaust our search of the bright path, exhaust our inspection of human wisdom. After accumulating this (knowledge), new knowledge is created. For example, if I decided I wanted to make shoes that fly right now, my intuition tells me, “It’s not possible yet.” That is important.

Thank you for your very interesting story. I’m looking forward to the official release and future versions (of Laundroid).

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Seven Dreamers CEO Shinichi Sakane

In conversation with Acquia’s Dries Buytaert, inventor of Drupal

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See the original story in Japanese. Acquia Labs’ establishment was announced just last week, while Dries Buytaert, the man in the spotlight, visited Tokyo. The purpose of his trip was to attend “Young Global Leaders” – a branch community of World Economic Forum for business leaders under the age of 40, which was held at Roppongi Hills – in addition to Drupal Summit Tokyo which was hosted by digital business consulting firm CI&T, known for its utilization of Drupal. Before leaving for San Francisco, Buytaert was interviewed by The Bridge together with David Peterson, in charge of the Asia-Pacific region. He spoke passionately about the future outlook and what he hopes to accomplish through Drupal and the newly established Acquia Labs. Acquia upholds the phrase “moving beyond the page” to surpass conventional web technologies and show its determination to attain the next stage. The New York subway system has adopted Drupal as a backend to collect all kinds of information regarding train operations and to provide these via open API, to produce over 80 native apps. It uses Drupal for the display system in the subway station-yard based on information acquired from sensors onboard trains and beacons inside stations. Tesla…

See the original story in Japanese.

Acquia Labs’ establishment was announced just last week, while Dries Buytaert, the man in the spotlight, visited Tokyo. The purpose of his trip was to attend “Young Global Leaders” – a branch community of World Economic Forum for business leaders under the age of 40, which was held at Roppongi Hills – in addition to Drupal Summit Tokyo which was hosted by digital business consulting firm CI&T, known for its utilization of Drupal.

Before leaving for San Francisco, Buytaert was interviewed by The Bridge together with David Peterson, in charge of the Asia-Pacific region. He spoke passionately about the future outlook and what he hopes to accomplish through Drupal and the newly established Acquia Labs.

Acquia upholds the phrase “moving beyond the page” to surpass conventional web technologies and show its determination to attain the next stage. The New York subway system has adopted Drupal as a backend to collect all kinds of information regarding train operations and to provide these via open API, to produce over 80 native apps. It uses Drupal for the display system in the subway station-yard based on information acquired from sensors onboard trains and beacons inside stations. Tesla adopted Drupal for its e-commerce website, dashboards or mobile apps. Nike plans a new experience with smart shoes, although it is still a prototype; by linking with sensors embedded in the soles, users can buy new shoes simply by swiping the smartphone screen after running a certain distance and their shoes start wearing out. Nike’s backend uses Drupal too.

It indeed seems a new attempt beyond the original Drupal CMS (content management system) coverage, but the abovementioned examples can be realized by scratch development using conventional technologies. According to Buytaert, Acquia Labs is considering more complicated concepts to differentiate Drupal, and one of its ultimate purposes is “contextual experiences” which is to provide experiences optimized according to content.

Buytaert says,

For instance, imagine a situation where I visit an airline company’s website. Generally, airline companies seek to sell tickets to visitors. But if I just have lost my baggage or have missed a connecting flight, I am not looking to reserve another flight then. I want them to help me. So, I have to say that current websites are still uncontextual.

He continued:

We provide a product called Acquia Lift for the publishing industry. By learning about the website visitors and their behaviors, it creates profiles for each user based on inflows from cross channels: re:read/not read, which channels they came from… other websites, mailing lists or push notification. It understands user preferences, for example if one is interested in startups but not in politics, and provides better experiences after the next visit.

There are some cooperative cases with Amazon Echo which is lately much discussed. On a website of the grocery chain Gourmet Market, users can enjoy an interactive purchase experience. Although this chain store doesn’t actually exist and is just there for demonstration, a technology to realize interactions between the website and Amazon Echo with only a few lines of code has already been brought forth.

Hints for information provision via web that differs from conventional ones are scattered all over daily life. In case a grocery chain publishes 2,000 cooking recipes on its website, most accesses to the website are not from users at home but from those visiting retailers. That was unexpected even for the grocery chain; most consumers do not purchase ingredients after checking recipes but searches recipes while checking ingredients at retailers. After realizing this, the grocery chain set beacons at the food section of retailers linked with the web, and then became able to provide better experiences to visitors.

Buytaert says:

35,000 users actively contribute to the Drupal community. A very large community. I am sure that they will quickly adapt to new products, and I want them to get excited with new things.

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Drupal Summit Tokyo 2016 held at Shibuya Dots, on October 21
Image credit: CI&T

Drupal’s local events like this one held in Tokyo have gathered from 100 to 2,000 visitors in several places the world over almost every weekend, resulting in about 100 events being held annually. Through collaboration with developers such as CI&T which invited Buytaert and Peterson to Tokyo this time, Drupal has strengthened ties with local communities all over the world and seeks cooperative relationships with large enterprises or startups under the Acquia Lab scheme which has commenced anew.

It is an interesting concept under which developers who have been participating in the CMS community can “automatically adapt” to advanced technologies including AI (artificial intelligence), interactive UI (user experience) or IoT (Internet of Things) due to the evolution of core platforms. A few years later, the expression of “web developer” might disappear as a type of engineer occupation for job offers on recruitment websites.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

acquia-labs-and-ci-and-t-team
Acquia/Drupal and CI&T teams
From the left: Hiroaki Kawabuchi (Marketing & Communications, CI&T), Alencar Koga (Operation Director, CI&T), Dries Buytaert (Founder, Drupal / Co-founder, Acquia Labs), Yoshiyuki Ueda (General Manager, CI&T), and David Peterson (Solution Architect, Acquia Asia-Pacific)
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

 

Base, Japan’s answer to Shopify, snags $14M to strengthen payment solutions unit

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See the original story in Japanese. As per some media reports, Tokyo-based Base, the Japanese startup behind an instant e-commerce platform, recently announced it has fundraised a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $14.4 million) from SBI Investment, SMBC Venture Capital and Suneight Investment. The details of the plan concerning the investment ratio or the payment date were not disclosed. The secured money will be spent upon hiring additional personnel in order to expand business for the e-commerce platform Base and the payment platform PAY.JP. See also: Japanese e-commerce platform Base raises $3M from Global Brain Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base raises $2M from CyberAgent Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base introduces new iPhone app Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead Currently 300,000 online stores is open on Base and the number of PAY ID which works as customer ID reached 200,000. Therefore, the annual transaction amount now totals at tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) according to Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka. There has been plenty of topics in this arena, such as one of the rival companies STORES.jp unveiling its new development to become a private-held company again; overseas competitor The Stripe’s…

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Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka

See the original story in Japanese.

As per some media reports, Tokyo-based Base, the Japanese startup behind an instant e-commerce platform, recently announced it has fundraised a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $14.4 million) from SBI Investment, SMBC Venture Capital and Suneight Investment. The details of the plan concerning the investment ratio or the payment date were not disclosed. The secured money will be spent upon hiring additional personnel in order to expand business for the e-commerce platform Base and the payment platform PAY.JP.

See also:

Currently 300,000 online stores is open on Base and the number of PAY ID which works as customer ID reached 200,000. Therefore, the annual transaction amount now totals at tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) according to Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka.

There has been plenty of topics in this arena, such as one of the rival companies STORES.jp unveiling its new development to become a private-held company again; overseas competitor The Stripe’s entering the Japan market in the financial sector including payment, investment and remittance; Coiney’s expansion into online business from its offline field; or, the appearance of AnyPay led by a serial entrepreneur Shinji Kimura.

The Bridge interviewed Tsuruoka about how Base which has succeeded in large-scale fundraising will compete in this era in a “warring nations.”


The Bridge: First of all, I would like to ask you about Base’s development plan. I am wondering if the pace of growth will become modest soon and whether you have any ideas such as strengthening sales promotion which targets enterprise merchants?

I assume you mean to ask if we are going to make something like a Rakuten (TSE:4755) or not. This is the same situation I think for STORES.jp. Regarding this point, we came to a crossroads about a year ago.

Sales promotion is a must-do in acquiring stores with hundreds of millions of yen sales, but it is more efficient to automatically acquire small stores with sales of less than millions of yen. I think that style befits the situation. Since the stores acquired through sales promotion could be stolen away by sales promotion, I do not want to compete in such a field.

From the perspective of being a technology company, I would like to take on the creation of a good product in order to form an ecosystem semi-automatically and make people happy through the power of technology.

base-screenshots

The Bridge: What was the purpose of launching a mall app?

It was to challenge selling products as Base. The way we were going, we could estimate where we would end up businesswise, so we decided to enhance the budget and human resources at that point in time. It is not still clear if that answer is the mall or the media but we will continue to strengthen those parts too.

The Bridge: Is it a method to attract a lot of customers?

It aims to gain customers who purchase products on the web once a month but could purchase them twice or thrice in a month because we cannot become a Rakuten or an Amazon. Rather, we provide a system of helping stores instead of us gathering people easily. Although the mall has an image as proactively gathering customers in general, I look upon our mall as a method of supporting management of stores after gathering customers.

The Bridge: I understand it is the policy to increase LTV (Life Time Value) under the current growth situation. On the other hand, Mercari — which invested in your company — has succeeded with the style of expanding its body size anyhow. It there any possibility of doing like that?

I think that it is a good idea to expand the body size eagerly as a challenge. Since it has become quite common recently for a customer who purchased a product to purchase it again at other stores, I think that is worth trying.

base-investors
L to R: Kazuma Ieiri (Co-founder of Base), Shintaro Yamada (CEO of Mercari), Yuta Tsuruoka (CEO of Base), Fumiaki Koizumi (CFO of Mercari)

The Bridge: What did Shintaro Yamada of Mercari advise you?

He told me to be on the offensive (laughing).

Based on the fact that Base is growing modestly and that there are only a few platforms grasping merchants as much as we do, he told us to take on as much challenges as possible. I received a lot of advice through information exchange using Mercari’s data that could be disclosed.

The Bridge: What was the advice especially helpful to you?

About organization. We had fully changed our company’s organization. Since initially any organization did not exist, we started reforming from this spring and have become a company capable of having a report line or more staffers.

My work content has also changed drastically. Although I had been in the very middle of the creation process until last year, I have moved to a more “upper” (executive-like) position now. I am not working as a communication hub by leaving responsible persons with the power of discretion to some extent. But I still cannot act like Shintaro who keeps staying in US for a long time (laugh).

The Bridge: What is the priority for your company?

Although the priority of recruitment was lower until last year, it has become a top priority now. With Mercari’s style spreading to us, we intend to form a new employee-friendly work environment. I had not been aware of the importance of recruitment well because I had been involved in our business since university. Mercari was the first external company for me, so that it was easy to absorb the culture.

The Bridge: How have you been with co-founder Kazuma Ieiri?

We meet three or four times a week even now, but he mainly tends to discuss his current project CAMFIRE rather than Base (laugh).

base-yuta-tsuruoka-2
Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka

Competing in the financial vertical

The Bridge: What is the most valuable number for you now?

Of course we make much of the total transaction amount which is growing to the hundreds of million dollars in scale annually, so we aim the next digit.

The Bridge: In the stage of the next digit, Mercari stands as a Goliath. Do you have any ideas about expanding business into the C2C field as a management person?

The business characteristics between us and them are completely different; the culture is different from the player in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) arena, and the customers differ too. There are some elements in their products which can be a useful reference for us. However, originally we started our business with a theme how much we can optimize the exchange of value. Of course, it is no doubt that a drastic increase in the transaction amount is better, but it is highly doubtful whether it would lead to our company’s mission directly.

Some people say the C2C market has a higher potential growth than the SME one, but I do not agree with that. Look at Rakuten. It is huge enough.

The Bridge: As for payment business, the service directions are gradually being clarified, such as short-term loans, payments and remittances. What is PAY.JP especially focusing on?

Maybe I would start from payment service first. PAY ID is available for 300,000 stores and is linked to 200,000 users now. This is the situation I was looking forward to and I think it is a good timing as a whole.

The Bridge: Is there any rival company to watch out for?

Thankfully, we are faced with many rival companies in all time-periods (laugh).

The Bridge: I feel Mr. Kimura (of AnyPay) has a philosophy which seems close to ours. I suppose their direction is to replace trading with money to that using the Internet, so that could lead into the remittance and financial areas in the future.

We had focused on how much we can increase the number of merchants over the past three years. Now the team has separated into Base team for gathering stores and PAY.JP team for gathering consumers, and I think we have entered a new phase focused on increasing the number of consumers.

The Bridge: Thank you for your time today.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Former exec of Rakuten, Sony, gets $4.1M seed funding for “housing version of Tesla”

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See the original story in Japanese. A former student entrepreneur has returned to the startup scene in order to challenge global issues. In 1995 Takeshi TED Homma was a student entrepreneur working with the early internet doing web design and development. He followed this by playing active roles at Sony and Rakuten, and recently talked with The Bridge about a new startup he is working on. HOMMA, the startup, tackles issues related to “the home.” As is written on their website “Redefining our standard of living,” it is an ambitious project to create a new vision of the future with regards to the necessities of life. Homma had never contemplated a return to entrepreneurship, but a single opportunity presented him with the chance to get back to the startup world. He said: I was thinking of buying a house, but it would take few years to complete. That’s a few years. In Japan it would only take a matter of months. And what’s more, it would be very expensive. I tried to find a solution, thinking there must be one. But no. That’s what got me thinking. But it would take Homma nearly 2 years to reacclimate himself back into…

takeshi-ted-homma
Takeshi TED Homma

See the original story in Japanese.

A former student entrepreneur has returned to the startup scene in order to challenge global issues.

In 1995 Takeshi TED Homma was a student entrepreneur working with the early internet doing web design and development. He followed this by playing active roles at Sony and Rakuten, and recently talked with The Bridge about a new startup he is working on.

HOMMA, the startup, tackles issues related to “the home.” As is written on their website “Redefining our standard of living,” it is an ambitious project to create a new vision of the future with regards to the necessities of life. Homma had never contemplated a return to entrepreneurship, but a single opportunity presented him with the chance to get back to the startup world.

He said:

I was thinking of buying a house, but it would take few years to complete. That’s a few years. In Japan it would only take a matter of months. And what’s more, it would be very expensive. I tried to find a solution, thinking there must be one. But no. That’s what got me thinking.

But it would take Homma nearly 2 years to reacclimate himself back into the entrepreneurial world.

homma02-620x380

He continued:

Is this really necessary? Is there no solution? Since there was no need to rush I focused intensely on preparing. At the same time, I never went so far as to say this about the entrepreneurial pursuits of my 20s, but somewhere I think maybe there was a part of me doing it for self-actualization too. But this time I had a clear vision and that’s how the decision came to me to spend what’s left of my life doing something for society. So that’s why I’m doing this.

The vision of a new lifestyle, especially the innovation of daily living, is what convinced the self-questioning Homma.

He added:

It took 100 years for the telephone to become the iPhone. 100 years later and Ford cars have evolved into Tesla. But what about homes? Have they changed in 100 years?

Homma used the phrase “a housing version of Tesla” so that even I could easily understand his meaning, but with just 5 words the view of the world that he is trying to achieve spawned endless possibilities. He originally began due to the fact that houses are expensive and take years to finish, but solving these problems will result in “homes becoming more fun”.

Their task is to make houses smart. If their goal is to summit the mountain, they are still at the foot, perhaps having approached the first station.

Regarding funding, Mistletoe, B Dash Ventures, Genuine Startups, 500 Startups Japan, East Ventures, Draper Nexus, and architectural firm KMDW participated in the seed round. The prominent lineup of individual investors starts with Hiroshi Mikitani (co-founder and CEO of Rakuten), and includes Tomohito Ebine (founder of Opt), Shintaro Yamada (CEO of Mercari), Hirokazu Mashita (founder and director of m&s partners), Hiroaki Yasutake (former managing executive director of Rakuten), Kotaro Chiba (co-founder of Colopl), Hollywood-based film producer Masi Oka.

The company raised $4.1 million in capital. This is an extraordinary amount to raise at the seed stage for a Japanese startup, but is appropriate when you consider them trying their hand on the world playing field. Furthermore, he is gathering members that sympathize with his vision who joined from companies such as Apple, Tesla, Amazon and Disney. Their current team of 7 members is working full time to prepare their product at their headquarters in Silicon Valley.

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So, what image of the future are they trying to paint? What is their current situation?

As they are in stealth mode, and also currently still verifying whether the product lives up to Homma’s vision of the “new home,” a precise answer to these questions will take a little more time. However, he was able to talk about challenges with current devices for so-called “smart homes.”

He said:

The so-called ‘smart home’ market is a power struggle between big players like Google, Apple, and Samsung. As a result there are lots of apps and plenty of devices too. I’ve tried them out, but after taking out my smartphone and opening an app that shows battery level, the login screen comes up. (And I think) ‘So, when is the battery going to run out?’

If you ask Homma, at the moment the solutions are not at all useful, and there are three big problems to consider with the current smart home market.

He continued:

First, with smart homes you always have the issue of controls. But this is merely a discussion of on/off and adjustments. Not interesting at all. Next, the level of integration is low. For example, you add a thermostat, but the cooperation with the house is low. As a result we’re not able to do much. Finally, the third problem is communication. If you have 100 smart light bulbs and replace the router, you have to reset everything from scratch. If you use all-purpose Wifi and BLE problems in stability will arise.

Homma disclosed that if he had to choose one way of advocating smart home platforms, as opposed to the direction of horizontal development that Samsung chose in acquiring SmartThings for $200 million, he envisions a model similar to Apple’s or Tesla’s where everything from devices to software are vertically integrated. However, he intercedes that in everything there are a series of stages to go through to achieve goals.

He explained:

Time is the problem. For example, to build a house from ground up takes a long time. We have to think about it together with a scalable deployment. Take the iPod as an example; first, you make the software and the rest comes along after that, or Tesla that started by developing batteries.

But while listening to him speak I couldn’t help but imagine a lifestyle like those portrayed in 2001: A Space Odyssey or works by Osamu Tezuka. With childlike excitement that I couldn’t contain, I felt that I want to experience it as quickly as possible, and now Homma and his team are preparing to make it real.

It takes a little more, for Homma as well, to imagine the collection of big data, that is mass data taken from sensors, from these houses. But, with this as a basis, houses using artificial intelligence for home controls are something he is conscious of. In the past, this field has seen challengers in the area of communication robots here and there, with voice recognition controls by major home appliance makers and more recently in Vinclu’s Gatebox.

In other words, you arrive home and when you announce, “I’m home,” a robot turns on the lights while scanning your face for user recognition, and then uses your social data to recommend your favorite TV show–this is a glimpse of the world view. On top of allowing this to more fully develop, they will more intimately integrate with “the home itself.”

Maybe an autonomous driving house. — To borrow Homma’s words, perhaps in the future we may come into contact with such a product.

The reasons for focusing on Silicon Valley while facing the world playing field are its continued growth in population, high talent level of the population, and Homma remarked whoever is left standing here can become the “world standard.”

Nearly 20 years have passed since his days as a student entrepreneur.

Actually, I really thought someone would appear and solve this problem. But no one showed up so I’m going to do it.

Homma said this with a gleam in his eye, like someone ready and even eager to tackle all future obstacles.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Internet of Things key players from Japan, Taiwan reveal next-gen trends of entrepreneurs

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This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes. On Tuesday, Makers Boot Camp joined a special Monozukuri Conference organized by Osaka City and held at Osaka Innovation Hub, getting together key players in the hardware ecosystem to introduce new trends for the next generation of entrepreneurs. The main lecture was given by Osamu Ogasawara, CEO of Tokyo-based hardware incubator ABBALab CEO Osamu Ogasahara. HWTrek team members Roger Wu, VP of Supply Chain, and Alan Jung, Business Development for Japan, brought their international expertise from manufacturing in China and Taiwan, and our CEO Narimasa Makino presented Makers Boot Camp partnership with Kyoto Shisaku Net, a group of over 100 local manufacturers that combined their business strengths to face daily industrial challenges, focused on their prototype expertise (Design for Manufacturing). The purpose of the panel discussion was to talk about new ways that collaboration in hardware can lead to a win-win business environment SMEs can benefit from. The main topic was introduced by Ogasahara,…

sabrina-sasaki-150x150This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes.


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L to R: Moderator Gen Tagaya (Business Innovation Center Osaka), Osamu Ogasahara (ABBALab), Narimasa Makino (Makers Boot Camp), Roger Wu (HWTrek), Alan Jung (HWTrek)

On Tuesday, Makers Boot Camp joined a special Monozukuri Conference organized by Osaka City and held at Osaka Innovation Hub, getting together key players in the hardware ecosystem to introduce new trends for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

The main lecture was given by Osamu Ogasawara, CEO of Tokyo-based hardware incubator ABBALab CEO Osamu Ogasahara. HWTrek team members Roger Wu, VP of Supply Chain, and Alan Jung, Business Development for Japan, brought their international expertise from manufacturing in China and Taiwan, and our CEO Narimasa Makino presented Makers Boot Camp partnership with Kyoto Shisaku Net, a group of over 100 local manufacturers that combined their business strengths to face daily industrial challenges, focused on their prototype expertise (Design for Manufacturing).

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L to R: Moderator Gen Tagaya (Business Innovation Center Osaka), Osamu Ogasahara (ABBALab), Narimasa Makino (Makers Boot Camp), Roger Wu (HWTrek), Alan Jung (HWTrek)

The purpose of the panel discussion was to talk about new ways that collaboration in hardware can lead to a win-win business environment SMEs can benefit from. The main topic was introduced by Ogasahara, part of his own experience as a serial entrepreneur, leading recent IoT trends in Japan, not only for ABBALab and the DMM.make ecosystem but also for Sakura Internet.

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DMM.Make in Akihabara

Ogasahara spoke about the challenges to start changing the common sense to a new market, focused on small and medium-size manufacturing industries and its specific needs. Just as the internet has revolutionized the information industry, manufacturing is following the digital age, and there are many opportunities available in the current industrial structure for SMEs to develop and adapt more quickly to the market’s new demands.

In addition to this movement, automation evolution and factories using 3D printers, such as the China movement of manufacturing-based entrepreneurs with a focus on gathering in Shenzhen, is massive and growing more and more, starting a new way of manufacturing: smaller lots, targeting customized products for connected devices.

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HWTrek

The concept of connected devices and IoT (Internet of Things) leads to a range of new opportunities to solve most of our current problems: large corporations can’t handle them, as its structures are solid and change demands more time than our resources can wait. The solution then remains on small and medium enterprises, who must play an innovative role and be open to try new things out, as startups have been doing actively and constantly.

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Alan Jung, Business Development for Japan, HWTrek

Roger encouraged entrepreneurs to invest time and energy talking to the new creators in order to try to find alternative applications for their own products and technologies: new projects are coming out, from many hubs in the world, as HWTrek platform has proven, and partnerships between creators and experts can lead to new approaches and different solutions.

The audience, composed by around a hundred SMEs, was interested to share insights about how to change the common sense and consider the new IoT market: a new business model for the manufacturing industry. During the networking session, innovative cases of new business in IoT were presented by HWTrek, to introduce creators that will come to Japan in November to network with local enterprises.

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Roger Wu, VP of Supply Chain, HWTrek

Makers Boot Camp is co-organizing the next Asia Innovation Tour 2016 with HWTrek. The tour will start in Shenzhen on November 2nd and arrive in Japan on November 7th, with the following two events open to the public.

  1. Monozukuri Hub Meetup (sponsored by Kyoto City): Japan as a Starting point for IoT – November 7th (Monday)
  2. Osaka Innovation Hub: HWTrek Meetup – November 8th (Tuesday)

If you’re interested to know more about Design for Manufacturing, join our next meetup on October 12th at MTRL Kyoto, where we’ll make a direct bridge Paris-Kyoto, bringing Japanese and French makers and talk about ways to get ready for manufacturing.

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