THE BRIDGE

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Japan’s mobile analytics startup Fuller gains $4 million to fuel global expansion

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Fuller, a Japanese startup focused on the smartphone apps field which provides user research (pace, Survey Monkey) like App Ape Analytics and other services, has gained a total of 420 million yen in funding. Investors, in addition to Voyage Ventures and Global Catalyst Partners Japan not to mention Sega Games – all based in Tokyo – and Asahi Shimbun headquartered in Osaka (Global Catalyst and Asahi being existing investors), include local government-related entities like those from Ibaraki and Niigata prefectures. See also: Japan’s mobile app analytics startup Fuller raises $1.9 million for global expansion The currently Chiba-based venture, started in November of 2011 in Tsukuba, had just commenced comprehensive global marketing of its new product called Joren. Now, with added funding Fuller can avail more products abroad under its “Fuller 2.0” push, entailing not only expanding overseas and finding new partners with which to create novel app markets but also revitalizing the regions it is involved in, beginning with Chiba, Ibaraki and the like. Joren (pronounced “Jou-Ren” which refers to friendly and repeat customers in Japan) is a software tool…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


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CEO Shuta Shibuya stands in the middle in the back row. (earlier this year at SXSW, Austin)
Image credit: Fuller

Fuller, a Japanese startup focused on the smartphone apps field which provides user research (pace, Survey Monkey) like App Ape Analytics and other services, has gained a total of 420 million yen in funding. Investors, in addition to Voyage Ventures and Global Catalyst Partners Japan not to mention Sega Games – all based in Tokyo – and Asahi Shimbun headquartered in Osaka (Global Catalyst and Asahi being existing investors), include local government-related entities like those from Ibaraki and Niigata prefectures.

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The currently Chiba-based venture, started in November of 2011 in Tsukuba, had just commenced comprehensive global marketing of its new product called Joren. Now, with added funding Fuller can avail more products abroad under its “Fuller 2.0” push, entailing not only expanding overseas and finding new partners with which to create novel app markets but also revitalizing the regions it is involved in, beginning with Chiba, Ibaraki and the like.

fuller-shibuya-at-orange-fab-asia
CEO Shibuya shared his insights for global expansion efforts with other avid entrepreneurs.
(Earlier this month at Orange Fab Asia in Tokyo) Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Joren (pronounced “Jou-Ren” which refers to friendly and repeat customers in Japan) is a software tool that can create apps with just an input of a website URL input. This item was unveiled Fuller’s booth laden with the Japanese Noren (roughly meaning the flag-like “standard” bearing the establishment’s mark, which is pronounced as is) this spring at SXSW (south by south west) in Texas. Fuller strategically has its eyes on the world including the US but will begin this journey from its “home turf” in Asia.

Fuller CEO Shuta Shibuya noted his outfit is targeting international artists and the media field occupied by them, in particular for Asia based on efforts out of the Japanese market; it is already expanding into Korea and Taiwan in preparation for more action in foreign locations like the Philippines, Indonesia and even Russia, reflecting the staff composition of his company among other things.

Shibuya – who was also able to make an impromptu pitch at the Austin event where the firm’s booth was decorated to play up the Chiba background with the staff wearing traditional Japanese festival garbs such as “Happi“… which was found to be an effective approach upon leaving an impression on visitors – stressed the affordability of Fuller offerings.

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Fuller signs with Korea’s Mobidays for the regional expansion. (In Seoul, May 2016)
Image credit: Mobidays

This online concierge startup secures seed funding to better serve visitors to Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. Fast Japan, an online chat concierge service for visitors to Japan, was established in November of 2015 and fully started its service from March. The team announced this week that it has fundraised 25 million yen (about $236,000). TLM and KLab Venture Partners and angel investors participated in this round. In Japan, various services targeting visitors to Japan, constantly growing in number, are appearing. Fast Japan provides Q&A or consultation services related to trip inside Japan via Facebook Messenger, Line and its own chat function on the website. The ‘decentralized concierge’ is one preference of this service which enables users to use any tool they are familiar with. The content of questions collected from users range far and wide, such as recommended hotel, restaurant or route for certain locations. The chat service is provided in English and is free of charge for now. In addition, it operates its own media providing useful information to travel inside Japan in English and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong). Access to the website is mostly from Taiwan, having a large ratio of visitors to Japan as well. CEO of Fast Japan Yuki Katano closed his former…

fast-japan_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Fast Japan, an online chat concierge service for visitors to Japan, was established in November of 2015 and fully started its service from March. The team announced this week that it has fundraised 25 million yen (about $236,000). TLM and KLab Venture Partners and angel investors participated in this round.

In Japan, various services targeting visitors to Japan, constantly growing in number, are appearing. Fast Japan provides Q&A or consultation services related to trip inside Japan via Facebook Messenger, Line and its own chat function on the website. The ‘decentralized concierge’ is one preference of this service which enables users to use any tool they are familiar with.

The content of questions collected from users range far and wide, such as recommended hotel, restaurant or route for certain locations. The chat service is provided in English and is free of charge for now. In addition, it operates its own media providing useful information to travel inside Japan in English and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong). Access to the website is mostly from Taiwan, having a large ratio of visitors to Japan as well.

CEO of Fast Japan Yuki Katano closed his former social gift business and took on this new challenge.

He  explains about how Fast Japan started:

I have liked communicating with people from many different countries, through study abroad programs for example. After considering the field in which I could communicate through a product and also can put being a Japanese to use, I figured out the inbound business. Among that, I chose a form of the chat concierge business which would contribute to decision-making when traveling.

Katano finds a sure response from the increased number of users. The secured funding this time will be spent for construction of a chat operation system and development of a scalable chat service model.

He concluded:

In the future, I want to develop a personal assistance for chat support when traveling not only in Japan but also anywhere else in the world.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Meet Blincam, mini-camera mounted on glasses for enabling snapshots with eyeblinks

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It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this. Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending. The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development. The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less…

blincam_featuredimage

It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this.

Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending.

blincam7

The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development.

blincam-makuake

The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less than a few hours after launch. The company will conduct a sample test and marketing in August, while also planning to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September (in San Francisco); these are to be followed by a Kickstarter campaign beginning in November.

Regarding the production lot for pre-orders received on the Makuake crowdfunding site at this time, they will start shipping the device in December, meanwhile introducing a mobile app for it. In 2017, they intend to make a shift to the mass-production phase after exhibiting at international showcase events like Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and South by Southwest (SXSW). After these, the company will launch sales at Amazon and electronics retail stores from next spring.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Veldt secures seed round funding to boost production of analogue smartwatches

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See the original story in Japanese. As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well. Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps. First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami. The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users. At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much…

veldt-feature1

See the original story in Japanese.

As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well.

Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps.

veldt-feature3

First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami.

The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users.

At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much attention as a ‘wearable brand’ overseas. After this, it established a project at Japan’s crowdfunding website Makuake and has already started pre-sales.

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In the spotlight, Veldt had last week secured its seed round funding from Accord Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures. The money will be spent for development of its own brand Veldt Serendipity, development of new devices or service expansion for business use.

Veldt was originally developed with so-called ‘executive athletes’ as targets. The team is also considering development of devices such as activity tracker focusing more on grasping health condition, while continuing development of the higher-grade productline.

Also, the team will modify Veldt Serendipity to make it thinner and improve it to be a device which will be easily selected by women.

veldt-with-headphone

Coinciding with this fundraising, the team had also announced a plan for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supply and software licensing of IoT products, excepting Veldt’s brand offered jointly with Japanese electronics company SMK (TSE:6798). The team and SMK have also been jointly developing a circuit for Veldt’s next-term products.

There are so many hurdles upon creating IoT devices. You have to find engineers for development of software as well as hardware, while considering separately both prototyping and mass production. The cost-curve can hardly be lowered through small-lot outputs.

The need to be involved in IoT products development is gradually spreading among players other than electronics companies. While business or services utilizing IoT have seen increased demand, there are obstacles such as the securing of development resources beyond fields including software / hardware / designing / engineering, in addition to ensuring product quality upon commencing mass production or implementing cost control.

Veldt aims to lower the hurdle of the IoT project by investing its knowledge as to development of IoT products / software plus its resource network, and utilizing SMK’s design know-how and production technology based on sufficient past accomplishments in the electronic components field.

As the wearable brand Veldt attracts more attention, demands for its service upon business use is expected to increase as well.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Creww sets up accelerator with Panasonic for high-potential startups from the world

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Creww, the Japanese startup behind a community platform offering open innovation opportunities to startups, announced today that it has launched the Panasonic Accelerator 2016 program in partnership with the consumer electronics giant and started accepting applications from startups. The program has three categories for entries – “home appliances and living” and “work,” plus “Advanced Technologies” – where Panasonic will offer their intellectual assets or human resources accordingly, such as their menu and recipe-suggestion websites, 250,000 employees around the world, offices and factories… in addition to bioelectronic sensing, spoken-language analysis as well as image diagnosis support technologies. Applications for the program are being accepted from July 13th to 28th. Following the screening of documents and presentations, selected applicants will participate in the program with a team from Panasonic, which is scheduled to start on September 2nd. Submitted ideas will be implemented in a closed environment controlled by Creww and Panasonic so that applicants will not need to worry about possible leaks of their ideas to third parties regardless of whether or not they can pass the screening process. Creww has partnered with over 50 Japanese corporations to date and helped them work with startups…

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Panasonic’s Leading-Edge Technology Team (Image credit: Creww)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Creww, the Japanese startup behind a community platform offering open innovation opportunities to startups, announced today that it has launched the Panasonic Accelerator 2016 program in partnership with the consumer electronics giant and started accepting applications from startups. The program has three categories for entries – “home appliances and living” and “work,” plus “Advanced Technologies” – where Panasonic will offer their intellectual assets or human resources accordingly, such as their menu and recipe-suggestion websites, 250,000 employees around the world, offices and factories… in addition to bioelectronic sensing, spoken-language analysis as well as image diagnosis support technologies.

Applications for the program are being accepted from July 13th to 28th. Following the screening of documents and presentations, selected applicants will participate in the program with a team from Panasonic, which is scheduled to start on September 2nd. Submitted ideas will be implemented in a closed environment controlled by Creww and Panasonic so that applicants will not need to worry about possible leaks of their ideas to third parties regardless of whether or not they can pass the screening process.

Creww has partnered with over 50 Japanese corporations to date and helped them work with startups in so-called open innovation efforts. As of this month, the company has received more than 1,600 business proposals from startups in total while over 200 ideas out of these have been adopted by partnered corporations. While Panasonic had been collaborating with startups by individual product or technology where necessary, the company made some of its IoT (Internet of Things) patents available for royalty-free use last year, followed by launch of facilities like Panasonic Laboratory Tokyo and Wonder LAB Osaka as hubs for open innovation activities focused on artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics and sensing technologies this spring.

Other examples of accelerators by renowned consumer electronics giants around the world include Siemens Accelerator (in Germany), Samsung Accelerator (in New York City and San Francisco), StarRocket by Foxconn (in Taipei), not to mention Seed Accelerator Program (SAP) by Sony in Tokyo.

See also:

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

vKirirom, resort and school developer for Cambodia, gets $2.9M from angel investors

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See the original story in Japanese. Singapore-based vKirirom, the startup developing and operating a resort as well as a boarding-style university on a Cambodian plateau, announced on Saturday that it has fundraised $2.9 million from 15 angel investors in Japan and Singapore. Names of the investors participating in this angel round have not been disclosed. vKirirom is a social entrepreneurship startup founded in February of 2014 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka. After selling his startup Digital Forest, the company behind web access analysis platform Visionalist, to NTT Communications in 2009, he moved to Cambodia with his family in January of 2014 after spending four years in Singapore. He has leased land in the Kirirom National Park from the Cambodian government, which is located near the country’s capital of Phnom Penh, to develop a resort city along with a boarding-style university. Of particular interest regarding this project is Kirirom Institute of Technology (KIT), a boarding-style university located within the resort premises, where local students can learn programming and English while receiving scholarship provided by sponsoring companies. It aims to nurture engineers and business leaders for the information industry which is likely to be considered promising in terms of securing income…

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Students at Kirirom Institute of Technology with Takeshi Izuka (standing on the right)
Image credit: vKirirom

See the original story in Japanese.

Singapore-based vKirirom, the startup developing and operating a resort as well as a boarding-style university on a Cambodian plateau, announced on Saturday that it has fundraised $2.9 million from 15 angel investors in Japan and Singapore. Names of the investors participating in this angel round have not been disclosed.

vKirirom is a social entrepreneurship startup founded in February of 2014 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka. After selling his startup Digital Forest, the company behind web access analysis platform Visionalist, to NTT Communications in 2009, he moved to Cambodia with his family in January of 2014 after spending four years in Singapore. He has leased land in the Kirirom National Park from the Cambodian government, which is located near the country’s capital of Phnom Penh, to develop a resort city along with a boarding-style university.

Of particular interest regarding this project is Kirirom Institute of Technology (KIT), a
boarding-style university located within the resort premises, where local students can learn programming and English while receiving scholarship provided by sponsoring companies. It aims to nurture engineers and business leaders for the information industry which is likely to be considered promising in terms of securing income and careerbuilding, then contributing to heightened educational and living standards for this country. Since the university is still new, it wil take a little time until the results are out; however, some of their graduates may establish a potential unicorn startup in Silicon Valley or on their home turf of Cambodia in the near future.

(I assume that one of the primary motivations of companies sponsoring the university in providing scholarship may be similar to the cases where Chinese IT giants establish or sponsor their university for securing future human resources.)

We were told that Izuka has made great efforts to launch vKirirom Pine Resort and KIT, such as constructing a branch road from the main highway to the premise, setting up power generators and securing broadband internet connectivity by radio waves from the nearest town, so he himself has been bringing in much equipment from Cambodia to facilitate the environment-building. Based on the initiative by the university, he wants to further develop resort facilities to serve the needs of tourists, company outings and vacation homes. To secure funds for these, he intends to explore the possibilities of investment-type crowdfunding as well as a series A round funding this year.

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Bungalows in vKirirom Pine Resort (image credit: vKirirom)

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

I’m bullish on Fintech investment in Japan. So are a bunch of CVCs.

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This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. Several weeks ago I summarized my first impressions of Japan’s burgeoning Fintech sector. Now that I’ve had an opportunity to meet more of the key actors, I’m relatively bullish on this market for both innovation and venture investment. Perhaps reinforcing my appetite, this recent piece in TechCrunch offers a worthwhile primer on the Fintech world beyond Silicon Valley and Europe but ostensibly neglects to mention Japan. The Japanese government’s support of innovation in Fintech, such as by way of its modernizing of financial regulations and offering business incentives to firms that encourage the creation of startup incubators — is one contributing factor. Another is the average Japanese consumer’s substantial investable asset base, especially after the mid-life step function I explained earlier. Although I would not quite characterize the Japanese consumer of holding the same degree…

mark-bivens_portrait

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here.


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CC BY 2.0 via Flickr by Guilhem Vellut

Several weeks ago I summarized my first impressions of Japan’s burgeoning Fintech sector. Now that I’ve had an opportunity to meet more of the key actors, I’m relatively bullish on this market for both innovation and venture investment.

Perhaps reinforcing my appetite, this recent piece in TechCrunch offers a worthwhile primer on the Fintech world beyond Silicon Valley and Europe but ostensibly neglects to mention Japan.

The Japanese government’s support of innovation in Fintech, such as by way of its modernizing of financial regulations and offering business incentives to firms that encourage the creation of startup incubators — is one contributing factor. Another is the average Japanese consumer’s substantial investable asset base, especially after the mid-life step function I explained earlier. Although I would not quite characterize the Japanese consumer of holding the same degree of mistrust for banks the way we do in the West, investing experience of the average household is relatively more limited in Japan than say in the U.S. In fact, I observe a more kindred mindset of conservatism (or prudence) with European households.

That is not to suggest that Japanese consumers are close-minded to creative financial products. On the contrary, some very promising young firms are tapping into a consumer appetite for solutions ranging from robo-advisory (Money Design) to peer-to-peer small business lending (Crowdcredit). The recent Microsoft Innovation Day featured some other compelling entrepreneurs with global ambitions.

See also:

Financial institutions in Japan are determined to not just remain bystanders. To their credit, many acknowledge that innovation can take place outside their corporate walls… and sometimes even outside the country’s borders.

Increasingly, these established corporations are taking small stakes in Fintech startups. A new draft measure in Japan’s parliament will ease the restrictions on banks’ ability to invest in operating companies.

Many are also setting up dedicated venture capital units. Although historically corporate venture capital funds underperform independent VC firms on a purely financial return basis, a corporation’s objectives also encompass strategic considerations, so making direct investments in startups can make sense.

By last tally, I’ve counted over 20 corporate venture capital funds in Japan who make Fintech investments. This list is by no means exhaustive, but includes (listed alphabetically):

  • Adways Ventures
  • Credit Saison Ventures
  • DBJ Capital
  • Dentsu
  • GCI Capital
  • GMO Venture Partners
  • Gree Ventures
  • Intel Capital
  • Itochu Corporation
  • Mitsubishi UFJ Capital
  • Mitsui Fudosan
  • Mizuho Venture Capital
  • Monex Ventures
  • Opt Ventures
  • Rakuten Ventures
  • Recruit Strategic Partners
  • Salesforce
  • SBI Holdings
  • Shinsei
  • SMBC Venture Capital
  • YJ Capital

Although I haven’t met all of them yet, the relatively few of this group with whom I’ve coinvested have behaved much like a purely financial VC would expect of them. By this I mean that these funds have issued relatively market-standard term sheets, have not demanded any special privileges, and have at least in my experience properly balanced the financial objectives of the investment with their own strategic agenda. Far from viewing them as competitors, I welcome the opportunity to coinvest with CVCs because of their complementarity with independent, financially-driven VCs.

In addition to open innovation initiatives or establishing in house CVC units, I submit that another option exists which merits serious consideration for Japanese corporations and financial institutions. More on that soon…

Agribuddy, financial app for rural farmers in Cambodia, wins Nikkei FinTech competition

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See the original story in Japanese. I have come to Nikkei FinTech Conference 2016 where various financial entities, business operators and FinTech startups from within and outside of Japan gathered together to explore recent trends. During the latter part of the conference, seven next-generation financial tech startups which are likely to dominate the Japanese FinTech market gave pitches to showcase their services. Eventually, Agribuddy, which supports financial management of farmers in Cambodia, was most highly evaluated by the jurors. Agribuddy: financial management support app for farmers in Cambodia Most of farmers in emerging countries have trouble in accessing financial services or their finance management capacity. If they borrow funds from the bank on the security of the farm, they easily spend the money for living expenses before harvest due to poor management capacity. Therefore, they dabble in consumer loan services and that results in a flame-out. Agribuddy creates credit scoring of farmers according to who grows what kind of crops and provides them to the bank as credit information. Based on the information, the bank loans funds within the credit limit to farmers’ smartphones. The farmers can purchase agricutural articles such as fertilizers from cooperating retailers. eNFC: next-gen NFC utilizing the human body eNFC realizes a solution…

nikkei-fintech-2016-all-presenters

See the original story in Japanese.

I have come to Nikkei FinTech Conference 2016 where various financial entities, business operators and FinTech startups from within and outside of Japan gathered together to explore recent trends.

During the latter part of the conference, seven next-generation financial tech startups which are likely to dominate the Japanese FinTech market gave pitches to showcase their services. Eventually, Agribuddy, which supports financial management of farmers in Cambodia, was most highly evaluated by the jurors.

Agribuddy: financial management support app for farmers in Cambodia

nikkei-fintech-2016-agribuddy-1

Most of farmers in emerging countries have trouble in accessing financial services or their finance management capacity. If they borrow funds from the bank on the security of the farm, they easily spend the money for living expenses before harvest due to poor management capacity. Therefore, they dabble in consumer loan services and that results in a flame-out.

Agribuddy creates credit scoring of farmers according to who grows what kind of crops and provides them to the bank as credit information. Based on the information, the bank loans funds within the credit limit to farmers’ smartphones. The farmers can purchase agricutural articles such as fertilizers from cooperating retailers.

eNFC: next-gen NFC utilizing the human body

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eNFC realizes a solution capable of new Near Field Communication (NFC), which are used for the electronic money card Suica, by replacing NFC antenna with the human body. For example, wearing the provided wearable devices (as a smart device or placed into the human body), users are able to pass ticket checkers in stations only by using his / her finger.

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When passengers walk through the NFC device embedded underground, their bodies work as antennae and they can pass the checker just by touching the checking machine with a finger.

deBit: debit card for bitcoin

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Bitcoin is available only in 1,500 stores domestically. Contrary to its distribution amount, it has not been in use in the real economy. To solve this problem, deBit adopted the debit card method which is available in stores displaying the VISA mark.

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Bitcoin credit card issuers in the world

Although other companies overseas such as Shift are ahead in this field, the deBit team highlighted its advantage in that it grasps the highest and the lowest prices of bitcoin through real-time data collection from exchanges around the world, so that it is able to propose users the best condition for transaction.

The deBit team at Slush Asia 2016 (Image credit: deBit)
The deBit team at Slush Asia 2016 (Image credit: deBit)

Since they have already constructed a business model in which the firm gains profits corresponding to the transaction amount of virtual currency, the service does not require any handling charges on the card. Only an increase of use of virtual currency (via its infrastructure) will produce profit for the company. The service has already been judged lawful in Japan through a legal check.

See also:

Quoine: aiming to be bitcoin exchange of exchanges

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The bitcoin exchange Quoine, which had recently announced the fundraising totaling $16 million from Jafco and others, came on stage. The trading amount of bitcoin at Quione is ranked 7th among the bitcoin exchanges around the world, as assessed by real-time market portal for virtual currency Coinhills (at pitch time, it was ranked 4th).

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Quoine CEO Kariya Kayamori

Contrary to other exchanges which provide services focusing on consumers, Quoine adopts a B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer)-like model. It provides back-end service for exchanges by operating like an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), and can even act as an agent for the entire operation of exchanges.

Quoine CEO Kariya Kayamori mentioned that the transaction volume of foreign exchange (FX) in Japan has reached 5 quadrillion yen (about $48.6 trillion), and said that 10% of that may be replaced to virtual currency in the future. Current daily trading volume of bitcoin at Quoine accounts is only 1 billion yen (about $48.6 million) approximately, but Kayamori expects that it can be increased  byup to 100 times.

Guracone: enlightens about bitcoin donation

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Gracone CEO Mai Fujimoto

The team thought of constructing a donation system for mothers, but sending money overseas requires high handling charges. For example, sending 100,000 yen (about $973) requires thousands of yen (tens of dollars). However, it costs only tens of yen via bitcoin. Gracone promotes active donation through enlightening about remittance utilizing bitcoin.

Lognote: marketing support through e-receipt

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Lognote is an e-receipt platform supporting e-receipt issuance work for smart devices, for infrastructure construction and for user retailer marketing. It allows user retailers to contact consumers by issuing point sales system (POS)-linked e-receipt. The firm fundraised 10 million yen (about $83,000 at the exchange rate then) from Japan’s leading online marketing company Adways (TSE:2489) in May of last year.

Nowcast: informs economic trend leveraging big data

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Nowcast established in 2015 originated from the University of Tokyo, and has been working on visualization of economic activities under the theme of ‘to know about the latest economy.’ Its service CPI Now is capable of calculation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) only within two days, although the national statistics require about six weeks. Since its launch about half a year ago, the service has been utilized by about 180 financial entities.

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Nowcast CEO & CTO Satoshi Imai

Although the previous version had handled the national index, the current version has made available the index for each local area. That enables the setting of prices in specific areas and to set the optimal interest by area or industry.

From the viewpoint of regional revitalization, it provides decision-making data possible by comparing governmental statistics, such as what kind of results had been obtained from measures implemented by financial entities or what was generated at that time.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Triple W Japan, developer of bowel movement notifier, gets $4.9M from Foxconn, others

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See the original story in Japanese. Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor DFree, recently announced that they have fundraised 400 million yen ($3.9 million) from 2020, iSGS Investment Works, Daiwa Corporate Investment, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Revamp in a series A round, in addition to 100 million yen (about $980,000) in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. 2020 is the investment arm in Japan of Taiwan-based hardware manufacturing giant Foxconn. This funding round follows their previous undisclosed amount of funding from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital (now known as iSGS Investment Works) back in April last year as well as up to 120 million yen (about $1 million at the exchange rate then) funding from the Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) and Osaka-based Hack Ventures. Triple W Japan was launched back in February of 2015 (US operations started in June of 2014) by UC Berkeley graduate Atsushi Nakanishi. He had unexpected incontinence when moving to a new home in Berkeley, which triggered him to launch the business to solve humanity’s universal problem – excretion. DFree uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor DFree, recently announced that they have fundraised 400 million yen ($3.9 million) from 2020, iSGS Investment Works, Daiwa Corporate Investment, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Revamp in a series A round, in addition to 100 million yen (about $980,000) in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. 2020 is the investment arm in Japan of Taiwan-based hardware manufacturing giant Foxconn.

This funding round follows their previous undisclosed amount of funding from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital (now known as iSGS Investment Works) back in April last year as well as up to 120 million yen (about $1 million at the exchange rate then) funding from the Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) and Osaka-based Hack Ventures.

triple-w-japan-5-million-funding-round-investor-logos

Triple W Japan was launched back in February of 2015 (US operations started in June of 2014) by UC Berkeley graduate Atsushi Nakanishi. He had unexpected incontinence when moving to a new home in Berkeley, which triggered him to launch the business to solve humanity’s universal problem – excretion.

DFree uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the intestine; it then estimates when the sacrum will be stimulated and when the user will begin to feel the urge to go to toilet. A user will then have sufficient time to find a toilet and be relieved from the stress of bowel incontinence. Parkinson’s disease sufferers, the physically handicapped, or the elderly who have difficulty to go to toilet will no longer need to use diapers, thus helping people regain their dignity.

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In a crowdfunding campaign for the DFree device last year, the company succeeded in raising over 12 million yen (more than $100,000). During the first batch of Heart Catch, the two-month mentoring program for startups to brush up products, they revealed that they were exploring better design and marketing strategies.

Based on the capital partnerships with the aforementioned investors, Triple W Japan expects to provide comprehensive support in the following areas respectively.

  • 2020 – Engineering and business expansion to Asia through its parent company Foxconn
  • iSGS – Expansion to health and beauty verticals through iStyle, the leading investor of the VC firm and the owner of Japan’s top beauty products portal @Cosme.
  • SBI Investment – Expecting support in the healthcare, biomedical and ICT fields, the bailiwick of the VC firm’s investment manager Yukiko Kato who won the top in the Japanese version of Midas List issued by Forbes Japan last year.
  • Revamp – Offering testing opportunities and building sales channels to nursing facilities

Upon funding this time, the company also announced addition of new people to the team. In June, Yuichiro Kuzuryu, who was previously working at iPad music keyboard developer Miselu, was named CTO while mechatronics authority Akihiro Kawata joined the team as Executive Engineer to facilitate product development and manufacturing of the DFree device.

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CEO Nakanishi delivered his pitch at Heart Catch 2015.

According to Nakanishi, DFree is currently under clinical testing at four nursing facilities in Japan, expecting to increase up to 20 facilities by September. They are planning to move from a testing phase to launch phase this fall, followed by commencing a B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) service through nursing homes next year.

Since excretion is becoming a common problem for aging societies in developed countries, the company has been garnering attention from outside Japan as well. Korea’s Seoul Broadcasting System features on its news site what had triggered founder Nakanishi to start developing the DFree device. Furthermore, they have been receiving inquiries from Australia, China, Taiwan, France and others. Because of tangible needs out there, their global expansion can be smoothly implemented as long as they can find relevant local partners in each respective country.

Triple W Japan consists of seven employees and three interns now. By hiring more engineers, the company wants to contribute to society by helping hardware engineers get out from big corporates into startups taking advantage of Japan’s strong manufacturing base.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Leading Japanese system integrator to hold first FinTech hackathon in Israel

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Leading Japanese system integration company TIS Intec Group unveiled today that it will hold a FinTech-focused hackathon in Israel on July 19th and 20th, called TIS – Japan Cashless Hackathon. In association with Japanese credit card company JCB as well as Japanese startup accelerator Samurai Incubate which has a local office in Tel Aviv, the event will take place at Rise by Barclays, a FinTech startup hub located in the most startup-dense neighborhood of the ‘Startup Nation’. Prior to the event, TIS Intec Group is looking for 15 talented teams to attend with innovative cashless payment ideas with interest in expanding around the world including Japan, especially for the verticals of artificial intelligence, IoT (Internet of Things) and Blockchain. The winning team will win a trip to Tokyo to discuss future collaboration and business opportunity with TIS Intec Group’s executives while the second and third runner-ups will get the opportunity to work with the firm also. Starting with the first FinTech hackathon by local bank Leumi Group in 2013, MasterCard, IBM Watson and other many global giants have hosted FinTech-focused hackthon events in Israel to find diamonds in the rough. The country is now considered as one of the world’s…

hackathon-image
CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr by Andrew Eland

Leading Japanese system integration company TIS Intec Group unveiled today that it will hold a FinTech-focused hackathon in Israel on July 19th and 20th, called TIS – Japan Cashless Hackathon. In association with Japanese credit card company JCB as well as Japanese startup accelerator Samurai Incubate which has a local office in Tel Aviv, the event will take place at Rise by Barclays, a FinTech startup hub located in the most startup-dense neighborhood of the ‘Startup Nation’.

Prior to the event, TIS Intec Group is looking for 15 talented teams to attend with innovative cashless payment ideas with interest in expanding around the world including Japan, especially for the verticals of artificial intelligence, IoT (Internet of Things) and Blockchain. The winning team will win a trip to Tokyo to discuss future collaboration and business opportunity with TIS Intec Group’s executives while the second and third runner-ups will get the opportunity to work with the firm also.

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Image credit: TIS Intec Group

Starting with the first FinTech hackathon by local bank Leumi Group in 2013, MasterCard, IBM Watson and other many global giants have hosted FinTech-focused hackthon events in Israel to find diamonds in the rough. The country is now considered as one of the world’s most busiest birthplaces of prominent FinTech startups, represented by FundBox, Payoneer, and eToro.

In addition to representatives from TIS Intec Group and Samurai Incubate, CTO Yoav Intrator of Israel’s Bank Hapoalim as well as Dorel Blitz, Head of FinTech at KPMG Israel, will join the board of judges during the event. If you are interested in joining this, check out the details and fill the form right here.

See also:

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Israeli FinTech companies – click to enlarge (image credit: Carmel Ventures)