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Taiwan’s Health2Sync diabetes management platform gets $6M to boost Japan expansion

Masaru Ikeda 2017.12.06

See the original story in Japanese. Taiwan-based Health2Sync, the startup behind a diabetes management platform under the same name, announced today that it has secured $6 million US in a series B round. This round was led by Japanese insurance conglomerate Sompo Holdings (TSE:8630) with participation from existing investors: Alibaba and WI Harper. For Health2Sync, this follows their seed round $1.2 million funding from Cherubic Ventures back in June of 2014 and their series A 3 million funding back in August of 2016. During the raising of the series A round, the company participated in the 7th batch of Korea’s SparkLabs global accelerator. The Health2Sync platform helps diabetes patients to keep track of their blood-sugar level online. Their mobile apps are available in several languages on the iTunes AppStore and Google Play. Integrated with glucose meters from different makers, it aims to reduce the patient’s burden in managing and recording their blood-sugar level by automating the process. The company claims many of their users come from Taiwan followed by Japan and Hong Kong. With more than 10 million diabetes patients domestically, Japan is now ranked the 8th in the population of diabetics. We were told that the team has decided…

Health2sync team members in Taipei. CEO Ed Deng stands in the left corner on the back row.
See also: Health2Sync

See the original story in Japanese.

Taiwan-based Health2Sync, the startup behind a diabetes management platform under the same name, announced today that it has secured $6 million US in a series B round. This round was led by Japanese insurance conglomerate Sompo Holdings (TSE:8630) with participation from existing investors: Alibaba and WI Harper. For Health2Sync, this follows their seed round $1.2 million funding from Cherubic Ventures back in June of 2014 and their series A 3 million funding back in August of 2016. During the raising of the series A round, the company participated in the 7th batch of Korea’s SparkLabs global accelerator.

The Health2Sync platform helps diabetes patients to keep track of their blood-sugar level online. Their mobile apps are available in several languages on the iTunes AppStore and Google Play. Integrated with glucose meters from different makers, it aims to reduce the patient’s burden in managing and recording their blood-sugar level by automating the process. The company claims many of their users come from Taiwan followed by Japan and Hong Kong. With more than 10 million diabetes patients domestically, Japan is now ranked the 8th in the population of diabetics. We were told that the team has decided to expand into Japan because the country’s massive governmental policies and funding measures for preventing the disease.

Health2Sync CEO Ed Deng told The Bridge:

In terms of population, it is true that China and India have a larger number of diabetes patients respectively. In such emerging countries, however, people’s awareness still low while their governments are not gungho for funding to disease prevention businesses.

In Japan, the government has gradually facilitated schemes so that diseasse prevention projects and clinical care providers can receive grants or get funds. That is why we decided to expand into the Japanese market.

Health2sync’s mobile app
Image credit: Health2Sync

The funds aforementioned here is not one that the Health2Sync will directly receive but it will be distributed to local municipalities and care providers across Japan by the government, and the Health2sync solution will be able to see more opportunities for use in such a supply chain. The company expects to gain access to potential users through these stakeholders, aiming to help individuals improve their eating habits and maintain their health.

Sompo Holdings has a subsidiary focused on elderly care services called Sompo Care Next. However, Deng told The Bridge that the Japanese insurance conglomerate’s intention with the latest investment is probably inventing a new insurance product through supporting Health2Sync’s roll-out in Japan rather than adopting the solution into elderly people because the platform’s primary end users are aged between 40 to 65.

Health2Sync is also discussing potential partnership with other insurance companies in Japan because the agreement with Sompo Holdings is not an exclusive deal. Because it is offered as a service providing software, Health2Sync will massively explore collaboration opportunities with glucose meter manufacturers that are likely to complement each others, in addition to working with startups in sectors like Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and telemedicine.

Health2Sync’s stakeholders
Image credit: Health2Sync

The company is setting up a team in Japan consisting of one business developer plus two engineers. With the fresh cash injection, they will strengthen employee hiring for online marketing and other professionals like Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs).

In addition to many CDEs getting older, they are suffering from overwork and chronic shortages of personnel while diabetes patients are increasing but CDEs are not. So what HealthSync wants to solve may include the context of robotics process automation and workstyle reforms in this niche.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

CEO Ed Deng stand in the middle of Health2Sync three co-founders
Image credit: Health2Sync

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Japan’s Factbase unveils cryptocurrency market forecast platform at Blockchain Expo

Factbase

Masaru Ikeda 2017.12.06

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-basedFactbase announced a cryptocurrency-focused market forecast platform called Signal at Blockchain Expo, which just finished in Santa Clara, US last week. Coinciding with this announcement, the company began accepting pre-registration for use of the service. Factbase was founded in November by Osaka University alumni Yusuke Takahashi and other members. The team recognized that distribution flow of news updates and other elements likely to produce price fluctuations in cryptocurrencies are totally different from those for legal currencies. The Signal platform provides two functions: a web-based dashboard called Signal Board offering market forecast and analysis, and a notification service called Signal Alerts which lets users know via the LINE messaging app when an event likely to greatly impact price fluctuation of a cryptocurrency occurs. Takahashi explained: For example, presidents of Bank of Japan never tweet about banking policy or strategy. In contrast, information distributed online is likely to reflect price fluctuation of cryptocurrecies, and the information flow of it is also unique. Most of this kind of information is publicly available online, which usually gets bigger and bigger thorugh communities of mining users and others, and eventually snowball into big news with huge impact. […] Hence,…

CEO Yusuke Takahashi stands in the center of the Factbase team.
Image credit: Factbase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-basedFactbase announced a cryptocurrency-focused market forecast platform called Signal at Blockchain Expo, which just finished in Santa Clara, US last week. Coinciding with this announcement, the company began accepting pre-registration for use of the service.

Factbase was founded in November by Osaka University alumni Yusuke Takahashi and other members. The team recognized that distribution flow of news updates and other elements likely to produce price fluctuations in cryptocurrencies are totally different from those for legal currencies. The Signal platform provides two functions: a web-based dashboard called Signal Board offering market forecast and analysis, and a notification service called Signal Alerts which lets users know via the LINE messaging app when an event likely to greatly impact price fluctuation of a cryptocurrency occurs.

Takahashi explained:

For example, presidents of Bank of Japan never tweet about banking policy or strategy. In contrast, information distributed online is likely to reflect price fluctuation of cryptocurrecies, and the information flow of it is also unique. Most of this kind of information is publicly available online, which usually gets bigger and bigger thorugh communities of mining users and others, and eventually snowball into big news with huge impact. […]

Hence, anyone can gain access to information resources which may alter the trend of cryptocurrencies, but it’s hard to organize this kind of information and understand its context because of too much miscellaneous information being included. The Signal platform leverages big data and artificial intelligence to help users organize it and understand the context more accurately.

Factbase CEO Yusuke Takahashi presents the Signal platform at Blockchain Expo
Image credit: Factbase

The Factbase team demos the Signal platform in their booth at Blockchain Expo.
Image credit: Factbase

In view of other areas where publicly disclosed information is likely to alter market trends, when a listed company announces their financial statement, hedge funds and institutional investors first sell or buy the company’s shares based on it, and then individual investors follow, which eventually leads to price fluctuations for the market.

In contrast to legal currencies or stock prices, not only the mechanisms behind securing values but also those leading to price fluctuations have become decentralized for cryptocurrencies. For cryptocurrency investors, keeping their eyes on announcements from Federal Reserve Bank or Bank of Japan by watching CNBC or reading the Nikkei would not suffice upon catching market trends. It is here the Signal platform can create a niche opportunity that can provide investors a new value.

Screenshots of Signal Board
Image credit: Factbase

The Signal platform curates timelines and posts by crawling Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, GitHub and other websites, and analyzes them from different viewpoints using Natural Language Processing to see whether each article has a positive or negative context. They will initially start with Bitcoin out of many cryptocurrency options. Generally speaking, it’s difficult to distinguish between news updates on Bitcoin and those on Bitcoin Cash, but we were told that the company’s technology can realize it by leveraging their proprietary algorithm.

We are currently focused on curating, organizing and analyzing information. We are planning to start publishing reports in partnership with cryptocurrency-focused market analysts. In addition, we intend to publish a sort of “Cryptocurrency market index” based on calculation using our proprietary algorithm. […]

Our mission is to offer optimized collecting information on cryptocurrency investment by forecasting a fluctuation in prices.

A screenshot of Signal Alert
Image credit: Factbase

Going forward the company plans to introduce a so-called “development index” for every cryptocurrency. Since the ecosystem of cryptocurrencies is a real mix of wheat and chaff, these indexes will help cryptocyrrency investors understand, for example, which ICO (initial coin offering) campaigns are well organized or plain irresponsible. The team aims to acquire a million users in two years from now, planning to expand the service into English and Korean languages.

Factbase has secured a seed funding from multiple unnamed angel investors. Takahashi says the company is hiring data analysts, data scientists and “engineers who are likely to feel ecstasy upon collecting information” for further service development of the platform.

Translated by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Groove X, humanoid startup by former Pepper project leader, raises up to $57M

Groove X

Masaru Ikeda 2017.12.05

Tokyo-based Groove X, the humanoid robot developer founded by Kaname Hayashi — who was responsible for the Pepper project at Softbank — announced on Monday it has raised up to 4.35 billion yen ($38.7 million in US) in their latest series A round. Participating investors in this round were Mirai Creation Fund, Japanese government-backed investment company Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Shenzhen Capital Group, Line Ventures, Dai-ichi Seiko (TSE:6640), Global Catalyst Partners Japan (GCPJ), Taiwan’s Amtran Technology (TPE:2489), OSG (TSE:6136) and SMBC Venture Capital. Mirai Creation Fund is run by Tokyo-based investment company Sparx Group (TSE:8739) with financial backing from Toyota Motors (TSE:7203) and Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. INCJ has agreed to additionally invest up to 2.1 billion yen ($18.7 million in US) in a series B round. This round follows the company’s previous seed funding in January and September of 2016 when they raised 1.42 billion yen ($12.6 million) from Mirai Creation Fund, Amtran and Dai-ichi Seiko, in addition to GCPJ. With all these funding rounds in the past and in planning, the company will have raised a total of 8 billion yen (about $71.1 million) through series B. During the press conference on Monday, Hayashi announced that his…

Groove X founder and CEO Kaname Hayashi
From Groove X’s YouTube video

Tokyo-based Groove X, the humanoid robot developer founded by Kaname Hayashi — who was responsible for the Pepper project at Softbank — announced on Monday it has raised up to 4.35 billion yen ($38.7 million in US) in their latest series A round.

Participating investors in this round were Mirai Creation Fund, Japanese government-backed investment company Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Shenzhen Capital Group, Line Ventures, Dai-ichi Seiko (TSE:6640), Global Catalyst Partners Japan (GCPJ), Taiwan’s Amtran Technology (TPE:2489), OSG (TSE:6136) and SMBC Venture Capital.

Mirai Creation Fund is run by Tokyo-based investment company Sparx Group (TSE:8739) with financial backing from Toyota Motors (TSE:7203) and Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. INCJ has agreed to additionally invest up to 2.1 billion yen ($18.7 million in US) in a series B round.

This round follows the company’s previous seed funding in January and September of 2016 when they raised 1.42 billion yen ($12.6 million) from Mirai Creation Fund, Amtran and Dai-ichi Seiko, in addition to GCPJ. With all these funding rounds in the past and in planning, the company will have raised a total of 8 billion yen (about $71.1 million) through series B.

During the press conference on Monday, Hayashi announced that his company aims to introduce a humanoid robot called Lovot, named by combining Love and Robot, in late 2018 followed by commencing sales in 2019. Details of the concept have not been unveiled but the new product is expected to be one optimized for the lifestyle of urban residents.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s JustInCase to launch AI-powered repair cost insurance for smartphone users

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.29

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based InsurTech startup JustInCase announced last week that it had fundraised from 500 Startups Japan in a seed round. The raised amount was not disclosed but is estimated to be a few hundred thousand dollars. justInCase was founded in 2016 by Kazuya Hata (CEO) who had served the leading actuary consultancy Milliman and has been providing risk management services such as Asset Liability Management (ALM) to insurance companies, Hiroo Koizumi (CTO) who had engaged in modeling / data analysis of assets and liabilities, Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO) who had been involved in development of advertisement business platform at an ad agency as a data scientist and others. The team consists of technology-driven members as CEO and CFO that have engineering background, in addition to CTO. Smartphone Insurance — justInCase’s first product planned for launch soon — is a repair cost insurance service for smartphones. By analyzing users’ activity patterns with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm and evaluating risk for each user, it provides insurance service with optimized fee. With this method, the firm realizes a cheaper service than AppleCare or ones provided by major carriers to smartphone users. Since this field is a niche market which…

(From L to R) Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan), Nakamura Takuo (SEO Engineer, JustInCase), Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO, JustInCase), Kazuya Hata (CEO, JustInCase), Hiroo Koizumi (CTO, JustInCase), Kuniyuki Iizawa (Designer, JustInCase), James Riney (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)
Image credit: JustInCase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based InsurTech startup JustInCase announced last week that it had fundraised from 500 Startups Japan in a seed round. The raised amount was not disclosed but is estimated to be a few hundred thousand dollars.

justInCase was founded in 2016 by Kazuya Hata (CEO) who had served the leading actuary consultancy Milliman and has been providing risk management services such as Asset Liability Management (ALM) to insurance companies, Hiroo Koizumi (CTO) who had engaged in modeling / data analysis of assets and liabilities, Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO) who had been involved in development of advertisement business platform at an ad agency as a data scientist and others. The team consists of technology-driven members as CEO and CFO that have engineering background, in addition to CTO.

Smartphone Insurance
Image credit: JustInCase

Smartphone Insurance — justInCase’s first product planned for launch soon — is a repair cost insurance service for smartphones. By analyzing users’ activity patterns with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm and evaluating risk for each user, it provides insurance service with optimized fee. With this method, the firm realizes a cheaper service than AppleCare or ones provided by major carriers to smartphone users.

Since this field is a niche market which major insurance companies do not deal with, it is possible to generate new insurance demand and to establish cooperative relationships with conventional players. justInCase has been coordinating activities with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau in order to be registered as a small amounts and short term insurance provider, and plans an official launch of the service within 2018. Furthermore, it started accepting user pre-registrations on its website from the day.

While the details about Smartphone Insurance have not been revealed yet, it is thought to be an app capable of self-diagnosis when insuring /claiming insurance in addition to carrying out user activity analysis like Sure, a similar service in the US. The Sure team behind the service is in its third year since its foundation and had raised $10.6 million in total including the series A round fundraising conducted this year.

As to same kinds of on-demand insurances for individuals in Japan, Warrantee launched Warrantee Now this month and Trov is expected to enter the Japanese market, although AI algorithm is not used in the calculation of insurance fee of these services.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Lute, Instagram Stories-based video media startup, secures $710K seed funding

Lute

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.28

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lute, which operates the Instagram Stories-based video media Lute, announced last week that it has raised 80 million yen (about $710K US) in the seed round. Gumi Ventures, Candee (video production), Allfuz (ad production) and one individual investor all participated in this round. The company proposes to use the funds raised to promote Lute’s video content production and media operations. Hirohiko Igarashi (current CEO), who was previously involved in editing and translating the online media Lifehacker, launched Lute in 2016 as a media label of Avex Digital’s internal venture. On August 15th of this year, Lute was established as a spinoff and independent startup. The Board of Directors includes Kurando Furuya (video director known for the movie yearbook “Eizou Sakka 100 nin, literally meaning 100 videographers), Shun Takeda (media producer who has served as Editor in Chief of the Roomie online magazine), and Kazuki Kogishi (CEO of Candee). During his time at Avex Digital, Igarashi hinted at his future plans with projects like Vice Plus and other video media, and with the cooperation of various artists established Lute. Igarashi explained: Millennials, generation X, that’s our target. Since they have smartphones they don’t connect to…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Lute, which operates the Instagram Stories-based video media Lute, announced last week that it has raised 80 million yen (about $710K US) in the seed round. Gumi Ventures, Candee (video production), Allfuz (ad production) and one individual investor all participated in this round.

The company proposes to use the funds raised to promote Lute’s video content production and media operations.

Hirohiko Igarashi (current CEO), who was previously involved in editing and translating the online media Lifehacker, launched Lute in 2016 as a media label of Avex Digital’s internal venture. On August 15th of this year, Lute was established as a spinoff and independent startup.

The Board of Directors includes Kurando Furuya (video director known for the movie yearbook “Eizou Sakka 100 nin, literally meaning 100 videographers), Shun Takeda (media producer who has served as Editor in Chief of the Roomie online magazine), and Kazuki Kogishi (CEO of Candee).

During his time at Avex Digital, Igarashi hinted at his future plans with projects like Vice Plus and other video media, and with the cooperation of various artists established Lute.

Igarashi explained:

Millennials, generation X, that’s our target. Since they have smartphones they don’t connect to WiFi at home and they don’t watch YouTube or music videos. To target this generation you use media distribution, Snapchat in the US, Instagram Stories in Japan, and so on.

There is no web portal on Lute; it is distributed media specialized in Instagram Stories. The company’s approach is similar to that of Firebug’s Thirty, which was discussed previously, and while keeping in mind the spare moments users have while completing other tasks, Lute is producing mobile optimized vertical short videos. For video production, it is common to use something like a storyboard or cue sheet in the pre-production process, but with Lute, one section is as short as 15 seconds or so, and it is done with the sense of putting together a magazine layout. In fact, many magazine and media editors can be named among the directors and staff.

Program examples: My Best (left), Artist Interview (right)
Image credit: Lute

Lute’s business model is roughly divided into two: the management business and the commission production business.

The management business includes the management of artists. According to Igarashi, as mobile media and influencer marketing advances, for example, there are an increasing number of cases where people who use the title of “model” also work like musicians, it calls for a different way of managing artists. Lute rents office space in Shibuya, Tokyo nearby the NHK broadcasting center, so when artists stop by for a moment the company can shoot and produce videos on the spot multiple times throughout the day.

For the production of commissioned work, Lute does casting, consulting etc. for the content creation of other companies. Using Igarashi’s personal network, the company seems to be good at casting people who fit in with the Millennials, such as a remarkable indie artist or up and coming rapper who are not with conventional production companies.

Igarashi continued:

Various data, like audience ratings, can be taken with Lute. It’s possible in the future something like advertisements might come along, but we’re not thinking about it for now. First of all, we want to build a user base, and in the medium to long term, we will start with music, and want to achieve multi-channelization to subculture media and culture media.

Originally Candee’s Kogishi wanted to invite Igarashi to Candee to launch this project, but since Igarashi was willing to start his own business himself, he abandoned the invitation and instead of giving up Lute he decided to invest and take office as a director. Thus, the business synergy between Candee and Lute is likely to rise.

Kogishi added:

Products for kids is becoming a subculture. For now, Lute’s management and commission businesses will grow bigger, but I expect that it will grow in the media business too. […]

(As a means of promoting music artists) Up until now, you make a music video, release it to the media thereby launching one big firework. But from now on, rather than launching one big firework, it is important to keep launching many small fireworks.

But, it’s hard to do. (For productions and artists) I think that Lute should be used as such a place (one where a lot of small fireworks can be launched).

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Ascent Robotics unveils AI training platform, aiming for level 4 autonomous drive by 2020

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.27

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ascent Robotics has been developing autonomous driving software for Level 4 capable-vehicle (fully autonomous driving including steering, accelerating and braking without human input) in the Japanese road environment. The firm launched a beta version of AI (Artificial Intelligence) learning environment named Atlas last week. Atlas is a learning environment for AI used in simulator-based vehicle / robot, integrating VR (Virtual Reality) human interface and 3D simulation environment, in addition to deep reinforcement learning algorithm. By using both real and pseudo data for learning AI, the learning efficiency is increased to more than 50 times compared to that when using only real data. Utilizing the superiority of Atlas, Ascent Robotics aims the realization of Level 4 autonomy by 2020 when market competition is expected to be intensified. Since the Japanese or Asian road environment is considerably different from Western ones that DeepMind, Waymo, and Uber deal with, Ascent Robotics focuses on the Level 4 autonomy applicable for narrow streets having much traffic as the conventional Japanese streets normally have, and the team expects to lead the global market in this field. Ascent Robotics was founded in September 2016 by Fred Almeida, the Canadian engineer…

Autonomous vehicle developed with Ascent Robotics’ technology (concept image)
Image credit: Ascent Robotics

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Ascent Robotics has been developing autonomous driving software for Level 4 capable-vehicle (fully autonomous driving including steering, accelerating and braking without human input) in the Japanese road environment. The firm launched a beta version of AI (Artificial Intelligence) learning environment named Atlas last week.

Atlas is a learning environment for AI used in simulator-based vehicle / robot, integrating VR (Virtual Reality) human interface and 3D simulation environment, in addition to deep reinforcement learning algorithm. By using both real and pseudo data for learning AI, the learning efficiency is increased to more than 50 times compared to that when using only real data.

Utilizing the superiority of Atlas, Ascent Robotics aims the realization of Level 4 autonomy by 2020 when market competition is expected to be intensified. Since the Japanese or Asian road environment is considerably different from Western ones that DeepMind, Waymo, and Uber deal with, Ascent Robotics focuses on the Level 4 autonomy applicable for narrow streets having much traffic as the conventional Japanese streets normally have, and the team expects to lead the global market in this field.

Learning AI for autonomous driving in Atlas 3D simulator space
Image credit: Ascent Robotics

Ascent Robotics was founded in September 2016 by Fred Almeida, the Canadian engineer who had successively held high-level positions in Salesforce and Pasona Tquila. According to Nikkei Robotics, the firm has already concluded a business contract with one of the major Japanese automakers. Ken Kutaragi, known as the father of PlayStation, has also joined the firm as Outside Director.

Looking at the trend of the major Japanese automakers, Toyota, Mazda, Honda and others have targeted about 2025 as the goal for establishment of level 4 autonomous technology. If the practical application of Ascent Robotics’ technology is realized, schedules of the major automakers’ research and development may be pushed forward a few years and more.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Tokyo Metro Government’s incubator unveils young entrepreneurs from 4th batch

Tokyo Startup Gateway

The Bridge 2017.11.26

This is a guest post authored by Jerry Suppan. He is a Tokyo-based photographer and writer. The Tokyo Startup Gateway contest, held this year at a new venue near Tokyo Tower, is an event styled to present young, entrepreneurial-minded individuals and their startup business concepts that will contribute to society with global impact in genres like technology, communications, transportation, food, environment and other issues. The contestants gave their final presentations on November 18th seeking to start up their entrepreneurial concepts through ETIC, (“Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities”) which is a Tokyo based-NPO (non-profit organization) in charge of the event’s administration and such. Business concept plans from young entrepreneurial types were accepted starting from May 2017 with over 1,300 applications. During July-August 2017, the first stage of the selection process reduced the application count to around 180. During September-October 2017, the second stage of the selection process, the application count was further reduced to around 30 candidates. Finally during November and the final stage of the selection process, 10 candidates were chosen as finalists to participate in the competition event. Judges: There were four judges who discussed and concurred to make the final decisions for the winners of the competition: Shigeo…

This is a guest post authored by Jerry Suppan. He is a Tokyo-based photographer and writer.

The Tokyo Startup Gateway contest, held this year at a new venue near Tokyo Tower, is an event styled to present young, entrepreneurial-minded individuals and their startup business concepts that will contribute to society with global impact in genres like technology, communications, transportation, food, environment and other issues. The contestants gave their final presentations on November 18th seeking to start up their entrepreneurial concepts through ETIC, (“Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities”) which is a Tokyo based-NPO (non-profit organization) in charge of the event’s administration and such.

Business concept plans from young entrepreneurial types were accepted starting from May 2017 with over 1,300 applications. During July-August 2017, the first stage of the selection process reduced the application count to around 180. During September-October 2017, the second stage of the selection process, the application count was further reduced to around 30 candidates. Finally during November and the final stage of the selection process, 10 candidates were chosen as finalists to participate in the competition event.

Judges:

There were four judges who discussed and concurred to make the final decisions for the winners of the competition:

Shigeo Kagami, Professor and Head of Office of Collaborative Research Development, Division of University Corporate Relations, the University of Tokyo
Naomitsu Kodaka, CEO/Co-Founder, Tokyo Otaku Mode Inc.
Yuka Tanimoto, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Web Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Japan
Masamichi Tohyama, President, Smiles

The Finalists

Of the original 10 finalists, four were finally selected as winners of the event.

Shigeto Obata

Grand Prize: 1,000,000 yen (approximately $9,000 USD) & recognition trophy
Business concept: To create a platform by which anybody can share a small-sized aircraft and pilot, to realize a world and environment in which anyone can shift from ownership to freely utilize air space.

Masashi Hashimoto

Runner Up: 500,000 yen (approximately $4,500 USD) & recognition trophy
Business concept: To leverage dreams for use in medicine and research; To acquire hints from dreams for business applications; to enjoy freely moving about inside dreams and develop technology to see the dreams we want to see.

Milme

Runner Up: 500,000 yen (approximately $4,500 USD) & recognition trophy
Business concept: To create a share house which sponsors social foundation power, work, environmental, economic, and mental independence for 18 and 19 year old teenagers who aspire to be self-supporting and independent.

Junichi Tamaki

Audience Prize: Recognition trophy
Business concept: To propose a new city transport system which utilizes variations in building heights in a fun style and quickly transport / travel in direct lines between buildings over short distances of 100-500 meters.

Other finalists

The following is a list of finalists that did not receive prizes but made a great effort to introduce new, innovative, entrepreneurial concepts.

Sho Inami…To apply genetic engineering of insects to provide ideal “food” in areas where it is necessary.
Madoka Umetsu…To create VR training material to improve stuttering by amygdala and brain science approach. We aim to solve problems in employment and career of stuttering persons.
Yuka Shimane…To create work clothes having the necessary functionality on location at the site of manufacturing facilities. To make work easier for technicians by using data obtained IoT technology.
Saiko Nagaoka…To create a kimono sharing service by matching users that want to lend kimonos with users that want to borrow.
Masashi Nagano…To realize a paradigm shift in Japanese language education in society by providing inexpensive high quality Japanese education to all foreigners living in Japan.
Masahide Yamaguchi…To set up an employment transition support facility, expand matching between welfare facilities and companies, and promote development of work opportunity through understanding of work styles and disabilities.

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Tokyu railway’s 3rd accelerator program showcases 6 startups to collaborate with

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.25

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese railway company Tokyu (TSE:9005) held a Demo Day of its startups accelerator Tokyu Accelerator Program 3rd batch in October in Tokyo. In this finals pitch, six teams as finalists plus six teams selected as excellent services gave Lightning Talks. Tokyu Accelerator Program has a feature of giving opportunities for test marketing to participant startups by utilizing Tokyu Group’s resources. Last year’s 2nd batch was managed by Tokyu, Spiral Ventures (ex. IMJ Investment Partners), Connected Design and Tokyo Agency, and from this batch, Tokyu Media Communications, Tokyu Recreation, Tokyu Sports System plus Tokyu Research Institute had newly joined the management. The program collected participants in 10 areas: transportation / urban development / lifestyle and service / advertisement and promotion / IoT (Internet of Things) smart home / inbound travel / entertainment / sports / healthcare / direct marketing. 28 teams had passed through interview process from among 138 applicants, and six teams remained as finalists. The six finalists had taken part in the program over five months from the kick-off of 3rd batch this April until this day. They will spend all of 2017 for brush up of their services, in order to commence…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese railway company Tokyu (TSE:9005) held a Demo Day of its startups accelerator Tokyu Accelerator Program 3rd batch in October in Tokyo. In this finals pitch, six teams as finalists plus six teams selected as excellent services gave Lightning Talks.

Tokyu Accelerator Program has a feature of giving opportunities for test marketing to participant startups by utilizing Tokyu Group’s resources. Last year’s 2nd batch was managed by Tokyu, Spiral Ventures (ex. IMJ Investment Partners), Connected Design and Tokyo Agency, and from this batch, Tokyu Media Communications, Tokyu Recreation, Tokyu Sports System plus Tokyu Research Institute had newly joined the management.

The program collected participants in 10 areas: transportation / urban development / lifestyle and service / advertisement and promotion / IoT (Internet of Things) smart home / inbound travel / entertainment / sports / healthcare / direct marketing. 28 teams had passed through interview process from among 138 applicants, and six teams remained as finalists.

The six finalists had taken part in the program over five months from the kick-off of 3rd batch this April until this day. They will spend all of 2017 for brush up of their services, in order to commence full-scale marketing from January of 2018 with Tokyu Group’s support.

In the event, all teams were examined by four items of novelty / affinity / potential growth / feasibility. The reviewers were as follows:

Toshihisa Adachi (Special Advisor, Japan Venture Capital Association)
Yuma Saito (General Manager, Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support)
Yuji Horiguchi (CEO / Partner, Spiral Ventures)
Toshiyuki Ichiki (Managing Director / Manager of Lifestyle and Service Business, Tokyu)
Isao Watanabe (Senior Managing Director, Tokyu) – chief reviewer

Tokyu Award: WAmazing by WAmazing

Prize money: 1.09 million yen (about $9,600)

WAmazing is an information portal for foreign visitors to Japan through use of free SIM cards. The team had won B Dash Camp 2017 Spring in Fukuoka.

WAmazing has so far set up vending machines to provide free SIM cards at Narita International Airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport and Kansai Airport, and will next month add Sendai International Airport to where their operation is entrusted to Tokyu Group. The team regards Hong Kong and Taiwan as its first targeting market to reach and also plans to advance into mainland China next year. The number of installed SIM cards exceeded 50,000 as of this October and is expected to surpass 150,000 by next March.

The team defines Tokyu’s commutation ticket users as “railway customers” being involved in transportation / shopping / residence along Tokyu railway, and said it aims to turn visitors to Japan using WAmazing SIM card into new railway customers through cooperation with Tokyu Group.

See also:

Shibuya Award: Minchalle by A10lab

Prize money: 428,000 yen (about $3,800)

A10 Lab provides an app Minchalle that motivates those who are prone to drop out from various activities. The app allows users to anonymously cheer up each others with the same challenges to improve themselves such as diet, rising early or training muscles. It encourages them to become habituated with team chat and photo sharing which certifies achievement of their goals.

The mean success rate of habituation with Minchalle is 69% which is eight times higher than the one by single challenge, and the app shows a high continuous use ratio at 46% a half year after the date of starting use. The team monetizes the app by B2B (business-to-business), charging for advertisement or official habituation support, and B2C (business-to-customer) charging for additional / premium functions.

The team had been born out from Sony’s Seed Acceleration Program and fundraised 66 million yen (about $580,000) from Sony, Dai-ichi Kangyo Credit Cooperative, Future Venture Capital, Globe Advisors and Yukihiro Yoshida in its seed round. It was chosen to the acceleration program of Aoyama Startup Acceleration Center (ASAC) 4th batch and the Nomura Holdings’ accelerator program Voyager 1st batch, in addition to Incubate Camp 10th.

NewWork Award: Player! by ookami

Supplemental prize: use rights of the Tokyu’s shared office network NewWork for four members

Ookami provides a sports social app Player! enabling more entertaining sports game watching utilizing online community. It is specified as a stealth matter so that the details of its service revealed in the Demo Day cannot be disclosed in this article.

See also:

NewWork Award: Ecbo Cloak by Ecbo

Supplemental prize: use rights of the Tokyu’s share office network NewWork for four members

Ecbo had not participated in the 3rd batch but gave a Lightning Talk. The details of its service are omitted here.

See also:

Too early for check-in? No worry, Tokyo cafes offering ‘Airbnb of baggage storage’

Silent Log Analytics by Rei Frontier

Rei Frontier provides a marketing service called Silent Log Analytics enabling a new type of activity analysis by analyzing customers’ location information with artificial intelligence (AI). Companies want to know about customers and customers want companies to make optimized proposal for each, but in reality, sometimes the problem occurs where products that were purchased offline are recommended online.

To solve this, Silent Log Analytics acquires 37,000 users’ activity data per day, obtaining their consent. Using smartphone-mounted GPS and sensors, it determines users’ condition or social attribute. Rei Frontier gathers information and owns the accumulated knowledge that only requires 3% power consumption. The team aims to optimize recommendation or customer notification by not sending entertainment information during work or not sending business information after work.

Through cooperation with Tokyu Card, the team proposed an analysis system for relationship between users’ activity and credit card use history by providing its auto-diary function. It also said it can notify the condition of each user’s destination in advance based on location and activity information, and can promote the optimized activity. With Tokyu Bus, the team showed a plan of promotion / effect measurement for Bus-mo! (free ride campaign of Tokyu Bus) users having similar background by jointly analyzing the users’ activity.

Futakotamagawa Award: Full Dive Novel by My Dearest

Prize money: 250,000 yen (about $2,500)

Full Dive Novel provides a virtual experience of becoming a hero of the story to users who read novels in virtual reality (VR) space. My Dearest has an advantage of making story nature-rich VR contents such as novels or videos by gathering editors and creators, while many of the VR content include games lacking good yarns. The team takes on creation / sales of its own content at first, and aims to make a universal developer kit enabling users to create VR content themselves and construct a platform capable of trading content in the future.

In Japan, with the low penetration rate of VR hardware, My Dearest proposed an expansion of location VR through cooperation with Tokyu Recreation. It emphasized the provision of location VR especially for nerdettes, and will consider optimized content / use time for females through test-marketing at 109 Cinemas in Tokyo. In addition, the team implied a possibility of making VR content featuring areas around Tokyu railway lines.

Switch Office by Hitokara Media

Hitokara Media provides an office relocation support Switch Office that matches persons moving into / out of fully-furnished offices. With this platform, users can drastically reduce restitution cost / interior arrangement costs during office relocation. Company users who want to move out leaving all furnishings behind may apply for Switch Office with the current offices’ information while company users who want to move in are examined and will be allowed to check / inquire / view privately the office.

As for cooperation with Tokyu, Hitokara Media proposes a realization of closer environment for offices and residences. If offices could be established in urban residential areas such as Sangenjaya or Musashi Kosugi, various merits would be generated for companies, employees and Tokyu’s rail operations. The team exhibited office leasing plans utilizing real estate asset along Tokyu railway lines combining Hitokara Media’s office production know-how targeting startups, for example, by leasing a station-front property near academic institutions, availing an office environment where companies can easily attract interns and part-timers may be expected.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Zozotown’s smart body measurement suit helps users buy perfect-fit clothes online

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.23

Japanese leading fashion e-commerce site Zozotown introduced a smart bodysuit called Zozosuit on Wednesday, aiming to help customers know their body measurements upon buying clothes online. A user can take one for free but 3,000 yen (about $27 US) will be charged for additional each piece. Consisting of tops and bottoms, the outfit has stretch sensors that instantly allow users to measure their body. By placing a smartphone in front of it, your body measurement data can be transferred via Bluetooth from the outfit to the Zozotown mobile app. This state-of-the-art technology was jointly developed by New Zealand startup StretchSense which Start Today, the company behind Zozotown, invested in last year. Body measurements will be applied when a user buys an outfit of the company’s first private brand Zozo which is planned to debut in late November. Start Today says the new technology is expected to help customers relieve concerns of buying clothes in the wrong sizes, planning to add more useful search and recommendation functions into the app.

Japanese leading fashion e-commerce site Zozotown introduced a smart bodysuit called Zozosuit on Wednesday, aiming to help customers know their body measurements upon buying clothes online. A user can take one for free but 3,000 yen (about $27 US) will be charged for additional each piece.

Consisting of tops and bottoms, the outfit has stretch sensors that instantly allow users to measure their body. By placing a smartphone in front of it, your body measurement data can be transferred via Bluetooth from the outfit to the Zozotown mobile app. This state-of-the-art technology was jointly developed by New Zealand startup StretchSense which Start Today, the company behind Zozotown, invested in last year.

Body measurements will be applied when a user buys an outfit of the company’s first private brand Zozo which is planned to debut in late November. Start Today says the new technology is expected to help customers relieve concerns of buying clothes in the wrong sizes, planning to add more useful search and recommendation functions into the app.

news

IoT furniture startup Kamarq secures $3.6M from Japanese real estate listings giant Lifull

Masaru Ikeda 2017.11.23

Kamarq Holdings is a startup to offer the high quality and connected furniture brand Kamarq. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 400 million yen (about $3.6 million US) from Japan’s leading housing information provider Lifull (TSE:2120). For Kamarq, this follows their 350 million yen (about $3.2 million US) funding conducted in March of last year. We are now in touch with them to find which funding round this is. Lifull said that the decision was made because they believe of a high affinity between their core business with Kamarq’s products since the former has jointly started vacation rentals business with Rakuten in addition to real estate listings services. Kamarq unveiled Sound Table as their first product line-up in June last year followed by securing about $2.2 million yen (about $20,000 US), more than double of their initially targeted funding amount, through a crowdfunding campaign for the product’s pre-orders on Makuake. Thanks to The Bridge’s English article reproduced on VentureBeat, the team was selected by the LAUNCH Festival, a large startup conference hosted by renowned American investor and serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, as one of seven finalists in the Smart Home category to deliver a pitch onstage back…

Kamarq Holdings is a startup to offer the high quality and connected furniture brand Kamarq. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 400 million yen (about $3.6 million US) from Japan’s leading housing information provider Lifull (TSE:2120). For Kamarq, this follows their 350 million yen (about $3.2 million US) funding conducted in March of last year. We are now in touch with them to find which funding round this is.

Lifull said that the decision was made because they believe of a high affinity between their core business with Kamarq’s products since the former has jointly started vacation rentals business with Rakuten in addition to real estate listings services.

Kamarq unveiled Sound Table as their first product line-up in June last year followed by securing about $2.2 million yen (about $20,000 US), more than double of their initially targeted funding amount, through a crowdfunding campaign for the product’s pre-orders on Makuake. Thanks to The Bridge’s English article reproduced on VentureBeat, the team was selected by the LAUNCH Festival, a large startup conference hosted by renowned American investor and serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, as one of seven finalists in the Smart Home category to deliver a pitch onstage back in April this year. The company also raised 30,000 Singapore dollars (about $22,000 US) on a Kickstarter campaign.

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