The Japanese electric power industry was deregulated back in April of 2016. Since then, tech giants like Softbank and Rakuten have set up their subsidiaries to enter the new power supply market. In European countries that allow consumers to choose the power source from multiple suppliers, an outstanding vertical from the startup space is probably the energy price comparison site. Tokyo-based Enechange, the company offering an energy price comparison site under the same name, has announced that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4.4 million) from Opt Ventures and IMJ Investment Partners. This follows their 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding from Energy & Environment Investment as well as Hitachi (TSE:6501) back in February of 2016. Since its launch back in April of 2015, Enechange has been offering a power supplier switchover service for enterprises as well as a SIM card comparison site for companies and consumers. In partnership with UK-based SMAP Energy, a smart meter-based data analytics startup born from Cambridge University, the company has also been offering consulting services to electric power companies in Japan. Via Nikkei (paywalled) and TechCrunch Japan Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Image credit: 123RF
The Japanese electric power industry was deregulated back in April of 2016. Since then, tech giants like Softbank and Rakuten have set up their subsidiaries to enter the new power supply market. In European countries that allow consumers to choose the power source from multiple suppliers, an outstanding vertical from the startup space is probably the energy price comparison site.
Tokyo-based Enechange, the company offering an energy price comparison site under the same name, has announced that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4.4 million) from Opt Ventures and IMJ Investment Partners. This follows their 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding from Energy & Environment Investment as well as Hitachi (TSE:6501) back in February of 2016.
Since its launch back in April of 2015, Enechange has been offering a power supplier switchover service for enterprises as well as a SIM card comparison site for companies and consumers. In partnership with UK-based SMAP Energy, a smart meter-based data analytics startup born from Cambridge University, the company has also been offering consulting services to electric power companies in Japan.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Vaqso unveiled their device Vaqso VR, which adds a sense of smell to VR games, etc., when attached to a head-mounted display (HMD) at their press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. Vaqso was established by Kentaro Kawaguchi of ZaaZ, a Japanese company involved in promotional services using odors for restaurants. In addition to CEO Kawaguchi, Tatsuya Kogusuri who led the development of Hackey for Cerevo serves as CTO, and Fumio Kurokawa who has had a hand in various online games serves as a special advisor. While Kawaguchi is in charge of planning and developing the odors, Kurokawa is using his vast network to support business development. Their development base is located in Tokyo at DMM.make Akiba, but was incorporated in San Francisco, USA to make global funding efforts easier with the goal to enter the world market. Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to…
Vaqso Co-founder and CEO Kentaro Kawaguchi, Special Advisor Fumio Kurokawa
Tokyo-based startup Vaqso unveiled their device Vaqso VR, which adds a sense of smell to VR games, etc., when attached to a head-mounted display (HMD) at their press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. Vaqso was established by Kentaro Kawaguchi of ZaaZ, a Japanese company involved in promotional services using odors for restaurants. In addition to CEO Kawaguchi, Tatsuya Kogusuri who led the development of Hackey for Cerevo serves as CTO, and Fumio Kurokawa who has had a hand in various online games serves as a special advisor. While Kawaguchi is in charge of planning and developing the odors, Kurokawa is using his vast network to support business development. Their development base is located in Tokyo at DMM.make Akiba, but was incorporated in San Francisco, USA to make global funding efforts easier with the goal to enter the world market.
Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to 5-10 cartridges in the finished product. Also, the device is equipped with a small fan, which is currently under development, but by synchronizing the rotation speed of the fan with the VR content when the user moves closer to or away from the object in the virtual space it will be possible to strengthen or weaken the smell accordingly.
Additionally, Vaqso has completed the API for controlling Vaqso VR for VR game developers. A library (Unity plug-in) is provided for connecting with Vaqso VR, and developers can make their game correspond to Vaqso VR by simply adding the “Include” command at the beginning of their source code and an additional line of code written where the event occurs. Vaqso is planning to open a developer’s site (sign up here) in an effot to gather a wide range of opinions from developers, with the feedback obtained they will improve their product, and finally reach the point where they are ready to begin shipping a finished product.
Competition, such as Feelreal and Noslus Rift, exists in this field, but Vaqso VR has an advantage in that it can emit multiple odors while also being an ultra compact device. In addition, because it was designed for installation on any HMD including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR, it has a wider potential customer base. Vaqso will launch a B2B business for advertising, games, and OEM production, etc., in April of this year, and it is expected to start selling B2C later this year.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese device startup Exiii, well known for its open-source electric-powered prosthetic hands HACKberry, produced using a 3D printer, this week announced the haptic device Exos as its new product under development. Exos applies pressure directly unto the users’ hand via a built-in motor, to enable users gaining the sensation of touching a virtual object with their hand. This technology is seen being applied to VR (virtual reality) games and robot remote controls, in addition to use in rehabilitation programs for hand movements or the like. See also: Japan’s functional prosthetic hand Handiii beats funding goal in five days Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand Along with the boom in VR (virtual reality) / AR (augmented reality) technologies, various devices providing immersive feel for the virtual space have been surfacing. Among these, products focused on the visual sense have recently become attention-grabbers, such as the first-generation device as exemplified by Oculus, which became affiliated with Facebook last year. Since hepatic sense devices are considered to be the next generation following in the visual ones’ footsteps, some projects like UnlimitedHand are now in progress in Japan. See also: Japan’s H2L unveils haptic wearable…
Japanese device startup Exiii, well known for its open-source electric-powered prosthetic hands HACKberry, produced using a 3D printer, this week announced the haptic device Exos as its new product under development.
Exos applies pressure directly unto the users’ hand via a built-in motor, to enable users gaining the sensation of touching a virtual object with their hand. This technology is seen being applied to VR (virtual reality) games and robot remote controls, in addition to use in rehabilitation programs for hand movements or the like.
Along with the boom in VR (virtual reality) / AR (augmented reality) technologies, various devices providing immersive feel for the virtual space have been surfacing. Among these, products focused on the visual sense have recently become attention-grabbers, such as the first-generation device as exemplified by Oculus, which became affiliated with Facebook last year. Since hepatic sense devices are considered to be the next generation following in the visual ones’ footsteps, some projects like UnlimitedHand are now in progress in Japan.
According to Exiii CEO Hiroshi Yamaura, one of the features of Exos is to transmit power unto the users’ hand directly via motors, unlike UnlimitedHand which adopted electric stimulus. It can thus provide a more realistic sense of touching which cannot be realized with vibration or other methods.
However, it is still under development so the unveiled design was the best possible at present, says Yamarura. Some systems adjustments will be required in the future, such as delay reductions upon communicating information to devices when users touch objects in VR space.
Therefore, the firm looks to gather user companies that wish to provide apps using Exos based on its concept announced this time. By the way, when I asked Yamaura about the uniqueness or the superiority of his device, he answered that he does not regard imitation or tailgating by other players as much of a problem because the firm owns patents related to mechanism or knowledge obtained through its prosthetic hands development and he himself is an expert of exoskeleton functions.
Image credit: Exiii
Unfortunately, I could not actually wear and try this device at this time. I cannot say anything definite about how much this device will give us an impression at present but expect that it is not just a conceptual product, judging from the firm’s background of prosthetic hands development and the demonstration video of the prototype.
On the other hand, the actual usage scene / environment for Exos appears to depend on the app developers. It is hoped that the device will be put into production within two or three years when the VR market is expected to become a very active one.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Viibar, the startup specializing in all things video productions, announced on Tuesday that it has it has secured funding from and partnered with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japan economics newspaper hereafter referred to as Nikkei. The company plans to work closely with Nikkei’s newly established digital marketing organization called N Brand Studio, in building a team to develop and provide new services and advertising products that go beyond the company’s current main role of supporting the creation of video materials. Viibar CEO Yuta Kamisaka stated concretely that in the spring of 2017 they will launch a new media project on Nikkei Style, which is managed by Nikkei. In addition to this, they will enter into product development that includes video content and is currently being offered by Nikkei as a set for tie-up advertisement, etc., in addition to also supporting content marketing for companies. Along with this business partnership, Viibar also received approximately 400 million yen (around $3.5 million US) in the latest funding round from Dentsu Digital Holdings and Globis Capital Partners as well as Nikkei. Details such as the valuation and payment date were not disclosed. Dentsu and Globis also…
Tokyo-based Viibar, the startup specializing in all things video productions, announced on Tuesday that it has it has secured funding from and partnered with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japan economics newspaper hereafter referred to as Nikkei. The company plans to work closely with Nikkei’s newly established digital marketing organization called N Brand Studio, in building a team to develop and provide new services and advertising products that go beyond the company’s current main role of supporting the creation of video materials.
Viibar CEO Yuta Kamisaka stated concretely that in the spring of 2017 they will launch a new media project on Nikkei Style, which is managed by Nikkei. In addition to this, they will enter into product development that includes video content and is currently being offered by Nikkei as a set for tie-up advertisement, etc., in addition to also supporting content marketing for companies.
Nikkei Style
Along with this business partnership, Viibar also received approximately 400 million yen (around $3.5 million US) in the latest funding round from Dentsu Digital Holdings and Globis Capital Partners as well as Nikkei. Details such as the valuation and payment date were not disclosed. Dentsu and Globis also participated in the previous round.
Viibar, who has supported the crowdsourcing of video materials for companies, has undertaken a new development: an investment and corporate alliance with the media. From the onset, they did not simply provide crowdsourcing for video production, but also dabbled in the media, with funds received from Yahoo Japan in their previous round, and Bouncy, their version of distributed contents. With recent developments, it appears they are ready to go from testing the waters to jumping straight in head first.
These past few years Viibar has been riding the crowdsourcing wave by gathering creators on-line and streamlining production through their production platform. The company has given new options for video production where previously there was only one, to order from a professional production company, and since its inception in 2013 they have assembled some 3000 creators online with the number of companies using their service climbing to 600.
Viibar’s key feature is the so-called “production studio on the cloud”, and there is no need to worry about quality control if a specific creator leaves the production, or a shortage of resources to meet the demands of a large order, which can occur with a general production company. Also, in many cases, the produced contents gets “distributed”, which means the media is necessary. Apart from traditional television and signage, of course, distribution on the Internet is the goal for their creative endeavors.
As mentioned in the release, it is not the first time for Viibar to support the video production of other media. However, this time, with the inclusion of funding, it feels like they intend to expand into a media company, rather than stop at the crowdsourcing of video production/practical knowledge for creating commissioned videos. In fact, even though their business scheme with Nikkei is still under wraps, upon talking with Kamisaka examples of where they are headed, revenue shares, etc. (all points not in the official release) became quite clear.
Viibar has moved from crowdsourcing a little closer to a outsourcing production platform. So, will their video marketing business open up considerably by collaborating with the Nikkei brand?
Here Kamisaka emphasized the word “quality” when it comes to creative pursuits. In the first place, crowdsourcing has some difficulties in quality control regarding work on specific smaller sections of a larger project. However, Viibar covers this with their system and operations, successfully producing a quality top brands can utilize.
Kamisaka elaborated on the cost as well.
The price, that is to say the time and effort that is usually put in by people, compared to a major production company is reasonable. Although, a production company with various people working together internally beats crowdsourcing that doesn’t value quality. For our company, we believe jobs that are just cheap are not work for creators, so it’s good this way.
Since there is no doubt that the balance of quality and cost will lead to profit in the end, the pricing and profit margin of each video advertising product they will sell with the Nikkei brand becomes interesting.
Over the past few years Viibar has constructed a system that can flexibly deliver high-quality content to the world, and from now will use brand-name media and distribution to move to a new stage. This then becomes a test of whether they can expand as a business by taking this next step away from a production platform.
I think it comes down to whether or not we can make a strong brand. A strong brand means that the media has a fan base and its CPA (cost per acquisition) is low, and if this is solid, then it doesn’t matter whether the content is offered via a platform or via our own media.
Kamisaka continued:
Media is a collection of content. We have a commitment to creating an environment where it is possible to focus on creative pursuits. We aren’t just intermediaries matching creators with projects, but through evaluating creators, and paying attention to various results, we have been able to confirm that this is the correct direction to take. Recently, there have been various problems in the area of content, but in the end they’re likely to demand a way of work and manner of creation that is more productive.
Advertisers, the media, creators– with the power of technology is it possible to put them successfully on the cloud? It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Ecbo launched their on-demand Ecbo Cloak service on Wednesday, aimed at travelers looking to find temporary storage for their luggage by employing the unused space of cafes, bike rentals shops and others. Ecbo was founded by Shinichi Kudo who previously worked at Uber Japan as an intern. The company launched the Ecbo on-demand storage service in June of 2015, and expanding from this, with Ecbo Cloak they begin a new service that incorporates the concept of a sharing economy by finding a use for the idle space in retail stores. The idea for ecbo cloak came to Kudo in Shibuya where he was approached by a traveler to Japan and questioned with, “I’m looking for a coin locker that can store my suitcase.” Lockers capable of fitting a suitcase were scarce or already in use, leading Kudo to the conclusion, unexpectedly, that herein lies a business opportunity. It is true, travelers can request to store their luggage at the front desk or cloak room of their hotel before check-in time, but making a trip to the hotel solely for that purpose, especially in the middle of the day with so much to…
Tokyo-based startup Ecbo launched their on-demand Ecbo Cloak service on Wednesday, aimed at travelers looking to find temporary storage for their luggage by employing the unused space of cafes, bike rentals shops and others.
Ecbo CEO Shinichi Kudo
Ecbo was founded by Shinichi Kudo who previously worked at Uber Japan as an intern. The company launched the Ecbo on-demand storage service in June of 2015, and expanding from this, with Ecbo Cloak they begin a new service that incorporates the concept of a sharing economy by finding a use for the idle space in retail stores. The idea for ecbo cloak came to Kudo in Shibuya where he was approached by a traveler to Japan and questioned with, “I’m looking for a coin locker that can store my suitcase.” Lockers capable of fitting a suitcase were scarce or already in use, leading Kudo to the conclusion, unexpectedly, that herein lies a business opportunity.
It is true, travelers can request to store their luggage at the front desk or cloak room of their hotel before check-in time, but making a trip to the hotel solely for that purpose, especially in the middle of the day with so much to take in, is annoying. In the case of vacation rentals such as Airbnb and HomeAway, travelers cannot count on leaving their luggage before check-in or receiving a key. With Ecbo Cloak travelers can leave their luggage in a convenient location at the city center, enjoy the city care-free, and head to their accommodations at their leisure.
Click to enlarge.
Actually, even in my case, I often leave my suitcase containing my travel necessities in a coin locker at the station when I have appointments in Tokyo before heading to Haneda or Narita (International Airport) or when I have to head to a meeting immediately after returning home to Japan. Here, a problem; when VIPs from overseas like presidents visit Tokyo the use of all coin lockers is suspended in the greater metropolitan area for security purposes. Since Ecbo Cloak is available during the opening hours of the business that collects the luggage, it can be used without having to worry about the above-mentioned case of the coin lockers. Personal identification is required to use the service, and the person responsible for collecting the luggage confirms the user at the drop off, thereby reducing the risk of crime/incidents.
Click to enlarge.
It is said around 30% of visitors to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics used vacation rentals like Airbnb. And it has already been said that Tokyo, host of the 2020 Olympics, is in overwhelmingly short supply of hotels for such an event, so it is safe to assume the use of vacation rentals will increase further. Additionally, with vacation rentals unable to meet the demands for flexibility by their customers (e.g., early check-in/late check-out), Ecbo Cock is expected to grow into a service that fills the gap between customers and suppliers.
So far Ecbo has received funding from Anri, and employs ten full-time core members, including interns. In addition to expanding into Kyoto and Osaka within the year, they want to offer their service at more than 10,000 stores.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Studio Ousia revealed last week that it had completed an AI (artificial intelligence) inquiry response system using deep learning named QA Engine and that the system was adopted to the auto-answering system of Japan’s cloud accounting system Freee as its first client. The system supports the questions-and-answers style and can hand over questions to human operators when users are dissatisfied with the answers. Freee expects an improvement in customer satisfaction and the efficiency of helpdesk works through the QA Engine adoption. Studio Ousia won an AI quiz competition in Quiz Bowl style at an international conference focused on natural language processing NAACL (North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics) held in San Diego last June. QA Engine was developed leveraging the competition-winning technologies. The firm plans to launch QA Engine as an API (application program interface) service of elemental technologies applicable to answer support system in call centers, human resource matching system or chatbot. See also: Japan’s Studio Ousia wins global NEEL Challenge competition with Entity Linking technology Japan’s Studio Ousia to launch new affiliate solution for bloggers Japan-based Phroni introduces smart add-ons for Dolphin and Sleipnir mobile browsers As recent…
Tokyo-based Studio Ousia revealed last week that it had completed an AI (artificial intelligence) inquiry response system using deep learning named QA Engine and that the system was adopted to the auto-answering system of Japan’s cloud accounting system Freee as its first client. The system supports the questions-and-answers style and can hand over questions to human operators when users are dissatisfied with the answers. Freee expects an improvement in customer satisfaction and the efficiency of helpdesk works through the QA Engine adoption.
Studio Ousia won an AI quiz competition in Quiz Bowl style at an international conference focused on natural language processing NAACL (North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics) held in San Diego last June. QA Engine was developed leveraging the competition-winning technologies. The firm plans to launch QA Engine as an API (application program interface) service of elemental technologies applicable to answer support system in call centers, human resource matching system or chatbot.
As recent topics in this field, Japanese online shopping mall Lohaco’s inquiry response system named Manami-san, which was developed based on a chatbot Caiwa provided by Exiis-Lab, received attention by becoming able to cover one-third of all inquiries to its customer support service. AI developer AL+ (pronounced as “alts”) developed an API Rewritable Memory-based Retrieval (RMR) as a core technology of chatbot and launched a bot development environment AL+ BotFramework supporting LINE or Twitter too. Japan’s BPO (business process outsourcing) / call center service major TransCosmos (TSE:9715) invested in New York-based bot development environment startup Reply.ai this month, and announced that the firm is going to localize the platform for the Japanese market while focusing on introduction to customer support services of the Japanese enterprises.
Studio Ousia was founded through the Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus)’s incubation program, and launched a keyword autolink plugin for smartphone / browser named Phroni in 2012. The firm raised 70 million yen (about $610,000) from Nissei Capital in March of the same year in its series A round, and 100 million yen (about $870,000) from Tokyo-based system developer NID (TSE:2349) in August 2014.
Studio Ousia CEO Ikuya Yamada explains the base technologies of QA Engine at NAACL Image credit: Jordan Boyd-Graber
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mosquitone, providing a cloud-based personnel assessment and target management platform called HRBrain, announced on Wednesday that the securement of funds from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. Details such as the amount raised, payment date, and the share ratio were not disclosed. Along with the funding, the company plans to release the official version of HRBrain, which until now they operated solely in closed beta. According to Mosquitone’s CEO Hiroki Hori, up until now the company has been managed by funds raised from within, making this the first time for funding to come from outside. The company was established in March of 2016, with CEO Hori having previously managed the business department of media relations at CyberAgent (TSE:4751), where he first became aware of the difficulties and inefficiencies brought about by a large number of registered members using general tools, such as Excel, to manage their targets and evaluate their personnel. The company participated in Recruit Holdings’ (TSE:6098) Tech Lab Paak accelerator in order to promote the development of their service. He noted that they improved the scope of their service through introductory tests with some 20 companies focused on Internet related business. So, as…
From the left: Hiro Maeda (Partner of Beenext), Hiroki Hori (CEO of Mosquitone), Soichi Tajima (Genesia Ventures)
Tokyo-based Mosquitone, providing a cloud-based personnel assessment and target management platform called HRBrain, announced on Wednesday that the securement of funds from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. Details such as the amount raised, payment date, and the share ratio were not disclosed. Along with the funding, the company plans to release the official version of HRBrain, which until now they operated solely in closed beta.
According to Mosquitone’s CEO Hiroki Hori, up until now the company has been managed by funds raised from within, making this the first time for funding to come from outside.
The company was established in March of 2016, with CEO Hori having previously managed the business department of media relations at CyberAgent (TSE:4751), where he first became aware of the difficulties and inefficiencies brought about by a large number of registered members using general tools, such as Excel, to manage their targets and evaluate their personnel. The company participated in Recruit Holdings’ (TSE:6098) Tech Lab Paak accelerator in order to promote the development of their service. He noted that they improved the scope of their service through introductory tests with some 20 companies focused on Internet related business.
A screenshot of HRBrain Image credit: Mosquitone
So, as far as a first impression, HRBrain is quite similar to SmartHR in terms of development. They specialize in the very niche range of corporate management, which until now has been handled by general tools like Excel and paper, but, “as a system the range is narrow, so general-purpose tools are troublesome.” They attack this problem with “refined usability.” There are two major points here. One point is whether they can generalize the extremely qualitative content of the disconnected personnel evaluations and target management for each company. The other is which cost to replace.
As far as the first point goes, Hori says, “We can do it.”
We’ve been able to categorize the methods of target management for each company into a number of patterns. Then we used this to draw up a goal sheet with 4 types for now (OKR, MBO,WCM=Will Can Must, 360 degree evaluation). From here on out we plan to increase this one by one every month. But, there are only about 10 types of such classifications.
The service itself is not complicated. It consists of a target management sheet for entering personal targets and a management screen for HR or a person-in-charge to evaluate. Hori and his team met with nearly 60 of these companies with disjointed evaluation management in order to make such classifications. It seems there is compatibility at the moment as a service aimed at Internet based businesses, however trying to expand into other industries became difficult with circumstances such computers not being distributed to each worker, etc.
The question, “Whose wallet are you looking to lighten?” was also answered to an extent. He added,
I suppose the wallet we’re after has a connection with HR. Take this, there is an example that the evaluation management sheet put together every six months using Excel takes one and a half months to complete. We’re getting a significant amount of hype for reducing that by half.
Pricing is based on the number of users (employees) and is charged per person, with the price changing depending on the total number. It appears the general price will be around 600 to 800 yen (about $5-$7 US) per person. As an example, take a company with 100 employees, with a simple calculation it comes out to about 60,000 to 80,000 yen (about $500-$700 US).
Whether this is cheap or expensive can be judged by whether or not the evaluation management can be firmly tied to talent management. It could be cheap so long as superior workers do not get swept away with an unmatched evaluation, but if it becomes a tool simply for improving the “operational” efficiency it may be seen as an unnecessary expense.
As I remarked above, HRBrain has a similar feel to last year’s big hit service SmartHR. On the other hand, whether or not it ends as a simple tool could depend on whether the data obtained can be efficiently reflected in management. As many companies update their personnel and goal management in April, I am interested to see the growth of HRBrain around that time.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Campfire, the Japanese crowdfunding site which was recently reported to expand into the social lending space, officially announced today that it has fundraised 330 million yen (about $2.9 million) in the latest round. Participating investors are D4V (by Ideo and Genuine Startups), GMO Internet (TSE:9449), SMBC Venture Capital, East Ventures, iSGS Investment Works, Suneight Investment, Septeni Holdings (TSE:4293), DeNA (TSE:2432) and Freakout Holdings (TSE:6094) in addition to two individual investors including Mamoru Taniya. Coinciding with the funds, Campfire names Mamoru Taniya, who is known as the founder and chairman of Japanese robo-advisory startup Money Design as well as an early-stage investor in Lifenet Insurance (TSE:7157), its new chairman while Yusuke Sato (CEO of Freakout Holdings) and Antonio Kamiya (CTO of Fujisan Magazine Service, TSE:3138) are appointed as outside directors. In addition, Hiroue Harada, who won the data scientist of the year award, now joins the team as Chief Information Officer. At this time around, the company published an infographics (see above) on how much money they have offered to crowdfunding projects through the platform, seeing over 1.6 billion yen (over $13.8 million) offered in total compared to 700 million yen (about $6 million)…
Coinciding with the funds, Campfire names Mamoru Taniya, who is known as the founder and chairman of Japanese robo-advisory startup Money Design as well as an early-stage investor in Lifenet Insurance (TSE:7157), its new chairman while Yusuke Sato (CEO of Freakout Holdings) and Antonio Kamiya (CTO of Fujisan Magazine Service, TSE:3138) are appointed as outside directors. In addition, Hiroue Harada, who won the data scientist of the year award, now joins the team as Chief Information Officer.
Image credit: Campfire
At this time around, the company published an infographics (see above) on how much money they have offered to crowdfunding projects through the platform, seeing over 1.6 billion yen (over $13.8 million) offered in total compared to 700 million yen (about $6 million) in the first four years since the launch back in June of 2011.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) held last month a Demo Day for the 6th batch of its startup accelerator Tech Lab Paak in Shibuya, Tokyo. Six teams in the regular course and six teams in the VR (virtual reality) course made three-minute pitches presenting their half year results since joining the program. In addition, other nine teams made one-minute pitches which can be voted for the Audience Award although they were excluded from examination by judges, and thereby it became a big pitch event having 21 teams. Below, I introduced what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following are judges for the pitch competition in the event. Shintaro Yamagami (CEO, Colopl Next) Shinichiro Isago (Director, Business Strategy, LINE) Hiroshi Hata (Startup Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services Japan) Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan) Yoichi Aso (Head of Media Technology Lab., Recruit Holdings) Tech Lab Paak Award: HoloEyes Supplemental prize: pair meal ticket for a hotel dinner HoloEyes aims to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR. The firm was founded by engineer Naoji Taniguchi and…
Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) held last month a Demo Day for the 6th batch of its startup accelerator Tech Lab Paak in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Six teams in the regular course and six teams in the VR (virtual reality) course made three-minute pitches presenting their half year results since joining the program. In addition, other nine teams made one-minute pitches which can be voted for the Audience Award although they were excluded from examination by judges, and thereby it became a big pitch event having 21 teams.
Below, I introduced what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following are judges for the pitch competition in the event.
Shintaro Yamagami (CEO, Colopl Next)
Shinichiro Isago (Director, Business Strategy, LINE)
Hiroshi Hata (Startup Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services Japan)
Yoichi Aso (Head of Media Technology Lab., Recruit Holdings)
Tech Lab Paak Award: HoloEyes
Supplemental prize: pair meal ticket for a hotel dinner
HoloEyes aims to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR. The firm was founded by engineer Naoji Taniguchi and surgeon Maki Sugimoto (Associate Professor, International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School). The technology will be helpful for the medical world by sharing information of human bodies as 3DVR form.
The medical VR database will be constructed through collection of CT scan data and forming 3D human body models, while accumulating thereof. If searching a term “male, 60s, prostate cancer,” 3D images of matched cases will be output. Doctors can utilize them for diagnosis references of similar cases or training upon surgical operations.
The firm expects a business model providing VR viewers for hospitals and selling collected data after obtaining patients’ consent to medical colleges or pharmaceutical companies.
500 Startups Award: MacroSpace
Supplemental prizes: meal tickets worth 30,000 yen
MacroSpace develops a system for the tele-existence. With this system, users wearing sensors attached to the bodies can control remote robots with the users’ same motion via Internet. The existence of avatars in different places may realize “transportation”; tele-diagnosis or tele-education will become possible technically by setting avatars in depopulated areas lack of doctors or teachers. Since the size of robots is independent of the human body, larger robots can be controlled by users so that it can be also utilized for disaster rescues, for example.
The developer Sho Nakanose likened the possibility of tel-existence robots: “everyone can become ironman or cyborg”. The MacroSpace team aims to participate and win the tel-existence-focused global competition ANA Avatar XPRIZE which will be held in the US in 2020 with a total amount of prize money of $21 million. The firm had fundraised 15 million yen (about $130,000) in its seed round from Skyland Ventures and others.
Supplemental prize: Apple Store gift cards worth 30,000 yen
Sometimes it is difficult to subtle nuances or contexts accurately in communication with videos or voices such as Skype, as compared to face-to-face communication. Paneo supplements the insufficient parts of the online communication and provides an environment where you do not always have to meet and talk directly.
Although Microsoft has been developing a real-time rendering system using plural Kinect for 3D capturing of human bodies, it is not easy method due to requiring complicated preparation or environment as well as specialized studios. Facebook has been making similar efforts using Oculus also, but it is poor in expressing presences or takes time to create 3D models.
Paneo develops Embody Me which enables an easy creation of 3D models from face photos and allows a group chat system with them. It creates 3D motion pictures based on user’s movement captured by camera, and transfers them to the opposite party in real-time. The team plans to launch its flagship app for HTC Vive or Oculus Rift in early 2017.
LINE Award: Orario
Supplemental prize: a set of uncut boiled snow crab
Hiroki Yoshimoto who is a student of Ritsumeikan University had felt dissatisfaction with that information services provided by the university were scattered and not even be optimized for smartphones, so he started development of Orario. By registering log-in information for the university’s portal website, it gathers information by web scraping and displays information such as canceled classes or supplementary classes on the mobile app for each student.
35,000 students are enrolled in Ritsumeikan University, and the number of monthly active user of the app from the university reaches 18,000. The app is currently available for 8 universities and the team plans to cover 70% of student information for Japan’s top universities by next March. The app has a notebook / resume sharing function among students in the same classes, and the team aims to monetize by setting up a marketplace for trading these class materials in January or implementing a direct recruiting function targeting companies in the future.
Additionally, the team announced that it had raised 20 million yen (about $170,000) from a Japanese consulting firm Vector (TSE:6058) in December, seemingly in its seed round.
AWS Award: OTON GLASS
Supplemental prizes: Amazon gift cards worth 30,000 yen and a lunch ticket for Amazon cafeteria
The founder of OTON GLASS had started development of the device under the same name because his father suffered from dyslexia, and subsequently the firm completed its 9th prototype with support from people with dyslexia and amblyopia. OTON GLASS recognizes what the user is looking at as visual information and reads them out with a voice through character recognition in order to help the weak-eyed people’ understanding. The firm also develops a translated reader function for non-Japanese users and another glass device named JINRIKI GLASS which forwards images to remote people to have the characters read out.
Supplemental prize: a visit right for Microsoft Japan’s Technology Center led by its Director Madoka Sawa
Psychic VR Lab develops a VR shopping platform focusing on fashion named Styly which conveys the appeal inherent in fashion items or fashion brands’ views online. Currently, about 30 brands have been took part in its test, and a virtual shopping demonstration with Styly at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku last year.
Although the service had been assumed to be used only in an environment well-equipped VR devices due to the popularization of VR, as it has become much easier for consumer users to prepare VR environment, the firm will intend to create services allowing VR experiences even with general PCs.
In this event, Psychic VR Lab revealed that it had fundraised an undisclosed amount from Colopl VR Fund and others in its seed round.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cykinso, who develop and sell “Mykinso” or a test kit for intestinal flora, revealed that it has secured 270 million yen (about $2.3 million US) from the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund (the GP is comprised of REVIC Capital and AGS Consulting under the jurisdiction of the Regional Economic Revitalization Support Organization; LPs are banks, etc.), among others. The funds secured this time around follow those raised from individual investors (the angel round), a grant from Kanagawa Prefecture for the “Project to Promote the Creation of the Preventive Medicine market,” a grant from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s “Project to Encourage the Creation of SMEs and New Business.” Although these are grants, in terms of business stages Cykinso has labeled this the seed round, making their most recent funding essentially a series A round. Cykinso plans to use the funds secured this round for business development purposes, including using the data collected from the intestinal flora tests to develop a system for offering nutritional guidance. Cykinso was founded in November of 2014 by Yu Sawai (CEO), previously of a genome research company, along with others. While they are not a…
From the left: Cykinso CEO Yu Sawai, Director of UX Daisuke Ogawara
Tokyo-based Cykinso, who develop and sell “Mykinso” or a test kit for intestinal flora, revealed that it has secured 270 million yen (about $2.3 million US) from the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund (the GP is comprised of REVIC Capital and AGS Consulting under the jurisdiction of the Regional Economic Revitalization Support Organization; LPs are banks, etc.), among others. The funds secured this time around follow those raised from individual investors (the angel round), a grant from Kanagawa Prefecture for the “Project to Promote the Creation of the Preventive Medicine market,” a grant from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s “Project to Encourage the Creation of SMEs and New Business.” Although these are grants, in terms of business stages Cykinso has labeled this the seed round, making their most recent funding essentially a series A round.
Cykinso plans to use the funds secured this round for business development purposes, including using the data collected from the intestinal flora tests to develop a system for offering nutritional guidance.
In November of 2015 they released the intestinal flora testing service “Mykinso”, a home-testing kit that when mailed in tells people the state of their intestinal bacteria. Following this, they released “Mykinso Pro” for the professional market, that allows medical institutions, etc., to register patient examination data and manage specimens, and in about one year from the start of the project they have acquired intestinal flora data from around 2,000 people through both services. The examination results can be viewed by the user or the user’s doctor in the form of a cloud or paper report.
Cykinso receives permission from users beforehand to use the intestinal flora data as big data with the promise that users remain anonymous, and expects that businesses using this big data will grow considerably in the future. Depending on the scale of the accumulated data, the services to be offered and the business stage will be adjusted accordingly.
Phase 1: Sale of the intestinal flora test kit, Begin the reporting service for the test result cloud and paper report
Phase 2: Doctors, etc., can use the results to assist in diagnosis, Registered nutritionists can provide advice (Accumulated data on a scale of 2,000 people)
Phase 3: Big data is sold to pharmaceutical companies, Pharmaceutical companies use it to develop new drugs (Accumulated data on a scale of tens of thousands of people)
It could say that Cykinso will use the funds from this round to shift their business phase from phase one to phase two.
Mykinso Lab, online vertical media by Cykinso, specializes in intestinal flora-related topics.
In October of this year, the company held an event called “Intestinal Summit” along with dispensing pharmacy big name Aisei Pharmacy (TSE:3170) and leading mobile service provider MTI (TSE:9438) to promote awareness of general consumers’ intestinal flora and services. Additionally, this week they will move offices from the Kanagawa Science Park, where they have resided for the two years since inception, to the Good Morning Building in Shibuya, Tokyo, which incidentally also houses THE BRIDGE X. For Cykinso this signifies the transformation from a purely academic venture into the business domain.
As they specialize in big data related to intestinal flora, there is currently no service that can be classified as a competitor in Japan. American startup uBiome, which Sawai marks as the one to beat, has raised around $27 million US thus far.
In the future, it appears devices installed directly on toilets, as one example, will allow consumers to easily and regularly monitor the state of their intestinal bacteria. A few startups come to mind, such as Tripe W Japan’s DFree and Symax, who monitor the state of a person’s urine and feces to assist in excretory predictions and detection of pre-illnesses. In the coming year, I plan to pay special attention to breakthroughs in healthcare startups.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
