THE BRIDGE

Startups

Japan’s Degas secures $6.7M to serve more to unbanked small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

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Tokyo-based Degas, the Japanese startup aiming to help improving the livelihoods of small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, announced last week that it has secured 970 million yen (about $6.7 million). Participating investors in the latest unspecified round are Animal Spirits, Global Catalyst Partners Japan, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, Nanto CVC (run by Nanto Bank and Nanto Capital Partners), and Primal Capital. The company has so far secured 240 million yen in the 1st close of the seed round revealed in November of 2020 (Primal Capital, Akatsuki’s Heart Driven Fund, and others participated) and subsequently 1 billion yen (round unknown; Deepcore, Monex Ventures, Inclusion Japan, and Ikemori Venture Support participated) in January of 2023. Since its launch back in 2018 by Doga Makiura, who was featured by TED as “one of the 12 young people around the world in 2014, the company has been offering financial services to more than 46,000 small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Through its mobile app and local operations, the company has been serving to small farmers not covered by traditional financial institutions leveraging data collection and AI-based credit decisions. Degas will use the funds to expand its existing farmer finance business and launch two new businesses. The…

Image credit: Degas

Tokyo-based Degas, the Japanese startup aiming to help improving the livelihoods of small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, announced last week that it has secured 970 million yen (about $6.7 million). Participating investors in the latest unspecified round are Animal Spirits, Global Catalyst Partners Japan, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, Nanto CVC (run by Nanto Bank and Nanto Capital Partners), and Primal Capital.

The company has so far secured 240 million yen in the 1st close of the seed round revealed in November of 2020 (Primal Capital, Akatsuki’s Heart Driven Fund, and others participated) and subsequently 1 billion yen (round unknown; Deepcore, Monex Ventures, Inclusion Japan, and Ikemori Venture Support participated) in January of 2023.

Since its launch back in 2018 by Doga Makiura, who was featured by TED as “one of the 12 young people around the world in 2014, the company has been offering financial services to more than 46,000 small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Through its mobile app and local operations, the company has been serving to small farmers not covered by traditional financial institutions leveraging data collection and AI-based credit decisions.

Degas will use the funds to expand its existing farmer finance business and launch two new businesses. The company will hire experts in carbon credits and data analysis to issue high-quality carbon credits to launch the decarbonization business while aiming to form a marketplace for academic loans, farm machinery leasing, and mobile phone contracts.

via PR Times

Gen AI startup EmbodyMe unveils new app, creates avatars responding to your motion in real time

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Tokyo-based EmbodyMe launched a new app called Xpression Avatar, which allows users to move their own avatars in real-time, available for iOS and Android. The app uses the company’s proprietary real-time video generative AI technology to instantly generate your avatar in different styles which responds to your facial expressions and head movements fin real time. Since its launch back in 2016, EmbodyMe has developed several apps in the generative video field, including the EmbodyMe VR app, the Xpression Camera face swap app, as well as the Xpression Chat VR- / ChatGPT-based app. In the new app, the AI technology allows you to generate your avatar in various styles from your photos. The avatar styles available include anime, ukiyoe, humanoid, 1990s, and hip-hop. The user can not only move the avatar in accordance with his/her own movements, but also make the avatar speak his/her favorite lines, and tap a button to make the avatar laugh or sing. The generated images can also be shared on social network services while the mobile screen with the avatar can be shared. The new app is the culmination of EmbodyMe in two ways. One is that, in addition to the preset styles mentioned above, you…

Tokyo-based EmbodyMe launched a new app called Xpression Avatar, which allows users to move their own avatars in real-time, available for iOS and Android. The app uses the company’s proprietary real-time video generative AI technology to instantly generate your avatar in different styles which responds to your facial expressions and head movements fin real time.

Since its launch back in 2016, EmbodyMe has developed several apps in the generative video field, including the EmbodyMe VR app, the Xpression Camera face swap app, as well as the Xpression Chat VR- / ChatGPT-based app. In the new app, the AI technology allows you to generate your avatar in various styles from your photos.

The avatar styles available include anime, ukiyoe, humanoid, 1990s, and hip-hop. The user can not only move the avatar in accordance with his/her own movements, but also make the avatar speak his/her favorite lines, and tap a button to make the avatar laugh or sing. The generated images can also be shared on social network services while the mobile screen with the avatar can be shared.

Image credit: EmbodyMe

The new app is the culmination of EmbodyMe in two ways. One is that, in addition to the preset styles mentioned above, you can freely specify your favorite style with text prompts; according to EmbodyMe CEO Issay Yoshida, your prompt is interpreted based on the customized version of the Stable Difussion LLM (Large Language Model).

The second is their proprietary AI technology that can generate video in real time. Moreover, video processing is not performed in the cloud but on the mobile, which makes the company stand out with its unrivaled technology. The company does not need to increase its computational resources as its user base grows because the experience does not rely on the cloud.

EmbodyMe is developing the app for consumers while offering business solutions using the same technology for video production, advertising, live streaming, games, and other applications.

In the generative video AI space, Meta and Stable AI have recently announced their own solutions respectively while Runway has partnered with Getty Images to develop generative AI video models for the film and advertising industries. Pika Labs has reached a $200 million valuation in just six months after its launch.

Japan’s Thirdverse raises $8.1M to focus on developing VR and blockchain game titles

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Tokyo-based game developer Thirdverse announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 1.2 billion yen (about $8.1 million US) in its latest round. B Dash Ventures, Shinsei Corporate Investment, Now, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Thirdverse CEO Hironao Kunimitsu participated in this round. For the company, this follows a 2 billion yen ($13.5 million) funding back in November of 2022, and brought their funding sum to date to 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million). Thirverse uses the funds to more focus on developing and global marketing of its latest VR titles X8 and Soul Covenant. X8 has achieved 180,000 downloads since its official launch on the Meta Quest and Steam stores, and has hosted three VR e-sports events; Its PlayStation VR2 and PICO versions will be announced soon. Recently announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, Soul Covenant is also scheduled to release in early 2024. The company plans to continue developing new VR game projects and hiring development teams. Via PR Times

X8
Image credit: Thirdverse

Tokyo-based game developer Thirdverse announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 1.2 billion yen (about $8.1 million US) in its latest round.

B Dash Ventures, Shinsei Corporate Investment, Now, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Thirdverse CEO Hironao Kunimitsu participated in this round.

For the company, this follows a 2 billion yen ($13.5 million) funding back in November of 2022, and brought their funding sum to date to 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million).

Thirverse uses the funds to more focus on developing and global marketing of its latest VR titles X8 and Soul Covenant.

X8 has achieved 180,000 downloads since its official launch on the Meta Quest and Steam stores, and has hosted three VR e-sports events; Its PlayStation VR2 and PICO versions will be announced soon.

Recently announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, Soul Covenant is also scheduled to release in early 2024. The company plans to continue developing new VR game projects and hiring development teams.

Via PR Times

LA startup Cashi Cake secures $3.7M to promote seaweed-based functional sweets, beverages

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Los Angeles-based Cashi Cake, the Japanese startup behind the Misaky Tokyo seaweed confectionery brand and the OoMee seaweed beverage brand, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $3.7 million US in the 1st close of its Series A round. Participating investors include Mitsubishi Foods (TSE: 7451), Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and undisclosed venture capital firm(s) as well as angel investors including Masaki Yamamoto (CEO, Chatwork), Shinichi Takama, Kazutaka Mori (international attorney, One Aisa Lawyers), Yu Kaneko (qualified institutional investor), and Hiroyuki Miyake (CEO, Synergy Plus). For the company, this follows their two angel rounds (securing approximately 60 million yen in total) and the 1st close of its seed round back in 2022 (since the seed round’s 2nd close has not been announced, so in effect this appears to be the final close of the seed round). The latest round brought the startup funding sum up to date to $5.6 million US. Our readers may recall the company secured a seed round from Chiba Dojo Fund, Coconala Skill Partners (CSP), and Headline Asia as well as two angel investors: Hiromi Okuda, and Shin Murakami. The company revealed at this time that Japanese microalgae developer Euglena (TSE: 2931) also…

Misaky.Tokyo and OoMee
Image credit: Cashi Cake

Los Angeles-based Cashi Cake, the Japanese startup behind the Misaky Tokyo seaweed confectionery brand and the OoMee seaweed beverage brand, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $3.7 million US in the 1st close of its Series A round. Participating investors include Mitsubishi Foods (TSE: 7451), Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and undisclosed venture capital firm(s) as well as angel investors including Masaki Yamamoto (CEO, Chatwork), Shinichi Takama, Kazutaka Mori (international attorney, One Aisa Lawyers), Yu Kaneko (qualified institutional investor), and Hiroyuki Miyake (CEO, Synergy Plus).

For the company, this follows their two angel rounds (securing approximately 60 million yen in total) and the 1st close of its seed round back in 2022 (since the seed round’s 2nd close has not been announced, so in effect this appears to be the final close of the seed round). The latest round brought the startup funding sum up to date to $5.6 million US. Our readers may recall the company secured a seed round from Chiba Dojo Fund, Coconala Skill Partners (CSP), and Headline Asia as well as two angel investors: Hiromi Okuda, and Shin Murakami. The company revealed at this time that Japanese microalgae developer Euglena (TSE: 2931) also participated in the previous seed round.

Cashi Cake founder & CEO Alissa Miky

Founded in Los Angeles in September of 2019 by Alissa Miky, Cashi Cake uses technology to process seaweed agar to develop its high-end Japanese confectionery products. In addition to serving their products to the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards eve, the company collaborated with Kim Kardashian’s fragrance brand KKW and was featured in the Bon Appétit food magazine. The company has earned over 1.4 million followers on its Tiktok brand account (Misaky.Tokyo). They will use the funds to hire talents and administrative expenses for brand expansion, as well as product and patent development for selling functional seaweed powder to businesses.

In conjunction with the funding, the company also announced that it will apply for a joint patent with the Tottori Institute of Industrial Technology. The company will apply the institute’s technology for wrapping soy sauce in a membrane created from seaweed to wrapping highly concentrated alcohol, thereby providing a plastic substitute that can be used with any material. Until now, it has been difficult to encapsulate highly concentrated alcohol with the dietary fiber contained in seaweed, but the new technology will make it possible to encapsulate high-alcohol (tequila, gin, whiskey, sake, etc.) and low pH liquids (orange juice, etc.) in any shape or size. It is expected to realize a new texture with a film that pops when chewed in the mouth, and to develop edible containers.

via PR TImes

xGoogler founders-led startup Tonari launches new model of life-size video conferencing system

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Tokyo-based Tonari, the Japanese startup developing and offering a next-gen communication service that connects remote locations under the same name, introduced on Wednesday a new product called ‘tonari lite’, along with the ‘tonari pro’ existing model. The lite version is also available on a subscription-based rental basis. Their products have been installed in many organizations and facilities over the past three years, but the company felt it needed to reduce costs and simplify installation for further expansion. The company improved the manufacturing process and redesigned the product to achieve versatile size and price optimization. This simplified the installation process and made it easier to fit into international deployments and smaller teams. The lite version maintains the functionality of the previous model while saving space, and is optimized for small-group communication, making it easy to use in small offices, medical facilities, educational institutions, and other locations where space is limited. In addition, the revised design significantly reduces installation work. The company expects the lite version to contribute to reducing the frequency of overseas business trips while maintaining smooth cross-border communication. Tonari was founded in 2018 by Taj Campbell, a former product manager at Google, and Ryo Kawaguchi, a former engineer at…

Image credit: Tonari

Tokyo-based Tonari, the Japanese startup developing and offering a next-gen communication service that connects remote locations under the same name, introduced on Wednesday a new product called ‘tonari lite’, along with the ‘tonari pro’ existing model. The lite version is also available on a subscription-based rental basis.

Their products have been installed in many organizations and facilities over the past three years, but the company felt it needed to reduce costs and simplify installation for further expansion. The company improved the manufacturing process and redesigned the product to achieve versatile size and price optimization. This simplified the installation process and made it easier to fit into international deployments and smaller teams.

The lite version maintains the functionality of the previous model while saving space, and is optimized for small-group communication, making it easy to use in small offices, medical facilities, educational institutions, and other locations where space is limited. In addition, the revised design significantly reduces installation work. The company expects the lite version to contribute to reducing the frequency of overseas business trips while maintaining smooth cross-border communication.

Tonari was founded in 2018 by Taj Campbell, a former product manager at Google, and Ryo Kawaguchi, a former engineer at Google (the product name was Continuum while the company name was WorkAnywhere at that time). The company has developed a life-size video system that seamlessly connects two remote locations, creating a smooth and realistic space with a natural eye contact mechanism, clear audio, and low latency.

The company secured 340 million yen (about $3.2 million US in the exchange rate at the timing) in a seed round (led by One Capital, with participation from Mistletoe Japan, Leave a Nest Capital, ABBALab, and several angel investors) in November of 2020, and subsequently 450 million yen (about $3.3 million US in the exchange rate at the timing) in a pre-series A round (from Real Tech Fund and One Capital) in June of 2022.

via PR Times

Josys SaaS and device management platform secures $91M+ in series B for global expansion

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Tokyo-based Josys, the Japanese startup offering outsourced corporate IT service to manage employees’ IT devices and SaaS accounts, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 13.5 billion yen (about $91.7 million US) in a Series B round. This round is led by Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners with participation from Jafco (TSE:8595), Raksul (TSE:4384), SMBC-GB Growth Fund (managed by SMBC Venture Capital Management and Global Brain), 31 Ventures (managed by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Norinchukin Capital, Z Venture Capital, WiL (World Innovation Lab), NTT Docomo Ventures, Value Chain Innovation Fund (managed by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Fund), and Yamauchi-No.10 (owned by Nintendo founder’s family office). Global Brain, Yamauchi-No.10, and WiL followed this previous investment in Josys’ previous Series A round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date tp 17.9 billion yen (about $120 million US). Most of the investors are not operating company-backed but purely investment companies, which means that they are expecting business growth rather than business synergies with enterprises. Josys will use the funds to expand its global presence and diversify the company size of their targeted potential users. The service was initially launched in September of 2021 as the fourth…

Josys CEO Yasukane Matsumoto
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Tokyo-based Josys, the Japanese startup offering outsourced corporate IT service to manage employees’ IT devices and SaaS accounts, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 13.5 billion yen (about $91.7 million US) in a Series B round.

This round is led by Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners with participation from Jafco (TSE:8595), Raksul (TSE:4384), SMBC-GB Growth Fund (managed by SMBC Venture Capital Management and Global Brain), 31 Ventures (managed by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Norinchukin Capital, Z Venture Capital, WiL (World Innovation Lab), NTT Docomo Ventures, Value Chain Innovation Fund (managed by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Fund), and Yamauchi-No.10 (owned by Nintendo founder’s family office).

Global Brain, Yamauchi-No.10, and WiL followed this previous investment in Josys’ previous Series A round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date tp 17.9 billion yen (about $120 million US). Most of the investors are not operating company-backed but purely investment companies, which means that they are expecting business growth rather than business synergies with enterprises. Josys will use the funds to expand its global presence and diversify the company size of their targeted potential users.

The Josys management team
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

The service was initially launched in September of 2021 as the fourth business of Japanese online printing and on-demand logistics company Raksul (TSE:4384). Earlier this year, it was spun off from and incorporated as a subsidiary of Rakusul. In March of 2022, Josys increased its capital through a third-party allotment to undisclosed investors to become an equity-method affiliate from a consolidated subsidiary of Raksul (35.6% of voting rights at that time). Raksul’s voting right ownership in Josys has been apparently diluted after the Series A round.

The service allows companies to integrate and outsource management, procurement, and kitting IT devices and SaaS accounts for their employees. It aims to improve the operational efficiency of a company’s IT management department, expecting to reduce the workload of corporate IT departments by about a quarter through cloud computing and outsourcing. The company expects it may help companies reduce the turnover rate of staff in charge of IT systems.

The company’s new global expansion effort includes their service launch in 40 countries in the North America and Asia Pacific regions. The entire Josys team is about 120 people. Of these, 30 are in Japan, 70 in India, 10 in Vietnam, and the rest of the team are based in San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the systems required have been developed in India while the overall service design is being done in the Bay Area. Sales and on-boarding processes in the Asia Pacific Region are provided by their teams in Singapore and Malaysia.

Josys’ upcoming business domain by including larger enterprises as a target
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Josys has been focused on small and medium-sized businesses with less than 300 employees but will now target larger enterprises going forward. In some large enterprises, SaaS is not centrally managed by the system department (so called ‘shadow IT’), and the collapse of IT governance is becoming an issue. The company believes that the integration of employee-based information ledgers will contribute to the reconstruction of the Single Source of Truth (SSOT) for IT management.

The Josys management in Japan. From left, VP of Japan Marketing Michibumi Serizawa, CEO Yasukane Matsumoto, Japan SVP Kiyomitsu Takayama, and VP of Japan Sales Mikito Hayashi.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

To strengthen the team, the company appoints Kiyomitsu Takayama, former Japan head of Pendo.io Japan, as Japan SVP at Josys; Mikito Hayashi, former Executive Officer and General Manager of Enterprise Sales at ZVC Japan, as VP of Japan Sales at Josys; and Michibumi Serizawa, former General Manager of Major Account Sales at Palo Alto Networks, as Japan Sales at Palo Alto Networks. In addition, the company will launch the Josys Academy to share knowledge and insights to help Japanese companies adopt digital transformation.

Josys initially introduced the concept of its business in September of 2021 and subsequently launched it in 2022, seeing a 10-fold increase in ARR (annual recurring revenue) over the past year (specific values not disclosed). The company attributed the growth to the management burden of IT devices and SaaS, the increase in IT deployment in each department, and the dispersion of IT managers, while many companies have massively adapted work-from-home and SaaS as the new normal after COVID-19.

Japanese robotics startup Mujin secures $83M in series C for Europe expansion

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Tokyo-based Mujin, the Japanese startup developing intelligent robotics solutions for industrial use, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 12.3 billion yen (over $83 million US) in a Series C round. Participating investors include SBI Investment, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Accenture, Dr. James Kuffner (robotics researcher, CEO of Toyota’s Wovn Planet Holdings), and 7-Industries Holdings. This follows the company’s Series B round back in August of 2014. The latest round brought their funding sum up to date to 20.5 billion yen (about $139 million). Mujin was founded in 2011 by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team developed OpenRAVE, motion planning software for real robot applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software enabling simulate different robot motion patterns and optimize performance before full-scale operation. In 2012, the company secured 75 million yen (about $960,000 US in the exchange rate at the time) from the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and other investors in a Series A round. See also: 9 Japanese robotics startups to watch in 2014 In robotics operations, automation of complex processes has conventionally been considered difficult. However, Mujin Controller has given intelligence to robots, enabling them to adapt to changes…

Image credit: Mujin

Tokyo-based Mujin, the Japanese startup developing intelligent robotics solutions for industrial use, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 12.3 billion yen (over $83 million US) in a Series C round. Participating investors include SBI Investment, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Accenture, Dr. James Kuffner (robotics researcher, CEO of Toyota’s Wovn Planet Holdings), and 7-Industries Holdings. This follows the company’s Series B round back in August of 2014. The latest round brought their funding sum up to date to 20.5 billion yen (about $139 million).

Mujin was founded in 2011 by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team developed OpenRAVE, motion planning software for real robot applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software enabling simulate different robot motion patterns and optimize performance before full-scale operation. In 2012, the company secured 75 million yen (about $960,000 US in the exchange rate at the time) from the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and other investors in a Series A round.

See also:

In robotics operations, automation of complex processes has conventionally been considered difficult. However, Mujin Controller has given intelligence to robots, enabling them to adapt to changes in the environment. In addition to industrial robots, Mujin also provides large-scale automation solutions by linking robots with robot hands, AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), conveyors, and other devices.

The company will use the funds to invest in technology for intelligent robot controllers and 3D vision systems to achieve greater sophistication and multifunctionality. They also plan to launch new products such as mobile robots and devanning robots, provide total automation solutions, promote business expansion into the European market in addition to the US market where they already have presence.

via PR Times

Japan’s Caster, introducing remote workers to companies, files for IPO

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Japanese startup Caster, the company offering online-based office assistant services for companies, announced on Wednesday that its initial listing application on the Tokyo Stock Exchange had been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Growth Market on October 4 with plans to offer 350,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 52,500 shares in over-allotment options. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Caster’s ticker code will be 9331. Based on the company’s estimated issue price is 650 yen (about $4.5) per share, its market cap is approximately 1.24 billion yen (about $8.5 million). Its share price range will be released on September 14 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on September 19 and pricing on September 25. The final public offering price will be determined on September 26. According to its consolidated statement as of August of 2022, the company posted revenue of 3.34 billion yen ($23 million) with an ordinary loss of 161.8 million yen ($1.1 million). Founded in September of 2014, the company offers Caster Biz and other services helping enterprises connect with freelance or contract-based remote workers to outsource corporate tasks such as secretary, personnel, accounting, and translation operations. Over 800 remote workers…

Japanese startup Caster, the company offering online-based office assistant services for companies, announced on Wednesday that its initial listing application on the Tokyo Stock Exchange had been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Growth Market on October 4 with plans to offer 350,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 52,500 shares in over-allotment options. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Caster’s ticker code will be 9331.

Based on the company’s estimated issue price is 650 yen (about $4.5) per share, its market cap is approximately 1.24 billion yen (about $8.5 million). Its share price range will be released on September 14 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on September 19 and pricing on September 25. The final public offering price will be determined on September 26. According to its consolidated statement as of August of 2022, the company posted revenue of 3.34 billion yen ($23 million) with an ordinary loss of 161.8 million yen ($1.1 million).

Founded in September of 2014, the company offers Caster Biz and other services helping enterprises connect with freelance or contract-based remote workers to outsource corporate tasks such as secretary, personnel, accounting, and translation operations. Over 800 remote workers have been registered while the company has served more than 2,900 companies in total as of 2021.

Major shareholders include Incubate Fund (25.24% through two funds), Blue Monday (20.05%, founder and CEO Shota Nakagawa’s asset management company), WiL (11.1%), Daiwa Corporate Investment (9.33%), Strive (6.08%), CEO Nakagawa (3.54%), Gree Co-Invest (3.3%), SMBC Venture Capital (2.8%), Gunosy Capital (2.43%), Hideaki Ishikura (1.7%, managing director), Dip (1.21%, TSE:2379), and Yamaguchi Capital (1.21%).

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Japanese founder launches NFT-based marketplace to redefine physical collectibles ownership

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Some of our readers may recall that we have covered the Smaoku auction site several times over the last decade. The C2C marketplace saw rapid progress, expanding not only in Japan but also in Asia, but in February of 2017, it was acquired by fellow competitor and Japanese C2C marketplace giant Mercari. At the time, Smaoku’s founder Daisaku Harada joined Mercari. In April of 2018, Harada was appointed as CEO of Souzou, a new business subsidiary of Mercari. The new unit created the Mercari Atte app, which allows users to trade items in person, and the Merchari bicycle-sharing service, but shut down in June of 2019 (Mercari Atte is no longer in service, and Merchari was taken over by Neuet and is now in service as Chari Chari). In July of 2022, Harada announced his retirement from the Mercari Group. After that, he has been working as a private investor or as a fellow at the Chiba Dojo fund/community while he revealed that he would launch a new startup before the end of the year. Earlier this year, he moved to Singapore to begin his Web3 business in earnest. Today, he is launching a closed beta version of a web3-based…

Unikura
Image credit: Velvett

Some of our readers may recall that we have covered the Smaoku auction site several times over the last decade. The C2C marketplace saw rapid progress, expanding not only in Japan but also in Asia, but in February of 2017, it was acquired by fellow competitor and Japanese C2C marketplace giant Mercari. At the time, Smaoku’s founder Daisaku Harada joined Mercari.

In April of 2018, Harada was appointed as CEO of Souzou, a new business subsidiary of Mercari. The new unit created the Mercari Atte app, which allows users to trade items in person, and the Merchari bicycle-sharing service, but shut down in June of 2019 (Mercari Atte is no longer in service, and Merchari was taken over by Neuet and is now in service as Chari Chari).

In July of 2022, Harada announced his retirement from the Mercari Group. After that, he has been working as a private investor or as a fellow at the Chiba Dojo fund/community while he revealed that he would launch a new startup before the end of the year. Earlier this year, he moved to Singapore to begin his Web3 business in earnest.

Today, he is launching a closed beta version of a web3-based C2C marketplace called Unikura, probably named after “Universal” and “Kura” (meaning warehouses in Japanese to store items). It is groundbreaking in that it brings the Web3 technology to a marketplace where real things, not virtual items, are being traded.

C2C marketplace without item delivery

Daisaku Harada

Harada came up with the idea while working remotely during the pandemic, where he bought a piece of art to decorate the backdrop of his desk as he was constantly communicating via Zoom and Teams. However, rare and valuable art is something of a hassle to manage. If it is within reach of children, it can be damaged, and if stored in a closet, it can become moldy in a hot and humid environment.

This type of collectible is an asset and can also be an investment, as its value can increase according to the supply-demand balance in the market, but at the end of the day, it is important to exercise the right of ownership and satisfy the desire to own. The more things a collector collects, the more he or she feels the hassle of keeping them close at hand, or even the hassle of unboxing the package when it arrives at the store.

Harada decided to create a marketplace that allows users to store physical items and trade only the proof of ownership via NFT (non-fungible token). When you send your physical item to the nearest Unikura’s warehouse in Japan or Singapore, the platform sends you back the proof of custody as an Ethereum-based NFT. That’s why you can then trade an item with other users by buying and selling the NFT. The buying user doesn’t need to have an physical item in their hand.

If you want to have the physical item in your hand, you can have it sent to yourself from the warehouse by erasing the proof of storage/possession (burning the NFT). The Unikura team is also considering inviting core users to tour the warehouse several times a year, to allow users to see for themselves whether their items are stored properly.

Creating a Third Place for Geeks

One of Unikura’s vault for storing users’ items.
Image credit: Velvett

As a result of the long tail created by the Internet, people’s tastes have become more diverse and everything is collectible. Niche items are generally unappealing but become highly engaging for a certain core group of people, more specifically, geeks. However, because of the niche nature of this type of collectible, it is not easy to find friends to share thoughts and feelings with.

The reason why many people gather at Comiket (Comic Market) even in the midst of extreme heat and typhoon days, besides finding rare collectibles they want, is probably because they are looking for a community where they can talk about them. Similarly, the Unikura marketplace has built a community on Discord where collectors owning similar items can talk to each other, which is one of the benefits offered to users.

In addition, most transactions on the marketplace are for secondary distribution and are recorded on the Ethereum chain. Based on the the history, the marketplace returns a certain amount of rewards to not only the seller who made the most recent transaction but also to those in the past. The system will allow sellers to realize the benefits of using Unikura compared to transactions involving the physical handover of items, which may also help accelerate secondary distribution.

The marketplace has also established a system whereby not only recent sellers but also past sellers receive a certain amount of rewards based on the history of transactions recorded on Ethereum. This system will help sellers realize the benefits of using the marketplace in addition to in-person transactions, and will help revitalize the secondary distribution system.

Although trading cards currently account for the majority of items dealt on the marketplace, Harada intends to enhance its functionality so that a wider variety of items can be traded. The idea of turning physical collectibles into NFT is so called physically-backed NFT. In this space, we can see other startups like Y Combinator-backed Courtyard but it has a possibility of copyright infringement in that the designs created by third parties are converted directly into NFT. The Unikura team has carefully considered the legal issues in this regard to build the system accordingly.

In the high volatile crypto space, we’ve seen a number of fiat-pegged stable coins gold-convertible tokens like Digix. Compared to these efforts to stabilize the crypto value, Unikura’s idea of distributing tokens connected with physical items with value sounds very interesting.

Singapore-based Velvett, Harada’s startup behind the the marketplace, announced in April that it has secured $3 million US in a seed round from Chiba Dojo Fund, Kanousei Ventures, Hirac Fund (operated by Money Forward Venture Partners), W, mint, F Ventures, Flick Shot as well as several unnamed individual investors.

Japanese space robot developer Gitai gets additional $15M in series B extension round

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Tokyo / Los Angeles-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Wednesday that it has additionally secured $15 million US in a Series B extension round. In conjunction with the $30 million (4 billion yen) funding announced in May, the total amount secured in the Series B extension round has reached $45 million. Participating investors are Green Co-Invest, Pacific Bays Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital while the amount includes loans from MUFG Bank. The robotics startup’s exact funding sum to date has not been disclosed, however, it is believed to have reached over 9 billion yen (over $62 million) in total, including the latest funding. The company plans to use the funds to expand its business operation in the U.S. and for part of the lunar surface demonstration. Prior to launching Gitai in 2016 (under its previous name of MacroSpace), the company’s founder Sho Nakanose previously worked for IBM Japan followed by founding an IT services company in India and sold it to an Indian company. Some of our readers may recall that Yuto Nakanishi, a humanoid scientist/engineer and former CEO of Schaft (acquied by Google X), joined Gitai as COO (now CRO,…

GITAI Lunar Rover

Tokyo / Los Angeles-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Wednesday that it has additionally secured $15 million US in a Series B extension round. In conjunction with the $30 million (4 billion yen) funding announced in May, the total amount secured in the Series B extension round has reached $45 million.

Participating investors are Green Co-Invest, Pacific Bays Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital while the amount includes loans from MUFG Bank. The robotics startup’s exact funding sum to date has not been disclosed, however, it is believed to have reached over 9 billion yen (over $62 million) in total, including the latest funding. The company plans to use the funds to expand its business operation in the U.S. and for part of the lunar surface demonstration.

Prior to launching Gitai in 2016 (under its previous name of MacroSpace), the company’s founder Sho Nakanose previously worked for IBM Japan followed by founding an IT services company in India and sold it to an Indian company.

Some of our readers may recall that Yuto Nakanishi, a humanoid scientist/engineer and former CEO of Schaft (acquied by Google X), joined Gitai as COO (now CRO, Chief Robot Officer).

Gitai secured $4.1 million US in a Series A round in July of 2019 followed by 1.8 billion yen (about $17 million US in the exchange rate at the time) in a Series B round in March of 2021.

via PR Newswire