See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Every, the Japanese startup behind online recipe video media Delish Kitchen, announced on Thursday that it has raised about 2.06 billion yen (about $18.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Itochu (TSE:8001), GMO Venture Partners, Ad Hack Ventures and DCM Ventures. This follows their previous round funding of about 3.37 billion yen (about $30 million) and brought their total funding amount up to 5.43 billion yen (about $48.2 million). Japanese startup Dely, running online video recipe media Kurashiru which is considered to be one of the closest competitors for Delish Kitchen, has fundraised 3.7 billion yen (about $32.8 million) to date. Dely’s latest funding has let them exceed Delish Kitchen in terms of how much funding amount has been secured in total. Through four video media channels, Every said it serves 44 million users every month. Kurashiru sees Delish Kitchen winning in terms of video play views per user according to App Ape Analytics while a Nielsen report says Delish Kitchen has a larger audience using the app to prepare lunch. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Tokyo-based Every, the Japanese startup behind online recipe video media Delish Kitchen, announced on Thursday that it has raised about 2.06 billion yen (about $18.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Itochu (TSE:8001), GMO Venture Partners, Ad Hack Ventures and DCM Ventures. This follows their previous round funding of about 3.37 billion yen (about $30 million) and brought their total funding amount up to 5.43 billion yen (about $48.2 million).
Japanese startup Dely, running online video recipe media Kurashiru which is considered to be one of the closest competitors for Delish Kitchen, has fundraised 3.7 billion yen (about $32.8 million) to date. Dely’s latest funding has let them exceed Delish Kitchen in terms of how much funding amount has been secured in total. Through four video media channels, Every said it serves 44 million users every month. Kurashiru sees Delish Kitchen winning in terms of video play views per user according to App Ape Analytics while a Nielsen report says Delish Kitchen has a larger audience using the app to prepare lunch.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cyber Security Cloud, the Japanese startup behind a cloud-based web application firewall (WAF) called Kogeki Shadan-kun, unveiled a new product called WafCharm earlier this month. WafCharm uses artificial intelligence to automatically apply a WAF signature (rule set) setting for websites hosted on Amazon Web Services. It can be used for free until the end of January 2018. By introducing WafCharm, the information systems division of a company operating a cloud-based web server on AWS can automate the complicated tasks of selecting and applying optimal signatures for defense against attacks. Typical WAF systems can be categorized into software-based, appliance-based, and cloud-based ones. Cyber Security Cloud has been specialized in developing cloud-based WAF solutions to secure cloud-based web servers, launched Kogeki Shadan-kun in December of 2013. Since then, the service has seen a steady increase in clients, including NTT Docomo, ANA (All Nippon Airways), and SBI Securities, and has been adopted by 4,000 websites in about three and a half years since the launch. The monthly report that the dashboard outputs can be easily used for meetings within a company, and in the event of damage, insurance of up to 10 million yen (about $88.2K…
Tokyo-based Cyber Security Cloud, the Japanese startup behind a cloud-based web application firewall (WAF) called Kogeki Shadan-kun, unveiled a new product called WafCharm earlier this month. WafCharm uses artificial intelligence to automatically apply a WAF signature (rule set) setting for websites hosted on Amazon Web Services. It can be used for free until the end of January 2018. By introducing WafCharm, the information systems division of a company operating a cloud-based web server on AWS can automate the complicated tasks of selecting and applying optimal signatures for defense against attacks.
Typical WAF systems can be categorized into software-based, appliance-based, and cloud-based ones. Cyber Security Cloud has been specialized in developing cloud-based WAF solutions to secure cloud-based web servers, launched Kogeki Shadan-kun in December of 2013. Since then, the service has seen a steady increase in clients, including NTT Docomo, ANA (All Nippon Airways), and SBI Securities, and has been adopted by 4,000 websites in about three and a half years since the launch. The monthly report that the dashboard outputs can be easily used for meetings within a company, and in the event of damage, insurance of up to 10 million yen (about $88.2K US) is accompanied (for the moment, there have been no applicable cases). The fact that compensation of up to 10 million yen can be granted may also be a factor in the growth of the company.
The dashboard for “Kougeki Shadan-kun” Image credit: Cyber Security Cloud
Cyber Security Cloud collects tendencies of web attacks and security defense from Kougeki Shadan-Kun, and based on the findings obtained, then WafCharm applies optimal rule sets to user instances leveraging artificial intelligence (AI). The application of rule sets according to the software stack, supporting the OWASP Top 10 security risks, and the speedy addition of new rule sets in response to new weaknesses are all automatically done for user instances on AWS.
AWS also provides 11 rule sets by five security vendors (as of December, 2017) as WAF Managed Rules. This is intended to make it easier to operate even for users less familiar with security measures while customized setting is difficult because detailed settings are black-boxed. Having said that, it is a painstaking task to manually set rule sets one by one. WafCharm aims at solving this pain point.
Cyber Security Cloud CEO Hikaru Ono says:
AWS has 34% market share in the global cloud user base. To reach one-third of all cloud users (by offering the WAF optimization service for AWS) would be a great opportunity. I think that WafCharm could set these cloud users free from security risks.
In 2016, two years after the service launch, Kougeki Shadan-kun won the largest share in the cloud-based WAF market in Japan. By introducing the new product WafCharm, Cyber Security Cloud has its sights set on the number one position in the global automated WAF operation sector. As a short-term goal the company is looking to sign with 10,000 companies in 2018. While looking at future user trends, it is also considering deploying services to other cloud platforms such as GCP (Google Cloud Platform) and Microsoft Azure.
Cyber Security Cloud was established in August of 2010 (under the name of Amitie). The company raised around 100 million yen (about $883K US) from Ambition, Legend Partners, Epsilon Group, Real World, SBI Investment and other investors in January of 2016.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cognitee announced last week that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.3 million) in its pre-series B round. The lead investor was Global Brain this time and Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) joined anew as an investor. This follows their series A round conducted in 2016 having investors including Global Brain, Alps Electric, beBit UCD Ventures, Glocalink (affiliated by Leave a Nest), Active and Company, plus SMBC-VC. Cognitee has fundraised 280 million yen (about $2.5 million) in total since its angel round. With this investment, the firm will strengthen its organization system by hiring additional core members and prepare for overseas development which will take place next year and beyond. Additionally, the firm announced it invited Kazuhiro Kondo as COO; he has careers as Corporate Officer of DeNA and VP of DeNA West (subsidiary of DeNA covering the West) after serving Sony, Sony Ericsson and DeNA where he engaged in development of social game platform. Visualization of communication Cognitee was founded in 2013 by CEO Rie Kawano who formerly worked at business strategy department in Sony or DeNA and also experienced startup in her university days. The firm develops and provides UpSighter, enabling employee…
L to R: Cognitee CEO Rie Kawano, COO Kazuhiro Kondo Image credit: Cognitee
Tokyo-based Cognitee announced last week that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.3 million) in its pre-series B round. The lead investor was Global Brain this time and Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) joined anew as an investor. This follows their series A round conducted in 2016 having investors including Global Brain, Alps Electric, beBit UCD Ventures, Glocalink (affiliated by Leave a Nest), Active and Company, plus SMBC-VC.
Cognitee has fundraised 280 million yen (about $2.5 million) in total since its angel round. With this investment, the firm will strengthen its organization system by hiring additional core members and prepare for overseas development which will take place next year and beyond. Additionally, the firm announced it invited Kazuhiro Kondo as COO; he has careers as Corporate Officer of DeNA and VP of DeNA West (subsidiary of DeNA covering the West) after serving Sony, Sony Ericsson and DeNA where he engaged in development of social game platform.
Visualization of communication
UpSighter Image credit: Cognitee
Cognitee was founded in 2013 by CEO Rie Kawano who formerly worked at business strategy department in Sony or DeNA and also experienced startup in her university days. The firm develops and provides UpSighter, enabling employee training / monitoring excluding cognitive bias targeting enterprise users. The service offers easier communication methods for conveying meaning by analyzing and digitizing speech, sales talk or presentation. Kawano demonstrated the service:
For example, we picked up five Steve Jobs’ speeches and five Japanese politicians’ speeches and then calculated the mean number of topics incorporated into these speeches. In the Jobs’ speeches, topics referring the background of the launch or the reason for the size of the product accounted for 40% of the whole story. On the other hand, as you can see, each politician made mentions of some different topic in one speech and it includes too many content.
Cognitee had initially tackled ‘visualization of thinking’ through a provision of services for meeting efficacy improvement / brainstorming support / planning correction. However, the firm pivoted its approach later; with the basic concept as it was, it changed the application field to ‘visualization of communication’ and then succeeded in gaining strong supports from major enterprises that conventionally had to depend on external consultants for human resource development such as training of salespersons.
Kouno continued:
Taking pharmaceutical companies as an example, MRs (medical representatives) have to learn about clinical trial data and give presentation to doctors to sell new drugs. You may think they should show a larger amount of data, but too much data will not result in good sales. Our analysis revealed that the MRs who spare much time to present specific data about efficacy, benefit and especially risk of the drug are more likely to be in the high-ranking group.
The same can be said of settlement negotiation with non-life insurance companies. UpSighter figures out modeling of communication style that leads to good negotiation. By applying it to each practical negotiation case and distributing assessment sheets, staffers in charge of these cases can compare their own methods with the model case. For enterprises, operation improvement can be achieved without requiring instructions cost.
Implementation of UpSighter will benefit enterprises in reduction of instructions cost, as well as the fact that each staff can grasp unnecessary / insufficient factors in his / her own speeches quantitatively. The Cognitee team consists of several members including Kawano and Kondo, and they do not carry out outbound marketing so actively but often receive inquiries from top executives of major enterprises who intend bottom-up of internal human resources.
Pursuing scalability without AI
Part of Output sample of UpSighter Image credit: Cognitee
The firm’s name ‘Cognitee’ and its service contents — analysis / digitization of speech is somehow associated with artificial intelligence (AI), but no general AI is used in UpSighter services at this time.All processes required for the service provision of UpSighter are contributed by 150 remote workers in and out of Japan. They carry on transcription of speech, subdividing of the contents, and analysis / evaluation of subordinate relationship of the contents. It is like a form of Factory Automation (FA) for intelligent labor driven by Internet; by dividing its process thoroughly and assigning each small process unit to individual workers, the factory-like quality control and production management is realized.
In the process from original speech content (the input) to analyzed / digitized assessment sheet (the output), more than 10 remote workers relay intermediate products in succession. A worker understands what to do with his / her own task but does not need to have knowledge about the other tasks. With this system, UpSighter needs no consultants with specialized knowledge but can leave all works to housewife workers who passed the test after one-month training.
Kouno said:
We did not even know what tendency exists until we stored data about 1,500 matters. However, the details of analysis gradually dawned on us and we have been applying patents relating to our rule or framework in Japan, the U.S and EU countries.
Kondo added:
Typical AI learning require Big Data. Moreover, I think it is impossible to trust what human does not understand to AI.
As AI is applied to everything these days, the firm’s approach appears quite fresh. Even AI takes certain cost and time for implementing or tuning, and above all, training data is necessary. UpSighter can extract model case if only it has data about three cases (for example, speeches by three high-achieving salespersons) no matter what kind of business type / condition they are, and assess other speeches based on it.
In general, it is difficult to secure scalability in tasks depending on the person, but there is no limit on the business development of UpSighter which implemented the concepts of FA or remote workers in its work process. As a larger amount of data is accumulated, the Cognitee can replace from man to AI in some process units partially as needed.
Currently, UpSighter is mainly used in sales department that tends to invest a large amount of budget into human resource development in enterprise, but the firm will positively explore the possibility of application or implementation into other departments in the future.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese social gaming giant Ateam (TSE:3662) announced today that it has acquired the entire stake in Tokyo-based Increments, the Japanese startup offering the Qiita knowledge-sharing platform for programmers, for 1.45 billion yen (about $13 million US). Qiita was launched back in September of 2011 by Hiroshige Umino, who had worked for Google and Japanese internet company Hatena as a programming intern while attending Kyoto University. The team graduated from Tokyo-based seed accelerator Open Network Lab‘s 4th batch, over the 2011-12 period. The platform has served more than half the population of all programmers in Japan. In addition to the Qiita open community platform, the company launched Qiita:Team back in 2013, designed for a company’s in-house use upon knowledge-sharing among their programming employees. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2016, the company posted revenue of 89.95 million yen (about $793,000), with a final deficit of 80.22 million yen (about $708,000). Ateam said in a statement: Qiita is very active in the sector where we cannot easily expand into on our own. By gaining the entire stake in Increments, we think we can accelerate our business expansion effort through leveraging of their assets and…
Japanese social gaming giant Ateam (TSE:3662) announced today that it has acquired the entire stake in Tokyo-based Increments, the Japanese startup offering the Qiita knowledge-sharing platform for programmers, for 1.45 billion yen (about $13 million US).
Qiita was launched back in September of 2011 by Hiroshige Umino, who had worked for Google and Japanese internet company Hatena as a programming intern while attending Kyoto University. The team graduated from Tokyo-based seed accelerator Open Network Lab‘s 4th batch, over the 2011-12 period. The platform has served more than half the population of all programmers in Japan. In addition to the Qiita open community platform, the company launched Qiita:Team back in 2013, designed for a company’s in-house use upon knowledge-sharing among their programming employees. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2016, the company posted revenue of 89.95 million yen (about $793,000), with a final deficit of 80.22 million yen (about $708,000).
Ateam said in a statement:
Qiita is very active in the sector where we cannot easily expand into on our own. By gaining the entire stake in Increments, we think we can accelerate our business expansion effort through leveraging of their assets and experience. We are certain this acquisition will contribute to our growth over the mid- to long-term perceptive in addition to improving our corporate value.
See the original story in Japanese. This article is part of the coverage of Global Brain Alliance Forum 2017 held in Tokyo Tokyo-based VC firm Global Brain held its annual conference called Global Brain Alliance Forum (GBAF) 2017 earlier this month. At a press conference at GBAF, the firm announced that it would establish a fund focusing on blockchain tech in partnership with Omise, the Bangkok-based fintech startup providing the OmiseGo cryptocurrency. The amount of investments is estimated to be several tens of billions of yen (several hundred millions of dollars). This September, Global Brain had established a new subsidiary called GB Blockchain Labs (GBBL) with the aim of fostering the blockchain ecosystem along with Jun Hasegawa (Founder / CEO, OmiseGo) and Thomas Greco (Special Advisor to OmiseGo / ex-advisor to Ethereum Foundation). Omise had raised $25 million by ICO (Initial Coin Offering) this July, exceeding the $20 million total invested from VCs. At the press conference, Yasuhiko Yurimoto (CEO, Global Brain) commented on the current status of its funds under operation. He explained that KDDI Open Innovation Fund, jointly operated by KDDI, has been strengthening investment into Korean startups while 31 VENTURES Global Venture Fund, jointly operated by Mitsui…
L to R: Sayoko Kaji (Venture Partner, Global Brain), Ayako Miyaguchi (Advisor, OmiseGo / ex-Managing Director Japan, Kraken), Yasuhiko Yurimoto (CEO, Global Brain), Jun Hasegawa (Founder / CEO, Omise / OmiseGo), Thomas Greco (Special Advisor, OmiseGo / ex-Advisor, Ethereum Foundation), Hisashi Sano (Venture Partner, Global Brain) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based VC firm Global Brain held its annual conference called Global Brain Alliance Forum (GBAF) 2017 earlier this month. At a press conference at GBAF, the firm announced that it would establish a fund focusing on blockchain tech in partnership with Omise, the Bangkok-based fintech startup providing the OmiseGo cryptocurrency. The amount of investments is estimated to be several tens of billions of yen (several hundred millions of dollars).
This September, Global Brain had established a new subsidiary called GB Blockchain Labs (GBBL) with the aim of fostering the blockchain ecosystem along with Jun Hasegawa (Founder / CEO, OmiseGo) and Thomas Greco (Special Advisor to OmiseGo / ex-advisor to Ethereum Foundation). Omise had raised $25 million by ICO (Initial Coin Offering) this July, exceeding the $20 million total invested from VCs.
Hidetaka Aoki (Global Brain; left) and Kan Notoya (Venture Co-creation Dept. of Mitsui Fudosan; right) speaks about PoC (proof of concept) for drone platform developed by Israeli startup SiteAware at Nihombashi, Tokyo Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
At the press conference, Yasuhiko Yurimoto (CEO, Global Brain) commented on the current status of its funds under operation. He explained that KDDI Open Innovation Fund, jointly operated by KDDI, has been strengthening investment into Korean startups while 31 VENTURES Global Venture Fund, jointly operated by Mitsui Fudosan, had invested into Israel-based SiteAware (previously nown as Dronomy), developing drone software for the construction industry. Regarding GB-VI Fund formed last year, he said it had secured 20 billion yen (about $177 million US) in total from 12 limited partners (LPs) and closed funding this June.
Among their past portfolio companies, 11 firms including Loco Partners (acquired by KDDI), Kabuku (acquired by Futaba), Fluenty (acquired by Samsung) and August (purchased by Assa Abloy) succeeded in exiting during 2017. The cumulative exit success rate of Global Brain since its foundation reached 42% including IPO (initial public offering) and M&A (merger and acquisition).
Global Brain’s fund update 2017 Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
During a presentation in the same day given by Hasegawa who is also involved in managing GBBL, he emphasized that Ethereum-related business is in the earliest stage and overwhelmingly lacks information plus engineers to construct the ecosystem. To make up for this, Omise will focus on incubation in this field and revealed it will develop co-working space business for blockchain technology jointly with Global Brain. The first co-working space will be established next spring in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Hasegawa said:
We want to make it the place where top global experts can meet up. […]
Of course, we welcome support from major enterprises, but we really want them to use blockchain for business positively themselves. We intend to bring Japan-born projects to the world, such as Berlin or Poland as well as to Bangkok.
Hasegawa’s presentation implied that the purpose of the co-working space is not only co-working but also a context of open innovation which intends to promote blockchain usein large companies.
Hasegawa emphasizes the firm is aiming to make OmiseGo’s performance to be at 1 million transactions per sec. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
The story about how Hasegawa became motivated to incorporate Ethereum into business is detailed in his recent blog post. As a side note, we will have him at The Bridge’s conference The Coin, to be held in Tokyo next January, as a keynote speaker.
Global Brain’s blockchain-related portfolio companies include Bluzelle, Coins.ph, Digix and Korea-based Dunamu dealing with mobile stock trading services.
Details of blockchain-focused co-working space business Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Looking at the global trend of blockchain tech-focused VCs, NextBlock Global, the Toronto-based VC investing in blockchain technology, founded by Alex Tapscott (who is the son of prominent futurologist Don Tapscott and is co-author of ‘Blockchain Revolution’ as well), plans an IPO on Toronto Stock Exchange within this year. New York-based ConsenSys, the startup studio that focuses on Ethereum, announced earlier this month that it had established a $50 million fund. Mark Cuban, the investor also known as a millionaire, revealed he has invested into 1confirmation, the $20 million-scale cryptocurrency tech-focused fund established by Nick Tomaino who formerly served Coinbase as Business Development Manager. Furthermore, San Francisco-based Pantera Capital set up a $100 million-scale ICO fund this June.
Within Japan, B Dash Ventures recently launched an ICO-focused fund called B Cryptos jointly with Quoine, the blockchain startup which had raised about $15 million by ICO. Further announcement of fund formation related to cryptocurrency, ICO or blockchain from VCs in and out of Japan can be expected.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based MedPeer, the Japanese startup offering collective intelligence service and community site for medical doctors under the same name, held a health tech-focused annual conference called Health 2.0 Asia -Japan earlier this month. During the conference, there was a pitch competition sponsored by Nippon Life Insurance Company, Intage Group and Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J) with support from Bayer. Six teams including five Japanese teams and a Danish team gave pitches there. The judges were as follows: Eugene Boruknovich (Global Head of Digitlal Health & Innovation, Bayer) Genichi Tamatsuka (CEO, Hearts United Group) Rubin Farmanfarmaian (Author of ‘The Patient as CEO’) Tomoyuki Yuasa (CEO, Revamp) Takuya Miyata (Founder / General Partner, Scrum Ventures) Shinichiro Hori (CEO, YJ Capital) Satoshi Tanaka (Director / Officer, Nippon Life Insurance Company) Yuichi Yahagi (CEO, Askrep) Yo Iwami (MD, Ph.D / CEO, MedPeer) See also: “Health, Wealth and Fame”… Nevertheless, You Need Health to Begin with! Health 2.0 Asia showcases five most prominent healthcare startups from Japan Top Award / LINK-J Award: Mikoto by Micoto Technology Supplemental prizes: 1 million yen (about $8,900 ) and 2 participation rights for 12th Health 2.0 Annual Conference (will be held at…
Tokyo-based MedPeer, the Japanese startup offering collective intelligence service and community site for medical doctors under the same name, held a health tech-focused annual conference called Health 2.0 Asia -Japan earlier this month. During the conference, there was a pitch competition sponsored by Nippon Life Insurance Company, Intage Group and Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J) with support from Bayer.
Six teams including five Japanese teams and a Danish team gave pitches there. The judges were as follows:
Eugene Boruknovich (Global Head of Digitlal Health & Innovation, Bayer)
Genichi Tamatsuka (CEO, Hearts United Group)
Rubin Farmanfarmaian (Author of ‘The Patient as CEO’)
Tomoyuki Yuasa (CEO, Revamp)
Takuya Miyata (Founder / General Partner, Scrum Ventures)
Shinichiro Hori (CEO, YJ Capital)
Satoshi Tanaka (Director / Officer, Nippon Life Insurance Company)
Top Award / LINK-J Award: Mikoto by Micoto Technology
Supplemental prizes: 1 million yen (about $8,900 ) and 2 participation rights for 12th Health 2.0 Annual Conference (will be held at Silicon Valley in September of 2018) Supplemental prizes: Use right of share office in Nihonbashi / one-year membership of LINK-J
Tottori-based Micoto Technology, mainly engaged in robot development, develops the simulator robot for medical students named Mikoto, allowing students to simulate nasotracheal intubation process to secure airway for training.
Other than nasotracheal intubation, the firm develops medical simulation robots targeting various parts for treatment, and will continue to make further efforts receiving feedbacks from doctors through partnership with Tottori University Hospital.
Smart Heel by Japan Healthcare
Bad walking posture such as flat walk or bow-legs is one of the risk factors of future physical disability such as knee pain or lower back pain. The total medical expense to treat these patients is estimated to total at 1 trillion yen (about $8.9 billion) annually in Japan. Daichi Okabe, a medical doctor working at the Graduate School of Chiba University, founded Japan Healthcare in June of 2017 and has been developing the walking posture visualization system capable of recording walking posture / rhythm via app and the high heel-shaped IoT (Internet of Things) device Smart Heel, with 3-axis sensors mounted in the heels.
Okabe pointed out the reason why bad walking posture is hard to correct as it is not easy to grasp one’s own walking style. Smart Heel solves this problem by visualizing it. The firm had conducted verification testing on 15 females, and two-thirds of them came to walk with a beautiful posture with Smart Heel. For the remaining
third, improvement of their walking posture can be expected by giving them close feedbacks as well. The firm aims to commence the sale of the product at October of 2018. It will cost about 15,000 yen (about $130) for general users.
Oton Glass by Oton Glass
Oton Glass, as we have repeatedly reported in THE BRIDGE, was initially developed as an glasses-shaped IoT device capable of reading out characters to support people with dyslexia. Currently, it has been developed for various applications such as a translation tool for non-Japanese speakers who are visually impaired or unable to read characters.
The firm had already commenced the order production and has been developing next-generation model capable of linking to internet without requiring external devices. OTON GLASS will create user communities and build the supply chain based on it, aiming to gain insurance approval which allows patients to purchase the OTON GLASS product in 10% copayment under the insurance coverage.
Since it can save user data about what was seen on cloud, the firm also plans to provide new services utilizing the life-log in the future, in consideration of an individual privacy. Expanding its services including Oton Vision (reading-up technology for images), Oton Note (digital note function) or Oton Map (detailed map data), the firm aims to sell 30,000 Oton Glass by 2020.
Base Pasta by Base Food
Base Pasta, developed by Base Food, is a complete nutritious food allowing intake of 31 kinds of nutrients just in a single meal. It targets those who do not know which nutrients to take as the number of people who are increasingly conscious about their health grows. The firm sells BASE PASTA in D2C (direct to consumer) model, and some menus using it have been already served at restaurants.
The firm is going to enter the U.S. market later this year and throughout next year, and expects Amazon or D2C with regular purchase model as its distribution channel as in Japan. Additionally, it has been developing gluten-free products in consideration of the market needs.
Robocure develops a speech training app for people with speech impediment such as aphasia. The development has been conducted with support from Prof. Shingo Kuroiwa at Chiba University, as well as Kimitsu Central Hospital for clinical trials and request surveillance for patients. Unlike training with humans, users can train over and over again with the app requiring no care for counterparts. The app can recognize trainee’s speech and identify wrong pronunciation.
A remote management system by speech therapists is currently provided with the app in order to check language information between the app and users, and the firm plans to provide the app for tablet and training support services by qualified person as a set from next spring, targeting 500,000 aphasia patients as well as 2 million potential users in Japan.
The firm will focus on development of additional training function / log analysis and application to preventive care in 2018, and is considering applying insurance coverage or overseas development in 2018.
Gonio VR by Gonio VR
Danish startup Gonio VR provides VR (virtual reality)-based improvement solution for medical therapies. It developed an on-demand medical VR experience and the app was launched on the VR app platform Steam in the first quarter of 2017.
The app has already been implemented in 98 municipalities and more than 100 clinics. In the third quarter of this year, it was implemented to a rehabilitation facility in Denmark for the first time as a VR technology. The app assists optimization of rehabilitation process and labor savings in document creation related to rehabilitation.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo VR Startups, the startup incubator focusing on VR (Virtual Reality) that is organized by Japanese mobile game developer Gumi (TSE:3903) of Japan, earlier this month a Demo Day for its 3rd batch in Tokyo. At the venue were not only the 7 teams that participated in the third batch, but also one team participating this round from Korea’s Seoul VR Startups (jointly operated with YJM Games in Korea), which has a sisterly relationship with Tokyo VR Startups, and furthermore, two teams backed by Korea’s Next Reality Partners also participated, making for a grand event. This article will introduce the seven startup teams from Japan that participated in the third batch. Graffity by Graffity Graffity is an AR (augmented reality) app that allows users leave graffiti on the space around them. The company started development from the middle of September when iOS 11 was released, and is gathering many users, mainly high school girls. In addition to leaving text and images on the space, users can shoot a projected image on the real space as a video clip and share it. Using the AR Cloud, the company intends to monetize though targeting advertising based…
Press briefing by Tipatat Chennavasin (General Partner of The Venture Reality Fund) and Hironao Kunimitsu (General Partner and Special Limited Partner of The Venture Reality Fund, Founder of Tokyo VR Startups, CEO of Gumi) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo VR Startups, the startup incubator focusing on VR (Virtual Reality) that is organized by Japanese mobile game developer Gumi (TSE:3903) of Japan, earlier this month a Demo Day for its 3rd batch in Tokyo. At the venue were not only the 7 teams that participated in the third batch, but also one team participating this round from Korea’s Seoul VR Startups (jointly operated with YJM Games in Korea), which has a sisterly relationship with Tokyo VR Startups, and furthermore, two teams backed by Korea’s Next Reality Partners also participated, making for a grand event.
This article will introduce the seven startup teams from Japan that participated in the third batch.
Graffity by Graffity
Graffity is an AR (augmented reality) app that allows users leave graffiti on the space around them. The company started development from the middle of September when iOS 11 was released, and is gathering many users, mainly high school girls. In addition to leaving text and images on the space, users can shoot a projected image on the real space as a video clip and share it. Using the AR Cloud, the company intends to monetize though targeting advertising based on accumulated data, creating an ad network that allows advertisers to virtually put ads on the real space, and the sales of figure characters for AR projection.
Margic by Mikai
Mikai develops the Margic funny movie community that specializes in game and anime content. To sum it up, the app allows users to easily synthesize animated cartoons with live action movie effects, such as kamehameha and surge fist, and forms communities when users share video clips amongst themselves. Their goal is to become the AR version of Musical.ly. A few years ago, it became popular to share still images superimposed with these special effects, but Mikai attempts to realize this with moving pictures.
Mikai plans to release the beta version of Margic on the iTunes AppStore within the year to make it in time for the Comiket Market event early next year. To monetize the company could increase the marketing methods for companies interested in video campaigns linked with movies, and by selling characters and animation effects.
Full Dive Novel by My Dearest
Full Dive Novel allows readers to become the main character of a novel by reading a novel in the VR space. In the category of VR where much of the game and storyline is of poor quality, My Dearest has brought together many editors and creators, giving it the strength to produce story-rich content such as VR novels and VR movies. Initially the company was producing and selling its own content, but in the future, it will develop a general-purpose development kit that allows users to create VR content themselves, and it aims to build a platform on which users can trade content freely.
Real-time Animation System and Virtual Idol by Activ8
Activ8 is developing a real-time animation system that enables users to operate a cartoon character by attaching a sensor to the body. In addition to converting the motion of a person into that of an animated character, it can also analyze the sound waves picked up by the microphone, and lip-sync the character according to the spoken words.
It is impossible to post pictures due to the copyrights of the exhibited works. Instead of selling the system to companies, it seems like Activ8 wants to promote the virtual idol to various events and campaigns in a way like a showbiz agency.
Momently by Pretia
Momently is a social AR app developed by Pretia. The goal is to use AR to increase the potential of videos by making 3D objects in real space. Pretia hopes users to hone their skills for making funny videos and to put them anywhere on the real space.
With the goal of becoming dominant when the AR Cloud becomes consumer-ready, the company is seeking to secure competitive advantage by collecting user data and developing original technology utilizing the cloud platform. In the future, Pretia plans to monetize with targeted ads.
BlitzFreak by ActEvolve
ActEvolve is developing the BlitzFreak e-sports game using VR. Normally, VR can only be enjoyed by players who have a HMD (head mounted display) installed, but with BlitzFreak there are over 100 viewpoints set in VR called Neutral Cameras, making it possible for spectators other than players to enjoy games from various angles. In addition to preparing a viewpoint for tracking player movement from behind, the company has added other interactive perks to the game, such as allowing the audience to throw recovery items to the player when they are stuck.
The prototype has already been installed in VR bars in Shibuya, but full-scale deployment to VR arcades is said to begin from the start of next year. The company will develop content and test it repeatedly in Korea, the country with the most VR arcades, as well as in Japan, and there are plans to expand into countries with high game user populations like China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. From the summer of 2019 until year-end, the company plans to develop and expand business directed at consumers interested in VR devices.
The audience’s view of the gameThe player’s view of the game
Be the Hero by Expvr
Expvr is working on innovative methods of conveying movement in VR. With the current VR, there a various methods such as warp in which a user moves by pointing at a movement destination, or walking and flying. For the former it is not possible to create the feeling of a smooth movement and for the latter it often leads to “VR sickness“.
Therefore, Expvr developed a method for movement in VR where VR sickness does not occur. By adding saturated linework on the screen, it gives the user the feeling that they are moving their bodies themselves. Also, taking a hint from the fact that drivers do not get carsick even if their passengers do, the company concluded that synchronizing the movement of the body, such as wrist movement, in VR would solve the issue.
Although there seems to be other points to make users on the move feel naturally even in VR, Expvr is not patenting its method. Rather, by encouraging various game developers to adopt the concept, and the company expects to eventually rise the overall level of VR games.
An American comic book-style VR comic is one of the company’s offerings
Tokyo VR Startups announced that it will be rebranded into Tokyo XR Startups Incubation Program (TXS) from the next incubation program. While attending recent Slush 2017 and Nordic VR Startups’ Demo Day in Helsinki, Gumi CEO Hironao Kunimitsu suggested that Tokyo VR Startups wants to invite startup not only from VR but a much wider range of technologies and services including AR and MR (mixed reality). This is what the new name reflects. It has not been mentioned whether or not Seoul VR Startups, Nordic VR Startups, and The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund) will change their names to include “XR” respectively.
With concluding the 3rd batch Demo Day, Tokyo XR Startups began recruitment for startups to participate in its 4th batch. The application deadline is February 27th, and the teams selected to participate will be provided with conveniences such as free use of co-working space in Tokyo, mentoring by industry experts in Japan and abroad, and an investment of 5 to 10 million yen (about $44.4K- $88.8K US) for product and service development.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based ispace, the Japanese startup behind the Hakuto team which is currently taking part in the Google-sponsored Lunar Xprize race, announced today that it has raised 10.15 billion yen (about $89.5 million US) in a series A round. ispace founder and CEO Hakamada is also known for having backed the Xprize-targeting White Label Space effort before the European participants dropped out. Participating investors in this round are Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Tokyo Broadcasting Systems Holdings (TSE:9401), Konica Minolta (TSE:4902), Shimizu Corporation (TSE:1803), Suzuki Motor (TSE:7269), Dentsu, Realtech Fund (run by Euglena SMBC Nikko Leave a Nest Capital), KDDI (TSE:9433), Japan Airlines (TSE:9201), Toppan Printing (TSE:7911) and Sparx Group (TSE:8739). This marks Japan’s biggest funding record for a series A round to date. With this funding, the company aims to mount two moon missions. The first will launch the ispace lander to lunar orbit, in order to study the moon’s surface, in late 2019. The second will put the lander upon the lunar surface to deploy multiple rovers in late 2020. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Tokyo-based ispace, the Japanese startup behind the Hakuto team which is currently taking part in the Google-sponsored Lunar Xprize race, announced today that it has raised 10.15 billion yen (about $89.5 million US) in a series A round. ispace founder and CEO Hakamada is also known for having backed the Xprize-targeting White Label Space effort before the European participants dropped out.
Participating investors in this round are Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Tokyo Broadcasting Systems Holdings (TSE:9401), Konica Minolta (TSE:4902), Shimizu Corporation (TSE:1803), Suzuki Motor (TSE:7269), Dentsu, Realtech Fund (run by Euglena SMBC Nikko Leave a Nest Capital), KDDI (TSE:9433), Japan Airlines (TSE:9201), Toppan Printing (TSE:7911) and Sparx Group (TSE:8739).
This marks Japan’s biggest funding record for a series A round to date. With this funding, the company aims to mount two moon missions. The first will launch the ispace lander to lunar orbit, in order to study the moon’s surface, in late 2019. The second will put the lander upon the lunar surface to deploy multiple rovers in late 2020.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Candee, a livestreaming startup focused on millennials such as producing the “Live Shop!” livestreaming e-commerce platform, announced today that it has raised 2.45 billion yen (about $21.5 million US) from seven companies. This round was led by Eight Roads Ventures Japan with participation from NTT docomo Ventures, Opt Ventures, Gree, Daiichi Shokai (pachinko maker in Nagoya), Mizuho Capital and YJ Capital. YJ had participated in the previous round. Details of financial terms have not been disclosed. Coinciding with this funding, the company announced that Masatoshi Fukasawa, principal of Eight Roads, was appointed to join its board of directors. The company has been developing various kinds of livestreaming content and platforms centering around three keywords: smartphone first, social and interactive. With aim to execute this vision, the company launched the Live Shop platform targeting females in their teens to twenties. According to Candee CEO Kazuki Kogishi, the company has started a trial of sports livecasting on the platform in partnership with NTT docomo. Details have not been disclosed but it appears they will offer the type of content that casual sports fans can enjoy watching from before the game…
Candee’s management team: (From left) CEO Kazuki Kogishi, CSO Yoshikatsu Yamamura, CCO Takuro Arai, external director Masatoshi Fukasawa
Tokyo-based Candee, a livestreaming startup focused on millennials such as producing the “Live Shop!” livestreaming e-commerce platform, announced today that it has raised 2.45 billion yen (about $21.5 million US) from seven companies.
This round was led by Eight Roads Ventures Japan with participation from NTT docomo Ventures, Opt Ventures, Gree, Daiichi Shokai (pachinko maker in Nagoya), Mizuho Capital and YJ Capital. YJ had participated in the previous round. Details of financial terms have not been disclosed.
Coinciding with this funding, the company announced that Masatoshi Fukasawa, principal of Eight Roads, was appointed to join its board of directors.
The company has been developing various kinds of livestreaming content and platforms centering around three keywords: smartphone first, social and interactive. With aim to execute this vision, the company launched the Live Shop platform targeting females in their teens to twenties.
According to Candee CEO Kazuki Kogishi, the company has started a trial of sports livecasting on the platform in partnership with NTT docomo. Details have not been disclosed but it appears they will offer the type of content that casual sports fans can enjoy watching from before the game until after it.
See the original story in Japanese. The Philippines-based Venteny, the startup offering employee benefits and loan services for companies, announced today that it has raised $2.3 million in a series A round from SBI Investment, SV-FINTECH Fund (jointly run by Tokyo-based web service giant Voyage Group and Silicon Valley-based VC firm SV Frontier), angel investors such as Makoto Takano and Mamoru Taniya in addition to an unnamed Singaporean firm. This follows their seed round back in February when they secured an undisclosed amount from KK Fund and Ocean Capital. Incorporated in Singapore, Venteny has been offering an outsourced perks service for companies in the Philippines since April of 2015. Employees of the companies subscribing to the service can receive rewards or discounts at 500 locations such as retail shops and other merchants. The company also offers these employees with pay-day loans. In Southeast Asian countries, people tend to need funds all of a sudden for their child’s entry into higher education or their family member’s medical treatment because they are less familiar with insurance for educational endowment or health care. Since employees in companies have few access to loans and other financial services for such a situation, they tend to…
The Philippines-based Venteny, the startup offering employee benefits and loan services for companies, announced today that it has raised $2.3 million in a series A round from SBI Investment, SV-FINTECH Fund (jointly run by Tokyo-based web service giant Voyage Group and Silicon Valley-based VC firm SV Frontier), angel investors such as Makoto Takano and Mamoru Taniya in addition to an unnamed Singaporean firm. This follows their seed round back in February when they secured an undisclosed amount from KK Fund and Ocean Capital.
Incorporated in Singapore, Venteny has been offering an outsourced perks service for companies in the Philippines since April of 2015. Employees of the companies subscribing to the service can receive rewards or discounts at 500 locations such as retail shops and other merchants. The company also offers these employees with pay-day loans.
In Southeast Asian countries, people tend to need funds all of a sudden for their child’s entry into higher education or their family member’s medical treatment because they are less familiar with insurance for educational endowment or health care. Since employees in companies have few access to loans and other financial services for such a situation, they tend to change jobs on the grounds that their wages are insufficient rather than other reasons like unmatched aptitude or low motivation for their position.
Venteny founder and CEO Junichiro Waide presents his service onstage at FIBC 2017 in Tokyo. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Venteny offers the service to the Philippines’ leading banks, call centers and IT firms. Securing a partnership with CCAP (Contact Center Association of the Philippines) back in November, the company now can serve up to 800,000 call center representatives belonging to the institution. CCAP employs 800,000 out of all 2 million representatives working in the entire industry in the country.
Venteny wants to expand into other ASEAN markets while focusing on gaining additional values of financial services for company employees in the region.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
