THE BRIDGE

Startups

Retreat offsite planning service secures seed round from a16z Scout Fund, angels

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In Japan, COVID-19 has become downgraded to Category 5 so that it will be treated as a normal infectious disease by medical institutions and public organizations from today. Forbes Japan says more than half of Japanese companies said they would not return to their pre-COVID work style while FNN Primeline reports 40% will return to the previous state, which makes me feel interesting since media outlets expressed different perspectives based on the same survey to 11,428 companies conducted by Japanese research company Teikoku Databank. In the startup community, perhaps many of us would view this not going back to the previous state as a positive. Although I love the concept that developing new ideas based on study of the past, however, the changing times are irreversible. For startups being likely to change and evolve due to their “simple” organizational management, adapting quickly to change will give them an advantage. Startups must excel not only in changing themselves, but also in proposing new services to a changing society. It was around the end of 2019 when the damage from COVID-19 began to be reported suddenly. About six months after we first heard it, some of our readers may recall that San…

The Retreat team. Founder and CEO Shunsuke Yamada is on the far right.
Image credit: Retreat

In Japan, COVID-19 has become downgraded to Category 5 so that it will be treated as a normal infectious disease by medical institutions and public organizations from today. Forbes Japan says more than half of Japanese companies said they would not return to their pre-COVID work style while FNN Primeline reports 40% will return to the previous state, which makes me feel interesting since media outlets expressed different perspectives based on the same survey to 11,428 companies conducted by Japanese research company Teikoku Databank.

In the startup community, perhaps many of us would view this not going back to the previous state as a positive. Although I love the concept that developing new ideas based on study of the past, however, the changing times are irreversible. For startups being likely to change and evolve due to their “simple” organizational management, adapting quickly to change will give them an advantage. Startups must excel not only in changing themselves, but also in proposing new services to a changing society.

It was around the end of 2019 when the damage from COVID-19 began to be reported suddenly. About six months after we first heard it, some of our readers may recall that San Francisco-based Japanese entrepreneur Shunsuke Yamada announced a service called Remotehour. People loves the tool’s experience which allows users to talk to others anytime through an always-on connection, as opposed to, say, Zoom and other work-from-home platforms where you need o set a pre-defined time to connect. Tokyo-based VC Miraise, one of Remotehour’s investors, arranged office hours for entrepreneurs to consult with using the platform. However, we can no longer reach the Remotehour website. Yes, it pivoted.

What kind of world is out there as the dawn from the pandemic breaks out? In industries where digitization is possible, people has adopted a hybrid form of work-from-home and work in office. Major companies and startups have shut down the space of their headquarters one after another, which in principle were designed to bring all employees to work together, and have shifted to purpose-specific spaces or decentralized offices utilizing co-working spaces. Meanwhile, offsite meetings are coming into the limelight. In Japan, Island and office, a startup founded in 2021, is a remarkable answer.

As you may have guessed by this point, Remotehour has pivoted to a service for offsite meetings. In January 2022, Yamada decided to shut down the previous service and turn the helm completely to Retreat (formerly Telesite). It has been already used by around 20 startups in their series B round stage, mainly in the U.S.

Getting People Ops onboard

Retreat held a meeting in San Diego last year, attended by People Ops representatives from 16 startups.
Image credit: Retreat

When a startup with a few dozen employees decides to go offsite, it is up to the People Ops team to arrange it. It would be impractical for startups to hire additional personnel or assign someone exclusively for offsite arrangements. In addition, while individual business travelers can book accommodations and transportation quickly using online travel agencies (OTAs), this is not the case for offsite arrangements involving dozens of people.

Retreat has succeeded in digitalizing this part of the process, including some automation. Since meeting rooms and other facilities are required according to the number of people, the platform curates and proposes hotels with facilities suitable for such purposes. The company also provides detailed service by having staff members accompany the guests offsite, which has been well-received by People Ops representatives.

In a recent interview with Bridge, Yamada says,

Because of the large number of people, mistakes are sometimes made by the hotels. We experienced that one request came from an employee who had declared himself a vegetarian during the sign-up process, but who, during the offsite, had gave it up and asked to be reverted to a regular diet.

The representative was in a state of flux as requests from employees kept coming up. Sometimes they get angry when we are accompanying them, but when we accept their requests and solve their problems, they later thank us very much. This will lead to them asking for us again the next time.

Image credit: Retreat

The more global a startup is, the more distributed its work locations tend to be. It is not uncommon for them to only communicate with each other online and only meet in person during quarterly offsite meetings. Thus, the offsite experience is directly linked to the evaluation of their employee experience, which in turn is directly related to whether or not the startup is able to retain talented people, bring in new employees, and even whether or not it is able to grow.

Despite Retreat’s emphasis on digitalization, it may seem inefficient for the company’s members to accompany clients on offsite visits, but it is not all bad. First of all, the CEOs of these clients are usually present at their offsite meetings, which provides an opportunity for the company to meet and exchange words with the founders and executives of promising startups in the mid stage and beyond. And off course, this is a great opportunity to hear directly from participating employees, which may lead to service improvements or the creation of new businesses.

Retreat’s key to market its service is how they can get People Ops representatives involved. THe company has built the community of these representatives and organized offsite tours for them to participate. The company paid for most of the travel costs to bring in the representatives, but it seems to be paid off because they target a narrow demographic which are location-distributed startups in the mid or later stage.

a16z Scout Fund, Japanese angels participate in this round

Retreat has secured pre-seed round funding from renowned US angel investor Jason Calacanis and Miraise in June of 2020 (undisclosed sum in seed round). The company announced today that it has raised additional funding from Andreeseen Horowitz’s (a16z) Scout Fund as well as Japanese angel investors including Hiro Mizushima and Yuki Ota, which brought the company’s funding sum up to date to US$1.55 million.

Other investors in the latest round include Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, Egg Forward, CyberAgent Capital, 90s, and UB Ventures in addition to Miraise as a follow-on investor. Retreat is competing in this space with Cvent (NASDAQ: CVT, acquired by Blackstone for US$4.6 billion and expected to go private) and Navan (formerly TripActions, valued at US$9 billion in market cap and has acquired a number of peers in recent years). The company wants to differentiate itself by leveraging its engineering capabilities and further increasing automation.

Ex-Rovio’s Japan head/Ex-Slush Asia CEO announces new global startup event from Tokyo

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The man is back. Tokyo-based Finnish entrepreneur and startup ecosystem builder Antti Sonninen, formerly known as the Japanese country manager for Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment, handed over his CEO position at Slush Tokyo (formerly Slush Asia) to the younger generation in 2018 (Incidentally, Rovio just agreed to be acquired by Sega Sammy Holdings of Japan). Since then he has been involved in supporting companies and running an international hackathon event called Builders Weekend. Takeoff Tokyo, a two-day pitch event for entrepreneurs aiming for the global market, was just announced to take place in Tennozu, Tokyo, on June 8-9. In addition to Sonninen, the new event will be organized by several like-minded individuals, including Haruka Furukawa, who took over the CEO role of Slush Tokyo from Sonninen (Slush Tokyo was rebranded into BARK but later cancelled during the pandemic). Sonninen first came to Japan in 2007 as an exchange student at the University of Tokyo. In an interview with Bridge, he compared the Japanese startup landscape of about 10 years ago to that of today, saying, it has now become easier to realize the vision he used to want to achieve. In many countries, startups usually expand into beyond their…

Antti Sonninen speaks at the Takeoff Tokyo launch party in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Tuesday.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

The man is back. Tokyo-based Finnish entrepreneur and startup ecosystem builder Antti Sonninen, formerly known as the Japanese country manager for Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment, handed over his CEO position at Slush Tokyo (formerly Slush Asia) to the younger generation in 2018 (Incidentally, Rovio just agreed to be acquired by Sega Sammy Holdings of Japan). Since then he has been involved in supporting companies and running an international hackathon event called Builders Weekend.

Takeoff Tokyo, a two-day pitch event for entrepreneurs aiming for the global market, was just announced to take place in Tennozu, Tokyo, on June 8-9. In addition to Sonninen, the new event will be organized by several like-minded individuals, including Haruka Furukawa, who took over the CEO role of Slush Tokyo from Sonninen (Slush Tokyo was rebranded into BARK but later cancelled during the pandemic).

Sonninen first came to Japan in 2007 as an exchange student at the University of Tokyo. In an interview with Bridge, he compared the Japanese startup landscape of about 10 years ago to that of today, saying, it has now become easier to realize the vision he used to want to achieve.

Antti Sonninen speaks at the Takeoff Tokyo launch party in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Tuesday.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

In many countries, startups usually expand into beyond their home turf early on in their history, which is just an extension of their everyday business efforts. Of course, the typical mindset of local entrepreneurs differs between countries that heavily depend on foreign demand and those with large domestic demand, but even so, it seems to Sonninen that Japanese startups have less ventured outside the country, which in his eyes is a rare occurrence. However, the situation has been changed, especially in the Web3 startup scene, and there has been a noticeable movement of entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world coming to Japan, as seen at ETHGlobal Tokyo a couple of weeks ago.

Sonninen says,

During my days at Rovio, I recall how much I was impressed when I saw with my own eyes how one of the world’s best projects was born from the small Nordic country.

He continued.

Now it is much easier to take on the challenge of creating the world’s best business or project from Japan. In 1990s when Japan saw high economic growth, some people may have thought that the Japanese way on business works fine. They typically used to take an interpreter and visit destinations worldwide on business. But more people now think that this way doesn’t work anymore. Now we have a better environment in Japan, which encourages new challenges to take on.

There are many startup conferences in Japan and the rest of the world, but Takeoff Tokyo is particularly interested in helping and encouraging startups trying to go global, not only from Japan. However, the issue at hand for them is to help Japanese startups trying to expand globally. The team will focus on fostering a community which can also discuss issues such as securing the human resources and improving the skills required for the startups looking at global expansion. The June event will be apparently a kick-off to such community activities.

A huge crowd gathered at the Takeoff Tokyo launch party in Shibuya, Tokyo on Tuesday.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Our country has imported a variety of knowledge from overseas, and even Slush Asia and Slush Tokyo were localized from Slush in Finland. But Sonninen’s decision to launch his own brand, Takeoff, was based on the idea that he wanted to bring his original to the world instead of importing. The event is eventually expected to be managed on a community-driven basis where each participant can act as one of the organizers.

Slush Asia and Slush Tokyo have produced many entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs from the conference’s organizers and volunteers. In fact, we have often covered startups founded by their alumni, and they proudly say, “I am from Slush Asia (or Slush Tokyo)” when introducing themselves, which is less often experienced in other startup conferences, either domestic or international. We look forward to seeing the June event to understand what kind of community Takeoff Tokyo will foster from now on.

Japan’s autonomous mobile robot developer LexxPluss snags $11M for US expansion

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Japanese AMR (autonomous mobile robot) developer LexxPluss announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.45 billion yen (about $11 million US) in a Series A round. Participating investors are Drone Fund, SBI Investment, DBJ Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Mizuho Lease’s Mirai Sozo Capital, Incubate Fund, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, Logistics Innovation Fund (operated by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Partners), SMBC Venture Capital, SOSV, and Mizuho Capital. This follows a pre-Series A round in November of 2021. Among these investors, Incubate Fund, MSI Capital, Logistics Innovation Fund, SMBC Venture Capital, SOSV, and Mizuho Capital followed their investment in a previous round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to 1.8 billion yen (about $13.5 million) SOSV, one of the investors, operates HAX Tokyo, the Tokyo chapter of the HAX hardware-focused startup accelerator together with Sumitomo Corporation (TSE: 8053) and SCSK (TSE: 9719), while LexxPluss was born out of the second batch of the program in 2020 and was later selected for the HAX Shenzhen program to mass-produce AMRs. After the latest funding, the company is setting up a US subsidiary in Newark, NJ to begin its expansion into the US market. LexxPluss was founded in 2020 by…

Image credit: LexxPluss

Japanese AMR (autonomous mobile robot) developer LexxPluss announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.45 billion yen (about $11 million US) in a Series A round. Participating investors are Drone Fund, SBI Investment, DBJ Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Mizuho Lease’s Mirai Sozo Capital, Incubate Fund, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, Logistics Innovation Fund (operated by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Partners), SMBC Venture Capital, SOSV, and Mizuho Capital.

This follows a pre-Series A round in November of 2021. Among these investors, Incubate Fund, MSI Capital, Logistics Innovation Fund, SMBC Venture Capital, SOSV, and Mizuho Capital followed their investment in a previous round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to 1.8 billion yen (about $13.5 million)

SOSV, one of the investors, operates HAX Tokyo, the Tokyo chapter of the HAX hardware-focused startup accelerator together with Sumitomo Corporation (TSE: 8053) and SCSK (TSE: 9719), while LexxPluss was born out of the second batch of the program in 2020 and was later selected for the HAX Shenzhen program to mass-produce AMRs. After the latest funding, the company is setting up a US subsidiary in Newark, NJ to begin its expansion into the US market.

LexxPluss was founded in 2020 by Masaya Aso, a former Bosch employee. Besides LexxPluss, he is the president of Deep4Drive, an open mobility development community focused on automated driving and reinforcement learning. In order to remove the obstacles to introducing robots to the Japanese logistics industry, he is differentiating his company by developing robots that can cooperate with humans in both hardware and software in a hybrid form of AGV (automated guided vehicles) and AMR.

LexxPluss plans to expand the production scale of its Hybrid-AMR to 1,500 units per year over the next two years. Some of our readers may recall the company has been selected for the Incubate Camp 13th in 2020. In the fist batch (September 2020 to March 2021) of Hikyaku Labo, the startup accelerator by logistics giant Sagawa Express, LexxPluss won the Jury’s Special Award at the Demo Day.

via PR Times

Tokyo-based Estonian entrepreneur launches mobile neobank for migrant workers in Japan

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Talinn-based G-Bank Technologies OÜ and Tokyo-based GIG-A, the two companies run by Estonian entrepreneur Raul Allikivi, jointly launched a multilingual mobile financial service called GIG-A on Wednesday. GIG-A enables its users to open bank accounts, manage deposits, and money transfer in Japan based on API integration with UI Bank, a subsidiary of Tokyo Kiraboshi Financial Group (TSE:7173) For the time being, it is available only on Android and based on invitation only. The service is available in Vietnamese, English, and Japanese. By appointing an agent, it allow yoou to handle UI Bank’s account opening/closing, deposit/withdrawal, and domestic remittance. In the West, neobanks dealing with financial services for immigrants are gaining momentum. Well-known examples include Y Combinator-backed Moneco in Switzerland (for imigrants from Africa working in Europe), HSBC-backed Monese in the U.K., BNP Paribas-backed Rewire in Israel, and Majority in the U.S. (for imigrants from Latin America working in the U.S.), and Moneytrans in Belgium. Against this backdrop, GIG-A is designed as an optimal banking service for the growing number of foreign workers in Japan. GIG-A was founded in 2021 by Allikivi and his team. Prior to the business, he joined the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communication after completing his…

Image credit: GIG-A

Talinn-based G-Bank Technologies OÜ and Tokyo-based GIG-A, the two companies run by Estonian entrepreneur Raul Allikivi, jointly launched a multilingual mobile financial service called GIG-A on Wednesday. GIG-A enables its users to open bank accounts, manage deposits, and money transfer in Japan based on API integration with UI Bank, a subsidiary of Tokyo Kiraboshi Financial Group (TSE:7173)

For the time being, it is available only on Android and based on invitation only. The service is available in Vietnamese, English, and Japanese. By appointing an agent, it allow yoou to handle UI Bank’s account opening/closing, deposit/withdrawal, and domestic remittance.

In the West, neobanks dealing with financial services for immigrants are gaining momentum. Well-known examples include Y Combinator-backed Moneco in Switzerland (for imigrants from Africa working in Europe), HSBC-backed Monese in the U.K., BNP Paribas-backed Rewire in Israel, and Majority in the U.S. (for imigrants from Latin America working in the U.S.), and Moneytrans in Belgium. Against this backdrop, GIG-A is designed as an optimal banking service for the growing number of foreign workers in Japan.

GIG-A was founded in 2021 by Allikivi and his team. Prior to the business, he joined the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communication after completing his master’s degree at Waseda University in Tokyo in 2005 followed by serving as Deputy Director General of the Estonian Ministry of Economy and Communication from 2007 to 2012.

Subsequently, he was a government-certified auditor for Estonian Airways from 2010 to 2012 to help the airliner’s restructure. Currently living in Japan, he has founded ESTASIA (consulting firm introducing Estonian administrative systems to Asia), BIIRU (Japanese craft beer importer for Europe), and co-founded IoT startup Planetway.

via PR Times

Meet Secondz, Chrome extension to create app guides only by browsing and clicks

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Tokyo-based startup Adsai officially launched a platform called Secondz, which allows manual creators to make animated manuals for help desks and customer support centers with just a single click. These manuals can be created (recorded) in the form of an operation through the Chrome browser with a Google Chrome extension, and can be viewed on various web browsers for PCs and mobile devices. Manual creators can use a dashboard to see stats such as which pages visitors are viewing, which pages they are dropping off. Adsai was founded in 2019 by CEO Tatsuya Itai and others. Prior to Adsai, Itai has been previously invovled in developing social game titles at Gree (TSE: 3632), business planning and product planning manager at recruiting company En Japan (TSE: 4849), and the launch of natural language processing and B2B SaaS solutions at PKSHA Technology (TSE: 3993). The company has so far developed several products such as an automation tool for programmatic recruitment advertising under the same name as well as a product demo clip creation tool called Selfdemo. Developed based on the Selfdemo tool, the Secondz platform is designed to better fit to the use of help desk and customer support centers. While the…

Secondz
Image credit: Adsai

Tokyo-based startup Adsai officially launched a platform called Secondz, which allows manual creators to make animated manuals for help desks and customer support centers with just a single click. These manuals can be created (recorded) in the form of an operation through the Chrome browser with a Google Chrome extension, and can be viewed on various web browsers for PCs and mobile devices. Manual creators can use a dashboard to see stats such as which pages visitors are viewing, which pages they are dropping off.

Adsai was founded in 2019 by CEO Tatsuya Itai and others. Prior to Adsai, Itai has been previously invovled in developing social game titles at Gree (TSE: 3632), business planning and product planning manager at recruiting company En Japan (TSE: 4849), and the launch of natural language processing and B2B SaaS solutions at PKSHA Technology (TSE: 3993).

The company has so far developed several products such as an automation tool for programmatic recruitment advertising under the same name as well as a product demo clip creation tool called Selfdemo. Developed based on the Selfdemo tool, the Secondz platform is designed to better fit to the use of help desk and customer support centers.

While the spread of chatbots has led to labor savings and increased efficiency in help desks and customer support centers, more than a few companies are faced with the challenge of not having FAQs or question and answer collections in place to train chatbots. Therefore, Adsai has started developing the platform to easily explain how to use it to users without requiring extensive preparation. Since its launch on Product Hunt on January 8, the Secondz platform has gained paying users from 35 countries around the world. It has been ranked on the third place as a Product of the Day.


Itai created an animated guide for the Bridge website using Secondz in a few seconds.

Following the PLG (Product-Led Growth) strategy, the platform is offered on a freemium basis but the free edition has some restrictions such as logging being limited to the latest version and the quantity of recordable versions. These restrictions can be removed by transferring to the paying menu for $15 a month. The created manuals can be shared via URL and even embedded in websites using Iframe tags (see above). Within the next six months, the company plans to launch a new version that allows you to record operations of desktop apps.

Combined with ChatGPT and other tools, Adsai plans to evolve Seconds into a comprehensive support platform so that users can ask questions interactively. Itai says that by using the generative AI technology, it will be possible to create the equivalent of an FAQ menu by simply recording transitioning screens by mouse clicks with answering a few questions. This new version is expected to complete in few months, and then publish it again on Product Hunt.

According to its post on Japanese social recruiting platform Wantedly, Adsai apparently secured VC funding back in 2021. Prior to that, the company was selected for the 14th batch of the AI.Accelerator program run by Japanese recruiting company DIP (TSE: 2379). Along with the launch of the Secondz Japanese edition at this time, the company announced that it has been selected by Microsoft for Startups.

Japan’s space debris removing startup Astroscale secures $74M in series G round

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Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 10.1 billion yen (about $74 million) in a Series G round, which brought the startup’s total funding sum up to 43.5 billion yen (about $319 million). This follows their Series F round back in November of 2021. Investors participating in the latest round are: In May, Astroscale successfully demonstrated the guided approach of the ELSA-d debris removal technology demonstration satellite. In addition, for the launch of the EKSA-M actual operation satellite, the company signed a €14.8 million deal with US satellite operator OneWeb, UKSA and ESA (space agencies under the UK and European Union governments). They also secured 1.7 million pounds from UKSA for the removal of two British orbiting satellites in September, Since the Series F round back in November of 2021, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 63 percent, reaching about 400 employees globally. via PR Times

ELSA-d
Image credit: Astroscale Holdings

Tokyo-based Astroscale Holdings, the Japanese startup offering space debris removal services, has secured approximately 10.1 billion yen (about $74 million) in a Series G round, which brought the startup’s total funding sum up to 43.5 billion yen (about $319 million). This follows their Series F round back in November of 2021.

Investors participating in the latest round are:

  • Mitsubishi Electric (TSE: 6503)
  • Yusaku Maezawa
  • Mitsubishi UFJ Bank
  • Mitsubishi Corporation (TSE: 8058)
  • Development Bank of Japan
  • FEL

In May, Astroscale successfully demonstrated the guided approach of the ELSA-d debris removal technology demonstration satellite. In addition, for the launch of the EKSA-M actual operation satellite, the company signed a €14.8 million deal with US satellite operator OneWeb, UKSA and ESA (space agencies under the UK and European Union governments). They also secured 1.7 million pounds from UKSA for the removal of two British orbiting satellites in September,

Since the Series F round back in November of 2021, the company’s workforce has grown by more than 63 percent, reaching about 400 employees globally.

via PR Times

Restaurant discovery app SynchroLife to be acquired by Livedoor’s parent company

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Bridge learned that SynchroLife, the AI-powered social restaurant discovery app developed and managed by Ginkan, will be acquired by Minkabu the Infonoid (TSE:4436), the parent company of Japanese news portal site Livedoor. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Since Livedoor describes the move as a business transfer rather than a company acquisition, it may be possible that Ginkan will explore establishing another business after the deal. Details are unknown at this time but Bridge has reached out to Ginkan for further details. Launched back in October of 2012, SynchroLife has been dedicated to establishing a community leveraging blockchain technology and its SynchroCoin token to prevent arbitrary bias from influencing the posting of restaurant reviews. Originally launched by Tokyo-based startup AI Pacific, the app has been run by Hong Kong-registered Ginkan since 2015 to support crypto-powered functions. In July of 2019, the company started allowing users to earn tokens by dining at partnering restaurants. The app has earned 10,000 monthly restaurant reviews from users to date, which eventually exceeded 400,000 reviews in total as of August. In Japan, more than 1,800 restaurants are using it to help their marketing effort. Companies like credit card services, gas providers and…

SynchroLife
Image credit: Ginkan

Bridge learned that SynchroLife, the AI-powered social restaurant discovery app developed and managed by Ginkan, will be acquired by Minkabu the Infonoid (TSE:4436), the parent company of Japanese news portal site Livedoor.

The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Since Livedoor describes the move as a business transfer rather than a company acquisition, it may be possible that Ginkan will explore establishing another business after the deal. Details are unknown at this time but Bridge has reached out to Ginkan for further details.

Launched back in October of 2012, SynchroLife has been dedicated to establishing a community leveraging blockchain technology and its SynchroCoin token to prevent arbitrary bias from influencing the posting of restaurant reviews.

Originally launched by Tokyo-based startup AI Pacific, the app has been run by Hong Kong-registered Ginkan since 2015 to support crypto-powered functions. In July of 2019, the company started allowing users to earn tokens by dining at partnering restaurants.

The app has earned 10,000 monthly restaurant reviews from users to date, which eventually exceeded 400,000 reviews in total as of August. In Japan, more than 1,800 restaurants are using it to help their marketing effort. Companies like credit card services, gas providers and local sports teams are assisting the startup expand the app’s merchant base.

Offering media services such as Livedoor News and Kstyle, Livedoor boasts 70 million monthly active users and 30 million social network followers. By acquiring the social app, the company intends to diversify its media service coverage into gourmet while offering their existing users with new customer experience and the token economy to increase loyalty. In addition, the company wants to enlarge the app’s user base through driving traffic from their conventional services.

See also:

via Livedoor

Secai Marche secures $1.6M in series A for Asia’s shared supply chain for fresh foods

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Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021. Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders. Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery. Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world….

The Secai Marche team
Image credit: Secai Marche

Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021.

Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders.

Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery.

Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world. Their improvement effort of delivery efficiency could help reducing the waste rate to 1%. The company will use the funds to expand its fulfillment service areas as well as enhancing demand forecast leveraging artificial intelligence technology.

In view of optimized fresh food supply chain startups in the region, Thailand’s Freshket raised $23.5 million in a Series B round in May, Y Combinator Alumni Eden Farm from Indonesia won $13.5 million in a pre-Series B round yesterday, and Singapore-based Glife raised $3 million in the first close of a series A round last year.

via PR Times

Japan’s robotic leg prosthesis developer BionicM secures $2.8M in extended series A round

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Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings). This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US. Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School…

Bio Leg
Image credit: BionicM

Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings).

This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US.

Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. Of the 10 million potential users of prosthetic legs worldwide, only about 40% actually have access to them because they are expensive or have limited functionality. The company established a corporate entity in 2018 to commercialize the product in order to bring a high-performance prosthetic leg to all those who need it at an affordable price.

Product showcased in in Beijing in October of 2021.
Image credit: BionicM

According to BionicM, more than 99% of the global prosthetic leg market deals with passive type, and has not benefited from the technological advancements that have taken place in recent years with the proliferation of robotic technology. Passive leg prostheses not only place a heavy physical burden on the user, but also place a mental burden on the user, as they are unable to walk naturally or take turns walking up and down stairs in both legs, making them uncomfortable to watch. Robotic prostheses have the potential to solve this problem.

Since the launch of the Bio Leg commercial version in Japan and China last year, the company has been offering the product via a B2B2C model where robotic leg modules are offered to artificial limb factories to be built into sockets for lower-limb amputees. We were told that a typical powered prosthetic leg costs over 10 million yen ($77,000) in contrast with a passive type for about 1 million yen ($7,700). Bio Leg is available for less than one-third the price of a powered one while adopting robotic technology.

Acquisition of gait data with sensors mounted on Bio Leg.
Image credit: BionicM

Given the price tag, government subsidies are likely to be essential for the robotic leg to become widely available. The company is currently testing the product with the aim to apply for such a program next year. Although there are many prosthetic leg users in China, the market for high-end ones is apparently small due to a lack of public support. Therefore, the company is considering expanding into the US market with FDA approval in mind where there is a possibility of obtaining medical insurance coverage.

BionicM intends to explore new possibilities by taking advantage of the product’s ability to acquire gait data as well as its function as a robotic prosthesis. Although prosthetists and physical therapists who assist in the fitting and use of prosthetic limbs are professionals with specialized training, they often rely on their own expertise and knowledge. If the rehabilitation process can be visualized using data, communication with users will become easier and rehabilitation can be expected to become more efficient.

“Github for Dapps” from Japan gets $4.5M in seed round to ease smart contract dev

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Singapore-registered Bunzz, the startup behind a development platform focused on Dapps (decentralized applications leveraging blockchain technologies) under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured about 600 million yen (about $4.5 million US) in a seed round. Since its official launch back in January of 2022, the platform has attracted over 8,000 Dapp developers worldwide. Participating investors in this round are: Arriba Studio Coincheck Labs DG Daiwa Ventures gmjp GMO Web3 GREE Ventures Hyperithm Kotaro Tamura Kazutaka Mori mint Spiral Ventures 01Booster Capital Ceres Corporation (TSE: 3696) Bunzz was incorporated in Singapore in May of 2022 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Kenta Akutsu as a spin-off of his Tokyo-based web3 startup LasTrust. Prior to Bunzz, he and his team developed a blockchain certificate issuing service for enterprises, which was later sold to CyberLinks (TSE:3683). Bunzz initially started as a project at LasTrust in 2021. The platform offers an infrastructure for developing smart contracts, which is essential for Dapp development. By making smart contract development processes more secure and easier, it lowers the barrier for developers who do not yet have extensive knowledge or experience in Dapp development. The company claims that more than 2,800 Dapp projects have been deployed…

Image credit: Bunzz

Singapore-registered Bunzz, the startup behind a development platform focused on Dapps (decentralized applications leveraging blockchain technologies) under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured about 600 million yen (about $4.5 million US) in a seed round. Since its official launch back in January of 2022, the platform has attracted over 8,000 Dapp developers worldwide. Participating investors in this round are:

  • Arriba Studio
  • Coincheck Labs
  • DG Daiwa Ventures
  • gmjp
  • GMO Web3
  • GREE Ventures
  • Hyperithm
  • Kotaro Tamura
  • Kazutaka Mori
  • mint
  • Spiral Ventures
  • 01Booster Capital
  • Ceres Corporation (TSE: 3696)

Bunzz was incorporated in Singapore in May of 2022 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Kenta Akutsu as a spin-off of his Tokyo-based web3 startup LasTrust. Prior to Bunzz, he and his team developed a blockchain certificate issuing service for enterprises, which was later sold to CyberLinks (TSE:3683). Bunzz initially started as a project at LasTrust in 2021.

The platform offers an infrastructure for developing smart contracts, which is essential for Dapp development. By making smart contract development processes more secure and easier, it lowers the barrier for developers who do not yet have extensive knowledge or experience in Dapp development.

The company claims that more than 2,800 Dapp projects have been deployed onto the blockchain via the platform, which helps them gain recognition of developers as the “Web3 version of GitHub”. In the future, they plan to introduce token incentives to encourage users to reuse useful smart contract codes developed by other Dapp developers via the platform.

via PR Times