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Funderbeam, stock exchange for startups, teams up with Taizo Son for Asia expansion

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See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our on-site coverage of Slush Tokyo 2017. Funderbeam, originally from Estonia, offers a blockchain-based stock exchange platform for startups. The startup’s founder and CEO Kaidi Ruusalepp took the stage at Slush Tokyo 2017 today where she announced that they have secured 2 million euros from Mistletoe, led by Japanese renowned entrepreneur/angel investor Taizo Son, and will seek to advance into the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, under a strategic alliance. Funderbeam was founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp, who previously served as CEO of the Estonian stock exchange Nasdaq Tallinn. Beginning in April of 2016, they added a platform that allows startups to receive funding, and a platform on which startup stocks can be traded. According to Funderbeam, the cumulative funding to date is 4.8 million dollars (according to Crunchbase it is 4.75 million dollars). Their early investors include Skype co-founder Janne Tallinn. In addition, they have fundraised 424,000 euros from their own funding platform. Funderbeam already has an office in the financial hub of London, and has already established its solid presence in the European market through business tie-ups with the Zagreb Stock Exchange in Croatia and the Ljubljana…

Funderbeam’s Kaidi Ruusalepp shaking hands with Mistletoe’s Taizo Son
Image credit: Koichiro Shimojo / Slush Tokyo 2017

See the original story in Japanese.
This is a part of our on-site coverage of Slush Tokyo 2017.

Funderbeam, originally from Estonia, offers a blockchain-based stock exchange platform for startups. The startup’s founder and CEO Kaidi Ruusalepp took the stage at Slush Tokyo 2017 today where she announced that they have secured 2 million euros from Mistletoe, led by Japanese renowned entrepreneur/angel investor Taizo Son, and will seek to advance into the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, under a strategic alliance.

Funderbeam was founded in 2013 by Kaidi Ruusalepp, who previously served as CEO of the Estonian stock exchange Nasdaq Tallinn. Beginning in April of 2016, they added a platform that allows startups to receive funding, and a platform on which startup stocks can be traded. According to Funderbeam, the cumulative funding to date is 4.8 million dollars (according to Crunchbase it is 4.75 million dollars). Their early investors include Skype co-founder Janne Tallinn. In addition, they have fundraised 424,000 euros from their own funding platform.

Funderbeam’s funding/profile page on the Funderbeam platform

Funderbeam already has an office in the financial hub of London, and has already established its solid presence in the European market through business tie-ups with the Zagreb Stock Exchange in Croatia and the Ljubljana Stock Exchange in Slovenia, but in terms of global expansion, their partnership with Mistletoe and entry into the Asia-Pacific region is a first for them.

In an interview with The Bridge, Ruusalepp emphasized that priority was given to expanding into the Asia-Pacific region rather than entering the US in light of the rapid growth of the market, and that for the purpose of promoting global development they seek alliances with optimal partners who best understand the market in their regions, thus the decision was made that Mistletoe would be their strongest partner in the Asia-Pacific region.

In this vertical, the Thai Stock Exchange revealed last year that it will open a startup-focused stock trading platform in the third quarter of 2017. Additionally, in relation to startup databases, Hong Kong’s OddUp, the US’s Mattermark and CB Insights may be in competition, but for Ruusalepp, Funderbeam’s strength lies in the combination of their data (holding data analytics of 150,000 startups around the world that investors can use for investment decisions), funding, and trading.

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Since the platform launch last April, the company says that investors have invested more than 2 million euros through the Funderbeam platform, and the amount of transactions total 100,000 euros in more than 80 countries.

Mistletoe’s President and CEO Taizo Son elaborated on why they invested and allied themselves with Funderbeam in the following statement. (Excerpt)

Mistletoe engages in various activities to support and grow a startup ecosystem in which entrepreneurs and startups can grow freely.

And for the healthy development of this ecosystem, a transparent and open fundraising process is one of its critical components.

With regards to how the platform is expanding into the Asia-Pacific region, both companies will explore a concrete strategy from now on.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japanese VR startup Paneo gets $820,000 to create avatar-based social network platform

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See the original story in Japanese. Among the several demo day events held from the end of last year over the beginning of this year, there was one startup that stood out. That startup is Paneo, and rather than labeling it VR (virtual reality), it seems more fitting to call it an avatar creation startup due to the company’s service called EmbodyMe. Last week the company began offering the app on Steam and in the Oculus Store. It can be used for free with Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch, and HTC Vive. EmbodyMe is a VR app that creates an avatar for a user from just one head shot; then, through the use of a head-mounted display (HMD), it allows users to communicate over the internet as if they were actually talking to each other in the real world. With communication services that use moving images and sound like Skype (and similar) there are sometimes cases where nuances and context may be missed, which would not be missed in a face-to-face situation. EmbodyMe uses an avatar to compensate for areas where online communication is less than real and provides an environment that does not require people to meet and talk. In…

Image credit: Paneo

See the original story in Japanese.

Among the several demo day events held from the end of last year over the beginning of this year, there was one startup that stood out. That startup is Paneo, and rather than labeling it VR (virtual reality), it seems more fitting to call it an avatar creation startup due to the company’s service called EmbodyMe. Last week the company began offering the app on Steam and in the Oculus Store. It can be used for free with Oculus Rift, Oculus Touch, and HTC Vive.

EmbodyMe is a VR app that creates an avatar for a user from just one head shot; then, through the use of a head-mounted display (HMD), it allows users to communicate over the internet as if they were actually talking to each other in the real world. With communication services that use moving images and sound like Skype (and similar) there are sometimes cases where nuances and context may be missed, which would not be missed in a face-to-face situation. EmbodyMe uses an avatar to compensate for areas where online communication is less than real and provides an environment that does not require people to meet and talk.

In this field, Microsoft and others are developing a mechanism that will capture the human body in 3D using multiple Kinect devices, making real-time rendering possible; however, it may not be easy to prepare the environment such as when a studio is needed, etc. Facebook is also attempting something similar using Oculus, but it is difficult to obtain reality, and takes much time and effort to create.

In contrast, with EmbodyMe, it is easy to create 3D models from head shots and depict them in real time in the metaverse according to the user’s actions. The appearance of a user while talking, along with the movement of their body and expressions are reproduced so clearly that it invites amazement. Rather than capturing the whole body in 3D and transmitting it, their “clear solution” is to use an avatar to bring about ease of introduction and playful elements. Initially, they are thinking to position themselves among users of games and entertainment which work with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, incorporating such users as early adopters of EmbodyMe.

Paneo’s CEO and engineer  Issei Yoshida explained:

Right now, not everyone possesses a VR device, and we’re at the phase where the VR world is becoming more and more exciting. That’s where EmbodyMe comes in, providing users with a personal avatar to output video clips.

By posting these clips on Facebook, Twitter, etc., users can also share their avatar experiences with friends and anyone who doesn’t have a VR device, and we expect  “network effect” there.

Image credit: Paneo

EmbodyMe is currently free, but Yoshida does not appear to be worried about whether a business model can be established or not. For a generation familiar with mobile games, if they sell virtual items worn by the avatar on EmbodyMe, they may be able to entice users to pay money to buy them. When the world was fascinated by the Second Life metaverse large companies in Japanese opened virtual offices or branches out there, so it is also in no way difficult to imagine the possibility of advertising in the VR space as well.

Yoshida also mentioned the immediate priorities at Paneo, including to brush up the VR app, and to release the SDK, which enables third party developers to develop content and games using EmbodyMe’s avatar function. They have already received many requests from third party developers, so they are aiming to release the SDK (software developer kit) within 2017.

The Paneo team
Image credit: Paneo

Paneo team members Issei Yoshida (CEO/Engineer), Yuri Kashima (Co-founder, Designer, Modeler), and Yuki Tanabe (Engineer) are all previously from Yahoo Japan where they developed new apps and engaged in design. Two apps produced by them, Face Stealer and Avatar Phone, were selected as the Innovative Technologies 2015 award by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. (Both apps are no longer available.) Additionally Yoshida was involved in the development of a “social memo site” and selected as a prominent IT engineer by a Japanese governmental agency during his university days. Taking a glimpse at their trajectory, it is possible to see their consistent devotion to the two concepts of social networking and avatars even years before sophisticated VR devices came out.

Image credit: Paneo

Will the day come when communication through VR surpasses that of chatting apps like Skype and Line? Of course, depending on the use case, users will use tools differently; but, in terms of enterprise software, it is easy to imagine that the areas of teleconferencing solutions dominated by Cisco and Avaya will evolve into a setup like Paneo, or be replaced by a setup like Paneo.

Paneo was established in June of 2016. Along with the launch of EmbodyMe the company announced that it had raised 90 million yen (roughly $817K US) from Japanese startup VC Incubate Fund. They will be exhibiting at the SVVR (Silicon Valley Virtual Reality) conference this week, so we can look forward to hearing more about the market reaction in the US.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s Dely secures $27M to beat Cookpad for online recipe market dominance

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This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. As reported earlier this morning, Tokyo-based Dely, the Japanese video-centric culinary media startup offering recipe discovery portal Kurashiru, will announce today that it has secured a 3 billion yen funding (about $27 million) round. Participating investors are Jafco (TSE:8595), YJ Capital (the investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Gumi Ventures (the investment arm of Japanese major game developer Gumi) and Das Capital as well as individual investors including FreakOut CEO Yusuke Sato. Das Capital is an investment fund run by Japanese serial entrepreneur/investor Shinji Kimura. Financial terms have not yet been disclosed. With this funding, no announcement has yet been made regarding the possible change of their management structure. The company claims that the funds will be used to push forward the video recipe business in Japan while developing new businesses and acquiring other companies. The latest round follows their $4.5 million funding back in November of 2016, which is just less than half a year away from the previous one. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However,…

Kurashiru

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.

As reported earlier this morning, Tokyo-based Dely, the Japanese video-centric culinary media startup offering recipe discovery portal Kurashiru, will announce today that it has secured a 3 billion yen funding (about $27 million) round.

Participating investors are Jafco (TSE:8595), YJ Capital (the investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Gumi Ventures (the investment arm of Japanese major game developer Gumi) and Das Capital as well as individual investors including FreakOut CEO Yusuke Sato. Das Capital is an investment fund run by Japanese serial entrepreneur/investor Shinji Kimura.

Financial terms have not yet been disclosed. With this funding, no announcement has yet been made regarding the possible change of their management structure. The company claims that the funds will be used to push forward the video recipe business in Japan while developing new businesses and acquiring other companies.

The latest round follows their $4.5 million funding back in November of 2016, which is just less than half a year away from the previous one. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, they pivoted to video curation media last year, which became the model for their current business.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s Leomo unveils motion analysis wearable technology for cycling athletes

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See the original story in Japanese. “Raise your foot up a bit more, good, keep it up” – some of you who ever had played sports, was a runner or been into fitness may have been given this type of admonition. However, words are always subjective and ambiguous. If there is any detailed reference or scoring which is completely precise for everyone, conversations upon training may change dramatically. Japan’s Leomo has unveiled a device just for this. Leomo, developing IoT devices for sports use, launched this month a wearable device called Type-R. It provides useful data using sensors and display device, supporting athletes to maximize their training performances. With this device, athletes can optimize their playing forms or power efficiencies, as well as preventing injuries and for rehabilitation. According to Kunihiko Kaji, co-founder / CEO of Leomo, the firm plans to sell the device to invited users only for a while and aims to commence general sales by around this May. Leomo was founded in 2012 and subsequently launched a logging app for fitness use called Lemonade (it was also the initial company name) in 2013. Fundraising $5.8 million from the Foxconn Group and others in August of 2015, the…

Leomo was unveiled at a track for cycling race in the US.

See the original story in Japanese.

“Raise your foot up a bit more, good, keep it up” – some of you who ever had played sports, was a runner or been into fitness may have been given this type of admonition.

However, words are always subjective and ambiguous. If there is any detailed reference or scoring which is completely precise for everyone, conversations upon training may change dramatically. Japan’s Leomo has unveiled a device just for this.

Leomo, developing IoT devices for sports use, launched this month a wearable device called Type-R. It provides useful data using sensors and display device, supporting athletes to maximize their training performances. With this device, athletes can optimize their playing forms or power efficiencies, as well as preventing injuries and for rehabilitation.

Type-R can be attached to a bicycle in a way like doing with a cycling computer.

According to Kunihiko Kaji, co-founder / CEO of Leomo, the firm plans to sell the device to invited users only for a while and aims to commence general sales by around this May.

Leomo was founded in 2012 and subsequently launched a logging app for fitness use called Lemonade (it was also the initial company name) in 2013. Fundraising $5.8 million from the Foxconn Group and others in August of 2015, the firm has been developing this device since then. It has 28 staffers, with offices in Tokyo and San Diego in the US.

See also:

Motion capturing for usual training

Leomo

Motion capturing may be one of the well-known methods for digitalization of the human motion. Putting markers on a person’s body, it digitalizes his motion by a fixed-point observation with cameras set in a specialized studio. The greatest feature of Type-R is that these motion sensors can be taken outdoors.

Kaji spoke about the limitations of conventional motion capturing:

Conventional motion capturing requires an operator and costs tens of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the observation location was limited due to the need for cameras upon calibration.

Type-R enables athletes or coaches to collect motion data under the same condition as the general training environment. For example, a coach can confirm whether his advice was conveyed to an athlete accurately when he is trying out a new form.

Kaji explains the need for motion capturing upon training:

Actually, people cannot easily move their body precisely as they intend. Although you may think yourself that you are just straightening out, that may not be the reality. This gap between the brain and the body cannot be verbalized yet. Therefore, it is difficult to make someone realize things that cannot be conveyed in words.

Five motion sensors attached to the body

Type-R digitalizes the body motion by measuring pedal speed, vertical motion or tilting angle of the pelvis with five sensors attached to his / her body. Since these collected data will be uploaded to the cloud via Wi-Fi and can be analyzed anywhere, users can also receive remote instructions.

Digitalization of the “beautiful form”

After the demo, a feedback could be heard: Type-R tells us what to do and why we should do so. Once we know the “precise” reference, coaches can suggest the best plan for improving the athletes’ performances.

For example, even the form of a bike racer holding an excellent record is not always beautiful. How is the “beautiful form” defined?

To clarify the evaluation criteria between coaches and athletes, Leomo announced the establishment of a think-tank named IMA (Institute of Motion Analysis) consisting of global sports experts including sports scientists, exercise physiologists, coaches, physical therapists and professional bicycle fitters.

The mission of IMA is to evaluate the sports science being used at the top of the sports world based on objective data, in order to cultivate the field where motion capturing can be utilized more effectively.

Many experts such as sports scientist or athletes participate in Leomo’s project

It may be easier to understand the vision by imaging a scoring method like Tabe-log (Japan’s restaurant/diner scoring portal) in the sports world; the total score of a top athlete’s form is 4.5 and mine is 3.0 – what is the difference between him and me? Leomo visualizes such kind of motion differences utilizing data and offers a common understanding.

If it is realized, one can explain what is the motion with least possibility of injuries or which balance is the most ideal for running fast. Kaji explains Leomo’s future:

The perfect circle is beautiful, isn’t it? But no one can draw it free hand. I think professional athletes are people who can draw a circle close to the perfect one. We aim to create evaluation criteria as to the best motion for drawing a beautiful circle for each user.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Cerevo makes Ghost in the Shell’s Tachikoma AI combat vehicle a reality

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See the original story in Japanese. It’s not the first time a product inspired by anime has been brought to life in the real world. However, this product is sure to attract more international Japanese anime fans than ever. Japan startup Cerevo, which has invented a number of smart home electronics and IoT products, announced an eighth-factor model of the multi-legged tank Tachikoma, a popular character from the animated series Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. They have begun accepting pre-orders on their website. The price is $1,799 and shipment is scheduled for June of this year. The eighth-scale model was born from Cerevo’s project “S2R (From the screen to the real world)”, which seeks to reproduce objects in the real world as closely as possible to how they appear in movies using smart home electronics technology. This product follows their production of Dominator from the animation Psycho-pass. Tachikoma is equipped with speech recognition, so when a user poses a question it answers in the voice of Sakiko Tamagawa, the original voice. Tachikoma’s object and speech recognition functions are very interesting. For example, when a user shows an apple to Tachikoma (a camera is installed in the image sensor), and says,…

See the original story in Japanese.

It’s not the first time a product inspired by anime has been brought to life in the real world. However, this product is sure to attract more international Japanese anime fans than ever.

Japan startup Cerevo, which has invented a number of smart home electronics and IoT products, announced an eighth-factor model of the multi-legged tank Tachikoma, a popular character from the animated series Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. They have begun accepting pre-orders on their website. The price is $1,799 and shipment is scheduled for June of this year.

The eighth-scale model was born from Cerevo’s project “S2R (From the screen to the real world)”, which seeks to reproduce objects in the real world as closely as possible to how they appear in movies using smart home electronics technology. This product follows their production of Dominator from the animation Psycho-pass. Tachikoma is equipped with speech recognition, so when a user poses a question it answers in the voice of Sakiko Tamagawa, the original voice.

The mobile app display that controls Tachikoma (under development)
Image credit: Cerevo

Tachikoma’s object and speech recognition functions are very interesting. For example, when a user shows an apple to Tachikoma (a camera is installed in the image sensor), and says, “apples are sweet,” the information that “apples are sweet” is uploaded to the cloud and shared among all of Tachikomas owned by other users. As users increase and time goes by, Tachikomas gradually becomes smarter, which is somewhat reminiscent of the world presented in the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Cerevo exhibited the eighth-scale model at their booth at Sensors Ignition 2017, a digital media showcase event held at the Toranomon Hills building complex in Tokyo this week. Due to the noisiness of the exhibition hall and the tendency of the Wi-Fi to be overcrowded, it was too much to ask of Tachikoma to demonstrate the user speech recognition and response via the cloud. Restrictions on space at the exhibition also meant a fixed display area confined to their booth, but Tachikoma’s joints and legs are equipped with 21 motors, and by issuing command movements from a smartphone it is possible to enter the world of anime by playing the role of Tachikoma.

Cerevo will also prepare and release a limited supply of a “Special Edition” Tachikoma’s ⅛ model, with a metallic body created with aluminum scrapings on the bumper and the cover of the gun barrel. The price is set at $1,999 and pre-orders began along with the original version this week.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Image credit: Cerevo

Moneytree, Japanese personal finance app, raises $9M to better serve corporate users

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Moneytree, the Japanese startup offering an asset managing app / cloud-based accounting soutions, announced on Tuesday that it has raised a total of 1 billion yen (nearly $9 million US) in their latest funding round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from Mizuho Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Fukuoka Technology Partners, Hiroshima Venture Capital, Senshu Ikeda Capital, and the UK’s leading asset management company Baillie Gifford. This round follows that of the company’s series A round held in October of 2015. With the funds raised this time, Moneytree plans to roll out new functions for their personal asset management app “Moneytree”, their “Moneytree Work Keihi Seisan (Expense Reimbursement)” that allows users to easily determine their expenses, as well as their “Moneytree Work Houjin Kouza (Corporate Accounts)” that lets users browse their corporate accounts and calculate expenses in mobile. In addition, the cloud-based account management service MT Link, which connects financial institutions with corporations and individuals, and has been in service for more than two years now, has been adopted by 20 companies including megabanks, regional banks, and accounting software industries. Together with this funding, Moneytree has also renewed the…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Moneytree, the Japanese startup offering an asset managing app / cloud-based accounting soutions, announced on Tuesday that it has raised a total of 1 billion yen (nearly $9 million US) in their latest funding round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from Mizuho Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Fukuoka Technology Partners, Hiroshima Venture Capital, Senshu Ikeda Capital, and the UK’s leading asset management company Baillie Gifford. This round follows that of the company’s series A round held in October of 2015.

With the funds raised this time, Moneytree plans to roll out new functions for their personal asset management app “Moneytree”, their “Moneytree Work Keihi Seisan (Expense Reimbursement)” that allows users to easily determine their expenses, as well as their “Moneytree Work Houjin Kouza (Corporate Accounts)” that lets users browse their corporate accounts and calculate expenses in mobile.

In addition, the cloud-based account management service MT Link, which connects financial institutions with corporations and individuals, and has been in service for more than two years now, has been adopted by 20 companies including megabanks, regional banks, and accounting software industries. Together with this funding, Moneytree has also renewed the MT Link website, and is aiming to further expand and accelerate the business.

The following is a comment by Moneytree Founder and CEO Paul Chapman.

Thanks to this funding we are pleased Moneytree will be moving on to the next stage of growth. In both Japan and abroad the FinTech industry has significantly expanded. More than ever, we will focus on maintaining the security of our services, protecting privacy, and transparency of information.

In addition, while supporting the conversion of the financial industry to digital banking, and while contributing to the foundation of the accounting industry’s cloud accounting system, we will continue to devote our efforts to constructing an industry-wide ecosystem based on users. Furthermore, we have set our sights on the globalization of our services through deploying Japanese technology overseas.

See also:

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Paul Chapman, Founder & CEO of Moneytree, delivered his pitch at Pioneers Asia (March 2016).
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

 

Riding the Startup Wave in Space

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This is a guest post by Naokuni Yoshida. He is a Japanese consultant at Tokyo-based Global Innovations, trying to promote aerospace-related firms including drone startups in the US enter Asian markets. On February 28, 2017 SPACETIDE Association of Japan, with support from the National Space Policy Secretariat of the Japanese Cabinet Office in addition to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as well as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, not to mention the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), held at Keio University’s Fujiwara Hiroshi Hall in Hiyoshi, near Yokohama, its second Private-sector-focused Space Seminar, two years since its first gathering. After the opening speech by the head of SPACETIDE Association Masayasu Ishida, who is also Principal of consulting firm A.T. Kearney, several discussion sessions followed (although unfortunately Spire Global‘s representative was unable to make it for the “global space business” panel). Space startups raised significant funding and made important business alliances in 2016, as this sector has grown in prominence on the global stage. The first and second panel discussions this day are of particular interest to The Bridge readers as it introduced a number of existing and new players from Japanese space startups or…

This is a guest post by Naokuni Yoshida. He is a Japanese consultant at Tokyo-based Global Innovations, trying to promote aerospace-related firms including drone startups in the US enter Asian markets.


Image credit: Spacetide Committee

On February 28, 2017 SPACETIDE Association of Japan, with support from the National Space Policy Secretariat of the Japanese Cabinet Office in addition to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as well as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, not to mention the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), held at Keio University’s Fujiwara Hiroshi Hall in Hiyoshi, near Yokohama, its second Private-sector-focused Space Seminar, two years since its first gathering. After the opening speech by the head of SPACETIDE Association Masayasu Ishida, who is also Principal of consulting firm A.T. Kearney, several discussion sessions followed (although unfortunately Spire Global‘s representative was unable to make it for the “global space business” panel).

Space startups raised significant funding and made important business alliances in 2016, as this sector has grown in prominence on the global stage. The first and second panel discussions this day are of particular interest to The Bridge readers as it introduced a number of existing and new players from Japanese space startups or those working closely with such companies, with the second focused on the role of space as an “enabling” factor upon expanding business opportunities widely. The panelists discussed skill sets and team skills plus the mindsets that are essential for launching and managing a space business. The third was on global space business overall and the last session centered on bigger enterprise activities.

Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

The first panel comprised Dr. Lena Okajima (CEO and Founder, ALE) working to realize “asteroid” art, Shuji Ogawa (CEO and CTO of PD AeroSpace) who was trained in aerospace engineering at Tohoku University, Naruo Kanemoto (CEO of satellite kit provider Space Shift of Japan and Director of Elysium Space in the U.S., which offers memorial space flights), and Yuya Nakamura (President and CEO, Axelspace) running the Japanese microsatellite startup; it was moderated by Nomura Research Institute Senior Consultant Masashi Sato who is a member of the “Committee of Space by ICT” at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication.

Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

The Space as an Enabler session, introduced the forefront of innovation created by space with other industry and discussed the possibility of utilizing space as an enabler. The value of space for enterprises was also discussed by the panelist Kenji Oda who is
Creative Director and Chief of Dentsu Space Lab, Dentsu (TSE:4324) taking the “Space for Everyone” approach (recent work includes award-winning solutions such as an experiment where employees work in Space-like conditions, “kibo360” smartphone app simulating an astronaut life on the International Space Station, and the Google/JAXA “Space Hangout” collaboration where people on earth can video chat with an astronaut in the ISS).

Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Other panelists of the second session were Satoru Konishi who is Assistant Chief Engineer, Magellan Systems Japan, currently working on the development of the new GNSS receiver with centi-meter accuracy supporting the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System which is to be fully operational around 2018; Managing Director Ken Fujiwara of Umitron, which he co-founded as a data service company for aquaculture including satellite remote sensing; and, Dr. Keiichi Masuya who is Director of biotech startup PeptiDream which is using the microgravity environment in space for new treatment agents development. The session moderator was Japanese VC firm Global Brain‘s Venture Partner Hidetaka Aoki, the “space business evangelist” which is his trademark.

Triple W Japan, developer of urination predictor, wins $610K grant for clinical research

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  See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the Japanese startup developing developer of urination predictor device DFree, announced last week that it was selected by NEDO for the corporate alliance program for R&D-focused startups, and will receive a subsidy of up to 70 million yen (about $610K US). The target for the subsidy is joint research with large companies in relation to DFree’s small size and high performance, and since the expenses required for research will be paid up to the maximum amount, it is possible to obtain the full subsidy. The contents of collaborative research with each of five major companies are as follows: Accenture…Collaborative research on nursing care packages combining various sensors and nursing care record data, joint development of algorithms and software, support for overseas development centered on Europe, etc. Itochu Chemical Frontier…Development of a high precision ultrasonic sensor, high accuracy coupled with algorithm development, etc. Itochu Techno Solutions…Feasibility studies, joint development of software, etc. Paramount Head…Improve accuracy through the combination with various sensors, joint solution development, etc. Revamp…Feasibility study at nursing care facilities, sales support, etc. Among these companies, Revamp also participated in the series A funding round that Triple W Japan…

Image credit: Triple W Japan

 

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the Japanese startup developing developer of urination predictor device DFree, announced last week that it was selected by NEDO for the corporate alliance program for R&D-focused startups, and will receive a subsidy of up to 70 million yen (about $610K US). The target for the subsidy is joint research with large companies in relation to DFree’s small size and high performance, and since the expenses required for research will be paid up to the maximum amount, it is possible to obtain the full subsidy.

The contents of collaborative research with each of five major companies are as follows:

  • Accenture…Collaborative research on nursing care packages combining various sensors and nursing care record data, joint development of algorithms and software, support for overseas development centered on Europe, etc.
  • Itochu Chemical Frontier…Development of a high precision ultrasonic sensor, high accuracy coupled with algorithm development, etc.
  • Itochu Techno Solutions…Feasibility studies, joint development of software, etc.
  • Paramount Head…Improve accuracy through the combination with various sensors, joint solution development, etc.
  • Revamp…Feasibility study at nursing care facilities, sales support, etc.

Among these companies, Revamp also participated in the series A funding round that Triple W Japan conducted last July. Also, in February of last year, the company acquired a subsidy of up to 70 million yen from NEDO’s another R&D venture support project (commonly known as the STS grant project).

DFree’s mobile app for nursing care facilities
Image credit: Triple W Japan

Recently, Triple W Japan won Grand Prize at the “Japan Healthcare Business Contest” conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on March 3rd. Interest from Europe is also high, and it seems that DFree was exhibited as a use case of Soracom, an IoT-focused mobile network service from Japan, which announced its advance into Europe at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona earlier this month. They are also scheduled to represent Japan in the Netherlands’ startup conference competition Get in the Ring (which timing-wise overlaps with Tech in Asia Singapore 2017…) from May 17th to the 19th.  Moreover, in Kawasaki city, DFree is certified as the Kawasaki Innovation Standard with the city subsidizing expenses for its use in nursing care facilities, which is expected to spur introduction.

Triple W Japan’s CEO Atsushi Nakanishi had the following to say about the future of DFree:

I’d like to work with Kawasaki city to see it implemented for in-home nursing care and rehabilitation. In particular, most patients who have suffered from a stroke undergo a rehabilitation process where they’re forced to wear a catheter after surgery (to compensate for difficulty urinating), which they then have removed and wear diapers, finally graduating from those, in order to fully rehabilitate into society. DFree would be useful in the process of removing the diaper.

Nakanishi continued:

DFree has already begun to be used in French nursing home care facilities, and we will promote trials for full-scale introduction. We’re also in the process of contracting with a German company. We are collaborating in Europe since the structure of nursing care is well established. Regarding areas where nursing care is not easy, I’d like to consider making rehabilitation models and home care support tools and packages. I’d like to partner with insurance companies.

At the beginning of the project, DFree had set a goal of predicting bowel movements, but recently seems to be shifting its focus to urination control. On this, Nakanishi said that the technological development of urination prediction is the priority because urination is more frequent than bowel movements, making it easier to develop data and algorithms; also, throughout the world there are more people who are in need of support for urination rather than defecation. It appears that once they have answered the demand for urination prediction, they will once again return to the development of a solution for defecation prediction.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru IKeda

Japan’s Ookami, offering social network app for sports fans, secures series A round

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup developing the “Player!” sports entertainment app, announced on Friday that the company raised an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), Gree Ventures, The Asahi Shimbun, and a number of confidential individual investors in a Series A round. For Ookami, this follows an undisclosed amount raised in a seed round from Gree Ventures last May, making this Gree Venture’s second investment in the company. Prior to the seed round, Ookami held angel rounds in June of 2014 and March of 2015, in which they raised a total of 30 million yen (around $260K US) from athlete Dai Tamesue, Uzabase, Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda, Tomohito Ebine (founder of OPT Holdings), and Toshiaki Komatsu (Co-founder of Photocreate), but according to information from the stakeholders the total amount raised this time in the Series A round is expected to be on a scale of several hundred million yen (or several million US dollars). Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In April 2015 they released the mobile app “Player!” for iOS, and pivoted from a sports news distribution platform to the one that reports sports games live, with a social network function…

Image credit: ookami

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup developing the “Player!” sports entertainment app, announced on Friday that the company raised an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), Gree Ventures, The Asahi Shimbun, and a number of confidential individual investors in a Series A round. For Ookami, this follows an undisclosed amount raised in a seed round from Gree Ventures last May, making this Gree Venture’s second investment in the company.

Prior to the seed round, Ookami held angel rounds in June of 2014 and March of 2015, in which they raised a total of 30 million yen (around $260K US) from athlete Dai Tamesue, Uzabase, Uzabase CEO Yusuke Umeda, Tomohito Ebine (founder of OPT Holdings), and Toshiaki Komatsu (Co-founder of Photocreate), but according to information from the stakeholders the total amount raised this time in the Series A round is expected to be on a scale of several hundred million yen (or several million US dollars).

Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In April 2015 they released the mobile app “Player!” for iOS, and pivoted from a sports news distribution platform to the one that reports sports games live, with a social network function that allows users to share their reactions in real-time with other users watching the progress and results of the same game. In December 2015 it was labeled the “App Store Best of 2015”, and in 2016 it won the “Good Design Award.”

Ookami revealed plans to strengthen the news distribution functions of Player! In addition to revamping the news functions, they will partner with a major data stadium for the broadcasting of sports scores, and information regarding both J-league football and B-league basketball games in Japan will be offered in real time. Additionally, their information can be further enriched through their partnership with the Asahi Shimbun, a company that participates in some 180 sports events in Japan yearly.

The Asahi Shumbun, participants in this round, released the following comments in excerpt.

We believe that through multiplying various sports businesses and contents with Ookami’s Player!, a new way of enjoying sports, and communicating about sports, separate from a newspaper, becomes possible; so we entered into the partnership.

GREE Ventures, who participated in the latest investment round along with IMJ-IP, appears to make a pure money injection. The following is an excerpt from comments by IMJ-IP.

With the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the field of sports is expected to experience great growth in Japan. As a part of this, we recognize the fact that Player! is a new medium that makes live sports content possible and offers the optimal smart-phone customer experience, and judge that their management team is one of high executive power, so we have made the decision to support them.

Image credit: ookami

Although Ookami created the above figure (and therefore it is not necessarily an objective interpretation), the digital distribution of sports content is definitely bustling, even with profitable and not so profitable players.

To illustrate other digital sports startups in Japan, there is Spotomo and Spotomo GC, which offer online lesson services, with investors like Docomo Ventures, DeNA (TSE: 2432), Sirius Partners, and ABC Dream Ventures. Link Sports, which runs the amateur sports score and competition management service TeamHub, raised about 60 million yen (around $523K US) in financing from Venture United and debt from the Japan Policy Finance Corporation.

In Japan, DAZN (pronounced dazon) and Softbank’s Suponavi Live are advancing, challenging each other over Internet and mobile distribution, leading to a rise in broadcasting fees. However, they alone cannot consume all the video distribution, and it seems there is a development in which they discount and resell (sublicense) the broadcasting rights to other satellite broadcasters and cable television broadcasting companies. Overseas, Twitter contributes $10 million US to  streamcast NFL games worldwide, and Amazon is moving to acquire broadcasting rights for sports.

For Ookami, Player! is not a distributor of sports video content, but instead focuses on score information related to games as well as SNS, thereby leaving them unaffected by these big players. Instead, through the benefit of sublicensing, etc., in the future it will be possible to deliver videos by revenue sharing with the broadcasting rights holder.

Ookami CEO Taiyo Ogata says:

I think it is possible to create a flexible operation if you can watch and listen to programs on a game-by-game basis (not on a per-channel basis), or if the price is changed when you watch from the second half.

60% of Player!’s users are under 35, a demographic that existing sports broadcasters are not reaching. In terms of being able to distribute video to this demographic, I think that it will be possible for major platformers to merge with Ookami.

Ogata also revealed that they are preparing several other user experiences only possible through Player! I look forward to a number of big announcements this year which can be expected in connection to this.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Kyoto’s Makers Boot Camp accelerator launches $17.5M fund to back IoT startups

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See the original story in Japanese. Kyoto-based Darma Tech Labs, which runs the Makers Boot Camp (MBC) hardware startup-focused accelerator, announced in Kyoto on Tuesday that it is forming an investment fund worth 2 billion yen (nearly $18 million US) with having Kyoto Bank (TSE: 8369) as an anchor limited partner. In addition to Narimasa Makino, CEO of Darma Tech Labs, Shingo Nadaka the Deputy Director of local manufacturing organization Kyoto Shisaku Net, and Director Masatoshi Takeda (also Director of Darma Tech Labs), and Masahiko Naka, the Executive Director of Kyoto Bank also attended the press briefing held on that day. The fund is called MBC Shisaku No. 1 Investment LP and its redemption period is 10 years. They will intensively invest in early stage hardware startups in Japan, North America, and Europe. Priority investment areas include IoT, robotics, sensing, networking, big data analysis, medical devices, nursing care, lifestyle, environment and energy. Along with forming this fund, Mikuni Kimura, the former chief investment officer for Future Venture Capital, along with certified public accountant Manabu Kuwahara will participate as managing directors at Darma Tech Labs, and expanding their field of partners by joining with New York City-based FabFoundry, the CEO Nobuhiro…

From left: Shingo Nadaka (Deputy Director of Kyoto Shisaku Net), Masatoshi Takeda (Director of Darma Tech Labs/ Director of Kyoto Shisaku Net), Narimasa Makino (CEO of Darma Tech Labs), Masahiko Naka (Executive Director of Kyoto Bank)
Image credit: Darma Tech Labs

See the original story in Japanese.

Kyoto-based Darma Tech Labs, which runs the Makers Boot Camp (MBC) hardware startup-focused accelerator, announced in Kyoto on Tuesday that it is forming an investment fund worth 2 billion yen (nearly $18 million US) with having Kyoto Bank (TSE: 8369) as an anchor limited partner.

In addition to Narimasa Makino, CEO of Darma Tech Labs, Shingo Nadaka the Deputy Director of local manufacturing organization Kyoto Shisaku Net, and Director Masatoshi Takeda (also Director of Darma Tech Labs), and Masahiko Naka, the Executive Director of Kyoto Bank also attended the press briefing held on that day.

The fund is called MBC Shisaku No. 1 Investment LP and its redemption period is 10 years. They will intensively invest in early stage hardware startups in Japan, North America, and Europe. Priority investment areas include IoT, robotics, sensing, networking, big data analysis, medical devices, nursing care, lifestyle, environment and energy.

Along with forming this fund, Mikuni Kimura, the former chief investment officer for Future Venture Capital, along with certified public accountant Manabu Kuwahara will participate as managing directors at Darma Tech Labs, and expanding their field of partners by joining with New York City-based FabFoundry, the CEO Nobuhiro Seki will be appointed as a director of Darma Tech Labs.

Darma Tech Labs, the facilitators of MBC, also regularly holds Monozukuri Hub Meetup at the co-working space MTRL Kyoto (Material Kyoto) to focus on creating a community of hardware startups. At the Monozukuri Hardware Cup, held for the first time in Osaka in February, eight hardware startup teams from Japan came, with the three teams of QD Laser, PLENGoer, and VAQSO, being invited to the Hardware Startup Pitch Competition put on by the Pittsburgh-based hardware startup AlphaLab Gear.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda