See the original story in Japanese. Municipal governments of Japan’s Fukuoka and Taiwan’s Taipei earlier this month signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on mutual support by Japanese and Taiwanese startups upon expanding their businesses to the respective markets. Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima visited the Taipei City Hall to sign the MoU with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, which was followed by a joint press briefing. Taipei City has established Taiwan Startup Hub and other incubation facilities to encourage entrepreneurship among the younger generation while Fukuoka City has set up several similar venues such as Startup Cafe (planned to be moved soon to the former Daimyo Elementary School site from the current Tenjin area premise in Fukuoka’s city center). Some of our readers may recall that Fukuoka City held a competition to choose Taiwanese startups to be invited to the former at Taiwan Startup Hub back in July of 2016. Mayor Takashima said that Fukuoka City has introduced these nine Taiwanese startups to a major Japanese department store and other firms through business collaboration and matchmaking opportunities like Fukuoka Startup Selection. Along Mayor Takashima, startup founders and entrepreneurs from Fukuoka were participate in the MoU signing ceremony. Taipei City Mayor Ko…
Fukuoka city mayor Soichiro Takashima and Taipei city mayor Ko Wen-je shake hands after signing the MoU. Image credit: Fukuoka City Office
Municipal governments of Japan’s Fukuoka and Taiwan’s Taipei earlier this month signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on mutual support by Japanese and Taiwanese startups upon expanding their businesses to the respective markets. Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima visited the Taipei City Hall to sign the MoU with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, which was followed by a joint press briefing.
Taipei City has established Taiwan Startup Hub and other incubation facilities to encourage entrepreneurship among the younger generation while Fukuoka City has set up several similar venues such as Startup Cafe (planned to be moved soon to the former Daimyo Elementary School site from the current Tenjin area premise in Fukuoka’s city center). Some of our readers may recall that Fukuoka City held a competition to choose Taiwanese startups to be invited to the former at Taiwan Startup Hub back in July of 2016. Mayor Takashima said that Fukuoka City has introduced these nine Taiwanese startups to a major Japanese department store and other firms through business collaboration and matchmaking opportunities like Fukuoka Startup Selection.
Along Mayor Takashima, startup founders and entrepreneurs from Fukuoka were participate in the MoU signing ceremony. Taipei City Mayor Ko said he wanted to invite them to the city’s brand new incubation hotspots such as Center for Innovation Taipei (CIT), Taipei Co-Space and digiBlock, which will be completed in Taipei Metro’s Yuanshan station neighborhood by the end of this year.
While Fukuoka City has unveiled what kind of support can be offered to Taiwanese startups in Japan through the partnership, the press briefing this time around unveiled how the Taipei City Government can help Japanese startups in Taiwan as follows:
Offering overseas business expansion support by partnering of Startup@Taipei and Fukuoka’s Startup Cafe.
Offering financial support including grants to entrepreneurs to set up a business
Offering support for exhibiting at events and conferences in Taipei
L to R: Masanori Hashimoto (CEO of Nulab), Asuka Tsuzuki (President of Tsuzuki Education Group), Shuhei Ishimaru (Director General of Fukuoka Directive Council), Soichiro Takashima (Mayor of Fukuoka City), Ko Wen-je (Mayor of Taipei City), Lin Chin-rong (Deputy Mayor of Taipei City), Lin Chong-jie (Head of Taipei City’s Department of Economic Development Office) Image credit: Fukuoka City Office
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Dverse, the Japanese startup focused on developing virtual reality (VR) authoring tools, this Tuesday unveiled its VR browser for construction / civil engineering use, named Symmetry Alpha. One can download the browser from the game software distribution platform Steam. The browser was developed based on Unity platform and is currently available for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. In the future, it will support other platforms such as Oculus Rift, Android Daydream, Samsung Gear or Microsoft HoloLens. It is not easy to express its excellence in words, as with every new VR solution, and yet Symmetry shows an outstanding vision for enabling users to experience a feel of being teleported into the VR world just by importing CAD (computer-aided design) data in SketchUp files. Although there have been other systems that create perspective drawing from CAD data, and in fact design offices or architects have often used them in order to explain design plans to their clients. However, there is a limit for perspective drawing to express 3D data in 2D images, as well as the problem of the blind spots. Symmetry enables users not only to check the outer appearance but also to…
Tokyo-based Dverse, the Japanese startup focused on developing virtual reality (VR) authoring tools, this Tuesday unveiled its VR browser for construction / civil engineering use, named Symmetry Alpha. One can download the browser from the game software distribution platform Steam. The browser was developed based on Unity platform and is currently available for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. In the future, it will support other platforms such as Oculus Rift, Android Daydream, Samsung Gear or Microsoft HoloLens.
It is not easy to express its excellence in words, as with every new VR solution, and yet Symmetry shows an outstanding vision for enabling users to experience a feel of being teleported into the VR world just by importing CAD (computer-aided design) data in SketchUp files. Although there have been other systems that create perspective drawing from CAD data, and in fact design offices or architects have often used them in order to explain design plans to their clients. However, there is a limit for perspective drawing to express 3D data in 2D images, as well as the problem of the blind spots. Symmetry enables users not only to check the outer appearance but also to virtually be positioned inside the object and to obtain a panoramic view.
Since launched back in October of 2014, Dverse had fundraised an undisclosed amount from BonAngels Venture Partners and Villing Venture Partners in July of 2015, followed by $104 million from 500 Startups Japan, Colopl VR Fund, KLab Venture Partners, Adways (TSE:2489), Willgroup (TSE:6089), and Slogan, in addition to angel investor Shogo Kawada, in June of 2016. According to Dverse CEO Shogo Numakura, the firm had conducted contract-planning and development of VR software for operational training use as commissioned by major enterprises, but have been focusing on development of Symmetry since around last January.
This day’s launch is a St. Valentine’s Day present to the world. The support languages are not especially limited to VR, so that it can become a solution without language barriers.
Numakura comments on the firm’s view:
I considered using the same approach as Adobe did for Acrobat; we first offered users the use of our browser for free and let them recognize the usefulness of VR in business. We plan to launch an editor (authoring) tool as a premium service during the third quarter. I expect that VR for business use will go into full swing within a few years.
Numakura also said that it is not easy for VR startups to raise funds or to seek new markets domestically only and that he considers overseas development of Dverse as a solution to these problems. The firm plans to establish local offices in Silicon Beach LA (tech startup community based on from Santa Monica to Venice Beach) in the U.S. and in Shoreditch (the up-north area of London’s Tech City) in the UK within the year, as well as one in China, which is showing great performance by VR startups with an eye to the future.
Although the firm does not plan an exhibition at SXSW (South by Southwest), Numakura told us that his company intends to introduce the browser through participation in various startup events or VR-related conferences which will be held within and outside Japan from this Spring.
How can Dverse change the global construction and civil engineering fields? It behooves a close look at their activities.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Progate, offering an online code learning service under the same name, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) in funding from FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), DeNA (TSE:2432), and individual investors. Details concerning the payment date and shareholding ratios were not disclosed. In addition to this, the company announced that their number of users has reached 120,000, that it is being used as teaching materials in around 10 high schools in Japan, and they revealed the expansion of their services with “Progate for School” and “Progate for Business.” Progate, which was launched in the summer of 2014 by three students attending the University of Tokyo at that time, has been able satisfy users up to now. However, their competitor Codecademy has secured tens of millions of users on a global scale. Following up on this, Progate’s CEO Masanori Kato revealed plans to release an international version of their service within 2017, with the particular desire to become an influential presence in the Asian region. He said: Although we don’t have clear results yet (regarding tests of the overseas version), considering Progate’s current demographic of 25-34 year olds, which is a…
Students at a highschool learning how to code using the “Progate for School” service. Image credit: Progate
Tokyo-based Progate, offering an online code learning service under the same name, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) in funding from FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), DeNA (TSE:2432), and individual investors. Details concerning the payment date and shareholding ratios were not disclosed.
In addition to this, the company announced that their number of users has reached 120,000, that it is being used as teaching materials in around 10 high schools in Japan, and they revealed the expansion of their services with “Progate for School” and “Progate for Business.”
Progate, which was launched in the summer of 2014 by three students attending the University of Tokyo at that time, has been able satisfy users up to now. However, their competitor Codecademy has secured tens of millions of users on a global scale. Following up on this, Progate’s CEO Masanori Kato revealed plans to release an international version of their service within 2017, with the particular desire to become an influential presence in the Asian region.
Although we don’t have clear results yet (regarding tests of the overseas version), considering Progate’s current demographic of 25-34 year olds, which is a large demographic in Southeast Asia, we think this target is consistent. There are many people who are fascinated by learning programming and it could have an even bigger effect on their lives than Japanese users, and we’d like to appeal to this target while taking advantage of the position of FreakOut, who participated in funding this time around.
Kato also remarked on their goal to increase examples created by users in conjunction with their service by adding applied lesson content, thus gradually showing overseas users the value of their service.
Along with the freshness of a business centered on the creation of students, they are worth paying attention to as they challenge the field of programming education which supports future developers who will go on to shape the world. To what extent will they be able to contribute to the developing capabilities of their generation? I would like to report on it again after quantitative information becomes available.
The Progate team Image credit: Progate
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Agribuddy, a startup that offers a mobile app to farmers in Cambodia and other emerging countries to provide them with asset management support services, announced on Wedsneday that it has received US$730,000 in funding from the likes of iSGS Investment Works, Yorihiko “Paul” Kato, several additional corporations, funds, and individual investors. The company plans to use the funds raised to further develop products and systems currently under development and to acquire top talent who can play an active part in the world market. Agribuddy provides an Android app of the same name to farmers, who then can register their farmland and crops as users allowing the app to automatically calculate income and expenditure patterns, as well as timing and money amounts. In addition, Agribuddy’s own credit scoring function also provides a service that sets credit limits from banks and other financial institutions for buying agricultural materials. The total agricultural area of Agribuddy’s users has reached just under 190,000 hectares, and they originally started collecting users mainly in Cambodia, but recently they have also begun to accumulate users in neighboring Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc. This is due to people called “Buddies” stationed in each…
Agribuddy, a startup that offers a mobile app to farmers in Cambodia and other emerging countries to provide them with asset management support services, announced on Wedsneday that it has received US$730,000 in funding from the likes of iSGS Investment Works, Yorihiko “Paul” Kato, several additional corporations, funds, and individual investors. The company plans to use the funds raised to further develop products and systems currently under development and to acquire top talent who can play an active part in the world market.
Agribuddy provides an Android app of the same name to farmers, who then can register their farmland and crops as users allowing the app to automatically calculate income and expenditure patterns, as well as timing and money amounts. In addition, Agribuddy’s own credit scoring function also provides a service that sets credit limits from banks and other financial institutions for buying agricultural materials.
The total agricultural area of Agribuddy’s users has reached just under 190,000 hectares, and they originally started collecting users mainly in Cambodia, but recently they have also begun to accumulate users in neighboring Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc. This is due to people called “Buddies” stationed in each rural village, making it possible to reach out to and collect data from potential users who are not connected to the Internet.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s digital health startup CureApp announced on Monday that it has fundraised 380 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Beyond Next Ventures, Keio Innovation Initiative and SBI Investment. This funding is subsequent to the 100 million yen (about $890,000) from Beyond Next Ventures in October of 2015. With the money raised this time, the firm enhances its research and development system in order to realize a disease treatment using mobile apps. The company was founded in July of 2014 by two medical doctors: Kohta Satake (CEO) and Shin Suzuki (CTO). The firm is one of the leading players in the medical app vertical under the theme of “app exhibits therapeutic effects against diseases” and launched a nicotine addiction treatment app in February 2015, which was jointly developed with Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Keio University’s School of Medicine. It is currently conducting clinical trials in many locations. The company was selected as a participant of the Hiyaku Next Enterprise program, an innovation encouragement program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. While CEO Satake was staying at San Francisco to take part in the Silicon Valley course as a part of the…
Japan’s digital health startup CureApp announced on Monday that it has fundraised 380 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Beyond Next Ventures, Keio Innovation Initiative and SBI Investment. This funding is subsequent to the 100 million yen (about $890,000) from Beyond Next Ventures in October of 2015. With the money raised this time, the firm enhances its research and development system in order to realize a disease treatment using mobile apps.
CureApp CEO Kohta Satake, MD
The company was founded in July of 2014 by two medical doctors: Kohta Satake (CEO) and Shin Suzuki (CTO). The firm is one of the leading players in the medical app vertical under the theme of “app exhibits therapeutic effects against diseases” and launched a nicotine addiction treatment app in February 2015, which was jointly developed with Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Keio University’s School of Medicine. It is currently conducting clinical trials in many locations.
CureApp’s nicotine addiction treatment app
The company was selected as a participant of the Hiyaku Next Enterprise program, an innovation encouragement program sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. While CEO Satake was staying at San Francisco to take part in the Silicon Valley course as a part of the program, he replied to our interview about his firm’s view.
Subsequent to the above-mentioned nicotine addiction treatment app, CureApp had jointly developed a NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis remedy) treatment app with Department of Gastroenterology, the University of Tokyo, and has been conducting a clinical trial as well. NASH is hepatitis caused by obesity or diabetes and is one of the typical lifestyle diseases treatable by improving dietary habits. According to Satake, the firm plans a horizontal spread of medical apps for treatment / management of other lifestyle diseases including diabetes, depression and lung cancer, in addition to the two apps.
As for development of the mobile apps, the firm adopted React Native, a app development platform invented by Facebook enabling easy development of apps available for iOS / Android only with JavaScript knowledge.
CureApp’s NASH treatment app
The CureApp NASH app was fully made with the React Native environment while the nicotine treatment app has also been porting to it. The platform will be adopted to all the firm’s other apps in the future. Kensuke Takagi, engineering team lead of CureApp, has been
making efforts to penetrate this new technology by repeatedly giving presentations at various events held in the Tokyo area such as React Native Meetup.
CureApp is also seeking a way to expand its business to the US through cooperation with local medical institutions, and that is one of the reasons for Satake’s visit to the US. If the apps are approved by FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) after clinical trials in the US, a global development may be possible. One of its investors, Beyond Next Ventures, had recently tied up with San Francisco-based bio-science accelerator IndieBio, and such a movement may boost the firm’s future growth.
You can download the CureApp’s apps from iTunes AppStore or Google Play, but the apps requires use under the guidance of a partnered medical institution due to the nature of medical apps.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Coiney, the Japanese mobile payments startup, announced today that it has completed a 800 million yen funding as the sum of investment from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), SBI Investment and Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH) as well as bank borrowing from Seibu Shinkin Bank. Financial details of the deal such as the investment ratio and the payment date have not been disclosed. The company claims that it will use the funds to increase engineers as well as strengthen their sales and marketing team for expanding their payments solution and services: Coiney Terminal (smartphone-based payments solution for real stores), Coiney Payge (web-based payments solution for online transactions) in addition to Coiney Engine. Coiney Engine uses artificial intelligence to offer an evaluation of business enterprises based on the accumulation of payments history and various statistical data from the Coiney Terminal and Coiney Payge services. It is used to see the credibility of a company when they apply for business loans from banks partnering with the payments startup. See also: New partnerships announced in Japanese payments processing space Japanese payments startup Coiney looks back on key metrics from its first year Japanese mobile payment startup…
Coiney Payge now available in six languages. Image credit: Coiney
Tokyo-based Coiney, the Japanese mobile payments startup, announced today that it has completed a 800 million yen funding as the sum of investment from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), SBI Investment and Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH) as well as bank borrowing from Seibu Shinkin Bank. Financial details of the deal such as the investment ratio and the payment date have not been disclosed.
The company claims that it will use the funds to increase engineers as well as strengthen their sales and marketing team for expanding their payments solution and services: Coiney Terminal (smartphone-based payments solution for real stores), Coiney Payge (web-based payments solution for online transactions) in addition to Coiney Engine.
Coiney Engine uses artificial intelligence to offer an evaluation of business enterprises based on the accumulation of payments history and various statistical data from the Coiney Terminal and Coiney Payge services. It is used to see the credibility of a company when they apply for business loans from banks partnering with the payments startup.
See the original story in Japanese. One year ago FinTech startup hub Finolab opened in the Tokyo Bankers Association Building in Otemachi of Tokyo facing the Imperial Palace. Numerous financial institutions and FinTech startups participated in this project, which was born from a collaboration between Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Dentsu (TSE:4324), and Information Services International-Dentsu (ISID for short, TSE:4812), and helped to expand business in the FinTech field and promote open innovation. Around the same time, Heiwa Real Estate (TSE:8803), known as the owner of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building, developed FinGATE, an event space located in their own building in the Kabuto-cho Financial District. In Nihonbashi (the center of life sciences rather than FinTech) Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) opened several startup bases. Put it all together and it shows the leading real estate companies are competing to support startups in the Tokyo station area. See also: Tokyo’s FinTech startup hub FINOLAB holds its first growth hack seminar A European perspective on Japan Fintech (Rude Baguette) In the meantime, the Tokyo Bank Association Building that housed Finolab was billed for demolition in the renewal of the Marunouchi 1-chome district, with Finolab moving to the nearby Otemachi Building. Finolab officially reopened after the…
One year ago FinTech startup hub Finolab opened in the Tokyo Bankers Association Building in Otemachi of Tokyo facing the Imperial Palace. Numerous financial institutions and FinTech startups participated in this project, which was born from a collaboration between Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Dentsu (TSE:4324), and Information Services International-Dentsu (ISID for short, TSE:4812), and helped to expand business in the FinTech field and promote open innovation. Around the same time, Heiwa Real Estate (TSE:8803), known as the owner of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building, developed FinGATE, an event space located in their own building in the Kabuto-cho Financial District. In Nihonbashi (the center of life sciences rather than FinTech) Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) opened several startup bases. Put it all together and it shows the leading real estate companies are competing to support startups in the Tokyo station area.
In the meantime, the Tokyo Bank Association Building that housed Finolab was billed for demolition in the renewal of the Marunouchi 1-chome district, with Finolab moving to the nearby Otemachi Building. Finolab officially reopened after the relocation and renovation and held a renewal opening event on the first, inviting their startup members, participating financial institutions, and the media.
About 40 startups such as Crowdcast, Warrantee and Caulis are participating in Finolab and this includes those that set up offices after the move. The area is 2,145 meters squared which is nearly 2.4 times larger than their previous location, so it features not only independent office spaces for each company, but also a shared environment with an event space, a kitchen, and a lounge. As FinTech often deals in security sensitive areas, the fingerprint verification security system developed by biometrics technology startup Liquid is installed at various gates and doors throughout the space.
In addition, as a result of the relocation, Finolab renewed its membership program, and established a menu that includes project members, venture capitals, accelerators, and so on, and they are offering open API from major companies, while also launching a new business consortium comprised of various industries. As a forerunner, the Mizuho Financial Group (Mizuho FG for short, TSE:8411), one of Japan’s leading maga-bank conglomerates, plans to set up a laboratory in Finolab that will create an environment for the development of Open Bank API for startups. The headquarters of Mizuho FG is one stop from Finolab so it is a clear sign they are pursuing more aggressive activities by creating a laboratory where promising startups gather.
An event space that can accommodate more than 100 people.A panel on regional revitalization and FinTech took place on the stage.The daily event schedule is posted at the entrance.Books by members and media appearances are displayed. It appears they have partnerships with overseas accelerators such as London’s Level 39 and Seoul’s Hanwha Group’s Dream Plus.The lounge and kitchen area can be used as a party venue during event openings.Thanks to the phone booth, phone calls can remain confidential and there is no need to worry about disrupting others.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lifestyle Design, running the LaFabric online store focused on made-to-measure shirts and custom business suits, based on pre-obtained user measurements stored on the cloud, announced last week that it has completed a 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding as the sum of investment and bank borrowings from its current investors: Nissay Capital, IMJ Investment Partners Japan, Chibagin Capital, Future Venture Capital (TSE:8462) and individual investors. The individual investors include Kotaro Chiba, who is founder of Colopl and currently an angel investor, and Shingo Iwata, who is CEO of Gifu-based manufacturer Mitsu-boshi Textile Group. The money secured this time will be used for enhancement of the firm’s organization, expansion of the customized-apparel business and development of a production platform. A newcomer utilizing online takes the next step. To fathom what LaFabric is aiming for, it may be helpful to understand the keyword D2C (Direct to Consumer). It is a kind of direct sales style, but seeks a business model different from just optimization with disintermediation by owning highly-detailed personal data including physical information and preferences. Other than LaFabric, Japan’s apparel brand Factelier or online glasses marketplace Oh My Glasses are known as domestic…
Tokyo-based Lifestyle Design, running the LaFabric online store focused on made-to-measure shirts and custom business suits, based on pre-obtained user measurements stored on the cloud, announced last week that it has completed a 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) funding as the sum of investment and bank borrowings from its current investors: Nissay Capital, IMJ Investment Partners Japan, Chibagin Capital, Future Venture Capital (TSE:8462) and individual investors.
The individual investors include Kotaro Chiba, who is founder of Colopl and currently an angel investor, and Shingo Iwata, who is CEO of Gifu-based manufacturer Mitsu-boshi Textile Group. The money secured this time will be used for enhancement of the firm’s organization, expansion of the customized-apparel business and development of a production platform.
A newcomer utilizing online takes the next step.
To fathom what LaFabric is aiming for, it may be helpful to understand the keyword D2C (Direct to Consumer). It is a kind of direct sales style, but seeks a business model different from just optimization with disintermediation by owning highly-detailed personal data including physical information and preferences. Other than LaFabric, Japan’s apparel brand Factelier or online glasses marketplace Oh My Glasses are known as domestic players in this field.
As social media has developed, the stage finally seems set for emerging players like them. Lifestyle Design aims to keep abreast with this trend. According to CEO Yuichiro Mori, the number of repeat customers are steadily increasing as three years have passed since the service launch.
He said:
90% of users who had purchased tailored clothing at stores purchased our products repeatedly online. Shirts had been much popular before, but recently the sales weight is shifting to suits and the sales amounts of the two have become reversed. The average price of suits are about 40,000 yen (about $350).
When the service was started, “the first measurement problem” was concerned; I also doubted if the service will become common due to the extraordinarily high hurdle for the first measurement. However, this problem was slightly solved through sales promotion at real retailers or pop-up stores. There was no easy way but steady business activities have eventually worked effectively.
In addition, sales promotion as a strong brand is required for D2C business as a matter of course. Although once the firm had regarded customer trends as one category of a periodically purchasing, the quality of the products is rarely ignored just because it is easy to order having pre-measured data in such an expensive apparel business. Mori has a strong preference as to this point.
He continued:
We do not only stock products directly from sewing factories, but also undertake joint development of clothing materials. For example, see washable suits of THE TECH series. We aimed at what you put into washing machines and can wear on the next day. THE SOCIAL series dyed with natural blueberry are popular among IT people due to its denim-like feel.
Besides this, THE ROOTS series, using a fabric manufactured at factories in Gifu Prefecture, are produced by a streamline method from filature to dyeing, making the clothing have a story as an addition value. Mori says that “experience” like the story will be an important point required for D2C in the future, in addition to production areas, factories and the accumulation of all sorts of user data. By the way, Lifestyle Design have been partnered with more than 100 filature / garment factories.
Mori said that the firm will develop a platform based on the ecosystem which it has gradually constructed.
He added:
After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, more and more people discovered or re-acknowledged the merit of the Japanese manufacturing. I also found a lot of great products all over Japan while going the rounds of factories or production areas. However, the manufactures have been losing the power to spread their products. Indeed the first measurement of our service may be troublesome, but once you registered, we can improve the convenience or the excellence in experiences from the next time. Three or five years later, I expect that most people become to transfer their physical data to online.
Once a factory receives the clothing data ordered by a user with smartphones, a product tailored in the unique partner factory will be delivered. Mori notes that craftsmanship is still necessary upon cutting or detailed works. This topic showed us that the backside of an emerging brand is established by a combination of human and technologies.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Correction: In the first paragraph, there was an error in the number of digits of the funding amount in the original currency. (Updated on February 2nd at 2pm JST) Tokyo-based Xtreme Design, the Japanese startup cloud-based virtual supercomputing on-demand service called Xtreme DNA, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 70 million yen (about $620,000) in its pre-series A round. This round is led by Freebit Investment and includes individual investors, namely Kotaro Chiba (former Vice President of Japanese mobile game developer Colopl) and Yasumasa Manabe (CEO of Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway). This funding is subsequent to the one of 30 million yen (about $260,000) conducted last January and March from its founders and angel investors. Xtreme Design started in February of 2015. On November of the following year, it demonstrated Xtreme DNA at the global supercomputer conference SuperComputing 2016, providing an unmanned service of operations monitoring / dynamic change of the configuration for effective system utilization of supercomputers by deploying virtual supercomputers on the cloud. According to CEO Naoki Shibata, functions of Xtreme DNA have been attracting a lot of attention as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) from enterprise users, showing “so good sales.”…
Correction: In the first paragraph, there was an error in the number of digits of the funding amount in the original currency. (Updated on February 2nd at 2pm JST)
Tokyo-based Xtreme Design, the Japanese startup cloud-based virtual supercomputing on-demand service called Xtreme DNA, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 70 million yen (about $620,000) in its pre-series A round. This round is led by Freebit Investment and includes individual investors, namely Kotaro Chiba (former Vice President of Japanese mobile game developer Colopl) and Yasumasa Manabe (CEO of Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railway). This funding is subsequent to the one of 30 million yen (about $260,000) conducted last January and March from its founders and angel investors.
Xtreme Design started in February of 2015. On November of the following year, it demonstrated Xtreme DNA at the global supercomputer conference SuperComputing 2016, providing an unmanned service of operations monitoring / dynamic change of the configuration for effective system utilization of supercomputers by deploying virtual supercomputers on the cloud.
Te Xtreme Design team at SuperComputing 2016. Image credit: Xtreme Design
According to CEO Naoki Shibata, functions of Xtreme DNA have been attracting a lot of attention as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) from enterprise users, showing “so good sales.” It is available for Microsoft Azure supporting InfiniBand (a high-speed bus architecture between servers and clusters), and is also used on AWS (Amazon Web Service) by purchasing spot instances in some cases due to costs and convenience (on AWS, it is implemented in an environment interconnected via 10Gbps Ethernet on behalf of InfiniBand).
The firm has a neutral standpoint on cloud sevices which XTREME DNA supports. The know-how to yield the best performance on the cloud shows the true worth of Shibata and his team who had been involved in development and operation of supercomputers for many years.
CEO Naoki Shibata appeared at a pitch competition held at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016 in September of 2016. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Although Xtreme Design has been focused on back-end technologies, it appears to be switching gears for the next stage, as can be called “Xtreme DNA 2.0.” Shibata explains the attempt to supplement the visualization with well-designed UI/UX (user interface / user experience) to Xtreme DNA.
Shibata said:
We plan to develop our service to be used not only in genome or simulation analysis but also in various fields such as IoT (Internet of Things), image analysis or stock price prediction in FinTech. The purpose of UI/UX implementation is to make it easier to be used by a wide range of users.
Although a few startups exist in the US seemingly providing competitive services, Shibata expects that Xtreme Design can win out if a good product with UI/UX can be offered. With a view of dominating the global market, the brand-new Xtreme DNA is scheduled to be exhibited at the SXSW Trade Show which will be held in Austin, Texas from March 10th.
Regarding the funding this time, we can easily imagine a business synergy between Xtreme Design and Freebit (TSE:3843), which is the parent company of lead investor Freebit Investment providing IaaS as its business. The participation of Chiba and Manabe was due to both wishing to be involved in its business development. Since Chiba had invested in startups dealing with Big Data, the synergy in this field can be expected as well.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy, Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based FinTech startup Credit Engine announced on Monday that it raised 110 million yen (about $970,000 US) in total in a seed round. The company had raised 50 million yen (around $440,000 US) from Draper Nexus Ventures and Voyage Group (TSE:3688) in September of 2016, and as a result of the Financial Services Agency issuing them a business license for lending money necessary for their business development, this time around they procured 60 million yen (about $530,000 US) from 500 Startups and 500 Startups Japan as well as Freebit Investment, the investment arm of Japanese leading Internet service provider Freebit (TSE:3843). While the fundraising occurred on two separate occasions, in both cases the terms for funding (valuation, etc.) meet that of a seed round. In addition to this, the company announced the beta launch on the 30th for their online loan service Lendy. Credit Engine was established in July of 2016 by CEO Seiichiro Uchiyama (See above photo, the person on the right sitting in a chair) and CFO Tatsuki Inoue (Above photo, first person on the left). After a stint at Shinsei Bank, Uchiyama worked with an NPO offering financing support for small…
The Credit Engine team with investors Image credit: Credit Engine
Tokyo-based FinTech startup Credit Engine announced on Monday that it raised 110 million yen (about $970,000 US) in total in a seed round. The company had raised 50 million yen (around $440,000 US) from Draper Nexus Ventures and Voyage Group (TSE:3688) in September of 2016, and as a result of the Financial Services Agency issuing them a business license for lending money necessary for their business development, this time around they procured 60 million yen (about $530,000 US) from 500 Startups and 500 Startups Japan as well as Freebit Investment, the investment arm of Japanese leading Internet service provider Freebit (TSE:3843). While the fundraising occurred on two separate occasions, in both cases the terms for funding (valuation, etc.) meet that of a seed round. In addition to this, the company announced the beta launch on the 30th for their online loan service Lendy.
Credit Engine was established in July of 2016 by CEO Seiichiro Uchiyama (See above photo, the person on the right sitting in a chair) and CFO Tatsuki Inoue (Above photo, first person on the left). After a stint at Shinsei Bank, Uchiyama worked with an NPO offering financing support for small and mid-sized businesses in Sendai after the Tohoku earthquake, and then went on to get his MBA from UCLA. Until last year he was a manager in the Business Promotion Department at Japanese FinTech startup Money Forward. Inoue hails from Accenture, and has worked with Tokyo-based business incubation company Netage (now known as startup-focused VC firm United), among others. He also has experience starting his own mobile CRM service, leading to Yahoo Japan’s president office followed by managing a buyout fund, which had a hand in the formation of Credit Engine.
This makes it a so-called “neo-bank” in the field of financial inclusion, in the US Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) provides loans to manufacturers, and in Indonesia there is a service in which Taralite cooperates with Uber’s API to offer loans to drivers dependent upon their earnings.
Lendy hopes to provide an environment where small and medium companies and individual business owners can borrow money in the event that funds are needed quickly so that they can concentrate on business management rather than cash flow. Currently, the service mainly covers restaurants, barber shops, hair salons, online shop operators, and the planned average loan amount per customer is 1.5 million yen (about $13,000 US) (maximum 10 million yen ≒ about $88,000 US). The average loan period is 3 months (maximum 1 year) and the interest rate is expected to be about 10-14% (the amount of the loan is specified at the beginning of service). As it is not so-called peer-to-peer lending, it appears Credit Engine obtains the funds necessary for lending from ordinary financial institutions, etc.
Even at FinTech events in Japan we have begun hearing of new financial inclusion services using artificial intelligence. Keep an eye out on The Bridge for more in the future.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
