news

Japanese startup gets six angel investors onboard to bring VR tech to fashion industry

Masaru Ikeda 2016.08.31

See the original story in Japanese. Psychic VR Lab, based in Tokyo, announced on Monday that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding in an angel round. The angel investors participating in this round include Tadasu Nakamura, Nobuhiko Watanabe (professor, Graduate School of Project Design), Akira Takashima (consultant, eBook Initiative Japan) and Tetsufumi Takimoto (angel investor / visiting associate professor, Kyoto University). In total six angel investors participated in this round, with two investors’ names withheld from publication. In conjunction with this, it was revealed that Nakamura has been appointed to Psychic VR Lab’s Board of Directors and Watanabe will join the company as the enlightener of all things VR (virtual reality). Psychic VR Lab was founded in April of 2007 by Masahiro Yamaguchi who previously served Japanese data security product vendor ED Contrive (TSE:7853) as the president. Initially based in Tsukuba City, well known as a science and technology park area in Tokyo’s suburb, as a VR research and development business under the name of Ozmiq. After participating in the 4th batch of Recruit Holdings’ startup incubator Tech Lab Paak, the team recognized that VR is becoming the main business objective and to that end the company’s name…

psychic-vr-lab-yamaguchi-and-angel-investors — Psychic VR Lab’s management and investors – L to R: Tadasu Nakamura (managing director), Masahiro Yamaguchi (CEO), Nobuhiko Watanabe (evangelist), Akira Takashima (advisor)

See the original story in Japanese.

Psychic VR Lab, based in Tokyo, announced on Monday that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding in an angel round. The angel investors participating in this round include Tadasu Nakamura, Nobuhiko Watanabe (professor, Graduate School of Project Design), Akira Takashima (consultant, eBook Initiative Japan) and Tetsufumi Takimoto (angel investor / visiting associate professor, Kyoto University). In total six angel investors participated in this round, with two investors’ names withheld from publication. In conjunction with this, it was revealed that Nakamura has been appointed to Psychic VR Lab’s Board of Directors and Watanabe will join the company as the enlightener of all things VR (virtual reality).

Psychic VR Lab was founded in April of 2007 by Masahiro Yamaguchi who previously served Japanese data security product vendor ED Contrive (TSE:7853) as the president. Initially based in Tsukuba City, well known as a science and technology park area in Tokyo’s suburb, as a VR research and development business under the name of Ozmiq. After participating in the 4th batch of Recruit Holdings’ startup incubator Tech Lab Paak, the team recognized that VR is becoming the main business objective and to that end the company’s name changed to Psychic VR Lab ushering in a new era.

Currently Psychic VR Lab, in an effort to describe the essence of various fashion brands to consumers online, as well as showcase the charm of their original products, is developing Styly as a VR-based shopping platform devoted to fashion. More than 30 fashion brands and outlets are expected to test out the platform soon, including Shinjuku branch of Isetan (a leading Japanese department store), which deployed an online shopping service using Styly from August 24 and is set to continue it through the middle of September.

Each of the angel investors who participated in this angel round come from particularly distinguished backgrounds.

Newly appointed Psychic VR Lab director Nakamura, after working for Nomura Securities, established a 30 billion yen (approx. 300 million US dollars) fund for internet business companies as the president of Hikari Tsushin Capital. Most recently, he served as an executive officer for the office of Investor Relations with leading Japanese textile producer Takihiyo (TSE:9982).

For Nakamura, the use of VR as a means to increase sales is a given; but, in regards to the dilemma of brands wishing to open a physical store and facing the setback of paying rent, Nakamura believes the resolution will come with time. Rather, he brings forth a dilemma that he has carried with him from his Takihiyo days: how to explain the fine details of fashion to people who know nothing. “I thought this is all there is,” emphasized Nakamura on his reason for investing and entering into a management position with Psychic VR Lab.

Psychic VR Lab’s new VR savior Nobuhiko Watanabe previously served as an Executive Officer and the chief of Open Innovation Institute at Information Services International-Dentsu (TSE:4812). Currently, Watanabe is the CEO of Japan Next Generation, which is the main force behind “one+nation” a regional music co-creation project. Around 7 or 8 years ago, when Second Life (which can be labeled the predecessor of current VR) was in its prime, Watanabe led Japan in using Second Life for events and in business settings.

Watanabe asserts that VR in its attempt to replicate the real world, could fall into the same trap as Second Life, eventually losing to the real world itself. At Psychic VR Lab Watanabe’s aim is thus to design an entire atmosphere and show a sense of what cannot be seen in real life using media and UI capable of meeting such a demand. By changing the representation of the products and how the creators of fashion create, the way in which consumers consume fashion may also change. In this way, he believes VR is sure to make an impact on society.

tech-lab-park-4th-demoday_styly-2 — CEO Yamaguchi introduced Styly at the 4th batch demo day of the Tech Lab Paak incubation program.

Psychic VR Lab’s investor and advisor Akira Takashima is the co-founder of e-book platform giant eBook Initiative Japan and currently also serves as an advisor. The company was listed on the TSE Mothers Market in 2011, and in 2013 was reassigned to the first section of the exchange. While the e-Book market is currently booming, during the 2000’s Takashima is credited with etching out a new market from the ground up.

According to Takashima, there is a limit to the two dimensional commerce of the internet now. He gives the example that if you go into a bookstore in the city and see the books stacked on lined neatly on the bookshelves, you are compelled to buy many. In the current world of e-commerce, this sort of phenomena is unlikely to occur. By using VR to recreate the feeling of being in a store, new business opportunities arise, and it is expected that web creators will take the opportunity to produce something altogether new.

Tetsufumi Takimoto, who will also support Psychic VR Lab as an investor and advisor, was responsible for the management reorganization of McKinsey deemed taxi giant, Nihon Kotsu. Takimoto is currently serving as Visiting Associate Professor of Kyoto University in the department of Industry-Government-Academia Innovation Management Science Research Division. With expansive connections in across industries, he will be supporting Psychic VR Lab’s business cooperation with large enterprises, as well as small and medium sized operations.

Psychic VR Lab has, from its Ozmiq days, arranged numerous businesses and events using VR, but intends to focus the current funding on management resources for the development of the Styly fashion commerce platform. The company has developed a 3D scanner that specializes in apparel in addition to a shopbuilder app that facilitates the construction of 3D shops; and they plan to hold an event where general users can try out the platform in the near future. They are currently searching for VR engineers, server-side engineers, and front-end engineers to join their team. Interested readers please feel free to contact them.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR secures $5M from WiL, others

Kufu
SmartHR

Takeshi Hirano 2016.08.30

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kufu, the company behind cloud-based personnel management platform SmartHR, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $5 million) in the latest round. This round was led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) with participation from Beenext and 500 Startups Japan as well as three angel investors: Kotaro Chiba (co-founder of Japanese mobile gaming developer Colopl), Yu Akasaka (CEO and co-founder of Japanese dating app developer Eureka) and Jun Nishikawa (COO and co-founder of Eureka). The company plans to use the fund to expand the team of 20 people to 35 people. See also: Japan’s Eureka, developer of dating and couple apps, acquired by Match Group According to Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata, Akasaka and Nishikawa (of Eureka) were the first paying enterprise user for SmartHR while they and Chiba have been playing a mentor-like role for Kufu who has had no angel investor aboard his company. Founded in January of 2013, the company fundraised the first funding from Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, followed by a $300,000 seed funding in July of last year as well as a $400,000 additional seed funding from East Ventures,…

kufu-shoji-miyata — Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata

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

Tokyo-based Kufu, the company behind cloud-based personnel management platform SmartHR, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $5 million) in the latest round. This round was led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) with participation from Beenext and 500 Startups Japan as well as three angel investors: Kotaro Chiba (co-founder of Japanese mobile gaming developer Colopl), Yu Akasaka (CEO and co-founder of Japanese dating app developer Eureka) and Jun Nishikawa (COO and co-founder of Eureka).

The company plans to use the fund to expand the team of 20 people to 35 people.

See also:

Japan’s Eureka, developer of dating and couple apps, acquired by Match Group

According to Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata, Akasaka and Nishikawa (of Eureka) were the first paying enterprise user for SmartHR while they and Chiba have been playing a mentor-like role for Kufu who has had no angel investor aboard his company.

Founded in January of 2013, the company fundraised the first funding from Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, followed by a $300,000 seed funding in July of last year as well as a $400,000 additional seed funding from East Ventures, DG Incubation (the incubation arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage) and Beenext in January of this year.

While Kufu had been engaged in entrusted system development for a time being since launch, their cloud-based management tool SmartHR was unveiled in November of 2015 and became a smash hit. The company claims that the tool has acquired 1,700 corporate users in nine months since launch.

The fee pricing depends on how many employees a corporate user wants to manage using the platform. Miyata declined to disclose how many people they are dealing with through the platform as a whole, but he said that they are adjusting pricing plans so that a corporate user can use it for about $5 per employee.

Starting off at Open Network Lab, Kufu has been sweeping many startup competitions in Japan, with such winnings as gaining the top prize at TechCrunch Tokyo, B Dash Camp as well as Infinity Ventures Summit.

Based on the market size of cloud-based accounting services in Japan, Kufu estimates there are about 200,000 potential enterprise users for SmartHR. Despite the high user persistency rate of 98%, it’s true that the company is receiving feedback from some small businesses that do not think the service is beneficial, so they still have to keep working to improve it.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s LeapMind snags $3.4M to encourage deep learning use for IoT and robotics

LeapMind

Junya Mori 2016.08.29

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based LeapMind, providing business solutions with deep learning technologies for enterprise users, has secured a total of 340 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Itochu Technology Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Archetype Ventures. LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now. The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields. LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly. The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies: For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes…

leapmind_featuredimage — Image credit: LeapMind

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based LeapMind, providing business solutions with deep learning technologies for enterprise users, has secured a total of 340 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Itochu Technology Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Archetype Ventures.

LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now.

The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields.

leapmind-blackstar — Black Star
Image credit: LeapMind

LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly.

The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies:

For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes cooking recipes for using leftover foodstuff.

leapmind-juiz-system — Juiz System
Image credit: LeapMind

With Fujitsu (TSE:6702), LeapMind has cooperatively made a 20,000 dining photo data to marketing data by automatic analysis, so that various services becomes possible even at this stage as far as I see from case examples on the website.

The firm plans to launch the platform within this year.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japan’s Space Market, on-demand venue rental marketplace, secures $4 million

Space Market

Takeshi Hirano 2016.08.29

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Space Market, offering a marketplace of unused or idle venues for on-demand rental use, announced today that it has fundraised about 400 million yen (about $4 million) in the latest round. This round was lead by Opt Ventures with participation from Recruit Strategic Partners, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Orix. Founded back in January of 2014, Space Market previously fundraised 100 million yen (about $936,000 at the currency exchange rate then) back in October the same year. The company has listed more than 8,000 venues on their platform. While strengthening human resources for system development as well as search engine optimization and other marketing efforts, they will use the funds to solidify business development in addition to management capabilities for both mid- and long-term perspectives. See also: Venue rental marketplace Space Market wins top prize at Rising Expo 2014 Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

space-market-daisuke-shigematsu — Space Market CEO Daisuke Shigematsu

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

Tokyo-based Space Market, offering a marketplace of unused or idle venues for on-demand rental use, announced today that it has fundraised about 400 million yen (about $4 million) in the latest round. This round was lead by Opt Ventures with participation from Recruit Strategic Partners, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Orix.

Founded back in January of 2014, Space Market previously fundraised 100 million yen (about $936,000 at the currency exchange rate then) back in October the same year. The company has listed more than 8,000 venues on their platform. While strengthening human resources for system development as well as search engine optimization and other marketing efforts, they will use the funds to solidify business development in addition to management capabilities for both mid- and long-term perspectives.

See also:

Venue rental marketplace Space Market wins top prize at Rising Expo 2014

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Mitsubishi UFJ showcases five prominent startups from its first FinTech accelerator batch

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

Masaru Ikeda 2016.08.28

See the original story in Japanese. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ held a Demo Day for MUFG FinTech accelerator in Tokyo early this month. Though it has previously hosted a FinTech Challenge or a hackathon program in relation to the startup community, this is the bank’s first attempt at running an accelerator program. Among the participants gathered from the end of 2016 through January of 2017, five teams took part in the program after clearing the selection process. The teams had been based at a working space named Garage for four months from this April. Operated by MUFG FinTech accelerator and located inside Tokyo Bankers Association Building alongside the FINOLAB FinTech hub, their Garage sojourn was spent making product improvements or brushing up services while receiving instructions from mentors. During this Demo Day, the results of four months’ efforts were unveiled to persons in charge at MUFG group companies, venture capitalists and the media. Teams evaluated highly by the jurors received a business assistance bonus or other goods as supplemental prizes. Jurors at the Demo Day were: Masaru Murai, Supreme Advisor, TX Entrepreneurs Takane Hori, Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Hironori Kamezawa, Managing Executive Officer, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group…

See the original story in Japanese.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ held a Demo Day for MUFG FinTech accelerator in Tokyo early this month. Though it has previously hosted a FinTech Challenge or a hackathon program in relation to the startup community, this is the bank’s first attempt at running an accelerator program.

Among the participants gathered from the end of 2016 through January of 2017, five teams took part in the program after clearing the selection process. The teams had been based at a working space named Garage for four months from this April. Operated by MUFG FinTech accelerator and located inside Tokyo Bankers Association Building alongside the FINOLAB FinTech hub, their Garage sojourn was spent making product improvements or brushing up services while receiving instructions from mentors.

During this Demo Day, the results of four months’ efforts were unveiled to persons in charge at MUFG group companies, venture capitalists and the media. Teams evaluated highly by the jurors received a business assistance bonus or other goods as supplemental prizes.

Jurors at the Demo Day were:

Masaru Murai, Supreme Advisor, TX Entrepreneurs
Takane Hori, Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto
Hironori Kamezawa, Managing Executive Officer, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
Eiji Sumi, Executive Director, Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting
Muneki Handa, President and Representative Director, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital

Additionally, the five participating startups were awarded the PR Times prize (complimentary use of press release distribution service PR Times gratis for a fixed period, from August of 2016 to July of 2017).

Top Prize winner: Xenodata Lab.

Mentoring by Minoru Imano, Globis Capital Partners
Supplemental prize: 2 million yen (about $19,700) as business assistance bonus

Among 3,600 listed companies in Japan, only 500 companies account for 14% of the total stocks have their financial analysis reports issued by securities companies for use by individual investors as investment decision reference material. Most mid- / small-scale companies with stocks targeted mainly by individual investors do not issue financial analysis reports, so investors must collect statements of account, timely disclosure documents or financial results documents, then analyze those documents by themselves.

Xeno Flash developed by Xenodata converts information on documents related to financial reports into table data by XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) analysis, PDF table analysis and PDF chart analysis. Specifying important points from table data with its own original algorithm, it extracts background sentences from the enormous text data behind the specified number data by natural language processing. The total process from collecting documents to analyzing information will be completed within one minute per stock.

Its value proposition is that users receive information about every company quickly after a financial results announcement, when only important parts are proposed, and offered excellence in viewing information using infographics. The team plans to launch service at Kabu.com Securities within 2016. In the future, it will explore possibilities of information provision for individual investors via retail-type brokerage firms as B2B2C (business-to-business-to-customer), information distribution to new media, service expansion to cover overseas stocks, or service development to wholesales-type brokerage firms having financial analysts as B2B (business-to-business).

Runner-up: Alpaca DB

Mentoring by Jun Nakajima, Archetype
Supplemental Prize: 1 million yen (about $9,800) as business assistance bonus

Alpaca, which had developed a trading platform Capitalico in the past, developed anew Alpaca Scan during the accelerator period. This tool analyzes relevance between stock price fluctuation and various data in real-time through continuous monitoring of 7,000 stocks listed on US exchanges and by using AI (artificial intelligence) technology focused on market data. Based on past price fluctuation data or news, it helps users understand which stock and how much of this to own, how much the stock price is likely to rise in the future, or when to trade.
Simultaneously, the firm developed its own database named MarketStore as a back-end infrastructure for Capitalico or Alpaca Scan focused on financial time-series data. It is more cost effective compared with Oracle or Kx; in addition, the firm also succeeded in reducing the amount of RAM required as the database works with just a percentage of the resource. The time taken for algorithm analysis on Capitalico was dramatically shortened to about 10 seconds, although it had taken 30 minutes as of this March. On the platform, 7,000 types of ‘model’ have been created so far.

Henceforth, the firm plans to launch a service to support foreign currency reserve-building at optimal timing, based on MarketStore or Alpaca AI Engines for the Japanese internet bank Jibun Bank. This bank was established upon joint capital investment by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and the telecom carrier KDDI. Also, the firm will develop jointly a trading tool utilizing AI for Kabu.com Securities.

See also:

AWS Award winner: Smart Idea

Mentoring by Akira Kurabayashi, Draper Nexus Venture Partners
Supplemental Prize: Amazon Fire Tablet and other Amazon goods not for sale

Smart Idea had already developed an account book app named Quick Money Recorder which ‘can be input only in 2 seconds,’ and the app has been downloaded 3.5 million times since its launch back in August of 2012. Among smartphone users living in Japan, 10% of the women in their 20’s to 30’s are Quick Money Recorder users, according to the team. For what kind of services targeting its own wider range of woman users does the team propose to cooperate with financial organizations?

In retail-type financial business, demands for fund occur in response to life events of customers, so that every financial organization expects to approach the presumed users at the time of their life events, but that is not easy due to lack of information or methods of approach. On the other hand, some surveys revealed that women in their 20’s and 30’s, mainly targeted by Smart Idea, have worries such as ‘cannot save up money’ or ‘have no idea about money, have nobody to ask.’

So, Smart Idea suggests a concept called ‘Fintainment’ which combines Fintech and Entertainment, and developed two apps: Okane Navi and a chat bot app. Okane Navi is an app adopting quiz factors related to financial services into a love simulation game in which 70% of women in 20’s and 50% of women in 30’s are absorbed in Japan. Users play a quiz game to obtain rewards, but they are not allowed to continue on without watching a movie for every five questions. The chat bot app allows users to receive proposals about ideal financial services by answering questions generated by AI.

Smart Idea plans to hold a life planning seminar which targets women in 20’s and 30’s together with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking. By leading Okane-reco users to Okane Navi or the chat bot app, the firm aims to increase the number of Okane-reco users to 3.5 million and to grow the entire service to a 10 million user-scale.

See also:

Japan’s Quick Money Recorder, personal budgeting app, exceeds 3M downloads worldwide

Zerobillbank

Mentoring by Kengo Ito, Genuine Startups

Zerobillbank, started last year in Israel and financially supported by Samurai Incubate, is developing ZerobillCore which enables the issuance of original virtual coins based on the blockchain, and an app Z-Wallet which enables receipt of the issued coins based on position, time and information acquired from sensors.

In the pitch, the Zerobillbank team demonstrated how to issue and provide virtual coins called ‘Marunouchi Coin’ as an example (the Demo Day was held in Marunouchi, Tokyo) to users holding the Z-Wallet in the Marunouchi area. It allows for issuance of coins to users within a fixed distance from a certain base point using the Geo-fence idea. Since Z-Wallet works as a sensor / beacon as well, various settings are available such as providing coins to users who have visited a certain place or who walked a certain number of steps.

As for assumed cooperation cases, the team suggested issuing ‘life insurance coins’ according to the users’ number of steps or exercise amount, by tying up with life insurance companies in order to develop health encouraging-type insurance products, or issuing ‘automobile insurance coins’ according to the insured cars’ track record or linking with telematics data by tying up with non-life insurance companies.

Moving forward, test operations of the reward system at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and implementation of a point system for third-party websites at Kabu.com Securities are scheduled, and with Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS, Zerobillbank looks to find ways of utilization for reward development with its cooperative partner companies.

Knowledge Communication

Mentoring by Yasuhiro Yoshizawa, Inclusion Japan

Knowledge Communication had launched a cloud service Nare-com AI supporting easy use of AI or deep learning this March. Nare-com AI shortened the time needed for algorithm selection for machine learning to 2 weeks, equivalent to one-fourth that for conventional technologies, and also realized automation of the selection process, which formerly required data scientists, using the roundrobin technique for both algorithm and parameters. The team has begun considering means of utilizing Nare-com AI for banking services during the accelerator, and set a goal to develop a service enabling use of data mining and the modeling process for less than 500,000 yen (about $5,000) / within a day, while such kinds of service generally require tens of millions of yen / more than two months minimum.

Knowledge Communication had modeled a judgment process based on 20,000 SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) financial statements and information about judgment by persons in charge of financing at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ regarding whether each SME is appropriate as an investment target or not. Inputting SME financial statements for this year into the model made from last year’s data as trial, the team succeeded in creating reference information on some 4,000 companies for investment decision within 30 minutes. It is valuable to semi-automate a part of the judgment process under conditions actually used until last year, although conventionally persons in charge of financing had to judge based on data of target companies such as capital adequacy ratio, plus his / her experience and intuition.

In the future, the team expects the service to be used for stress test of financial works at banks, sampling of potential customers of new services having the same characteristics asw other service users or list sampling of candidate borrower companies that are likely to have financial demands.

It is unclear with what kind of KPI (key performance indicator) MUFG FinTech accelerator is managed, but it is easily assumed that the number of suggested cooperation projects with MUFG’s group companies is one of the most important evaluation criteria. Some of the cooperation projects would generate revenue sharing or sales immediately after graduation from the program. That may be one of the attractions for startups to participate in the operational company-type accelerator.

Although initially future plans of MUFG FinTech accelerator had been undecided because it was the first attempt for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, at the closing ceremony the manager of the accelerator Eiichi Kashiwagi (General Manager of Global Innovation Division, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) expressed his willingness to start accepting application for the 2nd batch from this autumn or within the year, upon considering the results of the 1st batch.

See also:

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Withfluence sets up influencer management platform to ease regional marketing in Asia

Withfluence

Masaru Ikeda 2016.08.28

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Withfluence officially launched an influencer marketing management platform geared toward the Asian market under the same name on the 24th of August. For companies wishing to implement influencer marketing, Withfluence provides complete support from campaign planning and negotiation with influencers into execution and finally performance measurement through its dashboard system. Becoming the facilitator of influencer marketing in Asia It is true there are many influencer market platforms in existence so to more easily understand where Withfluence fits in we can borrow from CEO and Co-founder Hiroyuki Okamoto and broadly classify the current environment. The following list includes famous platforms both within and outside of Japan. Managed Campaigning services: Tagpic, 3Minute, ENGN etc. Influencer marketplaces: Rooster etc. Matching platform between contracters and influencers: Bizcast, iConcast, Spirit, Fambit etc. Influencer management SaaS (For in-house influencer management for enterprises): Traacker, TapInfluence etc. Now in Japan an overwhelming number of management campaign services are increasing their shares, and with the demand from Japanese firms for influencer marketing aimed at Asian markets high, Okamoto first attempted to create a matching service to connect Japan and the world with influencers in the Asian market. Certainly, the same structure is…

withfluence_featuredimage — Image credit: Withfluence

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Withfluence officially launched an influencer marketing management platform geared toward the Asian market under the same name on the 24th of August. For companies wishing to implement influencer marketing, Withfluence provides complete support from campaign planning and negotiation with influencers into execution and finally performance measurement through its dashboard system.

Becoming the facilitator of influencer marketing in Asia

It is true there are many influencer market platforms in existence so to more easily understand where Withfluence fits in we can borrow from CEO and Co-founder Hiroyuki Okamoto and broadly classify the current environment. The following list includes famous platforms both within and outside of Japan.

Managed Campaigning services: Tagpic, 3Minute, ENGN etc.
Influencer marketplaces: Rooster etc.
Matching platform between contracters and influencers: Bizcast, iConcast, Spirit, Fambit etc.
Influencer management SaaS (For in-house influencer management for enterprises): Traacker, TapInfluence etc.

Now in Japan an overwhelming number of management campaign services are increasing their shares, and with the demand from Japanese firms for influencer marketing aimed at Asian markets high, Okamoto first attempted to create a matching service to connect Japan and the world with influencers in the Asian market. Certainly, the same structure is working for 99designs and designclue, among others, in the world of design crowdsourcing.

However, Okamoto notes in the world of marketing, with clients using relatively detailed terms and English not being a native language in Asia, as well as differing conceptions of business ideals, it is difficult to expand into a cross border matching service. Withfluence, being in between a management campaign and a marketplace, thus seeks to also be a facilitator. Withfluence’s team members across Vietnam (covering Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore), Taiwan, and Hong Kong comprehensively search for influencers of marketing companies, serve as a tool for communication between influencers, and improve the success rate of marketing campaigns in an effort to assist their clients.

withfluence-dashboard1_screenshot — Withfluence’s dashboard
Image credit: Withfluence

The dashboard of the Withfluence platform shows each influencer’s frequently used hashtags, their number of followers, and changes in their engagement rate, among other features, in a chronological timeline format. It becomes possible to see “influencer doping” (when an influencer “buys” their followers or engagements, most do not lead to conversions) as well. Currently the dashboard is compatible with influencers using Instagram, and in the very near future will become compatible with Facebook users.

Okamoto elaborated:

Actually, type “Influencer Marketing” and “Asia” into Google and Withfluence already appears as the third result. A possible outcome being, even before the official launch, many inquiries have flooded in from the US and Europe. Based on the largest number of inquiries, Taiwan is so far the most popular target market for influencer marketing.

Helping brands and entertainment companies manage global social media marketing

The development of Withfluence has led to a number of related services being born

First, there is the social media multi-language operation. Previously introduced on The Bridge, Japanese pastry start-up Bake is making the most of social media to expand their brand around the world, and in order to unify their branding the team uses separate social media accounts in different languages and marketplaces from their headquarters in Tokyo. With Withfluence, representatives from Bake can simply post messages in Japanese; the contents then gets translated into the desired languages and uploaded to the corresponding social media accounts. So to speak, it becomes the social media version of WOVN.io, known for its translation of websites. Withfluence’s staff around the world then check the machine generated translations, with unsupported languages outsourced to human-powered translation service Gengo.

Se also:

withfluence-dashboard2_screenshot — Withfluence’s dashboard
Image credit: Withfluence

Additionally, Withfluence supports the multi-language expansion of artists and talent for major entertainment companies across social media, as well as displays the aforementioned influencer’s number of followers and changes in engagement rate in a timeline format that is easy to track. This information then corresponds to the popularity ranking on the online mediasphere. Until now, the reference index for deciding the guarantee fee for artists and talent was based on the viewing rate on mass media released by companies like Video Research and Nielsen. Withfluence provides the world with a new tool, giving us the ability to see each artist’s individual degree of influence with special attention to their online influence.

Withfluence indicates the posts that can increase followers and engagement rate, then be used by entertainment companies to advice their artists for better marketing. Making use of these functions, casting agencies and others are expecting to dive into the pool of influencers in their search for fresh talent.

hiro-okamoto-at-adtech-tokyo-intl-2016-1 — On Tuesday, Withfluence Okamoto unveiled his influencer marketing platform at AdTech Tokyo International at Sophia University.

Withfluence was founded in May of 2016 by Hiroyuki Okamoto (CEO), who was previously running media and ad companies in Vietnam, along with Keiichi Honma (CTO) having developed web services and a translation app for foreign visitors to Japan. Before Withfluence, Okamoto and Honma developed a Thailand-based instant e-commerce platform described as an “Asian version” of Shopify, but after attending the 12th batch of Open Network Lab’s Accelerator Program shifted their attention to the launch of Withfluence.

From now, the Withfluence team plans to focus on acquisition of clients both within and outside of Japan, in addition to generating funding during a seed round before the year is out.

withfluence-hiro-okamoto-keiichi-honma — L to R: Withfluence CEO Hiroyuki Okamoto, CTO Keiichi Honma

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s social news aggregator for press Spectee announces Asian, US expansion

Masaru Ikeda 2016.08.15

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Spectee, the startup behind the artificial intelligence(AI)-powered platform offering news materials based on social media analytics, announced today that it would start global expansion of Newsdeck, the company’s social news aggregation platform for the press. The expansion will be driven in cooperation with CBC, the company behind a globally-renowned cable TV system brand called Ganz, which participated in a series A round this July. Specifically, Spectee will set up a local subsidiary in Taiwan and Singapore respectively followed by commencing sales operations using CBC’s local sales offices. Regarding US market entry, the company will found a subsidiary there in fall for market research before starting sales operations leveraging CBC’s sales network in the US after next year. In Taiwan, there are more than several dozen satellite TV news channels catering overseas Chinese communities, such as FTV News, CTS News, CTi News, EBC News, NTDAPTV and TVBS. In Singapore, international TV broadcasters like BBC and CNBC have their regional broadcasting centers in addition to the existence of SPH Plug & Play, a media business-focused startup accelerator run by the parent company of Mediacorp, broadcasting international TV channel Channel NewsAsia. In these markets that contain…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Spectee, the startup behind the artificial intelligence(AI)-powered platform offering news materials based on social media analytics, announced today that it would start global expansion of Newsdeck, the company’s social news aggregation platform for the press. The expansion will be driven in cooperation with CBC, the company behind a globally-renowned cable TV system brand called Ganz, which participated in a series A round this July.

Specifically, Spectee will set up a local subsidiary in Taiwan and Singapore respectively followed by commencing sales operations using CBC’s local sales offices. Regarding US market entry, the company will found a subsidiary there in fall for market research before starting sales operations leveraging CBC’s sales network in the US after next year.

In Taiwan, there are more than several dozen satellite TV news channels catering overseas Chinese communities, such as FTV News, CTS News, CTi News, EBC News, NTDAPTV and TVBS. In Singapore, international TV broadcasters like BBC and CNBC have their regional broadcasting centers in addition to the existence of SPH Plug & Play, a media business-focused startup accelerator run by the parent company of Mediacorp, broadcasting international TV channel Channel NewsAsia. In these markets that contain more potential clients than Japan, Spectee wants to launch full-scale sales operations leveraging local offices of its shareholder CBC.

In the US, nationwide TV news networks are mostly dominated by the existing Big Three comprising CBS, ABC and NBC… in addition to major satellite channels like CNN and Fox News. However, local TV stations － of which more than 2,000 stations are said to be in operation from coast to coast －can be targeted for Spectee as clients. In rural areas that even news agencies unlikely have coverage, local broadcasters which typically have less reporting resources can secure news images and materials by leveraging social media tools. Banjo, a US-based startup offering a service similar to Spectee’s Newsdeck, has been adopted at many local TV stations owned by Sinclair Digital Group. This is why the primary key for Spectee’s success in the US market will rely on what kind of additional values they can offer to such TV stations.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

DeNA hosts digital health startup pitch event with two major Japanese pharma firms

The Bridge 2016.08.14

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. All photos in this article are courtesy of DeNA. Today, “Digital Health” is garnering attention as being applicable to health maintenance, preventative medicine, drug production and the like. Game giant DeNA (TSE:2432) together with pharmaceutical majors Daiichi Sankyo (TSE:4568) and Takeda Pharmaceutical (TSE:4502) held a meetup event focused on Digital Health called D2T on 24 July, 2016. The objectives of the meetup not only involve spotting promising startups in the Digital Health arena but also promoting joint work and tie-ups among various firms for further invigoration of this industry. Ten startups took center stage at D2T for appealing their company services to an audience ranging from medical device manufacturers to drug-related firms not to mention ICT/e-data startups gathered at the venue, DeNA’s headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo. An audience numbering over a hundred － including venture capitalists and telecom outfits － packed the presentation room. DeNA Chairperson Tomoko Namba noted that D2T could contribute greatly to the networking within and furtherance of Digital Health industry in addition to the startups involved. Among the startups that made the presentations were: iCARE, offering…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.

All photos in this article are courtesy of DeNA.

Today, “Digital Health” is garnering attention as being applicable to health maintenance, preventative medicine, drug production and the like. Game giant DeNA (TSE:2432) together with pharmaceutical majors Daiichi Sankyo (TSE:4568) and Takeda Pharmaceutical (TSE:4502) held a meetup event focused on Digital Health called D2T on 24 July, 2016. The objectives of the meetup not only involve spotting promising startups in the Digital Health arena but also promoting joint work and tie-ups among various firms for further invigoration of this industry.

Ten startups took center stage at D2T for appealing their company services to an audience ranging from medical device manufacturers to drug-related firms not to mention ICT/e-data startups gathered at the venue, DeNA’s headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo. An audience numbering over a hundred － including venture capitalists and telecom outfits － packed the presentation room. DeNA Chairperson Tomoko Namba noted that D2T could contribute greatly to the networking within and furtherance of Digital Health industry in addition to the startups involved.

d2t-vol1-1 — DeNA Chairperson Tomoko Namba

Among the startups that made the presentations were: iCARE, offering Carely health advisory service; Qualia, offering CaloNavi nutritional information service; Kids Public, providing pediatrics-related advice online; Medcare, providing preventative medicine support; ReasonWhy, providing a specialist-focused professional networking service Whytlink; CureApp, promoting treatment apps to improve health; H2L offering self-care device PossessedHand; Unlog, offering intestinal flora amelioration support; and LPixel, involved in medical image analysis, as well as a Nagoya University spinoff named Prevent involved in an Internet-based lifestyle improvement provision.

See also:

The pitches included some by medical doctors who started up companies due to doubts felt about the current state of medicine in Japan and the world. Such perspectives are likely shared by many involved in the healthcare field, which fortunately in these times see many “non-medical” companies entering it; the changes in society wrought by digital networks are certainly opening up new opportunities while bringing in changes necessary in “unclogging” the delivery system related to health.

Although it is true that utmost attention must be given to safety and security, participation of forward-looking corporations like Takeda (now headed by a German CEO in reflection of a global outlook) and merger-result Daiichi Sankyo from the Japanese pharma side bodes well for the future. Along with DeNA which as a group offers digital services like the personalized genetic check service Mycode as well as a health recommendation media named KenCoM in addition to its mainstay game-related activities new activities by these players behoove watching.

Interestingly, DeNA was originally named DNA when its founder Namba who is now Chairperson of the company started up, though not involved in DNA testing or the like at onset. The former management consultant gained an interest businesswise in healthcare following her attaining success for the company as President. In recent years, the successful former startup has expanded not only into the health field but also owns a professional baseball team in Yokohama, along with other diversified commercial operations such as travel services.

news

Japan’s Farmnote launches wearable device for cows to optimize dairy farming with AI

Yuki Sato 2016.08.13

See the original story in Japanese. Obihiro, Hokkaido-based Farmnote, developer of a cattle management system utilizing the cloud, this week announced the launch of a wearable device utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) for cows, called Farmnote Color. In addition, establishment of Farmnote Lab for research on utilization of AI / IoT (internet of things) was announced; it is not only for cattle management but also for the agricultural industry as a whole. By affixing the Farmnote Color wearable device on a cow’s neck, real-time data about cow behavior is automatically acquired. The data is analyzed by AI on the cloud and the results are informed via user smartphone. This service aims to realize easier and smarter cattle management by owners. It is especially important for users to spot estrus and signs of illness upon raising cows. Precise recognition of estrus and ovulation as well as the timing for artificial insemination can be specified. Farmnote founder Shinya Kobayashi explains: Once bovine estrus is observed, information will be sent to the user smartphone. By collecting various data including movement, sleep or rumination, estrous behavior is specified by detecting changes in the activity amount through algorithm use. The Farmnote app developed by the firm…

cows-wearing-farmnote-color — Cows wearing the Farmnote Color device
Image credit: Farmnote

See the original story in Japanese.

Obihiro, Hokkaido-based Farmnote, developer of a cattle management system utilizing the cloud, this week announced the launch of a wearable device utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) for cows, called Farmnote Color. In addition, establishment of Farmnote Lab for research on utilization of AI / IoT (internet of things) was announced; it is not only for cattle management but also for the agricultural industry as a whole.

By affixing the Farmnote Color wearable device on a cow’s neck, real-time data about cow behavior is automatically acquired. The data is analyzed by AI on the cloud and the results are informed via user smartphone. This service aims to realize easier and smarter cattle management by owners.

It is especially important for users to spot estrus and signs of illness upon raising cows. Precise recognition of estrus and ovulation as well as the timing for artificial insemination can be specified.

Farmnote founder Shinya Kobayashi explains:

Farmnote CEO Shinya Kobayashi delivers a pitch at Zenkoku Startup Day in Sapporo, Hokkaido. (September 2014)

Once bovine estrus is observed, information will be sent to the user smartphone. By collecting various data including movement, sleep or rumination, estrous behavior is specified by detecting changes in the activity amount through algorithm use.

The Farmnote app developed by the firm tracks cow conditions by recording activities in logs. In addition, the wearable device Farmnote Color will support acquisition of more detailed information about real-time activities.

Although users have to record the log on smartphones because bovine activity conditions must be confirmed by humans, the sensors provide supplemental information.

The lifespan of Farmnote Color’s batteries is three years and users only have to affix them on cows during that period.

Farmnote Color costs 29,800 yen (about $290) each and is expected to increase the turnover by 20-30%, especially at a dairy farm that had lax management in place, according to Kobayashi. He elaborates that one cow generates 1 million yen ($9,800) as sales amount and 100,000 to 150,000 yen (about $980-1,450) as net profit. If an increase or stability in profit can be achieved by investment into Color, quite a few farmers may come to evaluate its investment value.

See also:

Japan’s Farmnote raises $1.7M, developing wearable sensors for dairy livestock

Farmnote Lab: leveraging huge data for agriculture

Farmnote has currently been developing services focused on cattle, but Kobayashi says that the final objective of the firm is ‘to become agriculture’s Google.’

Kobayashi concludes:

We aim to expand our system into fields other than cattle by aggregating data acquired by sensors on the cloud, analyzing it by AI, then informing it to user smartphones. In the future, by aggregating and analyzing huge data acquired from various channels including agricultural drones or other sensors, we will investigate what kind of data is valuable for farmers.

To realize this, the firm established Farmnote Lab inside group company Skyarc which is a system developer for business use, in order to research and develop AI / IoT for agricultural industry.

The firm has this time raised 300 million yen (about $2.9 million) as business loan from Obihiro Shinkin Bank and Japan Finance Corporation, totaling slightly under 600 million yen (about $5.9 million) so far. There are now 19 staffers working at its offices in Obihiro, Sapporo and Tokyo combined.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japanese geo-analytics startup Nightley introduces alternative ‘Pokémon Go’ tracker

Masaru Ikeda 2016.08.13

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based geo-analytics startup Nightley recently launched a web-based Pokémon Go tracking tool called Pokémon Go Insight, which shows Pokémon Go hotspots and advents of rare monsters on the map. It allows users to oversee where / what kind of Pokémon characters are appearing by analyzing social media conversations by Pokémon Go players. In order to find where Pokémon characters are appearing, players were typically using tools like PokéVision and PokéWhere, however these service became unavailable after July 31st since Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, shut down access from the third-party tracking apps to Pokémon Go servers and its data resources. In contrast, Pokémon Go Insight will be less affected by Niantec’s policy change since it adopts user-generated content voluntarily posted by players which is completely immune from the Pokémon Go platform. Nightley has developed several marketing solutions leveraging unique location-based analytics technologies, such as Nightley GIS Mesh Data and Inbound Insight. In late July, almost a week after the launch of Pokémon Go in Japan, the company released a Pokémon Go tracking tool called Pokémon Go Popular Spot. By adding the function to present advents of rare monsters on the map and improve…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based geo-analytics startup Nightley recently launched a web-based Pokémon Go tracking tool called Pokémon Go Insight, which shows Pokémon Go hotspots and advents of rare monsters on the map. It allows users to oversee where / what kind of Pokémon characters are appearing by analyzing social media conversations by Pokémon Go players.

In order to find where Pokémon characters are appearing, players were typically using tools like PokéVision and PokéWhere, however these service became unavailable after July 31st since Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, shut down access from the third-party tracking apps to Pokémon Go servers and its data resources. In contrast, Pokémon Go Insight will be less affected by Niantec’s policy change since it adopts user-generated content voluntarily posted by players which is completely immune from the Pokémon Go platform.

Nightley has developed several marketing solutions leveraging unique location-based analytics technologies, such as Nightley GIS Mesh Data and Inbound Insight. In late July, almost a week after the launch of Pokémon Go in Japan, the company released a Pokémon Go tracking tool called Pokémon Go Popular Spot. By adding the function to present advents of rare monsters on the map and improve the whole look-and-feel of it, the app has been officially released as Pokémon Go Insight at this time.

According to the tool, Pokémon Go hotspots in Japan include Ougimachi Park in Osaka, Setagaya Park in Tokyo as well as Tsuruma Park in Nagoya as of this writing. Regarding the freshness of the stats, the company says that analytics are being conducted at all times but applied to the website once a week because positions of the monsters are drastically changed. The service is only available for Japan at this time but the team may expand abroad city by city if such a request is received.

See also:

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Startups

Japanese startup gets six angel investors onboard to bring VR tech to fashion industry

Japan’s cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR secures $5M from WiL, others

Japan’s LeapMind snags $3.4M to encourage deep learning use for IoT and robotics

Japan’s Space Market, on-demand venue rental marketplace, secures $4 million