THE BRIDGE

tag Ayataro Nakagawa

Japanese startup founders join forces to launch fund, aiming to encourage younger selves

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
SHARE:

Tokyo-based digital media outlet Wired.jp reported on Wednesday that eight successful entrepreneurs from Japan have joined forces and launched a new startup-focused investment fund called Tokyo Founders Fund. The founding members represent an impressive lineup of the Japanese startup community: Yusuke Asakura (former CEO of Mixi, visiting scholar at Stanford University) Nobuhiro Ariyasu (Coach United CEO) Kiyo Kobayashi (Chanoma CEO) Yusuke Sato (Freakout COO) Yo Shibata (former Spotlight CEO) Kensuke Furukawa (Nanapi CEO) Ayataro Nakagawa (Peroli CEO) Taichi Murakami (Livesense CEO) Inspired by San Francisco-based Founders Fund started in 2005 by the Paypal founders, Kobayashi decided that Japan also needed a similar startup investment founders fund while building a network with local investors and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is based. According to Kobayshi’s recent post on Facebook, the fund will offer a small amount of investment to pre-seed and seed stage startups around the world. Details of the fund’s activities have not been decided, but the eight-person team will discuss this in a closed Facebook group while looking to give their invested entrepreneurs functions as a knowledge sharing platform around launching businesses and a hub for connecting them with each others. Edited by Kurt Hanson

tokyo-founders-fund_featuredimage

Tokyo-based digital media outlet Wired.jp reported on Wednesday that eight successful entrepreneurs from Japan have joined forces and launched a new startup-focused investment fund called Tokyo Founders Fund.

The founding members represent an impressive lineup of the Japanese startup community:

Inspired by San Francisco-based Founders Fund started in 2005 by the Paypal founders, Kobayashi decided that Japan also needed a similar startup investment founders fund while building a network with local investors and entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is based. According to Kobayshi’s recent post on Facebook, the fund will offer a small amount of investment to pre-seed and seed stage startups around the world.

Details of the fund’s activities have not been decided, but the eight-person team will discuss this in a closed Facebook group while looking to give their invested entrepreneurs functions as a knowledge sharing platform around launching businesses and a hub for connecting them with each others.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Related news

  1. Japan’s Genesis Healthcare secures $5.1M from Founders Fund, Mitsui & Co.
  2. Infinity Venture Partners launches $100M third fund focusing on Japanese and Chinese startups
  3. KDDI joining forces with 13 top Japanese companies to launch incubation initiative

Japan’s DeNA acquires young women-focused fashion curation site Mery

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
SHARE:

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. In addition to Iemo’s acquisition announcement today, Japanese young women-focused fashion curation site Mery also unveiled it has been acquired by Japanese internet company DeNA. They have avoided media exposure, so this is the first time we have covered the company. Peroli, the company behind Mery, is a new company and their shareholders include founders, East Ventures, Anri, and some other undisclosed investing companies. The company was launched in August of 2012 by Ayataro Nakagawa, who previously co-founded online art collection dictionary site Atokore with Crowdworks‘ managing director Shuzo Narita. Rumor has it that they have shown good growth, and we have learned that they have acquired over 1.2 million monthly unique users as of September. Some 90% of customers are mobile-phone users, indicating that Iemo and Mery successfully rode the wave of smartphone adoption. Typical curated media sites work to boost page views, but Nakagawa has found another way to drive his business, which is in a e-commerce fashion sector crowded with competitors like iQon, Zozotown, Stores.jp, Sumally, and Origami. Nakagawa explained his growth strategy: We want to give users a discovery-based shopping experience rather than one where…

mery_featuredimage

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

In addition to Iemo’s acquisition announcement today, Japanese young women-focused fashion curation site Mery also unveiled it has been acquired by Japanese internet company DeNA. They have avoided media exposure, so this is the first time we have covered the company.

Peroli, the company behind Mery, is a new company and their shareholders include founders, East Ventures, Anri, and some other undisclosed investing companies.

ayataro-nakagawa
Peroli’s Ayataro Nakagawa

The company was launched in August of 2012 by Ayataro Nakagawa, who previously co-founded online art collection dictionary site Atokore with Crowdworks‘ managing director Shuzo Narita. Rumor has it that they have shown good growth, and we have learned that they have acquired over 1.2 million monthly unique users as of September. Some 90% of customers are mobile-phone users, indicating that Iemo and Mery successfully rode the wave of smartphone adoption.

Typical curated media sites work to boost page views, but Nakagawa has found another way to drive his business, which is in a e-commerce fashion sector crowded with competitors like iQon, Zozotown, Stores.jp, Sumally, and Origami.

Nakagawa explained his growth strategy:

We want to give users a discovery-based shopping experience rather than one where users find an item by name. What we have learned from our one year of experience is that people choose a product based on their sense of themselves. By strengthening our engineering force in partnership with DeNA, we want to cultivate this space from scratch.

Qualitative search methods for fashion e-commerce require high-level search technology and a tremendous amount of item data. For example, Mery’s competitor Sumally took nearly three years to build a database of over 50 million fashion items. For example, Summaly, Mery’s competitor, took nearly three year to build a database of over 50 million fashion items.

Mery has acquired 1.2 million users, and it will be interesting to see how they progress in such a saturated and highly competitive space.

mery_screenshot

Related news

  1. In conversation with co-founders of Japan’s curated fashion site for young women
  2. Japanese women’s fashion media site 4meee acquired by Enigmo for $5 million
  3. Japanese women’s fashion media site 4meee raises $500,000

Recent Articles

Trends