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Japanese video recipe media Kurashiru acquired by Yahoo Japan for $84M

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Tokyo-based Dely, the Japanese video-centric culinary media startup offering recipe discovery portal Kurashiru, announced today that it has been acquired by Yahoo Japan. YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan, acquired a 15.9% stake of the media startup with their first investment back in 2016. By additionally injecting 9.3 billion yen ($83.8 million US) at this time, Yahoo Japan has agreed to acquire a 45.6% stake of the startup. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, they pivoted to video curation media last year, their current business model. Since its launch back in February of 2016, Kurashiru has published 18,000 recipe movies, attracting 2.9 million users via social network channels, and has acquired 12 million mobile app downloads, mainly by attracting female consumers in their 20s to 40s. Tokyo-based Every, the Japanese startup behind online recipe media Delish Kitchen which is considered to be one of Kurashiru’s closer competitor services, has raised a total of 5.43 billion yen (about $48.2 million) to date. See also: Japanese video recipe app…

Tokyo-based Dely, the Japanese video-centric culinary media startup offering recipe discovery portal Kurashiru, announced today that it has been acquired by Yahoo Japan. YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan, acquired a 15.9% stake of the media startup with their first investment back in 2016. By additionally injecting 9.3 billion yen ($83.8 million US) at this time, Yahoo Japan has agreed to acquire a 45.6% stake of the startup.

Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, they pivoted to video curation media last year, their current business model.

Since its launch back in February of 2016, Kurashiru has published 18,000 recipe movies, attracting 2.9 million users via social network channels, and has acquired 12 million mobile app downloads, mainly by attracting female consumers in their 20s to 40s. Tokyo-based Every, the Japanese startup behind online recipe media Delish Kitchen which is considered to be one of Kurashiru’s closer competitor services, has raised a total of 5.43 billion yen (about $48.2 million) to date.

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Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japanese video recipe app Kurashiru secures $30M in funding from Softbank, others

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The Japanese startup Dely, which runs video-centric culinary media Kurashiru, announced today that it has raised 3.35 billion yen (about $30 million US) from Softbank, YJ Capital (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Akatsuki and United. YJ Capital and United have taken part in the previous round. In terms of the funding amount, the latest round let Dely beat its main rival Every, the company behind Delish Kitchen, which had recently secured $18 million in last year’s end. According to disclosed figures, Dely has raised more than $60 million in total while Delish Kitchen has secured about $50 million to date. Dely will use the funds to strengthen hiring and marketing efforts, while undertaking new businesses build-up and putting acquisition of other companies into consideration. Coinciding with the announcement, the company unveiled that their mobile app has surpassed 10 million downloads last month. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year the Tokyo-based company received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as the inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of 2016 the firm pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business….

Kurashiru
Image credit: Dely

The Japanese startup Dely, which runs video-centric culinary media Kurashiru, announced today that it has raised 3.35 billion yen (about $30 million US) from Softbank, YJ Capital (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Akatsuki and United. YJ Capital and United have taken part in the previous round.

In terms of the funding amount, the latest round let Dely beat its main rival Every, the company behind Delish Kitchen, which had recently secured $18 million in last year’s end. According to disclosed figures, Dely has raised more than $60 million in total while Delish Kitchen has secured about $50 million to date.

Dely will use the funds to strengthen hiring and marketing efforts, while undertaking new businesses build-up and putting acquisition of other companies into consideration. Coinciding with the announcement, the company unveiled that their mobile app has surpassed 10 million downloads last month.

Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year the Tokyo-based company received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as the inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of 2016 the firm pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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

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

Kurashiru

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

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

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

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

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

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

Kurashiru, Japan’s answer to Tastemade, secures $4.5 million for global expansion

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Dely, the video-centric culinary media startup offering Kurashiru, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.5 million) from YJ Capital, Gumi Ventures, United, as well as Yusuke Sato, managing director of Japanese adtech startup FreakOut (TSE:6094), and an unnamed angel investor. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689). With the funds, the company plans to utilize mobile videos and video content from shops to measure the effectiveness of ads, etc., and it is said they are also considering overseas expansion for the future. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of this year they pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business. As of May, they have organized a team for producing 500 video clips per month. As mentioned in a previous interview, CEO Yusuke Horie is aiming for Cookpad (TSE:2193), the premiere recipe media site in Japan. He said: In terms of video clips, recipe content has gained…

kurashiru_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Dely, the video-centric culinary media startup offering Kurashiru, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.5 million) from YJ Capital, Gumi Ventures, United, as well as Yusuke Sato, managing director of Japanese adtech startup FreakOut (TSE:6094), and an unnamed angel investor. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689).

With the funds, the company plans to utilize mobile videos and video content from shops to measure the effectiveness of ads, etc., and it is said they are also considering overseas expansion for the future.

Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year they received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as their inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of this year they pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business. As of May, they have organized a team for producing 500 video clips per month.

dely-yusuke-horie
Dely CEO Yusuke Horie

As mentioned in a previous interview, CEO Yusuke Horie is aiming for Cookpad (TSE:2193), the premiere recipe media site in Japan. He said:

In terms of video clips, recipe content has gained attention, but no matter what you end up with clips that use flashy elements in order to become buzzworthy. But, what the user really wants is information for just a regular curry or stew. Since I was planning to use a stock content model like Cookpad’s from the beginning, of the 1000 or so videos for distribution a month, no more than about 90 are being used as video clips and distributed among social networks, etc.

According to Horie, nearly all of the employees, who have reached 60 people in total, work on video content production, making sure to take time to sort out the finer details such as caloric calculation and recipe description.

So what would happen if Cookpad begins put more stock into doing videos? Naturally, Horie also has various thoughts on this idea. To summarize his words, currently Cookpad is producing as little as 30 videos a month, and there is an inclination that video does not fit in with their original text and picture content format.

He added:

When Rakuten Recipe began, their strategy was to attract users with the incentive of Rakuten reward points. But, what’s on the horizon is a change in format. With the mobile communication environment improving, video is starting to have the competitive edge.

Of course, if Cookpad launches similar projects it could be a whole new game, but for now they are focused on separate problems, creating a prime opportunity for startups aiming to replace them.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s food delivery startup Dely secures second round funding from Anri

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Dely, a food delivery service operating in Tokyo, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese seed investor Anri. This follows their seed funding in July led by Beenos with participation from East Ventures and Party Factory. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explained his business: Our system is well organized, and we have had no trouble in our delivery service. When we started our service, it is provided only for a lunch time on weekdays but we added a dinner time and Saturday to our operating hours in August. We’ll try to partner with more restaurants and acquire more users from now on. The company sees a steadily growth in acquiring partnering restaurants. Their service is currently available only in Shibuya but plans to add Ebisu and Roppongi to the delivery areas. See also: Japan’s ‘Uber for logistics’ launches food delivery service in central Tokyo Coinciding with the funding, Anri general partner Anri Samata, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda, and FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato, who will join the board of Dely as an advisor, spoke on the potential of on-demand delivery services in Japan. Samata explained why his fund has…

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From the left: Anri partner Anri Samata, Dely CEO Yusuke Horie, Beenos partner Hiro Maeda, and Dely COO Yusuke Sato in the laptop screen

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Dely, a food delivery service operating in Tokyo, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese seed investor Anri. This follows their seed funding in July led by Beenos with participation from East Ventures and Party Factory.

Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explained his business:

Our system is well organized, and we have had no trouble in our delivery service. When we started our service, it is provided only for a lunch time on weekdays but we added a dinner time and Saturday to our operating hours in August. We’ll try to partner with more restaurants and acquire more users from now on.

The company sees a steadily growth in acquiring partnering restaurants. Their service is currently available only in Shibuya but plans to add Ebisu and Roppongi to the delivery areas.

See also:

Coinciding with the funding, Anri general partner Anri Samata, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda, and FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato, who will join the board of Dely as an advisor, spoke on the potential of on-demand delivery services in Japan.

Samata explained why his fund has invested in Dely:

We have invested in startups providing infrastructure-focused services like Coiney (payments), Raksul (printing), Crowdworks (crowdsouricing), so logistics is also one of our interest. I’ve talked with many logistics startups in Japan. Since Horie is the most interesting man among them, I decided to invest in his startup. We see a market because Japan’s GDP and land area are sufficiently large. Existing logistics services work well but don’t provide on-demand delivery. Disrupting an existing industry structure is my mission. So we expect that they will evolve further.

Beenos has invested in US-based same-day food grocery service Instacart. From that perspective, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda predicts that on-demand services will become more common in Japan in five to ten years. He said:

Thanks to mobile technology, delivery services can detect the exact location of their delivery persons in real time, which allows anyone to become a delivery person for these services. In addition to delivery services, it will be inevitable that individuals will be able to provide their personal values as a service.

According to Horie, Maeda’s mentoring was very helpful in developing the product because he is familiar with Instacart through his investment.

Horie said:

Maeda’s feedback on the service was to the point. It was really helpful that he joined our team in a seed round. Thanks to him, we can aim to develop a much better product.

In response to him, Maeda added:

I think we’ll need an on-demand service like Postmates. But it’s not easy so a crazy man should do it. In terms of that, I think Horie is suitable because he is young and beyond our mind and has no prejudice.

Sato analyzed the Japanese logistic industry and explained that it will be impossible for major logistic companies to roll out an on-demand delivery service despite the fact that they have a huge and efficient delivery network system.

He said:

However, thanks to a surge of smartphone users, there is huge potential to build a high cost-performance delivery network comprised of non-professional delivery persons.

I think we can turn the impossible into the possible. That’s what only a crazy man like Horie can do. That’s why I decided to bet on him.

dely_featuredimage

Japan’s ‘Uber for logistics’ launches food delivery service in central Tokyo

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Dely recently launched a food delivery service on a beta test basis, which allows food orders and deliveries to bem ade from select restaurants. Orders are made via mobile phone, but the service is currently only available in the central Tokyo. In partnership with 30 restaurants, the service allows users to order a variety of cuisine ranging from Italian to Japanese to Turkish to Thai – all at your fingertips. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explains what motivated him to start this business: Typical food delivery services have a limited menu. We provide a variety of food so that we will overturn the fixed concept you have for food delivery services. We would like to make food service more available among the younger generation who merely order food deliveries. Because young women are a key customer base, Dely also serves a healthy menu, such as acai bowl and vegetable salads. Only cash payment is available now, but they plan to start accepting credit cards in the near future. To place an order a user enters an address to designate the delivery location, but this process will be improved in the next version, which…

dely_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Dely recently launched a food delivery service on a beta test basis, which allows food orders and deliveries to bem ade from select restaurants. Orders are made via mobile phone, but the service is currently only available in the central Tokyo.

In partnership with 30 restaurants, the service allows users to order a variety of cuisine ranging from Italian to Japanese to Turkish to Thai – all at your fingertips. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explains what motivated him to start this business:

Typical food delivery services have a limited menu. We provide a variety of food so that we will overturn the fixed concept you have for food delivery services. We would like to make food service more available among the younger generation who merely order food deliveries.

Because young women are a key customer base, Dely also serves a healthy menu, such as acai bowl and vegetable salads.

Only cash payment is available now, but they plan to start accepting credit cards in the near future. To place an order a user enters an address to designate the delivery location, but this process will be improved in the next version, which will detect a user’s location via the GPS function of a mobile phone.

Enabling small restaurants to offer food delivery service

Restaurants don’t pay an initial setup fee or monthly fee to participate in Dely. However, they will need to pay a commission based on the amount of orders received though the platform. To start accepting orders, participating restaurants will need containers designed for food delivery. Horie highlighted the work involved in offering a typical food delivery service:

When a restaurant starts a delivery service, they have many things to do, such as train delivery staff and buy motorcycles. They will need sufficient revenue to invest in the start of a delivery service, so only big chain restaurants offer it. We want to provide more opportunities to small restaurants.

Giving flexible scheduling options for delivery staff

As soon as an order is placed, a Dely staff member picks it up at the restaurant and delivers it by motorcycle to a home or office. Similarly to drivers using the Uber taxi app, Dely delivery staff are not fulltime workers, but they make themselves available to make deliveries at any time. Horie said he wants to evolve the Japanese distribution market with Dely:

Our delivery staff can take a delivery job at their convenience. We pay them 400 yen (approximately $4) for a delivery. We are developing a mobile app for delivery staff, allowing them to pick up delivery requests at their nearby location.

We don’t want to limit our service in food delivery but enhance it to many other businesses. The number of truck drivers dropped from 920,000 (in 2006) to 860,000 (in 2008) in Japan, while logistics needs are increasing due to the fast growing e-commerce business. We want to prevent the Japanese logistics business from collapsing.

We’ve seen startups like Postmates (San Francisco) and WunWun (New York City) doing a similar business in this space. It will be interesting to see how they can disrupt Japan’s highly regulated logistics market with the Uber-like business concept.