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Japan’s LifeRobotics opens series A round with $2.2 million in funding

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has fundraised about 270 million yen (about $2.2 million) in a series A funding round. This round is led by Global Brain (GB) with participation from Nippon Technology Venture Partners (NTVP), and Lead Capital Management (LCM), anticipating additional funds from other investors to secure the final total of 400 million yen ($3.3 million). Coinciding with this funding, Takashi Kato, NTVP CEO Kazutaka Muraguchi and GB venture partner Hidetaka Aoki will join the board of directors while GB CEO Yasuhiko Yurimoto will be appointed as an outside auditor. Kato is renowned as the co-founder of Japanese robotics company Schaft which was acquired by Google in 2013. See also: Japanese robotics entrepreneur forms $20M fund for bio and energy startups Google’s newly acquired robotics company wins DARPA Challenge Trials LifeRobotics was founded in December of 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team have been developing cooperative working robots which allow users to let the…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has fundraised about 270 million yen (about $2.2 million) in a series A funding round. This round is led by Global Brain (GB) with participation from Nippon Technology Venture Partners (NTVP), and Lead Capital Management (LCM), anticipating additional funds from other investors to secure the final total of 400 million yen ($3.3 million).

Coinciding with this funding, Takashi Kato, NTVP CEO Kazutaka Muraguchi and GB venture partner Hidetaka Aoki will join the board of directors while GB CEO Yasuhiko Yurimoto will be appointed as an outside auditor. Kato is renowned as the co-founder of Japanese robotics company Schaft which was acquired by Google in 2013.

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LifeRobotics was founded in December of 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team have been developing cooperative working robots which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse or a game pad without complicated programming skills.

Along with the funding announcement, the company just unveiled a co-robot for picking work called Coro, which will be showcased at International Robot Exhibition 2015 taking place in Tokyo from December 2nd to 5th. Its sales will start in January 2016. Coro uses the company’s patent-pending Transpander technology, allowing placement of the co-robot in small manufacturing spaces where conventional-type robots are difficult to locate. In this way, this brand new robot will help people improve their productivity as well as automate processes in manufacturing.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s e-commerce service Locondo raises $6.3 million from Excite Japan and VC firms

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original story in Japanese. Locondo is a shoes and fashion e-commerce service that says it allows consumers to ‘buy first and than choose.’ Readers may recall that we recently featured the company after it partnered with Spanish brand Desigual. Locondo announced today it has just wrapped up series B funding worth 600 million yen (approximately $6.3 million) from leading Japanese web portal Excite Japan, Lead Capital Management (LCM), and Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV). LCM and ITV previously invested in the company in the series A round. Locondo was launched back in February of 2011 and has acquired more than 300,000 users with an annual turnover of 3 billion yen ($31 million) by using the strategy of easy refunds with free shipping and handling. By partnering with Excite Japan, the e-commerce company aspires to increase its user base by reaching the portal site’s 50 million monthly visitors. The two companies also plan to integrate their e-commerce platforms and cooperate on developing new services and features.

locondo

See the original story in Japanese.

Locondo is a shoes and fashion e-commerce service that says it allows consumers to ‘buy first and than choose.’ Readers may recall that we recently featured the company after it partnered with Spanish brand Desigual.

Locondo announced today it has just wrapped up series B funding worth 600 million yen (approximately $6.3 million) from leading Japanese web portal Excite Japan, Lead Capital Management (LCM), and Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV). LCM and ITV previously invested in the company in the series A round.

Locondo was launched back in February of 2011 and has acquired more than 300,000 users with an annual turnover of 3 billion yen ($31 million) by using the strategy of easy refunds with free shipping and handling.

By partnering with Excite Japan, the e-commerce company aspires to increase its user base by reaching the portal site’s 50 million monthly visitors. The two companies also plan to integrate their e-commerce platforms and cooperate on developing new services and features.

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  1. Japan’s e-commerce company Locondo raises $4.6 million in series C round
  2. Japanese e-commerce service Locondo partners with Spanish brand to strengthen its lineup
  3. Excite Japan and Indonesia’s Sinar Mas to launch online mobile ad business

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