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Japan’s LifeRobotics closes series B round with $9 million in funding

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind the Coro robot, announced on Monday that it has closed its series B round, having raised about 1 billion yen (about $9 million). This follows its series A round which raised about 500 million yen (about $4.4 million at the exchange rate then) upon closing in March this year. The latest round means that the company has secured a total of about 1.5 billion yen (about $13.4 million) within almost one year since they began raising funds last November. Participating investors in this round were Global Brain, Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801), Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mizuho Capital, Golden Asia Fund as well as other unnamed Japanese businesses. Golden Asia Fund is a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Industrial Technology Investment Corporation (ITIC), the investment arm of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Among these investors, Global Brain, Koden Holdings and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in the previous series A round too. The series B round at this time around was led by Global Brain. LifeRobotics was founded in December 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon, who has been studying robot arms at Japan’s National…

liferobotics_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind the Coro robot, announced on Monday that it has closed its series B round, having raised about 1 billion yen (about $9 million). This follows its series A round which raised about 500 million yen (about $4.4 million at the exchange rate then) upon closing in March this year. The latest round means that the company has secured a total of about 1.5 billion yen (about $13.4 million) within almost one year since they began raising funds last November.

Participating investors in this round were Global Brain, Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801), Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mizuho Capital, Golden Asia Fund as well as other unnamed Japanese businesses. Golden Asia Fund is a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Industrial Technology Investment Corporation (ITIC), the investment arm of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Among these investors, Global Brain, Koden Holdings and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in the previous series A round too. The series B round at this time around was led by Global Brain.

LifeRobotics was founded in December 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon, who has been studying robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team has been developing robots that allow users to “teach” the robot how to move using a 3D mouse or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing the “co-robot” Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to be placed, in addition to improving people’s productivity and promoting manufacturing automation.

According to Life Robotics, the Coro co-robot has been adopted by big Japanese companies like Toyota Motors (TSE:7203) and Omron (TSE:6645) as well as restaurant chain businesses such as Yoshinoya (TSE:9861) and Royal (TSE:8179). The company claims that they will use the funds to enhance mass-production/sales of the co-robot and improve follow-up services for users.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s LifeRobotics closes series A round with $4.4 million in funding

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Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has closed a series A round having fundraised about 5 million yen ($4.4 million). The company had secured 270 million yen ($2.2 million) before they announced the start of the series A fundraising last November. In addition to existing investors, Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Omron Ventures participated in this round to invest 230 million yen ($2 million). Hence, the total amount fundraised in this round has surpassed the company’s initial target of 4 million yen ($3.5 million). LifeRobotics was founded in December 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 has been developing cooperative working robots, which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse, or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing a co-robot called Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to position, as well as to improve people’s productivity and to automate manufacturing. LifeRobotics will use the funds…

liferobotics_featuredimage

Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has closed a series A round having fundraised about 5 million yen ($4.4 million). The company had secured 270 million yen ($2.2 million) before they announced the start of the series A fundraising last November. In addition to existing investors, Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Omron Ventures participated in this round to invest 230 million yen ($2 million). Hence, the total amount fundraised in this round has surpassed the company’s initial target of 4 million yen ($3.5 million).

LifeRobotics was founded in December 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 has been developing cooperative working robots, which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse, or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing a co-robot called Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to position, as well as to improve people’s productivity and to automate manufacturing.

LifeRobotics will use the funds to boost its technology development and hire sales staff. The company is also hiring software and hardware engineers as well as interns who want a career in robotics.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

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

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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…

liferobotics_featuredimage

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

Amid high demand, Japanese website helps families find senior care givers

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With its aging population, one business sector on the rise in Japan is public welfare, especially elderly care. As we mentioned in a previous article, the Japanese government projects that one in three people will be over the age of 65 by 2035. There is one Japanese company that’s providing a service to help families to find professional care-workers for seniors. The website is called MyCareMane.com, short for My Care Manager. After being approved for professional nursing care, families carry the big burden of finding qualified care workers on their own. All they’re provided with is a phone book of home care support offices. Launched back in April, MyCareMane.com has over 36,000 home care support offices registered to date. There is related information about support offices and care workers, including their years of experience, working hours, and level of knowledge. Families can also find photos of care workers, as well as user reviews for individual offices and care managers. They can pick suitable care givers based on specific needs and other criteria such as location. MyCareMane.com recently received the 2013 Good Design Award. That’s a prestigeous design award in Japan with a history of over 55 years, with the goal…

mycaremane

With its aging population, one business sector on the rise in Japan is public welfare, especially elderly care. As we mentioned in a previous article, the Japanese government projects that one in three people will be over the age of 65 by 2035.

There is one Japanese company that’s providing a service to help families to find professional care-workers for seniors. The website is called MyCareMane.com, short for My Care Manager. After being approved for professional nursing care, families carry the big burden of finding qualified care workers on their own. All they’re provided with is a phone book of home care support offices.

Launched back in April, MyCareMane.com has over 36,000 home care support offices registered to date. There is related information about support offices and care workers, including their years of experience, working hours, and level of knowledge. Families can also find photos of care workers, as well as user reviews for individual offices and care managers. They can pick suitable care givers based on specific needs and other criteria such as location.

MyCareMane.com recently received the 2013 Good Design Award. That’s a prestigeous design award in Japan with a history of over 55 years, with the goal of promoting good design in people’s lives and in business. MyCareMane.com is a simple and well-designed website that is easy for people of all ages to navigate.

The company behind the site is a venture company in Ibaraki called Life Robotics. In addition to this care-manager matching website, the company also develops robotic arms for persons with upper-limb disabilities.