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Japan’s nail art startup MiCHi fundraises from leading cosmetics review portal @Cosme

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Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3360), the company behind Japan’s leading online cosmetics portal @Cosme, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in MiCHi, a startup providing an e-commerce platform focused on handmade nail tips under the same name. See also: Nail art startup puts Cute Japan at your fingertips MiCHi was first made available to customers outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The e-commerce site was launched in April 2013, and the Japanese version was unveiled in August of the same year. Leveraging crowdsourced Japanese designers, the company provides high-quality nail tips at affordable prices that are attracting women from around the world with its distinct Japanese “kawaii” style. MiCHi was one of five startups that graduated from the third batch of Movida Japan’s acceleration program in 2013.

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Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3360), the company behind Japan’s leading online cosmetics portal @Cosme, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in MiCHi, a startup providing an e-commerce platform focused on handmade nail tips under the same name.

See also:

MiCHi was first made available to customers outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The e-commerce site was launched in April 2013, and the Japanese version was unveiled in August of the same year. Leveraging crowdsourced Japanese designers, the company provides high-quality nail tips at affordable prices that are attracting women from around the world with its distinct Japanese “kawaii” style.

MiCHi was one of five startups that graduated from the third batch of Movida Japan’s acceleration program in 2013.

Nail art startup puts Cute Japan at your fingertips

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There are many ways to spread Japan’s Kawaii culture to the rest of the world. One common way, as we’ve seen recently, are mobile apps like Decopic or CocoPPa. But another Japanese startup called MiCHi has its sights set on something else: Finger nails. The company operates an ecommerce service that sells made-in-Japan nail tips, and so far it’s proving to be an easy sell. Hand-made nails designed by Japanese people are highly valued outside of the country. For many women all over the world, getting your nails done is an essential part of fashion. In Japan, so-called ‘Gel Nail’ is far more popular than regular manicures. The process involves a gel that dries quickly under special light, and it lasts up to three to four weeks, much longer than the average manicure. But these nails can be expensive. And that’s where MiCHi comes in, providing nail tips designed by Japanese specialists starting at $18. There are over 10 new designs made available every week. Interestingly, MiCHi was first made available to people outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The ecommerce site was launched back in April of 2013, and unveiled its Japanese version only recently…

japanese-nail-art-michi

There are many ways to spread Japan’s Kawaii culture to the rest of the world. One common way, as we’ve seen recently, are mobile apps like Decopic or CocoPPa. But another Japanese startup called MiCHi has its sights set on something else: Finger nails. The company operates an ecommerce service that sells made-in-Japan nail tips, and so far it’s proving to be an easy sell.

Hand-made nails designed by Japanese people are highly valued outside of the country.

For many women all over the world, getting your nails done is an essential part of fashion. In Japan, so-called ‘Gel Nail’ is far more popular than regular manicures. The process involves a gel that dries quickly under special light, and it lasts up to three to four weeks, much longer than the average manicure. But these nails can be expensive. And that’s where MiCHi comes in, providing nail tips designed by Japanese specialists starting at $18. There are over 10 new designs made available every week.

Interestingly, MiCHi was first made available to people outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The ecommerce site was launched back in April of 2013, and unveiled its Japanese version only recently on August 6th.

In an interview with TechWave, the CEO Shun Nakazaki explains:

I’m sure that there are many Japanese women who have received compliments from people about their nails when they visit overseas countries. Hand-made nails designed by Japanese people are highly valued outside of the country. Since these nail tips are light in weight, the cost of shipping them is cheap. It is a good material to bring to the rest of the world.

MiCHi has over 370,000 fans of its Facebook page, and its users are mainly from New York and Paris. By launching a site for Japan as well, the company plans to acquire more nail design specialists to work for MiCHi. There are currently over 30 ‘nailists’ registered, with the hope to have 100 by the end of the year.

MiCHi was one of five startups from recently included in Movida Japan’s acceleration program.

MiCHi-nail

MiCHi

Meet the 5 newest startups from Movida Japan’s acceleration program

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Tokyo-based startup accelerator Movida Japan, led by billionaire Taizo Son, today held its Demo Day unveiling five startups from the third batch of its acceleration program. They pitch their ideas in front of more than 150 people, including investors and media. Here’s a quick rundown on what they’ve been working on. Reep ¶ Pitched by: Hiromasa Yoshikane People take many daily snapshots with their smartphones, but they often forget to which social network or which file sharing service they’ve uploaded pictures. Reep.me aggregates your past snapshots from your many social network accounts, letting you easily see what you’ve shot an year ago for example. Their iPhone app is live as of today. Vise ¶ Pitched by: Keinichiro Nishioka Vise is an alternative document management platform to Google Docs or Microsoft Word. When you edit a document for a client, you may need to exchange it many times, revising the draft again and again. That process results in many revisions, often making it hard to keep track of the newest version. Vise has adopted the Markdown syntax, and its version control feature helps you manage revision history on a document. When you create a new version of your original document, a…

Tokyo-based startup accelerator Movida Japan, led by billionaire Taizo Son, today held its Demo Day unveiling five startups from the third batch of its acceleration program. They pitch their ideas in front of more than 150 people, including investors and media. Here’s a quick rundown on what they’ve been working on.

Reep

reep_logoPitched by: Hiromasa Yoshikane

People take many daily snapshots with their smartphones, but they often forget to which social network or which file sharing service they’ve uploaded pictures. Reep.me aggregates your past snapshots from your many social network accounts, letting you easily see what you’ve shot an year ago for example. Their iPhone app is live as of today.

Vise

3idea_logoPitched by: Keinichiro Nishioka

Vise is an alternative document management platform to Google Docs or Microsoft Word. When you edit a document for a client, you may need to exchange it many times, revising the draft again and again. That process results in many revisions, often making it hard to keep track of the newest version.

Vise has adopted the Markdown syntax, and its version control feature helps you manage revision history on a document. When you create a new version of your original document, a revision on the original document may be automatically reverted to the original as well. Other members sharing the document may also be notified about your revision.

They expect to launch a beta version in July.

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Michi

michimall_logoPitched by: Shun Nakazaki

With the idea of selling Japan-made products to overseas markets, Michi tests a variety of products and then post articles on a Facebook wall to find out what ones get the best response from their global audience. In this way, they’ve gained insights about user tastes, especially about popular nail art.

Many nail artists are working in the Japanese market, but after rapid growth they’re struggling to acquired more customers and revenue in the saturated domestic market. And that’s why they are now looking overseas.

Michi sells artificial nails designed by Japanese nail artists to overseas customers online. It creates a new revenue stream for nail artists whose sales have leveled off, and it allows foreign nail art lovers to buy cute Japanese designs. They’ve already acquire more than 330,000 likes on their Facebook fan page.

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Street Academy

streetacademy_logoPicthed by: Takashi Fujimoto

StreetAcademy gives you a new way to learn. A survey says that Japanese people, ranging from thirty-somethings to seniors, is interested in teaching something to someone. This service provides them with an opportunity for teach.

By listing the thing that you can teach, you can then easily create a page announcing your lecture. Your profile is automatically imported from your Facebook profile, so you don’t need to enter everything from scratch. In terms of venues, lessons usually take place at coffee shops, co-working spaces, or even at a reserved room in a public bath site.

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U-Note

u-note_logoPicthed by Yuto Koide

There are many learning opportunities and events taking place in any given town. But most likely you’re not able to attend them all. And even if you could, it would cost a lot.

Typically event attendees take notes about what they’ve hear at events. Very often everyone is taking notes about the same stuff in a very similar way. It might be beneficial to share these notes with others who would have liked to attend the event.

The U-note app aims to give people lecture experience without actually real attending. The startup expects to acquire 5 million monthly page views by the end of this year. Its mobile app is available for Android, with an iOS version to follow soon.

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taizoson_speaksThe accelerator’s CEO Taizo Son emphasized that these five presenters do not make up all the graduates from the third batch, because they’ve raised the bar for qualification to pitch at this Demo Day event. He urged the audience to assist (financially or otherwise) all the startups from the accelerator.

Movida Japan is now receiving applications for the next batch of its acceleration program. The deadline is next Monday, May 20th.