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Japan’s Spectee, news video aggregator for press, ready for North America expansion

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Spectee, at an OrangeFab meetup in Tokyo outlining the program in Asia, noted that from September it will start expanding its presence abroad — most likely in the U.S. which has been the amateur-based newsfeed firm’s largest market. Founder & CEO Kenjiro Murakami worked at a Silicon Valley major prior to starting up Spectee, under a different name. The Tokyo firm is a second batch (the first which covered Japan, Korea and Taiwan) graduate of the accelerator run by the European telecom concern Orange. Spectee will showcase its service at an Austin, Texas confab next month to mark the launch of its active foray into North America. Many competing services are headquartered on this continent. The Japanese startup not only handles copyright management issues for the image data but applies Artificial Intelligence (AI) upon finding and matching the requisite data. It was underscored that by 2020 the Internet will be some 44 ZB (zettabytes) of information floating out on cyberspace, beyond the capacity of a normal human brain alone to thresh through. See also: Japan’s social news aggregator for press…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


Spectee CEO Kenjiro Murakami introduces his service at a recent OrangeFab Asia meet-up.
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Spectee, at an OrangeFab meetup in Tokyo outlining the program in Asia, noted that from September it will start expanding its presence abroad — most likely in the U.S. which has been the amateur-based newsfeed firm’s largest market. Founder & CEO Kenjiro Murakami worked at a Silicon Valley major prior to starting up Spectee, under a different name.

The Tokyo firm is a second batch (the first which covered Japan, Korea and Taiwan) graduate of the accelerator run by the European telecom concern Orange. Spectee will showcase its service at an Austin, Texas confab next month to mark the launch of its active foray into North America. Many competing services are headquartered on this continent.

The Japanese startup not only handles copyright management issues for the image data but applies Artificial Intelligence (AI) upon finding and matching the requisite data. It was underscored that by 2020 the Internet will be some 44 ZB (zettabytes) of information floating out on cyberspace, beyond the capacity of a normal human brain alone to thresh through.

See also:

Spectee is currently working with Associated Press (AP) among other press organizations to disseminate its visual newsfeed network. Its system is also armed with multiple patents, which is rare for a startup with less than ten years of history, to be applied in expanding into new areas beyond the news field.

In addition to the Spectee talk, OrangeFab outlined its past efforts and announced it was ready to accept applications for the next program term from entrepreneurs. Creww also provided a spiel about the venue it runs (dubbed “docks”), which is a mid-Tokyo open innovation incubation and coworking space near Tokyo Tower, being used for the event series.

Earlier last month, Uzabase — offering the NewsPicks service and tied up with Dow Jones in the U.S. — announced its intention to buy digital-only business news service Quartz from Atlantic Media. Assuming the approximately month-long U.S. government approval goes smoothly, the Tokyo company can expect to be the new Quartz provider.

Orange Fab Asia unveils graduating startups from Fall 2015 season at Demo Day in Tokyo

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See the original story in Japanese. Orange Fab Asia, an incubation program for the East Asian region hosted by French telecom major Orange, held a Demo Day event for the latest batch in Tokyo earlier this month. While originally this incubation program had been focusing on Asia including Japan, Korea and Taiwan, La French Tech, a business invitation program by the French government for European startups to Tokyo has joined the Demo Day from this time, in affiliation with French governmental business support initiative Business France. Therefore, 29 teams including 8 French startups made pitches and opened booth exhibitions in this event. See also: Startups enter the fray with arrival of fall exhibition season in Japan Although unfortunately we cannot cover all of them in this article, some outstanding startups are introduced below. BankGuard (Japan) The total damage from illegal money transfers using online banking systems around the world is said to amount at $2 billion per year. Super Matrix developed by Tokyo-based BankGuard is a safer and more inexpensive banking solution than the one-time password or conventional table of random numbers, which is distinguished by not utilizing characters or numbers but pictograms. Sealing non-disclosure agreements with Shizuoka Bank, Yokohama…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Orange Fab Asia, an incubation program for the East Asian region hosted by French telecom major Orange, held a Demo Day event for the latest batch in Tokyo earlier this month.

While originally this incubation program had been focusing on Asia including Japan, Korea and Taiwan, La French Tech, a business invitation program by the French government for European startups to Tokyo has joined the Demo Day from this time, in affiliation with French governmental business support initiative Business France. Therefore, 29 teams including 8 French startups made pitches and opened booth exhibitions in this event.

See also:

Although unfortunately we cannot cover all of them in this article, some outstanding startups are introduced below.

BankGuard (Japan)

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The total damage from illegal money transfers using online banking systems around the world is said to amount at $2 billion per year. Super Matrix developed by Tokyo-based BankGuard is a safer and more inexpensive banking solution than the one-time password or conventional table of random numbers, which is distinguished by not utilizing characters or numbers but pictograms. Sealing non-disclosure agreements with Shizuoka Bank, Yokohama Bank and SBI Sumishin Net Bank, currently it has international patents pending. In addition to Super Matrix, the team has developed a cryptocurrency solution called Super Money utilizing the Bitcoin technology.

Geo-Line (Korea)

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Korea-based Geo-Line offers a battery charge solution for electric vehicles called Plug & Pay. In general, the greatest concern for electric vehicle users may be the securing of battery charge measures away from home. The number or the location of charging stations are still limited due to the higher costs for installation and maintenance. Plug & Pay allows users to charge batteries from conventional electric outlets by attaching the devices to them, and moreover, notifies the amount of charged energy to the power company via an implemented mobile SIM. Therefore, if users utilize electric outlets in public facilities or a stranger’s home upon charging, they will be charged for the electric fees themselves, and that will not lead to accusations of power theft.

Mist Technologies (Japan)

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Mist Technologies, which previously developed a predominant video distribution system using WebRTC named MistCDN, has launched its second product called Mist Inline Player. When one is to watch embedded videos on web pages with mobile browsers, not only browsers but video players will be started generally. Mist Inline Player provides video playable environment on browsers just by adding a single JavaScript code onto websites with HTML5. By synchronizing acceleration sensors in smartphones, it can also play videos interactively based on users’ motion. It is seen being utilized in video advertisement, on-demand video services and video services offering a panorama view.

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Pamily (Korea)

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Dogs are an emotionally weak animal and become easily depressed. If owners neglect to play with their dog or take it for a walk, the dog gets stressed and that causes self-injury in the worst case. Pamily is a golfball-sized dog toy which can move automatically by remote control upon operation with a mobile app. It is waterproof and wireless charging-enabled in addition to being capable of emitting light, sound and vibration according to the operation through the app. The team aims to strengthen sales activities through cooperation with petfood mnufacturers, pet insurance providers or telcos.

Ripple (Korea)

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Korea-based Ripple has developed an in-ear microphone device for smartphones called RippleBuds, allowing communication with clear voices even under a noisy environment. Implementing both an earphone and a microphone inside, it picks up voices using bone conduction to prevent distraction due to noises around the user. Absence of noise-canceling tips, which are typically applied to such kind of products, has lowered its manufacturing costs and energy consumption. The team plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in January 2016, and expects the adoption in sports, military and police application.

StradVision (Korea)

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StradVision is an object recognition solution which is an essential technology for self-driving cars, enabling recognition of other cars, pedestrians and even characters in traffic signs. The noteworthy function is its character recognition, which is capable of recognizing characters and even its context on notice boards or traffic signs written not only in English but also in Chinese. Although the recognition of Japanese was not exhibited this time, the availability of Chinese will facilitate the support for Japanese shortly. It is expected to be applied to the development of safer self-driving cars by linking with a car navigation system, GPS (global positioning systems), or ITS (intelligent transport systems).

Thinktank (Taiwan)

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Taiwan-based Thinktank, which introduced a platform for measurement of audience feedback at events in real-time called Clappio at IdeasShow in Taipei in August, this time introduced a new service called Exit. People in subway stations are easily lost because they cannot use map apps sufficiently due to the weak GPS signals from satellites. This mobile app allows users to find appropriate exits quickly at subway stations. Currently it supports information for 179 subway stations in Taipei and Bangkok. Since the total number of daily passengers at these stations accounts for 6.84 million, utilization of the app will save a great deal of time if one gets lost.

Tobila Systems (Japan)

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Nagoya-based Tobila Systems has developed an incoming call control solution called Tobilaphone in order to reject crank calls or fund-transfer frauds, serving land-line phones, smartphones and other phones. Based on the whitelists/blacklists shared among users, unauthorized phone numbers listed for each user, and lists made by the Metropolitan police or an independent survey by Tobila Systems itself, it blocks incoming calls from dubious callers. The concept of this product appears similar to Taiwan’s Whoscall (acquired by Line) or Korea’s Moya Calling.

VitaNet (Japan)

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VitaNet is an encryption solution for communication technologies in IoT such as BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and Bluetooth. These wireless technologies broadcast recognition IDs for devices upon handshaking to connect with each other. So, if malicious users obtain these information, it might be used for illegal hacking. By applying VitaNet technologies, recognition IDs are masked and an encryption layer is added in communication so that it will bring more highly secured communication between IoT devices while minimizing the possibility of being hacked.

WhyNotTech (Taiwan)

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WhyNotTech has developed a wearable ring device for voice recognition linked to a smartphone called ARING Pro. Conventional voice recognition solutions for smartphones including Google Voice Search and Siri are only available in specific app environments. ARING Pro realizes much smarter app operation without the character input, by selecting or starting up mobile apps manually and by inputting or indicating by the ring device. The team failed on a recent crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter but are planning sales of the product on Amazon. They are thinking to integrate the product with e-commerce sites like Amazon so that users can more quickly find a product to buy, as well as integrating with headphones connectable to the Internet in the future.


Coinciding with holding this Demo Day event, Open Fab Asia started receiving applications for the next batch, Spring 2016 season. If interested in business development not only in Asia but also in the European market including France, you are encouraged to check out their website to apply.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

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Orange Fab Asia showcases startups from Spring 2015 season, involves more communities

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See the original story in Japanese. Orange Fab Asia, an incubation program for the East Asian region hosted by major French telecom company Orange, this month held a Demo Day event in Tokyo. While focusing on Asia including Japan, Korea and Taiwan, Orange Fab Asia announced at this event that it also will collaborate with BASH led by Singaporean state-run investment company Infocomm Investments and Paris-based incubator NUMA (formerly Le Camping) in order to promote mutual communications among startups in different regions. This will enable the Singaporean / French startups to be based at Orange Fab Asia’s office in Tokyo, and conversely Japanese / Korean / Taiwanese startups to be based at BASH or NUMA and engage in operations within Singapore or France. While 15 teams from Japan, Korea and Taiwan has participated in the incubation program Spring 2015 season batch since April, 25 teams in all pitched and offered booth exhibition at the Demo Day, adding 3 teams from Singaporean BASH, 4 teams recommended by the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (G-CCEI) in Korea, and 4 teams recommended by Business France or the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan. Unfortunately it is hard to cover…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Orange Fab Asia, an incubation program for the East Asian region hosted by major French telecom company Orange, this month held a Demo Day event in Tokyo.

While focusing on Asia including Japan, Korea and Taiwan, Orange Fab Asia announced at this event that it also will collaborate with BASH led by Singaporean state-run investment company Infocomm Investments and Paris-based incubator NUMA (formerly Le Camping) in order to promote mutual communications among startups in different regions.

This will enable the Singaporean / French startups to be based at Orange Fab Asia’s office in Tokyo, and conversely Japanese / Korean / Taiwanese startups to be based at BASH or NUMA and engage in operations within Singapore or France.

While 15 teams from Japan, Korea and Taiwan has participated in the incubation program Spring 2015 season batch since April, 25 teams in all pitched and offered booth exhibition at the Demo Day, adding 3 teams from Singaporean BASH, 4 teams recommended by the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (G-CCEI) in Korea, and 4 teams recommended by Business France or the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan.

Unfortunately it is hard to cover all startups in this event for want of interview capacity and space; however, some startups that attracted attention there are introduced below.

Aquabit Spirals (Japan)

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Tokyo-based Aquabit Spirals developed a Smart Plate device which enables bookmarking on real objects. Having unique QR codes and IC chips inside, the device gives information linked with other Smart Plates through NFC(near field communication)-enabled / camera built-in smartphones.

As for general NFC, since information is directly written onto the chips, information updating must be done by each embedded chip. By managing linked information with codes via the cloud, the Smart Plate leads the user to the information by redirecting access destination, even enabling the NFC chip campaign owners to integrally manage information via the cloud with a specialized app.

Frasen (Korea)

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Korea’s Frasen is developing the “smart” sleep mask, which collects physical data while one sleeps and provides personalized sleep management services. Technically, it is based on detection technology for biosignals including brain waves, big data analysis system and bio-feedback mechanism, in order to induce deep sleep by utilizing data gained from such integrated sources.

The current product is still a prototype, so that the team aims to establish mass production system through crowdfunding. Also the team’s active advancement overseas can be seen in taking the rostrum at beGLOBAL 2014 and Tech in Asia 2015 Seoul, or making entries to 500 Startups and Techstars.

PiedQuant (Korea)

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Pied-Piper is a startup born out of the 5th batch of Korean startup accelerator SparkLabs, developing IoT called PiedQuant designated for measurement of various factors in food, such as freshness, sugar content or nutrients. In the same product line-up, the team also offers a plant cultivation support IoT called Pi-Pi, allowing management of artificial sunlight, temperature and soil, in addition to hydroponic systems.

Scentee (Japan)

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Tokyo-based Scentee is engineering a “smell” technology which utilizes a specialized device attached to iPhone to give off any smell including food smells by linking with apps. The team is also known for an aroma gadget for smartphones called Hana Yakiniku (literally meaning ‘nose steaks’ in Japanese) developed in collaboration with Japanese joke content developer Kayac. The team offers as well Scentee Balloon with which one can maintain comfortable perfumed condition from night to morning just by putting certain perfume cartridges, in cooperation with luxury brands dealing in perfumes.

Goqual (Korea)

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Korea-based Goqual provides a smart switching solution called BlueSwitch, enabling switch control like turning on/off the light via mobile apps just by covering over the existing switches, which is similar to Akerun, making thumbturns to smart-lock just by covering over them. It also has an auto-learning function for automatic switching operations based upon the usage patterns.

Igloohome (Singapore)

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Singapore-based Igloohome brings smart hosting solution under the same name for vacation rentals like Airbnb. As for vacation rentals, guests cannot make much energy-savings efforts because accommodation expenses include energy bills. It is not uncommon for guests to go out with air conditioning or illumination on, so these costs place the burden on the hosts.

Utilizing smart sensors or smart locks linked with illumination, Igloohome detects and judges whether the guest is out or not with equipment on in the room, calling for the guests’ / hosts’ attention or improvement. The Igloohome team provides only comprehensive experiences leveraging assimilation of IoT and platform; sensors or devices in the products are supplied by other startups or manufacturers.

IdeaQuest (Japan)

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Tokyo-based IdeaQuest advances “human sensing technology” developed by Professor Emeritus Masato Nakajima of Keio University, and took part of this event as a guest.

Monitoring object user on the bed without camera and even without any contact or restraint, it allows one to check the conditions of cognitive disease or bedridden patients using sensors, and notifies caregivers or nurse stations if some incident occurs. Detecting just by combining light projectors and acceptors without a camera, privacy of object users can be protected.


Simultaneously with the end of this Demo Day, Open Fab Asia commenced calls for participation in the next batch, Fall 2015 season. The submission deadline is 17th of August, and 4 to 5 startups each will be allowed to participate in the program to be held in Tokyo, Seoul and Taiwan over three months, beginning from September.

We recommend startups looking to expand business beyond Asia into Europe, centering on France, to consider participation in it.

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Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

15 startups from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan join Orange Fab Asia’s latest accelerator batch

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See the original story in Japanese. Orange Fab Asia, the startup accelerator program in Asia headed by a French telco, unveiled startups joining an upcoming batch called Orange Fab Asia Spring 2015, the third batch for Tokyo and the second batch for Taipei and Seoul. As Orange Fab Asia covers Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, the program has selected five startups from each of these countries for a total of 15 teams. Tokyo Aquabit Spirals: IoT (Internet of Things) platform that connects things and spaces via the Internet Capy: Unauthorized log-in countermeasure solutions for corporate users (see also these articles) Fuller: Mobile device management app, usage analytics service for mobile apps (see also these articles) Nain: Status sharing-based communication platform for smart watch users (see also these articles) Scentee: Scent-based communication using an aroma-spraying device attached to smartphones Taipei Absolute Tech: 3G/Wi-Fi signal amplifying solution Docceo: the next-gen solution for hotels Jrsys International: QR code-based payments system PowerWow Tech: Wireless power supply solution Staging Design: Augmented reality technologies for interior decorations Seoul Dot: Braille-based smartwatch for the visually impaired Frasen: Sleep mask and sleep meliorating service MtoV: Smart driving service using big data Neofect: Smart rehabilitation system Pied-Piper: Smart mini garden…

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Regional demo day event at Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Gyongi, Korea (25 March, 2015)

See the original story in Japanese.

Orange Fab Asia, the startup accelerator program in Asia headed by a French telco, unveiled startups joining an upcoming batch called Orange Fab Asia Spring 2015, the third batch for Tokyo and the second batch for Taipei and Seoul. As Orange Fab Asia covers Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, the program has selected five startups from each of these countries for a total of 15 teams.

Tokyo

  • Aquabit Spirals: IoT (Internet of Things) platform that connects things and spaces via the Internet
  • Capy: Unauthorized log-in countermeasure solutions for corporate users (see also these articles)
  • Fuller: Mobile device management app, usage analytics service for mobile apps (see also these articles)
  • Nain: Status sharing-based communication platform for smart watch users (see also these articles)
  • Scentee: Scent-based communication using an aroma-spraying device attached to smartphones

Taipei

  • Absolute Tech: 3G/Wi-Fi signal amplifying solution
  • Docceo: the next-gen solution for hotels
  • Jrsys International: QR code-based payments system
  • PowerWow Tech: Wireless power supply solution
  • Staging Design: Augmented reality technologies for interior decorations

Seoul

  • Dot: Braille-based smartwatch for the visually impaired
  • Frasen: Sleep mask and sleep meliorating service
  • MtoV: Smart driving service using big data
  • Neofect: Smart rehabilitation system
  • Pied-Piper: Smart mini garden

These startups will have a three-month mentorship and the possibility to explore business collaboration with Orange group. At the end of this batch (scheduled in July), they will present their achievements in intensive development efforts to an audience at demo-day events in Tokyo and Paris.

Meanwhile, the accelerator showcased the teams born out of the previous batch at a demo day event in Tokyo last November, followed by the program’s regional briefing events at Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Gyongi, Korea in late March as well as the Innosquare incubation center in New Taipei City, Taiwan in early April. Check out graduated and participating teams on the Orange Fab Asia Facebook page.

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Regional demo day event at Innosquare, New Taipei City, Taiwan 8 April, 2015)

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Orange Fab Asia holds second Tokyo Demo Day, bringing startups worldwide together

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See the original story in Japanese. The “Orange Fab Asia” incubation project targeting East Asia, supported by French telecom carrier Orange, held its Demo Day and related events in Tokyo on 25 November. Orange Fab Asia is an incubation program which positions Japan, Korea and Taiwan as Asia, marking its second season; in addition to startups from the aforementioned three, there were those giving pitches from France and Poland, for a total of 22 startups; in addition, there were 13 startups selected by French government-backed financial institution Bpifrance and Ubifrance of the French Embassy in Japan. See also: 8 Japanese startups join Orange’s new accelerator program Selected startups move on from Orange Fab Tokyo to demo in Paris On Demo Day, dignitaries like French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron and Orange CEO Stephane Richard attended, indicating the emphasis placed on the event in comparison with the previous Demo Day. Paris-based startup hub Silicon Sentier appears to have formed a private sector-led ecosystem centered on NUMA (formerly “Le Camping”) but Orange Fab appears to have governmental and big business backing in contrast. Since Orange has within its group a venture capital called Iris Capital, Japanese startups such as translation crowdsourcing firm Gengo has gained funding therefrom. The 35 participating firms cannot all be covered here so we provide a selection from teams selected out of Tokyo Season…

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See the original story in Japanese.

The “Orange Fab Asia” incubation project targeting East Asia, supported by French telecom carrier Orange, held its Demo Day and related events in Tokyo on 25 November. Orange Fab Asia is an incubation program which positions Japan, Korea and Taiwan as Asia, marking its second season; in addition to startups from the aforementioned three, there were those giving pitches from France and Poland, for a total of 22 startups; in addition, there were 13 startups selected by French government-backed financial institution Bpifrance and Ubifrance of the French Embassy in Japan.

See also:

On Demo Day, dignitaries like French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron and Orange CEO Stephane Richard attended, indicating the emphasis placed on the event in comparison with the previous Demo Day. Paris-based startup hub Silicon Sentier appears to have formed a private sector-led ecosystem centered on NUMA (formerly “Le Camping”) but Orange Fab appears to have governmental and big business backing in contrast. Since Orange has within its group a venture capital called Iris Capital, Japanese startups such as translation crowdsourcing firm Gengo has gained funding therefrom.

The 35 participating firms cannot all be covered here so we provide a selection from teams selected out of Tokyo Season 2 (second batch of the Tokyo chapter).

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Euclid Lab

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Spectee from Euclid Lab is an information-gathering service that covers events and news from social media. THE BRIDGE  recently conducted an exclusive interview with CEO Kenichiro Murakami so please check details there.

Eyes, Japan

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Some of our readers may recall a product named “FUKUSHIMA Wheel“… an Internet of Things (IoT) based on a bicycle loaded with environmental sensors and LED advertisements. Ad funding is gained by displaying the LED on the bicycle rim. Additionally, thanks to GPS movement regional information such temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration and radioactivity can be collected effectively while cycling. They also took part in the 6th SF Japan Night last November.

Ikkyo Technology

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Ikkyo Technology developed a deep-learning image analysis API “Categorific” which uses an image-recording engine. The company (named after an Aikodo “move”) improved the UX to provide users with an environment which facilitates content search.

Categorific is a data-mining service using the image recognition technology. Ikkyo Technology, the startup behind the service, initially started their business with providing a content monitoring service for web service companies, helping them eliminating pirated content from their web services using the same technology.

They explained that the new service can be adopted for many purposes. For example, if you sell a sticker for a messaging app like Line, you can help users choose other stickers that they may like, by giving them a recommendation based on the service.

Repro

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A moving picture analytics tool catering toward mobile app developers, by embedding the Repro SDK into an application, the record of how the users operate the display is made to enable the developers to check this movement visually over their dashboards. According to CTO Akira Miki, they gained a knack for  transmitting moving pictures as still pictures sent successively over the cloud rather than as moving pictures, so even in regions with narrow bandwidths the data may be uploaded relatively easily. CEO Yusuke Hirata insinuated that his company may look to overseas markets like North America in the future.

Mobilous

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The Mobilous AppExe (pronounced “ap-ex” as in “CapEx” without the C) is a cloud service for Android / iOS / Windows mobile applications, which can be operated via GUI by designers who are not programmers. The codes are superficially black boxes that can be operated as per appearance (WYSIWYG) that enable Google Play or iTunes AppStore registrations as is; output as a compiled file is provided as well. Though similar in concept as Asial’s Monaca, CEO Akira Miyata says that it is a native application which has as the main feature an output which does not use HTML5.

For the Demo Day this time, it was announced that Air Liquide, EDF, Sony, Thales, Veolia, Dentsu, Daiwa House and Alcatel-Lucent among other renowned French and Japanese corporations from a variety of fields had partnered for Orange Fab Asia.

The application for the third batch of Orange Fab Asia was opened on 26 November, to be closed on 26 January, 2015. It is worth a look for startups targeting not only Asia but Europe, focusing on France. Bon courage!

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French economic minister Emmanuel Macron (second from the left) hears from entrepreneurs.
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Orange CEO Stephane Richard expresses his aspiration for the incubation program.

Selected startups move on from Orange Fab Tokyo to demo in Paris

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Back in February we briefly introduced the eight startups joining Orange Fab Tokyo, one of the regional accelerator programs from the French telecom Orange. Those startups, if you need a refresher, are: Abeja: An insights solution for retail stores that uses image recognition technology to estimate age and gender of customers. Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology that aims to stabilize TCP sessions. Livepass: Push notification platform for mobile app developers, enabling better contact with users Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores that makes use of wi-fi signals from smartphones (Related) Mashroom: Developing a telecommunications device for touch-screen devices called FlashTouch, which allows the transmission of data using visible light and capacitive touch. NetLED: Network lighting control system, leveraging the cloud to more efficiently use and monitor wirelessly networked lights. Pigmal: Developing PnPkin, an ID for smartphones that users the audio jack. (Related) sMedio: Lets you share photos, videos, music, or applications using Miracast technology. This past week Orange Fab held a demo day where eight of these startups pitched to an audience of about 100. Five of the startups – Abeja, Jin Magic, LivePass, Locarise, and NetLED – were selected (prior to the event) to move on to Orange’s global…

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Back in February we briefly introduced the eight startups joining Orange Fab Tokyo, one of the regional accelerator programs from the French telecom Orange. Those startups, if you need a refresher, are:

  • Abeja: An insights solution for retail stores that uses image recognition technology to estimate age and gender of customers.
  • Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology that aims to stabilize TCP sessions.
  • Livepass: Push notification platform for mobile app developers, enabling better contact with users
  • Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores that makes use of wi-fi signals from smartphones (Related)
  • Mashroom: Developing a telecommunications device for touch-screen devices called FlashTouch, which allows the transmission of data using visible light and capacitive touch.
  • NetLED: Network lighting control system, leveraging the cloud to more efficiently use and monitor wirelessly networked lights.
  • Pigmal: Developing PnPkin, an ID for smartphones that users the audio jack. (Related)
  • sMedio: Lets you share photos, videos, music, or applications using Miracast technology.

This past week Orange Fab held a demo day where eight of these startups pitched to an audience of about 100. Five of the startups – Abeja, Jin Magic, LivePass, Locarise, and NetLED – were selected (prior to the event) to move on to Orange’s global demo day in Paris on June 12. They will join other Orange family startups from the US, France, Poland, and Israel.

It will be especially interesting to see Abeja and Locarise get some global exposure, given that they are both retailer metrics solutions, a sector that is more and more popular of late. NetLED will also be one to watch, considering the recent buzz around the Internet of Things and Google’s recent acquisition of smart thermostat startup Nest.

We understand that Orange Fab has already begun accepting applications for its ‘second season’ here in Tokyo, and they are also accepting interested startups for first batches in Seoul and Taipei. To learn more about those programs, more information can be found here.

8 Japanese startups join Orange’s new accelerator program

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Photo by Orange Labs Tokyo See the original article in Japanese Last November, we reported that the Japanese edition that France’s major telecommunications corporation Orange would launch a startup accelerator program in Tokyo. Dubbed Orange Fab, its first batch of participating startups was announced on February 12th. The eight startups below were selected out of a group of 50: Abeja: IT solution for stores that uses video recognition technology Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology. livepass: Push-ads platform Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores (Related) Mushroom: Telecommunications device for touch-screen devices NetLED: Network LED control system pigmal: Push button interface for smartphones (Related) sMedio: Screen-sharing service for smart devices These startups will have a three-month mentorship and the possibility to explore business collaboration with Orange group in the future. The batch is officially named “Orange Fab Asia 1st Season”. I asked Hiroshi Nishikawa, the partnership manager of Orange Labs Tokyo, why the name specifies Asia instead of Tokyo or Japan: The startups for this first batch are all Japanese startups. However, we plan to expand the program to the other Asian countries, so we called it Orange Fab Asia. Orange Labs Tokyo spans other Asian countries too, so in the future,…

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Photo by Orange Labs Tokyo

See the original article in Japanese

Last November, we reported that the Japanese edition that France’s major telecommunications corporation Orange would launch a startup accelerator program in Tokyo. Dubbed Orange Fab, its first batch of participating startups was announced on February 12th.

The eight startups below were selected out of a group of 50:

  • Abeja: IT solution for stores that uses video recognition technology
  • Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology.
  • livepass: Push-ads platform
  • Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores (Related)
  • Mushroom: Telecommunications device for touch-screen devices
  • NetLED: Network LED control system
  • pigmal: Push button interface for smartphones (Related)
  • sMedio: Screen-sharing service for smart devices

These startups will have a three-month mentorship and the possibility to explore business collaboration with Orange group in the future. The batch is officially named “Orange Fab Asia 1st Season”.

I asked Hiroshi Nishikawa, the partnership manager of Orange Labs Tokyo, why the name specifies Asia instead of Tokyo or Japan:

hiroshi-nishikawa_portraitThe startups for this first batch are all Japanese startups. However, we plan to expand the program to the other Asian countries, so we called it Orange Fab Asia. Orange Labs Tokyo spans other Asian countries too, so in the future, we’d like to call on startups in countries like Korea and Taiwan to join the program.

While we have previously reported on the startup scene in Paris (for our Japanese edition), Japanese startups have little relatively little presence in Europe. Perhaps Orange Fab Asia can help Japanese startups establish more of a footprint in Europe.

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