They say innovation is dead in Japan. Or at least that’s the prevailing narrative in Western media recently. Yes, many of the big companies synonymous with technology in Japan have been lagging behind. But the big picture is more than that, and we hope to show you that big picture one little piece at a time.
Are who are we? We’re Sd Global, an English-language online news website born out of the Japanese site Startup Dating. As a team of writers living and exploring Japan, we hope to discover new developments and untold stories in Japan’s digital space and put them on display here. It could be college kids bootstrapping the next great mobile app, a Japanese multinational making waves overseas, or a high-tech vending machine – if it’s a game changer in the world of technology, then it’s in our sights. And we’ll do our best to bring you our own insights.
Sd is an ambitious project, one that I’m personally very excited to join as a writer and editor. The Japanese tech sphere is ever-changing, and I’m eager to learn more about it from my colleagues, an all-star cast who have all been prominent voices in the community for some time now.
We always welcome feedback from you, the reader. So send us your story tips, suggestions, or criticisms anytime.
Japanese startup Dots for, the company aiming to help digitalizing rural villages in Africa with distributed communications using mesh network technology, announced on Friday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $670,000 US) in a seed round. Participating investors arew Anobaka, Quantum Leap Ventures (QXLV), G-Startup Fund, and unnamed several angel investors. QXLV followed their previous investment in the startup’s pre-seed seed round in September of 2022. The company says that it will use the funds to help people in rural areas of African gain access digital services and spend daily lives comparable to those in cities. It also expects to contribute to improving the incomes of rural residents through allowing them to remotely obtain jobs from developed countries and urban areas in Africa through efforts including matching sales of agricultural products. Dots for was founded in October of 2021 by Carlos Oba, who has worked at Amazon, Recruit, and C Channel, among others, in business startups and management. Prior to launching Dots for, he led the launch of a service for motorcycle cab operators in Tanzania and other countries as a new business manager at Wassha, the Japanese startup delivering electricity to off-grid areas in Africa. While urban…
Image credit: Dots for
Japanese startup Dots for, the company aiming to help digitalizing rural villages in Africa with distributed communications using mesh network technology, announced on Friday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $670,000 US) in a seed round. Participating investors arew Anobaka, Quantum Leap Ventures (QXLV), G-Startup Fund, and unnamed several angel investors. QXLV followed their previous investment in the startup’s pre-seed seed round in September of 2022.
The company says that it will use the funds to help people in rural areas of African gain access digital services and spend daily lives comparable to those in cities. It also expects to contribute to improving the incomes of rural residents through allowing them to remotely obtain jobs from developed countries and urban areas in Africa through efforts including matching sales of agricultural products.
Dots for was founded in October of 2021 by Carlos Oba, who has worked at Amazon, Recruit, and C Channel, among others, in business startups and management. Prior to launching Dots for, he led the launch of a service for motorcycle cab operators in Tanzania and other countries as a new business manager at Wassha, the Japanese startup delivering electricity to off-grid areas in Africa.
While urban areas in African countries are experiencing economic development and digitalization, rural areas with low incomes are facing a variety of unresolved issues, including Internet connectivity. The company uses mesh network technology to build wireless network infrastructure called d.CONNECT in rural villages in Africa at an overwhelmingly low cost and in a short period of time.
Tokyo-based VC firm Nextblue announced on Tuesday that it has launched its second fund. It has not yet reached its final close but aims to eventually reach a size of 5 billion yen (about $33.6 million US). The new fund aims to create social impact to improve the women’s wellbeing in Japan through the realization of DEIB (Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging). Three business companies including electric power company JERA and Japanese leading PR firm Sunny Side Up Group (TSE: 2180) and several anonymous individual investors have invested in the latest fund. JERA is a 50-50 power generation company owned by TEPCO Holdings (TSE: 9501) and Chubu Electric Power (TSE: 9502). JERA currently has 26 thermal power plants across Japan. The company’s goal is to achieve zero-emission power generation by 2050 through thermal power generation mixing hydrogen with natural gas, zero-emission thermal power generation using hydrogen and ammonia as fuel, and the introduction of renewable energy. The investors in the latest fund are expected to provide an environment for Japanese and European portfolio companies to conduct PoCs (proof of concepts) on women’s wellbeing businesses. Nextblue’s managing partner Kanako Inoue says that JERA’s participation indicates that the power company is committed…
Nextblue’s managing partners: From left, Vincent Tan, Kanako Inoue, Yuichi Kori Image credit: Nextblue
Tokyo-based VC firm Nextblue announced on Tuesday that it has launched its second fund. It has not yet reached its final close but aims to eventually reach a size of 5 billion yen (about $33.6 million US). The new fund aims to create social impact to improve the women’s wellbeing in Japan through the realization of DEIB (Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging).
Three business companies including electric power company JERA and Japanese leading PR firm Sunny Side Up Group (TSE: 2180) and several anonymous individual investors have invested in the latest fund. JERA is a 50-50 power generation company owned by TEPCO Holdings (TSE: 9501) and Chubu Electric Power (TSE: 9502).
JERA currently has 26 thermal power plants across Japan. The company’s goal is to achieve zero-emission power generation by 2050 through thermal power generation mixing hydrogen with natural gas, zero-emission thermal power generation using hydrogen and ammonia as fuel, and the introduction of renewable energy.
The investors in the latest fund are expected to provide an environment for Japanese and European portfolio companies to conduct PoCs (proof of concepts) on women’s wellbeing businesses. Nextblue’s managing partner Kanako Inoue says that JERA’s participation indicates that the power company is committed to changing the world from within the company, as it has been working on new challenges in the energy industry,.
The first fund invests in 39 companies, 4 companies exited
The firm’s first fund was launched in April of 2020 and subsequently announced its first close in March of 2021. The fund size at that point was estimated at 3 billion yen ($28 million in the exchange rate at that time). According to Inoue, investments were made in 39 companies from the first fund, of which about half were Japanese startups and the other half were European startups.
In terms of vertical category, she said, most of their Japanese investees were SaaS startups, in line with industry trends in Japan, while their investments in Europe were largely made into the healthcare and food sectors. This is because, while DTx (Digital Therapeutics) startups have emerged, they are not always effective in treating chronic diseases and other conditions, so the focus was more on somewhat mix of healthcare and food, which usually provides something directly consumed by the body.
In a recent interview with Bridge, Inoue says,
With the first fund, we wanted to prove that Japanese VCs were valuable to European startups and that we could bring European startups to the Japan market.
During the pandemic, some of our portfolio companies struggled to raise funds in Europe and the US, but it was relatively easy for them to access funds in Japan. I think we were able to prove the importance of diversifying the Cap Table .
From the firm’s first fund’s portfolio, INFORICH (TSE: 9338), operator of the ChargeSPOT mobile battery sharing service in Japan, IPOed, while Lana Lab (process mining company, Germany), First A (quick commerce for drugs, Germany), and Bento (aggregating multiple web links into one link, Switzerland), have been respectively acquired by other companies.
MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP) recently announced that it has just launched its fund III, following its fund II announced in August of 2021. The new fund is expected to have a size of 20 billion yen (about $135 million), the same as each of the previous two funds. The new fund is managed by Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners with financially backed from MUFG Bank and other group companies. In contrast to Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (MUCAP), which usually makes pure investments, MUIP is a corporate venture capital focused on strategic investments exploring collaboration with MUFG companies. MUIP’s AUM (assets under management), including its three core funds and fund of funds (FoF) for the US and Israel markets, now totals approximately 80 billion yen (about $540 million). According to Takashi Sano, Chief Investment Officer at MUIP, the new fund will more focus on investments in Japan and the U.S., following the establishment of the MUFG Ganesha Fund ($300 million US) for India and the MUIP Garuda 1 Fund ($100 million US) for Southeast Asia from last year through this year. In addition, the MUIP Fund II has increased the ratio of investments in Japanese startups compared to the Fund I although it…
Creative Commons License Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Photo by yo & via Flickr
MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP) recently announced that it has just launched its fund III, following its fund II announced in August of 2021. The new fund is expected to have a size of 20 billion yen (about $135 million), the same as each of the previous two funds. The new fund is managed by Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners with financially backed from MUFG Bank and other group companies.
In contrast to Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (MUCAP), which usually makes pure investments, MUIP is a corporate venture capital focused on strategic investments exploring collaboration with MUFG companies. MUIP’s AUM (assets under management), including its three core funds and fund of funds (FoF) for the US and Israel markets, now totals approximately 80 billion yen (about $540 million).
According to Takashi Sano, Chief Investment Officer at MUIP, the new fund will more focus on investments in Japan and the U.S., following the establishment of the MUFG Ganesha Fund ($300 million US) for India and the MUIP Garuda 1 Fund ($100 million US) for Southeast Asia from last year through this year. In addition, the MUIP Fund II has increased the ratio of investments in Japanese startups compared to the Fund I although it is unclear whether or not this trend will be applied to the Fund III.
MUFG’s investment and financing initiatives for startups (Amounts represent the total amount of investment including unexecuted amounts) Image credit: MUFG Innovation Partners
Sano says,
MUFG has invested in Liquidity Capital, an Israeli FinTech startup investing in AI startups, from its Fund I and II, and has also invested in Mars Growth Capital, a joint venture established by MUFG Bank and Liquidity Capital in 2020. Mars Growth Capital is preparing a growth stage-focused fund (up to 20 billion yen or $134.6 million US) for the Japanese market while other MUIP-related initiatives are also increasing in Japan.
MUIP will continue to invest in non-fintech startups, including generative AI startups, to explore synergies with MUFG companies. It will also work with overseas banks in which MUFG Bank has invested, such as Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) in Thailand and Bank Danamon in Indonesia, to encourage these banks’ business partners to introduce new technologies from the startups in which they have invested.
MUIP has invested in more than 40 startups through several funds to date, and the total investment in 2022 reached about 10 billion yen ($67.3 million US). For middle-stage and later startups, MUIP has also made direct investments from MUFG Bank and others, bringing the total amount of its investment framework in startups and other digital companies to approximately 570 billion yen ($3.8 billion US).
As for large funds from major Japanese financial conglomerates, SMBC launched a $200 million corporate venture capital fund called SMBC Asia Rising Fund in Singapore in May, jointly with Incubate Fund. In April, Mizuho Financial Group established a $10 billion corporate venture capital called Mizuho Innovation Frontier. In both cases, their investments are intended to explore synergies with their core businesses respectively.
Tokyo-based Josys, the Japanese startup offering outsourced corporate IT service to manage employees’ IT devices and SaaS accounts, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 13.5 billion yen (about $91.7 million US) in a Series B round. This round is led by Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners with participation from Jafco (TSE:8595), Raksul (TSE:4384), SMBC-GB Growth Fund (managed by SMBC Venture Capital Management and Global Brain), 31 Ventures (managed by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Norinchukin Capital, Z Venture Capital, WiL (World Innovation Lab), NTT Docomo Ventures, Value Chain Innovation Fund (managed by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Fund), and Yamauchi-No.10 (owned by Nintendo founder’s family office). Global Brain, Yamauchi-No.10, and WiL followed this previous investment in Josys’ previous Series A round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date tp 17.9 billion yen (about $120 million US). Most of the investors are not operating company-backed but purely investment companies, which means that they are expecting business growth rather than business synergies with enterprises. Josys will use the funds to expand its global presence and diversify the company size of their targeted potential users. The service was initially launched in September of 2021 as the fourth…
Josys CEO Yasukane Matsumoto Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based Josys, the Japanese startup offering outsourced corporate IT service to manage employees’ IT devices and SaaS accounts, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 13.5 billion yen (about $91.7 million US) in a Series B round.
This round is led by Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners with participation from Jafco (TSE:8595), Raksul (TSE:4384), SMBC-GB Growth Fund (managed by SMBC Venture Capital Management and Global Brain), 31 Ventures (managed by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Norinchukin Capital, Z Venture Capital, WiL (World Innovation Lab), NTT Docomo Ventures, Value Chain Innovation Fund (managed by Seino Holdings and Spiral Innovation Fund), and Yamauchi-No.10 (owned by Nintendo founder’s family office).
Global Brain, Yamauchi-No.10, and WiL followed this previous investment in Josys’ previous Series A round. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date tp 17.9 billion yen (about $120 million US). Most of the investors are not operating company-backed but purely investment companies, which means that they are expecting business growth rather than business synergies with enterprises. Josys will use the funds to expand its global presence and diversify the company size of their targeted potential users.
The Josys management team Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
The service was initially launched in September of 2021 as the fourth business of Japanese online printing and on-demand logistics company Raksul (TSE:4384). Earlier this year, it was spun off from and incorporated as a subsidiary of Rakusul. In March of 2022, Josys increased its capital through a third-party allotment to undisclosed investors to become an equity-method affiliate from a consolidated subsidiary of Raksul (35.6% of voting rights at that time). Raksul’s voting right ownership in Josys has been apparently diluted after the Series A round.
The service allows companies to integrate and outsource management, procurement, and kitting IT devices and SaaS accounts for their employees. It aims to improve the operational efficiency of a company’s IT management department, expecting to reduce the workload of corporate IT departments by about a quarter through cloud computing and outsourcing. The company expects it may help companies reduce the turnover rate of staff in charge of IT systems.
The company’s new global expansion effort includes their service launch in 40 countries in the North America and Asia Pacific regions. The entire Josys team is about 120 people. Of these, 30 are in Japan, 70 in India, 10 in Vietnam, and the rest of the team are based in San Francisco Bay Area. Many of the systems required have been developed in India while the overall service design is being done in the Bay Area. Sales and on-boarding processes in the Asia Pacific Region are provided by their teams in Singapore and Malaysia.
Josys’ upcoming business domain by including larger enterprises as a target Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Josys has been focused on small and medium-sized businesses with less than 300 employees but will now target larger enterprises going forward. In some large enterprises, SaaS is not centrally managed by the system department (so called ‘shadow IT’), and the collapse of IT governance is becoming an issue. The company believes that the integration of employee-based information ledgers will contribute to the reconstruction of the Single Source of Truth (SSOT) for IT management.
The Josys management in Japan. From left, VP of Japan Marketing Michibumi Serizawa, CEO Yasukane Matsumoto, Japan SVP Kiyomitsu Takayama, and VP of Japan Sales Mikito Hayashi. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
To strengthen the team, the company appoints Kiyomitsu Takayama, former Japan head of Pendo.io Japan, as Japan SVP at Josys; Mikito Hayashi, former Executive Officer and General Manager of Enterprise Sales at ZVC Japan, as VP of Japan Sales at Josys; and Michibumi Serizawa, former General Manager of Major Account Sales at Palo Alto Networks, as Japan Sales at Palo Alto Networks. In addition, the company will launch the Josys Academy to share knowledge and insights to help Japanese companies adopt digital transformation.
Josys initially introduced the concept of its business in September of 2021 and subsequently launched it in 2022, seeing a 10-fold increase in ARR (annual recurring revenue) over the past year (specific values not disclosed). The company attributed the growth to the management burden of IT devices and SaaS, the increase in IT deployment in each department, and the dispersion of IT managers, while many companies have massively adapted work-from-home and SaaS as the new normal after COVID-19.
Tokyo-based Mujin, the Japanese startup developing intelligent robotics solutions for industrial use, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 12.3 billion yen (over $83 million US) in a Series C round. Participating investors include SBI Investment, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Accenture, Dr. James Kuffner (robotics researcher, CEO of Toyota’s Wovn Planet Holdings), and 7-Industries Holdings. This follows the company’s Series B round back in August of 2014. The latest round brought their funding sum up to date to 20.5 billion yen (about $139 million). Mujin was founded in 2011 by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team developed OpenRAVE, motion planning software for real robot applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software enabling simulate different robot motion patterns and optimize performance before full-scale operation. In 2012, the company secured 75 million yen (about $960,000 US in the exchange rate at the time) from the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and other investors in a Series A round. See also: 9 Japanese robotics startups to watch in 2014 In robotics operations, automation of complex processes has conventionally been considered difficult. However, Mujin Controller has given intelligence to robots, enabling them to adapt to changes…
Image credit: Mujin
Tokyo-based Mujin, the Japanese startup developing intelligent robotics solutions for industrial use, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 12.3 billion yen (over $83 million US) in a Series C round. Participating investors include SBI Investment, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Accenture, Dr. James Kuffner (robotics researcher, CEO of Toyota’s Wovn Planet Holdings), and 7-Industries Holdings. This follows the company’s Series B round back in August of 2014. The latest round brought their funding sum up to date to 20.5 billion yen (about $139 million).
Mujin was founded in 2011 by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team developed OpenRAVE, motion planning software for real robot applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software enabling simulate different robot motion patterns and optimize performance before full-scale operation. In 2012, the company secured 75 million yen (about $960,000 US in the exchange rate at the time) from the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and other investors in a Series A round.
In robotics operations, automation of complex processes has conventionally been considered difficult. However, Mujin Controller has given intelligence to robots, enabling them to adapt to changes in the environment. In addition to industrial robots, Mujin also provides large-scale automation solutions by linking robots with robot hands, AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), conveyors, and other devices.
The company will use the funds to invest in technology for intelligent robot controllers and 3D vision systems to achieve greater sophistication and multifunctionality. They also plan to launch new products such as mobile robots and devanning robots, provide total automation solutions, promote business expansion into the European market in addition to the US market where they already have presence.
Japanese startup Caster, the company offering online-based office assistant services for companies, announced on Wednesday that its initial listing application on the Tokyo Stock Exchange had been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Growth Market on October 4 with plans to offer 350,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 52,500 shares in over-allotment options. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Caster’s ticker code will be 9331. Based on the company’s estimated issue price is 650 yen (about $4.5) per share, its market cap is approximately 1.24 billion yen (about $8.5 million). Its share price range will be released on September 14 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on September 19 and pricing on September 25. The final public offering price will be determined on September 26. According to its consolidated statement as of August of 2022, the company posted revenue of 3.34 billion yen ($23 million) with an ordinary loss of 161.8 million yen ($1.1 million). Founded in September of 2014, the company offers Caster Biz and other services helping enterprises connect with freelance or contract-based remote workers to outsource corporate tasks such as secretary, personnel, accounting, and translation operations. Over 800 remote workers…
Japanese startup Caster, the company offering online-based office assistant services for companies, announced on Wednesday that its initial listing application on the Tokyo Stock Exchange had been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Growth Market on October 4 with plans to offer 350,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 52,500 shares in over-allotment options. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Caster’s ticker code will be 9331.
Based on the company’s estimated issue price is 650 yen (about $4.5) per share, its market cap is approximately 1.24 billion yen (about $8.5 million). Its share price range will be released on September 14 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on September 19 and pricing on September 25. The final public offering price will be determined on September 26. According to its consolidated statement as of August of 2022, the company posted revenue of 3.34 billion yen ($23 million) with an ordinary loss of 161.8 million yen ($1.1 million).
Founded in September of 2014, the company offers Caster Biz and other services helping enterprises connect with freelance or contract-based remote workers to outsource corporate tasks such as secretary, personnel, accounting, and translation operations. Over 800 remote workers have been registered while the company has served more than 2,900 companies in total as of 2021.
Major shareholders include Incubate Fund (25.24% through two funds), Blue Monday (20.05%, founder and CEO Shota Nakagawa’s asset management company), WiL (11.1%), Daiwa Corporate Investment (9.33%), Strive (6.08%), CEO Nakagawa (3.54%), Gree Co-Invest (3.3%), SMBC Venture Capital (2.8%), Gunosy Capital (2.43%), Hideaki Ishikura (1.7%, managing director), Dip (1.21%, TSE:2379), and Yamaguchi Capital (1.21%).
Some of our readers may recall that we have covered the Smaoku auction site several times over the last decade. The C2C marketplace saw rapid progress, expanding not only in Japan but also in Asia, but in February of 2017, it was acquired by fellow competitor and Japanese C2C marketplace giant Mercari. At the time, Smaoku’s founder Daisaku Harada joined Mercari. In April of 2018, Harada was appointed as CEO of Souzou, a new business subsidiary of Mercari. The new unit created the Mercari Atte app, which allows users to trade items in person, and the Merchari bicycle-sharing service, but shut down in June of 2019 (Mercari Atte is no longer in service, and Merchari was taken over by Neuet and is now in service as Chari Chari). In July of 2022, Harada announced his retirement from the Mercari Group. After that, he has been working as a private investor or as a fellow at the Chiba Dojo fund/community while he revealed that he would launch a new startup before the end of the year. Earlier this year, he moved to Singapore to begin his Web3 business in earnest. Today, he is launching a closed beta version of a web3-based…
Unikura Image credit: Velvett
Some of our readers may recall that we have covered the Smaoku auction site several times over the last decade. The C2C marketplace saw rapid progress, expanding not only in Japan but also in Asia, but in February of 2017, it was acquired by fellow competitor and Japanese C2C marketplace giant Mercari. At the time, Smaoku’s founder Daisaku Harada joined Mercari.
In April of 2018, Harada was appointed as CEO of Souzou, a new business subsidiary of Mercari. The new unit created the Mercari Atte app, which allows users to trade items in person, and the Merchari bicycle-sharing service, but shut down in June of 2019 (Mercari Atte is no longer in service, and Merchari was taken over by Neuet and is now in service as Chari Chari).
In July of 2022, Harada announced his retirement from the Mercari Group. After that, he has been working as a private investor or as a fellow at the Chiba Dojo fund/community while he revealed that he would launch a new startup before the end of the year. Earlier this year, he moved to Singapore to begin his Web3 business in earnest.
Today, he is launching a closed beta version of a web3-based C2C marketplace called Unikura, probably named after “Universal” and “Kura” (meaning warehouses in Japanese to store items). It is groundbreaking in that it brings the Web3 technology to a marketplace where real things, not virtual items, are being traded.
C2C marketplace without item delivery
Daisaku Harada
Harada came up with the idea while working remotely during the pandemic, where he bought a piece of art to decorate the backdrop of his desk as he was constantly communicating via Zoom and Teams. However, rare and valuable art is something of a hassle to manage. If it is within reach of children, it can be damaged, and if stored in a closet, it can become moldy in a hot and humid environment.
This type of collectible is an asset and can also be an investment, as its value can increase according to the supply-demand balance in the market, but at the end of the day, it is important to exercise the right of ownership and satisfy the desire to own. The more things a collector collects, the more he or she feels the hassle of keeping them close at hand, or even the hassle of unboxing the package when it arrives at the store.
Harada decided to create a marketplace that allows users to store physical items and trade only the proof of ownership via NFT (non-fungible token). When you send your physical item to the nearest Unikura’s warehouse in Japan or Singapore, the platform sends you back the proof of custody as an Ethereum-based NFT. That’s why you can then trade an item with other users by buying and selling the NFT. The buying user doesn’t need to have an physical item in their hand.
If you want to have the physical item in your hand, you can have it sent to yourself from the warehouse by erasing the proof of storage/possession (burning the NFT). The Unikura team is also considering inviting core users to tour the warehouse several times a year, to allow users to see for themselves whether their items are stored properly.
Creating a Third Place for Geeks
One of Unikura’s vault for storing users’ items. Image credit: Velvett
As a result of the long tail created by the Internet, people’s tastes have become more diverse and everything is collectible. Niche items are generally unappealing but become highly engaging for a certain core group of people, more specifically, geeks. However, because of the niche nature of this type of collectible, it is not easy to find friends to share thoughts and feelings with.
The reason why many people gather at Comiket (Comic Market) even in the midst of extreme heat and typhoon days, besides finding rare collectibles they want, is probably because they are looking for a community where they can talk about them. Similarly, the Unikura marketplace has built a community on Discord where collectors owning similar items can talk to each other, which is one of the benefits offered to users.
In addition, most transactions on the marketplace are for secondary distribution and are recorded on the Ethereum chain. Based on the the history, the marketplace returns a certain amount of rewards to not only the seller who made the most recent transaction but also to those in the past. The system will allow sellers to realize the benefits of using Unikura compared to transactions involving the physical handover of items, which may also help accelerate secondary distribution.
The marketplace has also established a system whereby not only recent sellers but also past sellers receive a certain amount of rewards based on the history of transactions recorded on Ethereum. This system will help sellers realize the benefits of using the marketplace in addition to in-person transactions, and will help revitalize the secondary distribution system.
Although trading cards currently account for the majority of items dealt on the marketplace, Harada intends to enhance its functionality so that a wider variety of items can be traded. The idea of turning physical collectibles into NFT is so called physically-backed NFT. In this space, we can see other startups like Y Combinator-backed Courtyard but it has a possibility of copyright infringement in that the designs created by third parties are converted directly into NFT. The Unikura team has carefully considered the legal issues in this regard to build the system accordingly.
In the high volatile crypto space, we’ve seen a number of fiat-pegged stable coins gold-convertible tokens like Digix. Compared to these efforts to stabilize the crypto value, Unikura’s idea of distributing tokens connected with physical items with value sounds very interesting.
Singapore-based Velvett, Harada’s startup behind the the marketplace, announced in April that it has secured $3 million US in a seed round from Chiba Dojo Fund, Kanousei Ventures, Hirac Fund (operated by Money Forward Venture Partners), W, mint, F Ventures, Flick Shot as well as several unnamed individual investors.
Tokyo / Los Angeles-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Wednesday that it has additionally secured $15 million US in a Series B extension round. In conjunction with the $30 million (4 billion yen) funding announced in May, the total amount secured in the Series B extension round has reached $45 million. Participating investors are Green Co-Invest, Pacific Bays Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital while the amount includes loans from MUFG Bank. The robotics startup’s exact funding sum to date has not been disclosed, however, it is believed to have reached over 9 billion yen (over $62 million) in total, including the latest funding. The company plans to use the funds to expand its business operation in the U.S. and for part of the lunar surface demonstration. Prior to launching Gitai in 2016 (under its previous name of MacroSpace), the company’s founder Sho Nakanose previously worked for IBM Japan followed by founding an IT services company in India and sold it to an Indian company. Some of our readers may recall that Yuto Nakanishi, a humanoid scientist/engineer and former CEO of Schaft (acquied by Google X), joined Gitai as COO (now CRO,…
GITAI Lunar Rover
Tokyo / Los Angeles-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Wednesday that it has additionally secured $15 million US in a Series B extension round. In conjunction with the $30 million (4 billion yen) funding announced in May, the total amount secured in the Series B extension round has reached $45 million.
Participating investors are Green Co-Invest, Pacific Bays Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital while the amount includes loans from MUFG Bank. The robotics startup’s exact funding sum to date has not been disclosed, however, it is believed to have reached over 9 billion yen (over $62 million) in total, including the latest funding. The company plans to use the funds to expand its business operation in the U.S. and for part of the lunar surface demonstration.
Prior to launching Gitai in 2016 (under its previous name of MacroSpace), the company’s founder Sho Nakanose previously worked for IBM Japan followed by founding an IT services company in India and sold it to an Indian company.
Some of our readers may recall that Yuto Nakanishi, a humanoid scientist/engineer and former CEO of Schaft (acquied by Google X), joined Gitai as COO (now CRO, Chief Robot Officer).
Gitai secured $4.1 million US in a Series A round in July of 2019 followed by 1.8 billion yen (about $17 million US in the exchange rate at the time) in a Series B round in March of 2021.
Tokyo-based Brave group, a Japanese VTuber studio and working on other intellectual property (IP)-related businesses, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.99 billion yen (about $13.7 million) in the 1st close of its series D round. This was led by Simplex Capital Investment with participation from Tokyo University of Science Innovation Capital, Money Forward Venture Partners (HIRAC FUND), Revamp, and Adways Ventures. The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to 5.03 billion yen ($34.5 million). Some of our readers may recall that the company secured 300 million (about $2 million) from Animoca Brands Japan back in January. Brave group was founded in 2017 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Keito Noguchi. The company produces and operates VTuber groups, including the virtual music label BlitzWing, and has developed IP-related businesses, a platform business using the Brave Engine metaverse engine in addition to pioneering emerging areas such as e-sports and Web3. The company established a US subsidiary in June to launch V4Mirai, a VTuber project focused on English-speaking markets. Brave group acquired Virtual Entertainment and MateReal in June. Virtual Entertainment operates manages Buisseppo! e-sports-focused VTuber group while MateReal manages the Palette Project female virtual idol group. In July, the…
Image credit: Brave group
Tokyo-based Brave group, a Japanese VTuber studio and working on other intellectual property (IP)-related businesses, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.99 billion yen (about $13.7 million) in the 1st close of its series D round. This was led by Simplex Capital Investment with participation from Tokyo University of Science Innovation Capital, Money Forward Venture Partners (HIRAC FUND), Revamp, and Adways Ventures.
The latest round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to 5.03 billion yen ($34.5 million). Some of our readers may recall that the company secured 300 million (about $2 million) from Animoca Brands Japan back in January.
Brave group was founded in 2017 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Keito Noguchi. The company produces and operates VTuber groups, including the virtual music label BlitzWing, and has developed IP-related businesses, a platform business using the Brave Engine metaverse engine in addition to pioneering emerging areas such as e-sports and Web3. The company established a US subsidiary in June to launch V4Mirai, a VTuber project focused on English-speaking markets.
Brave group acquired Virtual Entertainment and MateReal in June. Virtual Entertainment operates manages Buisseppo! e-sports-focused VTuber group while MateReal manages the Palette Project female virtual idol group. In July, the company acquired Geek Hive which offers digital transformation support for enterprises. The company will use the funds to strengthen overseas expansion and more aggressively merge and acquire other companies to further diversify revenue stream.
Tokyo-based EmbodyMe, the Japanese startup behind VR and deepfake technologies, launched a new app called Xpression Chat on Thursday, which allows you talk to any virtual human of your favor through ChatGPT integration. The app is available for for iOS and Android. According to the company’s CEO Issay Yoshida, the most popular response from beta users has been to create avatars from celebrity photos and have them talk. Xpression Chat is taking on the realm of the virtual human. By simply uploading a photo of a person of your choice, you’ll be allowed to experience the realm of the virtual human in your mobile. The company hopes to use the app as a starting point to propose use cases to various businesses. For this reason, the company will also start offering SDKs (software developer kits) for multiple platforms – iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. According to Yoshida, the technology’s use cases for business may include virtual customer representative using digital signage. In the scene like, let’s say, asking for product recommendations in a store or getting directions to a location in the airport, representative will be replaced by virtual human sooner or later, because of the need for multilingual support…
Tokyo-based EmbodyMe, the Japanese startup behind VR and deepfake technologies, launched a new app called Xpression Chat on Thursday, which allows you talk to any virtual human of your favor through ChatGPT integration. The app is available for for iOS and Android. According to the company’s CEO Issay Yoshida, the most popular response from beta users has been to create avatars from celebrity photos and have them talk.
Xpression Chat is taking on the realm of the virtual human. By simply uploading a photo of a person of your choice, you’ll be allowed to experience the realm of the virtual human in your mobile. The company hopes to use the app as a starting point to propose use cases to various businesses. For this reason, the company will also start offering SDKs (software developer kits) for multiple platforms – iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
Xpression Chat Image credit: EmbodyMe
According to Yoshida, the technology’s use cases for business may include virtual customer representative using digital signage. In the scene like, let’s say, asking for product recommendations in a store or getting directions to a location in the airport, representative will be replaced by virtual human sooner or later, because of the need for multilingual support and labor shortage. If the LLM (large language model) used here has an access to more information sources to refer to, you’ll be never told that “I have no idea. Would you like to ask someone else?” Yoshida says “Virtual humans will definitely answer you in a smarter way”.
He also thinks it could be applied to education and other areas. In addition, they may offer services to influencers who constantly stream live programs. For example, a virtual chatbot that can behave as if the influencer is could expand the possibilities of his/her activities. Compared to traditional chatbot services, which are often text or voice only, Xpression Chat would allow them to keep their own appearance making it easier to keep engaging with their fans even in a form of virtual human.
Yoshida says,
If we develop a virtual human-based chatbot, it will be much more personal rather than existing virtual performers such as Vocaloid or VTuber.
EmbodyMe will focus on cultivating business demand by presenting the app combining the company’s own technology with the latest AI technology. The app is offered on a freemium basis, but if users choose a paid premium option, the number of conversations will be unlimited. The premium plan also allows more easily users to import images for their avatar from mobile photo storage and image searches. The premium plan includes a 7-day free trial period.
Tokyo-based IVA, the Japanese startup behind the Fake Busters AI-powered authenticity detection service for branded goods, announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 800 million yen (about $5.8 million US) in the latest round. The amount includes loans from Mizuho Bank and Resona Bank. This is the first funding for the five-year-old startup. Participating investors are Mercari (TSE:4385), De Capital family office, and four angel investors – Shogo Kawada (co-founder of DeNA), Yuzuru Honda (founder of Freakout Holdings), Eiko Matsumura, and Yusuke Masuda. Fake Busters offers product authenticity services by combining a team of experienced appraisers with diverse backgrounds, state-of-the-art specialized equipment, and AI-powered authenticity detection technology. The company is capable of appraising 88 brands in the fields of sneakers, luxury goods, apparel, and accessories, which have large secondary distribution demand. The company has appraised a total of 1.5 million items to date, and offers appraisal services tailored to customer needs, such as quick appraisals based on images as well as complete appraisals based on actual items. The company uses the funds to plans to further enhance its AI capability, which currently has a 99.9% authenticity rate, to speed up the process, and to add an express option that…
Image credit: IVA
Tokyo-based IVA, the Japanese startup behind the Fake Busters AI-powered authenticity detection service for branded goods, announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 800 million yen (about $5.8 million US) in the latest round. The amount includes loans from Mizuho Bank and Resona Bank. This is the first funding for the five-year-old startup. Participating investors are Mercari (TSE:4385), De Capital family office, and four angel investors – Shogo Kawada (co-founder of DeNA), Yuzuru Honda (founder of Freakout Holdings), Eiko Matsumura, and Yusuke Masuda.
Fake Busters offers product authenticity services by combining a team of experienced appraisers with diverse backgrounds, state-of-the-art specialized equipment, and AI-powered authenticity detection technology. The company is capable of appraising 88 brands in the fields of sneakers, luxury goods, apparel, and accessories, which have large secondary distribution demand. The company has appraised a total of 1.5 million items to date, and offers appraisal services tailored to customer needs, such as quick appraisals based on images as well as complete appraisals based on actual items.
The company uses the funds to plans to further enhance its AI capability, which currently has a 99.9% authenticity rate, to speed up the process, and to add an express option that will provide results in 60-90 minutes, previously within 48 hours. The company will expand applying the AI-based authenticity detection into further product categories such as luxury brand bags, jewelry, and trading cards.
Launched a Taiwanese office in June, the company plans to set up a subsidiary in Mainland China in August with consideration of expanding into the South Korea, Southeast Asia, and North America markets in the future. The service supports Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and nine major currencies.
Tokyo-based Ecbo, the Japanese startup offering the Ecbo Cloak luggage storage service and the Ecbo Pickup service, held a press conference in Taipei on Friday to announce the launch of the luggage storage service in Taiwan as its first overseas expansion. Our readers may recall that the company stated that it is looking at the expansion into 50 countries by 2025 when it announced its Series B round in June. The Taiwan expansion is made possible through partnership with local travel trading company Sanpu Travel Group (三普旅遊集團) and H.I.S. Taiwan (三賢旅行社). According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, or simply JNTO, more than 21 million Japanese visited Taiwan last year, and it is said that about 70% of them were forced to spend 15 to 30 minutes to find available coin lockers. Thinking about Taiwan Main Station, for example, only a few hundred coin lockers are available within its neighborhood while approximately 500,000 people use the public transit gateway every day. By bringing the Ecbo Cloak service into Taiwan, it may help not only Japanese and other foreign visitors but also local people leave and store their luggage safely and comfortably. In Taiwan, the service is initially offered at 30…
Tokyo-based Ecbo, the Japanese startup offering the Ecbo Cloak luggage storage service and the Ecbo Pickup service, held a press conference in Taipei on Friday to announce the launch of the luggage storage service in Taiwan as its first overseas expansion. Our readers may recall that the company stated that it is looking at the expansion into 50 countries by 2025 when it announced its Series B round in June. The Taiwan expansion is made possible through partnership with local travel trading company Sanpu Travel Group (三普旅遊集團) and H.I.S. Taiwan (三賢旅行社).
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, or simply JNTO, more than 21 million Japanese visited Taiwan last year, and it is said that about 70% of them were forced to spend 15 to 30 minutes to find available coin lockers. Thinking about Taiwan Main Station, for example, only a few hundred coin lockers are available within its neighborhood while approximately 500,000 people use the public transit gateway every day. By bringing the Ecbo Cloak service into Taiwan, it may help not only Japanese and other foreign visitors but also local people leave and store their luggage safely and comfortably.
In Taiwan, the service is initially offered at 30 locations in Taipei, including Jing Sheng Yu flagship store / 京盛宇 旗艦店 (Taiwanese tea), Jin Yu Tang City Hall store / 金玉堂 市府店 (stationery), and Lohas Pottery flagship store on Dihua Street / 陸寶 迪化街旗艦店 (ceramic tea utensils). In addition to aiming to make the service available at 500 locations in Taiwan by 2025, the company want to allow customers to easily order delivering their luggage through the app.
Founded in May of 2015 by CEO Shinichi Kudo (工藤慎一), who speaks both Japanese and Chinese fluently, Ecbo began offering its service in January of 2017, matching people who want to leave their luggage with places to store it. The service allows tourists to leave their luggage at on-street locations such as cafes, beauty salons, and manga cafes. Now available at more than 1,000 locations, it can also offer a reservation function and insurance for checked luggage while all payments can be made by credit card.
Tokyo-based Pixie Dust Technologies, the Japanese startup focused on commercialization of innovative products and meta-materials utilizing its proprietary HAGEN wave-control technology, announced today that it will be listed on the Nasdaq market. The ticker symbol is PXDT. Specifically, the company decided to issue 1,666,667 American Depository Shares (ADSs) at a price of $9.00 per ADS through an initial public offering (IPO). The listing is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 1, EST. The offering is expected to generate net proceeds of approximately $13.8 million, which will be used primarily for the development and commercialization of the technology and its related products, working capital, and general corporate purposes. The Bloomberg website shows the startup’s share price on standby. In addition, Pixie Dust Technologies has granted the underwriters a 45-day over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 250,000 ADSs. If this option is exercised, the company will issue an additional 250,000 ordinary shares at a price net of underwriting fees. The company was founded in May 2017 by CEO Yoichi Ochiai, Associate professor at Tsukuba University, and COO Yasuichiro Murakami, who has worked in strategic consulting and other fields. The company secured 645 million yen in…
Image credit: Pixie Dust Technologies
Tokyo-based Pixie Dust Technologies, the Japanese startup focused on commercialization of innovative products and meta-materials utilizing its proprietary HAGEN wave-control technology, announced today that it will be listed on the Nasdaq market. The ticker symbol is PXDT.
Specifically, the company decided to issue 1,666,667 American Depository Shares (ADSs) at a price of $9.00 per ADS through an initial public offering (IPO). The listing is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 1, EST.
The offering is expected to generate net proceeds of approximately $13.8 million, which will be used primarily for the development and commercialization of the technology and its related products, working capital, and general corporate purposes. The Bloomberg website shows the startup’s share price on standby.
In addition, Pixie Dust Technologies has granted the underwriters a 45-day over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional 250,000 ADSs. If this option is exercised, the company will issue an additional 250,000 ordinary shares at a price net of underwriting fees.
The company was founded in May 2017 by CEO Yoichi Ochiai, Associate professor at Tsukuba University, and COO Yasuichiro Murakami, who has worked in strategic consulting and other fields.
The company secured 645 million yen in November of 2017, 3.846 billion yen in a Series B round in May of 2019, and approximately 2.17 billion yen in a Series C round in October of 2022.
Their backers include Incubate Fund, Tohoku University Venture Partners, Shionogi (TSE:4507), Suzuyo, Nomura Co. (TSE:9716), Axiom Asia, INCJ, SBI Investment, Toppan Printing (TSE:7911), SMBC Venture Capital, Value Co-Creation Venture Fund (managed by NEC Capital Solutions and Venture Lab Investment), Mizuho Capital, KDDI Open Innovation Fund (managed by KDDI and Global Brain), K4 Ventures, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, and Dentsu.
Based out of Tokyo’s neighboring city of Chiba and Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Japanese startup Spiker has been developing and deploying a solution called Alert-Monitor, comprising of the artificial intelligence (AI) focused on analyzing fetal heart rate labor chart data and its central monitoring software. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 83 million yen (about $600,000) from Inclusion Japan and DG Incubation in a pre-series A round. The AI technology is capable of analyzing medical data measured by delivery monitoring equipment and providing on-time support for appropriate medical decisions. As many as 3.9 million babies die annually in developing countries, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is equivalent to 95% of the world’s perinatal deaths. To solve this problem, appropriate use of cardiotocography (CTG) data is expected. However, it is difficult to provide all midwives and nurses with the training necessary to analyze CTG data in developing countries because of a serious shortage of medical personnel. The Alert-Monitor solution help them make appropriate medical judgment without the need for instruction and training of skilled physicians. It can lead to realizing appropriate intervention at medical institutions suffering from a shortage of personnel. Engineers from Rwanda, India, and…
Image credit: Spiker
Based out of Tokyo’s neighboring city of Chiba and Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Japanese startup Spiker has been developing and deploying a solution called Alert-Monitor, comprising of the artificial intelligence (AI) focused on analyzing fetal heart rate labor chart data and its central monitoring software. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 83 million yen (about $600,000) from Inclusion Japan and DG Incubation in a pre-series A round.
The AI technology is capable of analyzing medical data measured by delivery monitoring equipment and providing on-time support for appropriate medical decisions. As many as 3.9 million babies die annually in developing countries, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is equivalent to 95% of the world’s perinatal deaths.
To solve this problem, appropriate use of cardiotocography (CTG) data is expected. However, it is difficult to provide all midwives and nurses with the training necessary to analyze CTG data in developing countries because of a serious shortage of medical personnel. The Alert-Monitor solution help them make appropriate medical judgment without the need for instruction and training of skilled physicians. It can lead to realizing appropriate intervention at medical institutions suffering from a shortage of personnel.
Engineers from Rwanda, India, and Japan are engaged in developing the AI technology at Spiker. In addition to repeating demonstration tests in Africa, where the number of deliveries is about five times that of Japan, the team is conducting speedy collaboration with Japanese engineers. The company plans to use the funds rto make necessary preparations for sales activities in Africa, AI development, and medical device certification.
Rick Martin
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
