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

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

Reep

reep_logoPitched by: Hiromasa Yoshikane

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

Vise

3idea_logoPitched by: Keinichiro Nishioka

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

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

They expect to launch a beta version in July.

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Michi

michimall_logoPitched by: Shun Nakazaki

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

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

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

michimall_fbscreenshot

Street Academy

streetacademy_logoPicthed by: Takashi Fujimoto

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

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

streetacademy_screenshot

U-Note

u-note_logoPicthed by Yuto Koide

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

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

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

u-note_pitch


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

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