Selected startups into the fifth batch of incubation program, Microsoft Ventures accelerator Tel Aviv. (Capy CTO Koki Shimada is the forth from the right in the top row.)
Capy is a Delaware-registered and Tokyo-based startup that is developing an alternative security technology to replace CAPTCHA. The company announced on Friday that it has been selected by Microsoft Ventures as one of 11 startups that will join its fifth batch of incubation program in Tel Aviv, Israel. According to Microsoft Ventures, of the nearly 300 applications from 32 countries only 11 finalists were selected, including Capy, after several preliminary selection processes.
Capy raised a seed round funding from angel investors in 2012, and subsequently secured a series A funding worth about 100 million yen ($1 million) from Japanese investment firm Jafco in 2013. The company won the IVS launchpad award at Infinity Ventures Summit in Kyoto last year.
On a related note on Japanese startups selected by Microsoft Ventures, head-mounted display developer Fove was recently accepted to join the latest batch of Microsoft Ventures’ accelerator program in London. The team appeared on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco earlier this week.
Capy’s pitch at Startup Asia Tokyo, September 4th, 2014.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Standing Ovation launched a fashion item management app called XZ (pronounced as Closet) earlier this week. XZ helps users mix and match clothing items in a user’s wardrobe. A survey of 300 women from 18 to 34 living in Tokyo shows that while they have, on average, fashion items worth 345,000 yen ($3,200), they typically only wear 30% of these items while the rest (about 80 items) have never been worn and sit unused in a closet. It is unfortunate that so many pieces of clothing go unworn. The XZ team says this happens because many women lack the skill to mix and match items: We want to help women discover items in their closets and propose new mix and match outfits. By sharing what users have in their closets, the app allows a user to see how other users coordinate their outfits and consider how to arrange an outfit based on what other users have done. How does XZ differ from other outfit coordination services like iQon and Wear? CEO Yoshihiro Ogita explained: Services like Wear and iQon are a reference tool that helps users polish their fashion skills, plus they…
Tokyo-based startup Standing Ovation launched a fashion item management app called XZ (pronounced as Closet) earlier this week. XZ helps users mix and match clothing items in a user’s wardrobe.
A survey of 300 women from 18 to 34 living in Tokyo shows that while they have, on average, fashion items worth 345,000 yen ($3,200), they typically only wear 30% of these items while the rest (about 80 items) have never been worn and sit unused in a closet.
It is unfortunate that so many pieces of clothing go unworn. The XZ team says this happens because many women lack the skill to mix and match items:
We want to help women discover items in their closets and propose new mix and match outfits.
By sharing what users have in their closets, the app allows a user to see how other users coordinate their outfits and consider how to arrange an outfit based on what other users have done. How does XZ differ from other outfit coordination services like iQon and Wear?
CEO Yoshihiro Ogita explained:
Services like Wear and iQon are a reference tool that helps users polish their fashion skills, plus they include a catalog function. However, to absorb that knowledge completely, a user only uses them as a reference but must consider a suitable outfit by themselves. XZ offers advice based on what a user has in their closet, so they can start adopting proposed outfits as soon as the next day.
The XZ team is establishing a community addressing the fashion mix and match problem as well as acquiring influential stylists and fashion bloggers. Once the community is established it will create new fashionistas and cater to a user’s self-expression.
The company plans to develop a marketplace where users will be able to sell and buy and rent their fashion items. The team also plans to launch a B2C business where fashion brands can propose their newly-shipped items to users by considering what other items these users have in their wardrobe.
The company aims to attain five million downloads from Japan as well as 25 million downloads from the rest of the world in three years, as well as reach over 100 million users worldwide within five years.
The XZ service is available for iOS and Android platforms.
See the original story in Japanese. FiNC is a Tokyo startup that provides online weight loss and dietary advice based on a scientific approach such as genetic testing. The company announced today that it has raised a series A round of an undisclosed sum from Itochu Technology Ventures, Gree Ventures, Link and Motivation, MID Venture Capital, former Mixi CEO Yusuke Asakura and former Opt CEO Tomohito Ebine. The company also unveiled that it has obtained large loans from Mizuho Bank and other financial institutions. Coinciding with the funds, Asakura and Ebine joined the company as strategic advisors. Asakura said the company represents a great advancement in the fitness industry and has a highly-talented engineering team and that he will aggressively support the company expand in Japan and globally. Ebine said the company is well-balanced with fresh talent and skilled people. In a view of Japan’s aging population, he sees a huge market and a great potential business in developing solutions that improve people’s health and increase life expectancy. The FiNC online diet coach service helps users achieve their weight-loss goals. When a user mails their genetic and blood samples along with their lifestyle and dietary information to FiNC, they will…
From the left: Yusuke Asakura (advisor), CFO Fumio Norimatsu, CEO Yji Mizoguchi, and Tomohito Ebine (advisor)
FiNC is a Tokyo startup that provides online weight loss and dietary advice based on a scientific approach such as genetic testing. The company announced today that it has raised a series A round of an undisclosed sum from Itochu Technology Ventures, Gree Ventures, Link and Motivation, MID Venture Capital, former Mixi CEO Yusuke Asakura and former Opt CEO Tomohito Ebine. The company also unveiled that it has obtained large loans from Mizuho Bank and other financial institutions.
Coinciding with the funds, Asakura and Ebine joined the company as strategic advisors. Asakura said the company represents a great advancement in the fitness industry and has a highly-talented engineering team and that he will aggressively support the company expand in Japan and globally. Ebine said the company is well-balanced with fresh talent and skilled people. In a view of Japan’s aging population, he sees a huge market and a great potential business in developing solutions that improve people’s health and increase life expectancy.
The FiNC online diet coach service helps users achieve their weight-loss goals. When a user mails their genetic and blood samples along with their lifestyle and dietary information to FiNC, they will receive dietary and fitness advice from certified dietitians and fitness trainers via smartphone.
FiNC CEO Yuji Mizoguchi expects that within five years the company will have an IPO and that one person in ten in Japan will be using their service.
He added:
We welcome Asakura and Ebine on board, both having launched and IPO-ed their startups. Akukura is the same generation as us and greatly motivates us in our work. He will provide us with his extensive knowledge in cutting-edge areas in the world, which is definitely required for our global business expansion. Ebine is good at establishing alliances between startups and established companies. There will be many things that we can learn from him. We want to leverage his vast network in the healthcare industry.
Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3360), the company behind Japan’s leading online cosmetics portal @Cosme, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in MiCHi, a startup providing an e-commerce platform focused on handmade nail tips under the same name. See also: Nail art startup puts Cute Japan at your fingertips MiCHi was first made available to customers outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The e-commerce site was launched in April 2013, and the Japanese version was unveiled in August of the same year. Leveraging crowdsourced Japanese designers, the company provides high-quality nail tips at affordable prices that are attracting women from around the world with its distinct Japanese “kawaii” style. MiCHi was one of five startups that graduated from the third batch of Movida Japan’s acceleration program in 2013.
Tokyo-based iStyle (TSE:3360), the company behind Japan’s leading online cosmetics portal @Cosme, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in MiCHi, a startup providing an e-commerce platform focused on handmade nail tips under the same name.
MiCHi was first made available to customers outside of Japan, instead of launching in its home market. The e-commerce site was launched in April 2013, and the Japanese version was unveiled in August of the same year. Leveraging crowdsourced Japanese designers, the company provides high-quality nail tips at affordable prices that are attracting women from around the world with its distinct Japanese “kawaii” style.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Dely, a food delivery service operating in Tokyo, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese seed investor Anri. This follows their seed funding in July led by Beenos with participation from East Ventures and Party Factory. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explained his business: Our system is well organized, and we have had no trouble in our delivery service. When we started our service, it is provided only for a lunch time on weekdays but we added a dinner time and Saturday to our operating hours in August. We’ll try to partner with more restaurants and acquire more users from now on. The company sees a steadily growth in acquiring partnering restaurants. Their service is currently available only in Shibuya but plans to add Ebisu and Roppongi to the delivery areas. See also: Japan’s ‘Uber for logistics’ launches food delivery service in central Tokyo Coinciding with the funding, Anri general partner Anri Samata, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda, and FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato, who will join the board of Dely as an advisor, spoke on the potential of on-demand delivery services in Japan. Samata explained why his fund has…
From the left: Anri partner Anri Samata, Dely CEO Yusuke Horie, Beenos partner Hiro Maeda, and Dely COO Yusuke Sato in the laptop screen
Tokyo-based startup Dely, a food delivery service operating in Tokyo, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese seed investor Anri. This follows their seed funding in July led by Beenos with participation from East Ventures and Party Factory.
Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explained his business:
Our system is well organized, and we have had no trouble in our delivery service. When we started our service, it is provided only for a lunch time on weekdays but we added a dinner time and Saturday to our operating hours in August. We’ll try to partner with more restaurants and acquire more users from now on.
The company sees a steadily growth in acquiring partnering restaurants. Their service is currently available only in Shibuya but plans to add Ebisu and Roppongi to the delivery areas.
Coinciding with the funding, Anri general partner Anri Samata, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda, and FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato, who will join the board of Dely as an advisor, spoke on the potential of on-demand delivery services in Japan.
Samata explained why his fund has invested in Dely:
We have invested in startups providing infrastructure-focused services like Coiney (payments), Raksul (printing), Crowdworks (crowdsouricing), so logistics is also one of our interest. I’ve talked with many logistics startups in Japan. Since Horie is the most interesting man among them, I decided to invest in his startup. We see a market because Japan’s GDP and land area are sufficiently large. Existing logistics services work well but don’t provide on-demand delivery. Disrupting an existing industry structure is my mission. So we expect that they will evolve further.
Beenos has invested in US-based same-day food grocery service Instacart. From that perspective, Beenos managing partner Hiro Maeda predicts that on-demand services will become more common in Japan in five to ten years. He said:
Thanks to mobile technology, delivery services can detect the exact location of their delivery persons in real time, which allows anyone to become a delivery person for these services. In addition to delivery services, it will be inevitable that individuals will be able to provide their personal values as a service.
According to Horie, Maeda’s mentoring was very helpful in developing the product because he is familiar with Instacart through his investment.
Horie said:
Maeda’s feedback on the service was to the point. It was really helpful that he joined our team in a seed round. Thanks to him, we can aim to develop a much better product.
In response to him, Maeda added:
I think we’ll need an on-demand service like Postmates. But it’s not easy so a crazy man should do it. In terms of that, I think Horie is suitable because he is young and beyond our mind and has no prejudice.
Sato analyzed the Japanese logistic industry and explained that it will be impossible for major logistic companies to roll out an on-demand delivery service despite the fact that they have a huge and efficient delivery network system.
He said:
However, thanks to a surge of smartphone users, there is huge potential to build a high cost-performance delivery network comprised of non-professional delivery persons.
I think we can turn the impossible into the possible. That’s what only a crazy man like Horie can do. That’s why I decided to bet on him.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Japan’s peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa announced on Friday that it has launched a joint promotion campaign with Uber so that Akippa users can receive a complimentary first ride worth 4,000 yen (about $38) with Uber hired cabs. See also: Japan’s Airbnb for parking spaces ‘Akippa’ fundraises from DeNA and angel investors This campaign aims to give users more options to transport in central Tokyo areas. When you are going to a big event or conference in these areas by car, you may not always easily find an avaiable parking lot near the venue. However, if you alternatively park a car a bit far from the venue, you will need to take time to move from the parking lot to the venue. With the campaign, Uber wants to propose a new user experience where you can park a car at a parking lot using Akippa and then use Uber get to the final destination. As many city dwellers in Japan know, parking a car in the central urban areas may cost as high as more than $10 per hour, which is difficult to use to park over several…
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Japan’s peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa announced on Friday that it has launched a joint promotion campaign with Uber so that Akippa users can receive a complimentary first ride worth 4,000 yen (about $38) with Uber hired cabs.
This campaign aims to give users more options to transport in central Tokyo areas. When you are going to a big event or conference in these areas by car, you may not always easily find an avaiable parking lot near the venue. However, if you alternatively park a car a bit far from the venue, you will need to take time to move from the parking lot to the venue. With the campaign, Uber wants to propose a new user experience where you can park a car at a parking lot using Akippa and then use Uber get to the final destination.
As many city dwellers in Japan know, parking a car in the central urban areas may cost as high as more than $10 per hour, which is difficult to use to park over several hours. Akippa wants to address parking issues for car owners in the urban areas, so both companies have agreed to launch this promotion campaign together. The campaign is effective until the end of October.
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Miyako Yoshizawa
Shintaro Eguchi
