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Japan’s parking lot sharing platform Akippa secures additional funding from DeNA

Akippa
DeNA

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.10.28

See the original story in Japanese.

Galaxy Agency, a Japanese startup behind peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa, announced on Monday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese Internet giant DeNA. Details about this round have not been disclosed, but the company has fundraised a total of 300 million yen ($3 million) since their launch, including 65 million yen ($650,000) from Jafco in September 2012, as well as an undisclosed sum from DeNA, Enigmo co-CEO Shokei Suda and other angel investors in 2014.

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Galaxy Agency will use the funds to strengthen marketing by increasing product listing ads and media exposure. Since its launch in April, they have acquired many parking lot owners. CEO Genki Kanaya said that the number of parking lots available on the platform as of September has tripled since August.

We are focused on acquiring parking lots in areas where user demand is high, such as city centers and near sports stadiums. For instance, there were only three parking complexes available within 1.8 kilometers of Nagai Stadium, but via our platform this number has increased fivefold to 15 parking complexes.

In addition to Akippa, Galaxy Company has been providing several online services such as part-time job board Rebaito, so they have an excellent reputation for strong sales. The company had been allocating almost 50% of their sales team to Akippa, but has raised this to 80% since August in order to boost marketing.

They plan to use the additional funding to launch a new C2C-based service in November to solve parking problems by leveraging the spare time of individuals, Kanaya said.

Finding a parking space is an issue everywhere in the world. It will be interesting to see how the Galaxy Agency team markets their solution to car owners not only in Japan but also the rest of the world.

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Japanese adtech company FreakOut invests in online ticket startup EventRegist

Takeshi Hirano 2014.10.28

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Japanese adtech company FreakOut (TSE:6094) announced today that it has invested in EventRegist; the Tokyo-based startup provides event/meetup organizers with an online ticket issuance and management system. Details of the investment have not been disclosed. Upon this funding, EventRegist will strengthen their business operations as well as hiring efforts in Japan and Southeast Asia. The startup fundraised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha this April. Taiga Matsuyama, a general partner at East Ventures, had invested in Freak Out in its early days. Through our recent interview with FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato and EventRegist COO Aya Ozasa, we understand that both companies want to see synergy in helping event organizers better promote their events. FreakOut-developed technologies and tactics are to be leveraged for potential attendees. Beyond that, they seek to enable measurement of conversion performance in the real world, upon marketing efforts which were initially generated from online campaigns. Both Sato and Ozasa, as well as EventRegist CEO Kosuke Hirayama, had previously worked at Google Japan, so it seems all they have something common in attitude toward their businesses. They admitted that the fact has influenced their current relations.

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Japanese adtech company FreakOut (TSE:6094) announced today that it has invested in EventRegist; the Tokyo-based startup provides event/meetup organizers with an online ticket issuance and management system. Details of the investment have not been disclosed. Upon this funding, EventRegist will strengthen their business operations as well as hiring efforts in Japan and Southeast Asia.

The startup fundraised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha this April. Taiga Matsuyama, a general partner at East Ventures, had invested in Freak Out in its early days.

Through our recent interview with FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato and EventRegist COO Aya Ozasa, we understand that both companies want to see synergy in helping event organizers better promote their events. FreakOut-developed technologies and tactics are to be leveraged for potential attendees. Beyond that, they seek to enable measurement of conversion performance in the real world, upon marketing efforts which were initially generated from online campaigns.

Both Sato and Ozasa, as well as EventRegist CEO Kosuke Hirayama, had previously worked at Google Japan, so it seems all they have something common in attitude toward their businesses. They admitted that the fact has influenced their current relations.

aya-ozasa_yusuke-sato — From the left: EventRegist COO Aya Ozasa, FreakOut COO Yusuke Sato

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Japan’s fashion coordination app iQon unveils native advertising service

iqon
vasily

Takeshi Hirano 2014.10.28

This is the abridged version of this and that articles in Japanese. Tokyo-based Vasily, the startup that provides fashion coordination app iQon, announced on Monday that it will launch a native advertising service called iQon Ad. According to Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama, they will ask advertisers to create ads that fit in to relevant context and put them between outfit recommendation articles so as to deliver a higher performance in advertising. Prior to the official roll-out, they tested its performance and proved that it took less than 50% in conversion cost than conventional mobile advertising methods. Upon this launch, the company wants to build an ad network for women-focused vertical media. Meanwhile, Vasily started airing TV commercials in Japan on Saturday (see video below), which stars popular Japanese young actress Fumino Kimura, proposing potential users to find a better outfit using the app. We understand that the company recently fundraised over $10 million from Japanese telco KDDI, with their recent transaction volume reaching over $10 million on a monthly basis. As of October, they have listed over 1.3 million user-posted outfits which comprise more than 4.8 million fashion items.

This is the abridged version of this and that articles in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Vasily, the startup that provides fashion coordination app iQon, announced on Monday that it will launch a native advertising service called iQon Ad.

According to Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama, they will ask advertisers to create ads that fit in to relevant context and put them between outfit recommendation articles so as to deliver a higher performance in advertising. Prior to the official roll-out, they tested its performance and proved that it took less than 50% in conversion cost than conventional mobile advertising methods. Upon this launch, the company wants to build an ad network for women-focused vertical media.

iQon's native ad sample — iQon’s native ad sample

Meanwhile, Vasily started airing TV commercials in Japan on Saturday (see video below), which stars popular Japanese young actress Fumino Kimura, proposing potential users to find a better outfit using the app.

We understand that the company recently fundraised over $10 million from Japanese telco KDDI, with their recent transaction volume reaching over $10 million on a monthly basis. As of October, they have listed over 1.3 million user-posted outfits which comprise more than 4.8 million fashion items.

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Thai cosmetics startup implements multiple payment solution to better serve users

Masaru Ikeda 2014.10.28

See the original story in Japanese. Bangkok-based BuzzCommerce announced that it has integrated a multiple payment solution from Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway (GMO-PG, TSE:3769). The Thai startup allows users to pay for cosmetics purchases via its e-commerce and media sites. Use of credit cards, banking transactions and convenience store payments has been enabled. See also: Meet the Japanese entrepreneur trying to disrupt the Thai cosmetics market Saroop, the company’s media site, has acquired over 390,000 likes on its Facebook fan page, providing resources and tips on beauty as well as allowing users to buy items introduced on the website. GMO-PG started providing multiple payment solution called GMO-PG Global Payment in July, in partnership with Thailand’s payment processing company 2C2P which has been invested by GMO-PG. With this implementation, Saroop’s users can pay via credit cards, ATM and online banking at Thai major banks like Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Thanachart Bank, United Overseas Bank, CIMB Thai Bank, Bank of Ayutthaya, as well as storefront payments at Family Mart convenience stores in Thailand. The penetration rate of credit cards in Asia is quite low, which has hampered e-commerce companies to run their business in a better…

See the original story in Japanese.

Bangkok-based BuzzCommerce announced that it has integrated a multiple payment solution from Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway (GMO-PG, TSE:3769). The Thai startup allows users to pay for cosmetics purchases via its e-commerce and media sites. Use of credit cards, banking transactions and convenience store payments has been enabled.

See also:

Meet the Japanese entrepreneur trying to disrupt the Thai cosmetics market

Saroop, the company’s media site, has acquired over 390,000 likes on its Facebook fan page, providing resources and tips on beauty as well as allowing users to buy items introduced on the website. GMO-PG started providing multiple payment solution called GMO-PG Global Payment in July, in partnership with Thailand’s payment processing company 2C2P which has been invested by GMO-PG. With this implementation, Saroop’s users can pay via credit cards, ATM and online banking at Thai major banks like Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Thanachart Bank, United Overseas Bank, CIMB Thai Bank, Bank of Ayutthaya, as well as storefront payments at Family Mart convenience stores in Thailand.

The penetration rate of credit cards in Asia is quite low, which has hampered e-commerce companies to run their business in a better way in this region. However, BuzzCommerce will overcome this obstacle by implementing the payment solution so that they can expand their business more quickly.

BuzzCommerce was launched in Bangkok in April this year, and subsequently fundraised an undisclosed sum of investment from East Ventures in May.

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Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand

Junya Mori 2014.10.27

See the original story in Japanese. Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site. See also: Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo. The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

See the original story in Japanese.

Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site.

See also:

Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing

The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo.

The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

news

Hankyu Corporation to launch startup incubation office in Osaka

Shintaro Eguchi 2014.10.25

See the original story in Japanese. Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex. See also: Osaka City Government establishes incubator and fund for local entrepreneurs Can Osaka be a startup hub? Translation app Waygo wins HackOsaka pitch contest They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services. Several incubation initiatives have begun in cities in Japan, represented by the declaration of Fukuoka city to be a startup hub or launching their incubation space. It will be interesting to see how the railway company can generate synergy in the local startup scene.

hankyu_featuredimage — Cc-licensed picture via Flickr.

See the original story in Japanese.

Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex.

See also:

They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services.

Several incubation initiatives have begun in cities in Japan, represented by the declaration of Fukuoka city to be a startup hub or launching their incubation space. It will be interesting to see how the railway company can generate synergy in the local startup scene.

Japan’s parking lot sharing platform Akippa secures additional funding from DeNA

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Japanese adtech company FreakOut invests in online ticket startup EventRegist

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