Nagoya-based StandFirm, the startup behind cloud-based invoicing platform Misoca, announced today it has raised 70 million yen ($653,000) from SMBC Venture Capital and Incubate Fund. The company previously fundraised 30 million yen ($280,000) from Incubate Fund in September 2013.
Misoca has been seeing an over 10% increase in user acquisition every month, and has acquired 20,000 businesses as users. The company launched a new service called Misoca Payment in August, allowing users to collect payments from their business accounts. Upon joining SMBC Venture Capital as a shareholder, Misoca is expected to strengthen this payment collection system.
StandFirm CEO Ryuichi Toyoshi said they plan to provide solutions around the collection of claims using various solution methods, including an automated reconciliation system with “virtual banking accounts,” which is patented by Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, the parent company of SMBC Venture Capital.
Misoca is partnered with cloud-based accounting services Freee and MoneyForward, and they recently announced that they will partner with Japanese accounting software giant Yayoi and Accounting SaaS Japan.
StandFirm will use the funds to strengthen engineering, marketing, and management resources. They aim to integrate with more third-party services before and after invoicing to give users a better experience.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab held a demo day event for its ninth incubation batch on Tuesday. Starting in July, this batch has nourished six teams from Japan and the rest of the world, but one team was not showcased because they are in stealth mode. A “Best Team” and a “Best Growth” award were presented to two startups that have shown solid growth in the last three months of their incubation period. Let’s take a quick look at those two and other startups that graduated from the program. Yunomi (‘Best Team’ award winner) Yunomi is an online marketplace that sells Japanese tea globally. According to the Japanese ministry of agriculture, Japanese tea exports stood at $50 million as of 2013, but the government aims to boost this to $150 million by 2020. However, the team pointed out that even Poland generates three times more value in tea exports than Japan. There are obstacles to the extremely low amount of Japanese tea exports despite its high quality and the huge global tea market of $85 billion. The obstacles are language, logistics, and high prices. By connecting Japanese tea farmers to global tea brands,…
Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab held a demo day event for its ninth incubation batch on Tuesday. Starting in July, this batch has nourished six teams from Japan and the rest of the world, but one team was not showcased because they are in stealth mode.
A “Best Team” and a “Best Growth” award were presented to two startups that have shown solid growth in the last three months of their incubation period. Let’s take a quick look at those two and other startups that graduated from the program.
Yunomi (‘Best Team’ award winner)
The Mattacha Latte Media team commended by Digital Garage CEO Kaoru Hayashi (pictured right).
Yunomi is an online marketplace that sells Japanese tea globally. According to the Japanese ministry of agriculture, Japanese tea exports stood at $50 million as of 2013, but the government aims to boost this to $150 million by 2020. However, the team pointed out that even Poland generates three times more value in tea exports than Japan.
There are obstacles to the extremely low amount of Japanese tea exports despite its high quality and the huge global tea market of $85 billion. The obstacles are language, logistics, and high prices. By connecting Japanese tea farmers to global tea brands, the Matcha Latte Media team wants to eliminate obstacles and increase the competency of Japanese tea in the global market. They have acquired 2,300 users, and their conversion rate is 35%. While half of their sales are to the US, they have shipped to buyers in 55 countries. If tea sales sees good growth, they will expand to other products such as Japanese tea utensils, tea-taste food products, and Japanese food products.
Tabeena (‘Best Growth’ award winner)
The Tabeena team commended by Open Network Lab managing partner Fumihiko Ishimaru (pictured right)
At sightseeing spots, many tourists can be seen taking photos with their smartphones to record their travel experience. However, most of these photos remain stored on a smartphone. Facebook is a good platform to share experiences with friends, but it is not always suitable for recording memorable moments.
The team developed the Tabeena app that allows users to shoot and review photos instantly. Their survey of smartphone users in Japan found that a user will take five shots on average during a trip. Japan has a cumulative total of 380 million tourists in Japan, so the team can target 1.7 billion travel photos annually.
The team aims to make the Tabeena app a customized travel guide that will give users travel tips based on their interests, location, weather, and time.
Mobingi
Deploying apps to a server or a cloud environment is a time-consuming task for engineers. By automating this process as SaaS (software as a service), Mobingi helps users complete the arduous task without help from other engineers. Heroku, Engine Yard, and Digital Ocean are potential competitors, but Mobingi has an advantage with several features such as non-app software deployments, no vendor lock-in, and auto scaling.
This space has a market volume of $2 billion in Japan, as well as $190 billion in the global market. Mobingi started developing the platform in January and launched a closed beta version in September followed by an open beta version in October.
Untickle
Untickle’s Chiyo Nomura
In Japan, one out of 20 people suffers from atopic dermatitis who pay more than $2,400 per year on average for products to alleviate symptoms of the skin disorder, a market valued at $9 billion.
Chiyo Nomura and her team have developed a social network for atopic dermatitis sufferers called Untickle. Atopic dermatitis sufferers can use Untickle to find a workaround that will suit their symptoms from messages posted by other users who have similar symptoms.
In cooperation with Japan Atopic Dermatitis Patients Association and a curative hot spring spa, they have acquired 5,600 users, 10 advertising requests, and two sponsors. They plan to monetize the business by partnering with food or cosmetics companies that make atopic-friendly products. They aim to expand globally.
Kabotip
Kabotip7s Claude Eguienta
Kabotip is a platform where users can post and find digital content and give monetary tips via digital currency to other users who have created preferred content.
They aim to acquire users via a viral marketing campaign in partnership with over 200 influential bloggers worldwide, 12 magazines in the US, Japan, and France, as well as globally notable fashion blogs. They will monetize content by allowing users to give tips to creative talent at real-world events, as well as premium memberships.
Open Network Lab is now inviting applications from startups looking to join the next batch of its incubation program starting in January. The application deadline is November 10th. Qualified teams will be able to use co-working spaces in Daikanyama Tokyo and Kamakura, as well as Digital Garage’s co-working space DG717 in San Francisco. At DG717, they are planning to increase mentoring opportunities having entrepreneurs based in Silicon Valley.
Japanese startup 30min (pronounced as ‘san zero minutes’), the company behind a gourmet mobile app, announced today that it will hand the business to Tokyo-based Iid, one of Japan’s largest online media conglomerate outlets. 30min said that the gourmet site has more than 12 million monthly page views from over 3.7 million monthly unique users, but the transfer cost for the asset purchase has not been disclosed. Since its launch in 2008, the company has been leading in the location-based restaurant finder app space. While the business became profitable last year, they decided they needed more time to exit via IPO so they will hand the gourmet app business to Iid. See also: Japanese startup 30min launches new service for finding bargain apartments 30min co-founder and CEO Motoaki Tanigo will step down from the management board but will manage other 30min businesses, including a bargain-priced apartment finder app. He is preparing to launch a new startup, and will serve as an advisor to other Japanese startups like TravelBook and Handshare. By adding the 30min gourmet-focused media to its line-up, Iid now has more than 40 media outlets across various vertical fields such as autos, e-commerce, education, fashion, finance, hobby, IT,…
Japanese startup 30min (pronounced as ‘san zero minutes’), the company behind a gourmet mobile app, announced today that it will hand the business to Tokyo-based Iid, one of Japan’s largest online media conglomerate outlets. 30min said that the gourmet site has more than 12 million monthly page views from over 3.7 million monthly unique users, but the transfer cost for the asset purchase has not been disclosed.
Since its launch in 2008, the company has been leading in the location-based restaurant finder app space. While the business became profitable last year, they decided they needed more time to exit via IPO so they will hand the gourmet app business to Iid.
30min co-founder and CEO Motoaki Tanigo will step down from the management board but will manage other 30min businesses, including a bargain-priced apartment finder app. He is preparing to launch a new startup, and will serve as an advisor to other Japanese startups like TravelBook and Handshare.
By adding the 30min gourmet-focused media to its line-up, Iid now has more than 40 media outlets across various vertical fields such as autos, e-commerce, education, fashion, finance, hobby, IT, medical business, and sports.
Tokyo-based Quan, the Japanese startup behind mobile apps like MyStickerShop and Lounge, announced today that it has fundraised from Daiwa Corporate Investment, East Ventures, Dentsu Digital Holdings, IMJ Investment partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, and Senshu Ikeda Capital. Funding details have not been disclosed but it’s likely worth around several million US dollars. Daiwa Corporate Investment and East Ventures have participated in the past rounds. Quan will use the money to strengthen business operations in Southeast Asia. See also: How a small Japanese startup is helping Thailand’s biggest telco win new 3G subscribers WeChat turns to Japanese startup Quan for mobile sticker content Since its launch in 2011, Quan has launched smartphone app MyStickerShop in partnership with Thailand’s leading telco AIS, as well as developed the Japanese versions of popular mobile games from Thai developers such as Kiragames, PocketPlayLab, and PromptNow. The company fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese e-commerce giant Netprice.com and investment company East Ventures in 2012. In August this year, Quan invested in Bangkok-based game startup Magic Box Asia.
Since its launch in 2011, Quan has launched smartphone app MyStickerShop in partnership with Thailand’s leading telco AIS, as well as developed the Japanese versions of popular mobile games from Thai developers such as Kiragames, PocketPlayLab, and PromptNow. The company fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese e-commerce giant Netprice.com and investment company East Ventures in 2012. In August this year, Quan invested in Bangkok-based game startup Magic Box Asia.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional house hunting. The startup announced today that it has fundraised about 200 million yen ($1.86 million) from YJ Capital and Incubate Fund. Coinciding with this, YJ Capital CEO Takao Ozawa and Incubate Fund partner Keisuke Wada will join the management board of the company. See also: Ietty fundraises $500,000, aiming to disrupt Japanese home rental industry When a user submits criteria for a home and a preferred date to visit candidates on the platform, they will receive a selection of property options from real-estate agencies. A user who then visits a property will receive a reward of 1,000 yen ($9.30) from the platform. Ietty was launched in July 2013, and subsequently raised about 50 million yen ($500,000) from I Mercury Capital, the investment arm of Japanese Internet company Mixi, in October of the same year. This June they launched a new service for corporate welfare called Ietty Biz. Ietty CEO Taikhei Ogawa explained recent developments: About 1,000 people use our service every month, and 20% to 30% of them visit property agencies. We ask users who have submitted…
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional house hunting. The startup announced today that it has fundraised about 200 million yen ($1.86 million) from YJ Capital and Incubate Fund. Coinciding with this, YJ Capital CEO Takao Ozawa and Incubate Fund partner Keisuke Wada will join the management board of the company.
When a user submits criteria for a home and a preferred date to visit candidates on the platform, they will receive a selection of property options from real-estate agencies. A user who then visits a property will receive a reward of 1,000 yen ($9.30) from the platform.
Ietty was launched in July 2013, and subsequently raised about 50 million yen ($500,000) from I Mercury Capital, the investment arm of Japanese Internet company Mixi, in October of the same year. This June they launched a new service for corporate welfare called Ietty Biz.
Ietty CEO Taikhei Ogawa explained recent developments:
About 1,000 people use our service every month, and 20% to 30% of them visit property agencies. We ask users who have submitted strict criteria in finding a home to loosen their requirements so that they will be more likely to find good candidates. We are monitoring these tendencies with the aim to automate the process.
On the corporate service, Ietty Biz has acquired about 40 clients, including listed IT companies, for as short as four months since the launch, which is more than expected, Ogawa says.
Some users (employees working in a corporate client) have decided their relocation using Ietty Biz. When a corporate client opts for a new home through our service, word spreads in the company and more users use our service. New companies, where employees are typically young and are likely to relocate many times, have an affinity for our service. However, we want to reach out to more established companies.
The company will use the funds to hire staff and strengthen sales, especially for supporting property agencies that use the platform.
See the original story in Japanese. Many startups offer platforms that allow users to develop outputs without the need for special skills, such as Monaca (developing mobile apps only with web app development skills) and Prott (prototyping mobile apps only with design skills). Zugyuuun, which was showcased at the recent Samurai Venture Summit event, gives users the tools to develop connected hardware devices that only require HTML and JavaScript coding skills. A new API called Milkcocoa eliminates back-end environment management operations for web developers. From an engineering perspective, the expansion of cloud services has reduced the need to visit data centers to set up or tune-up servers. But many back-end operations remain, such as maintaining server instances, so that front-end apps can keep properly serving users. An engineer may have to handle both front-end and back-end environments at several small startups. An engineer that is focused on the front-end of developing services may get into trouble to adjust the back-end environment. A small company may not be able to afford to hire someone to handle this task. Milkcocoa is the answer for such a situation. When developing a web app having a feature like login or a user-to-user messaging system,…
From the left: Technical Rockstars CEO Shuhei Hiya, and CMO Yohei Kawano
Many startups offer platforms that allow users to develop outputs without the need for special skills, such as Monaca (developing mobile apps only with web app development skills) and Prott (prototyping mobile apps only with design skills). Zugyuuun, which was showcased at the recent Samurai Venture Summit event, gives users the tools to develop connected hardware devices that only require HTML and JavaScript coding skills.
A new API called Milkcocoa eliminates back-end environment management operations for web developers. From an engineering perspective, the expansion of cloud services has reduced the need to visit data centers to set up or tune-up servers. But many back-end operations remain, such as maintaining server instances, so that front-end apps can keep properly serving users.
An engineer may have to handle both front-end and back-end environments at several small startups. An engineer that is focused on the front-end of developing services may get into trouble to adjust the back-end environment. A small company may not be able to afford to hire someone to handle this task. Milkcocoa is the answer for such a situation.
When developing a web app having a feature like login or a user-to-user messaging system, data sets (e.g., user ID or password) are usually stored in a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL in the open source environment. Special skills are needed to manage a database so that a web app and database can exchange data. But Milkcocoa allows a user to forget about processes around a database because these functions become possible by simply coding JavaScript functions. The Milkcocoa platform has a web-based dashboard that allows the maintenance of sets of login IDs and passwords in order to control user access to an app, which will enable the development of a simple app without a database environment, but only with web server components like Apache.
The platform was developed by Japanese startup Technical Rockstars, led by Shuhei Hiya. He was qualified in a Mitou Youth project and officially approved as a “super creator” in 2010 by Japanese governmental IT promotion agency IPA. Technical Rockstars was previously based in Fukuoka because many team members are graduates of Kyushu University, where they created app development tools for non-programmers, such as diagram-based coding environment Clooca (somewhat like Yahoo Pipes?) and Dataflow programming language FLOWer. Upon the beta launch of the Milkcocoa platform in August, they relocated to Shibuya, Tokyo, to explore funding opportunities and partnerships with other startups.
Hiya outlined their plans:
We only have a freemium version, but we are planning to launch a premium version in January or February next year. The premium version will give users an option of auto-scale out, which adds a number of virtual nodes automatically in accordance with a traffic balance to your app. Furthermore, it will also enable user authentication using Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts by merely inserting a line of JavaScript code to your app.
Milkcocoa uses AWS (Amazon Web Services) as their back-end environment. To provide users with the auto-scale out function, Milkcocoa will have to pay more to AWS for adding active instances. To cover this expense, Milkcocoa will need to raise money from investors.
CMO Yohei Kawano elaborated:
Our corporate philosophy is to make app creation easy. We want more startups to use Milkcocoa. That’s why we expect to attract investors with a vast network of startups rather than money.
There is great demand for this type of service in the global market. Y Combinator-backed Firebase and Facebook-acquired Parse might be competitors for the Technical Rockstars team, but these US-based platforms are primarily targeting the US market. So the Japanese startup aims to expand to Asia after launching the premium version. Their website, tutorials, and technical documents are available in English in preparation for the upcoming global expansion.
CEO Hiya will pitch at HTML5Minutes, a startup showcase event in Harumi, Tokyo, on Monday evening.
Junya Mori
Masaru Ikeda
