Coinciding with the funds, Fidelity’s Japan head David Milstein will join the board of A-SaaS. A-SaaS will hire new people to strengthen systems development and sales promotion efforts using the funds.
Since its launch back in June of 2009, A-SaaS has offered a cloud-based accounting platform targeting small/medium-sized enterprises. In June of 2013, they partnered with Salesforce.com and fundraised 625 million yen ($6.25 million) from GREE Ventures and Mobile Internet Capital as well as other investors. A-SaaS is a first-of-its-kind which has been followed by other startups like Freee (launched in July of 2012) and Money Forward (January of 2014).
The company was founded by Toshinao Morisaki, the former president of Ibex Airlines and the former director of JDL (Japan Digital Laboratory, TSE:6935). He started A-SaaS by raising funds from 800 tax accountants and took almost five years to introduce its first prototype. While there are 35,000 accounting offices of all types in Japan, A-SaaS has acquired about 1,600 accounting offices as users to date.
I Mercury Capital is the investment arm of Japan’s internet company Mixi. Mobile Internet Capital is a VC firm launched by ex-Intel Japan Chairman Ikuo Nishioka. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. More TV news shows have started carrying video clips or photos picked up from social media platforms. News channels like CNN or Fox News have adopted such news materials en masse from earlier on. But surprisingly, Japanese public broadcaster NHK, hitherto considered to be a late adopter of this kind of coverage, now even uses materials from unknown origin in their news programs. This is likely due to a change in generations. Yet despite the advances in news media, no correspondent or news anchor can beat out ordinary citizens witnessing and recording a scene in terms of newsgathering speed. Given that, a news media’s value relies on its ability to edit the materials being delivered. Analysis and provision of obscure background information behind events are needed to help viewers understand the news. As social media has disseminated widely among the public, I see editing of information as the remaining bastion of media. But a new startup aims to disrupt this prevailing view. This is Tokyo-based Euclid Lab, which is developing a mobile app called Spectee. In July, I talked to Euclid Lab CEO Kenjiro Murakami at ICT Spring in Luxembourg, but I could not…
More TV news shows have started carrying video clips or photos picked up from social media platforms. News channels like CNN or Fox News have adopted such news materials en masse from earlier on. But surprisingly, Japanese public broadcaster NHK, hitherto considered to be a late adopter of this kind of coverage, now even uses materials from unknown origin in their news programs. This is likely due to a change in generations.
Yet despite the advances in news media, no correspondent or news anchor can beat out ordinary citizens witnessing and recording a scene in terms of newsgathering speed. Given that, a news media’s value relies on its ability to edit the materials being delivered. Analysis and provision of obscure background information behind events are needed to help viewers understand the news.
As social media has disseminated widely among the public, I see editing of information as the remaining bastion of media. But a new startup aims to disrupt this prevailing view. This is Tokyo-based Euclid Lab, which is developing a mobile app called Spectee.
In July, I talked to Euclid Lab CEO Kenjiro Murakami at ICT Spring in Luxembourg, but I could not then understand the overall concept of the product because they were still early in the development process. Several months have passed, and I wondered how the development of Spectee was progressing. To find out, I visited Euclid Lab to speak to Murakami. (Below is a video of his pitch at ICT Spring 2014.)
Devoting themselves to fine-tuning
Spectee is a platform that curates updates from social media and sorts them based on geotags or keywords contained in every tweet or message post. About 60 locations across Japan are set in the app where users can see what is happening in real time in every location.
Murakami explained:
Since the launch of our service in beta, we have been devoting ourselves to fine-tuning the filtering engine so that it offers users better results. So we haven’t massively exposed ourselves to the media. Location-based analysis, filtering out irrelevant content, machine-learning technology… we have mixed them all together to improve the accuracy of our engine.
Since ICT Spring in July, Euclid Lab has been demonstrating their product on an operational test basis at festivities like the Aomori Nebuta festival in partnership with companies like Japanese telco NTT East and Cisco Systems.
Due to the platform’s ability to collect regionally oriented events, it seems that newspaper publishers are also interested in Spectee. As the form of media continue to diversify, although in general the newspaper business is struggling, many local newspapers are doing well compared to major newspapers, not only in Japan but also in the U.S. and other countries.
Let us consider a local newspaper in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. Without any foreign correspondents, they can buy global updates from news agencies. Updates from Tokyo can be distributed by their affiliates. However, they need to place reporters at every corner of the prefecture to obtain local news updates. But if they adopt Spectee, it will act efficiently as a primary information source for reporters.
Noted Murakami,
Finding relevant regionally oriented updates is not so easy online because most sites show trending updates from the entire base in an upper level of retrieval results. So updates unlikely seen by a big audience will be buried under a pile of information. One can pick up the updates that are really needed with our app.
Spectee crawls social media to curate updates, but they aim to expand to other platforms for crawling, to become a platform that gathers local news updates from around the world.
Will newspapers buy news from citizens?
Thanks to the penetration of social media, word of incidents or events can spread very quickly around the world. Just for speed, social media can deliver updates faster than any conventional news media like newspapers or TV news programs. Murakami elaborated:
I came up with the idea when a big fire broke out on a highway in Shibuya in March. When an incident happens, pictures of the scene will be uploaded to Twitter or other social media right away. In contrast, conventional media takes 60 minutes on average to cover an event after it happens.
Murakami told us that they are receiving offers or potential partnerships from newspapers, railway companies and other curated news media. Euclid Lab can make money if they distribute updates to these potential partners, and the company is exploring a business model of redistributing retained earnings to their users who have properly posted pictures or provided text reporting. Under this concept, people can sell their updates to newspapers instead of buying their papers from the companies.
Taking advantage of the strength in curating regional updates, they want to make another revenue stream by providing local advertisements, as they are more likely to target a regional audience and avail efficient marketing rather than a nationwide campaign.
Seeing what’s happening in your neighborhood through smartglasses
While Spectee is available for iOS, Euclid Lab has developed a prototype version for Android Wear and is developing one for Android handsets.
In Japan, much information is centralized in Tokyo. But in Europe, their information is more regionally fragmented so we garnered a high reputation at the exhibition.
Euclid Lab is a seven-person team and comprises Muarkami, four engineers, and board members like notable serial entrepreneur Tomoyuki Uchida and Kazunori Umino, who is the authority in adopting scientific methologies to businesses.
The start-up was qualified in the second batch of the Orange Fab Asia incubation program, and will pitch at a Demo Day event today (25 November). The Bridge will cover this event including the Euclid Lab team’s presentation.
See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Tokyo-based crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz relocated their office to Omotesando, Tokyo, in September. The company had been operating out of 01Booster, a co-working space near Tokyo Tower, since its launch in 2011. MerryBiz snagged funding from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital in May to boost their business. CEO Hiroki Kudo explained the reason for the office move: It was a good opportunity for us to mix with other startups at 01 Booster. However, we decided to move to the next stage in our business as our service concept had sufficiently jelled. Given our upcoming requirement to apply for the PrivacyMark certification, we believed it was the right time to move to an independent office. Securing funds was a big factor in the decision. The uniqueness of our service is not so prominent so we have to execute it as soon as possible to win the game. The financing was indispensable for us. While Kudo had been exploring fundraising for several years, it was a challenge to receive…
This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.
Tokyo-based crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz relocated their office to Omotesando, Tokyo, in September. The company had been operating out of 01Booster, a co-working space near Tokyo Tower, since its launch in 2011. MerryBiz snagged funding from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital in May to boost their business.
CEO Hiroki Kudo explained the reason for the office move:
It was a good opportunity for us to mix with other startups at 01 Booster. However, we decided to move to the next stage in our business as our service concept had sufficiently jelled. Given our upcoming requirement to apply for the PrivacyMark certification, we believed it was the right time to move to an independent office.
Securing funds was a big factor in the decision. The uniqueness of our service is not so prominent so we have to execute it as soon as possible to win the game. The financing was indispensable for us.
While Kudo had been exploring fundraising for several years, it was a challenge to receive a favorable response from investors. In this situation, prominent investors and businesspersons like Terry Hayashiguchi (CyberAgent Ventures), Satoshi Maruyama (Venture United), Etsuji Otsuka (Trium Partners), and Tokyo-based Australian serial entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd, gave Kudo advice and helped him polish his business plan, which led to winning the funding in May.
They developed and rolled out their first web interface in July using the funds. Japanese cloud-based accounting startup Freee recently introduced an entire back-office solution for businesses; MerryBiz wants to take a different approach to better serve users. Kudo explained:
We don’t aim to replace certified accountants with our service. We’ll focus on providing outsourced paperwork services and help accountants focus on giving advice to their clients. We want our users to select convenient features from among our services and use them rather than providing them with a one-stop (full back-office) solution. So we have integrated with third-party services such as MoneyForward (online account book service) and Scanman (outsourced book scanning service).
Typical tech startups tend to market for user acquisitions via digital manners because their products are usually in digital form. However, Kudo thinks this approach has limits in reaching potential users so he plans to establish complementary partnerships with public accountants and other business professionals. Young accountants, many of whom have not been running businesses for very long, may be good partners for MerryBiz.
This space has competitors like F&M (JASDAQ:4771), which runs outsourced bookkeeping service TaxHouse. However, Kuro believes that MerryBiz can be a top player by bringing more technology-based solutions to the industry. As there are many fintech startups in Tokyo he has begun holding meet-ups to encourage people to connect in the fintech space. The second edition of the meet-up will take place on 26 November.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. On 21st November, the “harbinger” crowdfunding service Music Securities offered visitors to Organic Expo/Biofach Japan 2014 an early-bird seminar about utilizing “micro-investment funds” followed by the rest of the day offering free advice at a service corner in the Nippon Mono Ichi section within the show. The answers provided by Director in charge of Securitization, Yoshitaka Inoo, in a businesslike, clear-cut manner were much appreciated by those interested in the status of fund-gathering in Japan. The company, which was launched as a fund specializing to support musicians (though now apparently not much involved in this sector according to the corporate director), targets companies that have started up and is readying for full-scale business activities. It has recently been involved in funding breweries for example. One of the firms supported by Music Securities, covering consumer research, had a booth and so the “crowd-funder” (they said the company actually predates the adoption of this concept in Japan) decided to locate a desk next to it in order to offer “music to the ear” of those cash-poor businesses participating in the fast-growing organics field get-together. Case studies of funds being used by breweries…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
On 21st November, the “harbinger” crowdfunding service Music Securities offered visitors to Organic Expo/Biofach Japan 2014 an early-bird seminar about utilizing “micro-investment funds” followed by the rest of the day offering free advice at a service corner in the Nippon Mono Ichi section within the show. The answers provided by Director in charge of Securitization, Yoshitaka Inoo, in a businesslike, clear-cut manner were much appreciated by those interested in the status of fund-gathering in Japan.
The company, which was launched as a fund specializing to support musicians (though now apparently not much involved in this sector according to the corporate director), targets companies that have started up and is readying for full-scale business activities. It has recently been involved in funding breweries for example.
One of the firms supported by Music Securities, covering consumer research, had a booth and so the “crowd-funder” (they said the company actually predates the adoption of this concept in Japan) decided to locate a desk next to it in order to offer “music to the ear” of those cash-poor businesses participating in the fast-growing organics field get-together.
Case studies of funds being used by breweries and other food/beverage outfits were presented while looking at both the “merits” as well as “costs entailed” of accessing small-scale funds to drive a business operation. Music Securities notes that it aims to have the operations it supports gather “more fans” the way musicians cultivate fans.
Biofach is a Nuremberg-based show catering to businesses involved in “organic” products; the Japan edition of the German confab has been held since 2001. This year’s venue was – as has been recently – the waterfront Tokyo Big Sight, alongside Organic Expo, for a three-day event starting from 20th November. In adjacent halls the Tokyo International Industry Exhibition and the HiNT show, focused on SMEs in Japan, were being held from 19th of November.
Apparently Music Securities is currently scrutinizing small farmers and other food producers (as highlighted by the company newsletter “Securite Report“) in advance of increasing interest in “Sixth Industry Market” which ties in the farming/fishing/forestry industry with logistics/ICT. Since the next Organic Show/Biofach Japan is being held in February of 2016, there will be plenty of time to see what results will be yielded from its foray into this arena.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kompeito, the startup that provides on-demand vegetable delivery service for office workers, called ‘Office de Yasai‘, announced today that it has partnered with and fundraised 50 million yen (or about $423,000) from Japanese mayonnaise company Kewpie Corporation (TSE:2809). Since its launch back in April of this year, Kompeito has been providing a vegetable delivery service for office workers in central Tokyo. When a company subscribes to the service, Kompeito installs a portable fridge at the company’s office and every week stocks it with fresh vegetables. So when an office worker feels famished, they can easily buy a one-bite vegetable snack for 100 yen or 200 yen ($1 or $2) from the fridge and pay for it by dropping coins into a pot attached to the fridge. In September, Kompeito partnered with Kyoto-based delicatessen Onoue and added several side dishes to the menu for lunch. Upon this partnership, Kompeito will expand their delivery coverage from central Tokyo to all of Japan by increasing delivery centers to 1,000 locations by April 2015, and 2,000 locations by end of 2015. They will also receive assistance from Kewpie in cultivating procurement channels from farmers and product developers….
Tokyo-based Kompeito, the startup that provides on-demand vegetable delivery service for office workers, called ‘Office de Yasai‘, announced today that it has partnered with and fundraised 50 million yen (or about $423,000) from Japanese mayonnaise company Kewpie Corporation (TSE:2809).
Since its launch back in April of this year, Kompeito has been providing a vegetable delivery service for office workers in central Tokyo. When a company subscribes to the service, Kompeito installs a portable fridge at the company’s office and every week stocks it with fresh vegetables. So when an office worker feels famished, they can easily buy a one-bite vegetable snack for 100 yen or 200 yen ($1 or $2) from the fridge and pay for it by dropping coins into a pot attached to the fridge. In September, Kompeito partnered with Kyoto-based delicatessen Onoue and added several side dishes to the menu for lunch.
Upon this partnership, Kompeito will expand their delivery coverage from central Tokyo to all of Japan by increasing delivery centers to 1,000 locations by April 2015, and 2,000 locations by end of 2015. They will also receive assistance from Kewpie in cultivating procurement channels from farmers and product developers. Kewpie will explore distribution channels other than conventional food retailing through the partnership.
Kompeito qualified for the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s startup nurturing program and won a 10 million yen ($84,600) grant from the government this year, while securing funds of an undisclosed sum from Incubate Fund in July. The company also receives hands-on business support from Japanese recipe site Cookpad (TSE:2193).
In terms of creating interactive opportunities between consumers and farmers, Kompeito takes a typical startup approach to disrupt conventional farm product distribution systems, similarly to Farmly, a new startup born out of the first batch of Founder Institute Tokyo.
Japanese internet company Kayac‘s IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market was approved today. The company has appointed Nomura Securities as an underwriter for this IPO and will be listed on 25 December. Since its launch in 1998, Kayac has been introducing humorous web services and mobile apps to attract users. They were incorporated in 2005, and subsequently started introducing social gaming apps via DeNA‘s mobile gaming platform Mobage after it opened to third party developers in 2010. Their smash hit gaming titles include Bokura no Koshien, a mobile baseball gaming app with a social networking feature. Kayac saw 2.8 billion yen (approximately $23.7 million) in revenue with an ordinary profit of 216 million yen ($1.8 million) and a net profit of 31 million yen ($262,000) last year. The company was named after their three co-founders: Masanori Kaihata, Daisuke Yanasawa, and Tomoyoshi Cuba. All these people have a 88.05% stake in the company. See also: Kayac releases mobile listening training app for English students in Japan Need more holiday sales? Japan’s Kayac has entire web services available for acquisition Japanese iPhone add-on enhances bland meals with BBQ smell On My Mobile: Kayac’s Kayo Matsubara
Japanese internet company Kayac‘s IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market was approved today. The company has appointed Nomura Securities as an underwriter for this IPO and will be listed on 25 December.
Since its launch in 1998, Kayac has been introducing humorous web services and mobile apps to attract users. They were incorporated in 2005, and subsequently started introducing social gaming apps via DeNA‘s mobile gaming platform Mobage after it opened to third party developers in 2010. Their smash hit gaming titles include Bokura no Koshien, a mobile baseball gaming app with a social networking feature.
Kayac saw 2.8 billion yen (approximately $23.7 million) in revenue with an ordinary profit of 216 million yen ($1.8 million) and a net profit of 31 million yen ($262,000) last year. The company was named after their three co-founders: Masanori Kaihata, Daisuke Yanasawa, and Tomoyoshi Cuba. All these people have a 88.05% stake in the company.