Tokyo-based Creema, the startup behind a C2C marketplace for handmade items, announced 7 November that it has introduced an iOS app for the service. The company fundraised 100 million yen ($1 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund in June and has developed the app using the funds with the aim to improve accessibility for their mobile users.
Since its launch in 2010, Creema has listed over 650,000 handmade items and acquired over two million monthly visitors. Their monthly transaction volume is seeing good growth and has doubled in comparison with five months ago when they partnered with Japanese telco KDDI coinciding, with the aforementioned funding. In differentiation with other C2C marketplaces like Mercari and Fril, Creema is focused on handmade items, allowing users to interact with creators and order their custom-made items as well as listed items.
While this version of the app allows buyers to browse and purchase items only, a new version, which is scheduled to go live mid-November, will support the function that enables sellers to submit their items to the marketplace.
In this space Taiwan-born handmade marketplace Pinkoi, which is backed by Japan’s Infinity Venture Partners, has been expanding into Japanese where they have adopted the “Mobile First” strategy. Pinkoi has released its localized Android and iOS apps for Japanese users, so the launch of Creema’s mobile app at this time means that the Japanese company is ready for a battle with the Taiwanese competitor.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced today that it has approved CrowdWorks, the Japanese company that provides crowdsourcing platform under the same name, for an IPO on the TSE Mothers Market. The company will be listed on 12 December. Since its launch in 2011, CrowdWorks has been providing a crowdsourcing plaform for engineers, writers, designers, and other freelance workers, as well as running collaborated businesses with established companies like Yahoo Japan and Japanese education company Benesse Corporation. The company saw 51 million yen ($446,000) in revenue with an ordinary loss of 158 million yen ($1.4 million) and a net loss of 159 million yen ($1.4 million), so they have been showing a loss since the launch. In our recent interview with CrowdWorks founder and CEO Koichiro Yoshida, he said that the annual transaction volume of crowdsourced jobs dealt with by the platform will reach over 2 billion yen ($17.4 million) this year. See also: Japanese startups find creativity at Crowdworks Can crowdsourcing startups change Japan’s employment landscape? In Japan, some seniors turn to crowdsourcing job platforms for work Japanese crowdsourcing platform ‘Crowdworks’ raises $10.7 million Japan finds a new way to work: In conversation with Crowdworks’ Koichiro Yoshida Japan and…
CrowdWorks founder and CEO Koichiro Yoshida
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced today that it has approved CrowdWorks, the Japanese company that provides crowdsourcing platform under the same name, for an IPO on the TSE Mothers Market. The company will be listed on 12 December.
Since its launch in 2011, CrowdWorks has been providing a crowdsourcing plaform for engineers, writers, designers, and other freelance workers, as well as running collaborated businesses with established companies like Yahoo Japan and Japanese education company Benesse Corporation.
The company saw 51 million yen ($446,000) in revenue with an ordinary loss of 158 million yen ($1.4 million) and a net loss of 159 million yen ($1.4 million), so they have been showing a loss since the launch.
In our recent interview with CrowdWorks founder and CEO Koichiro Yoshida, he said that the annual transaction volume of crowdsourced jobs dealt with by the platform will reach over 2 billion yen ($17.4 million) this year.
See the original story in Japanese. Unda is a mobile video messaging app brought from 500 Startups incubator last year. It will rebrand as VideoSelfie this week. The app allows users to take a video clip with a smartphone, add animated filters and music to it, and share it with other users. Tokyo-based Pocket Supernova, the company behind the app, has $1.2 million in a seed round from East Ventures, Klab Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and other investors. See also: Could the next wave in mobile messaging be video? 500 Startups’ Unda hopes so. Focused on real-time editing The Unda messaging app was developed for the exchange of video messages. But the team realized it would be a matter before the market was saturated, so they began differentiating themselves with new technology, according to Pocket Supernova CEO and co-founder Oscar Yasser Noriega. Since early 2014, the team has been focusing on adding real-time editing to the app, which allows users to add animated GIFs to selfie videos and share them with friends or other users via social network services. In addition, users can communicate with each other in the VideoSelfie community, which is similar to Instagram. Noriega explained: Many users take…
Unda is a mobile video messaging app brought from 500 Startups incubator last year. It will rebrand as VideoSelfie this week.
The app allows users to take a video clip with a smartphone, add animated filters and music to it, and share it with other users. Tokyo-based Pocket Supernova, the company behind the app, has $1.2 million in a seed round from East Ventures, Klab Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and other investors.
The Unda messaging app was developed for the exchange of video messages. But the team realized it would be a matter before the market was saturated, so they began differentiating themselves with new technology, according to Pocket Supernova CEO and co-founder Oscar Yasser Noriega.
Since early 2014, the team has been focusing on adding real-time editing to the app, which allows users to add animated GIFs to selfie videos and share them with friends or other users via social network services. In addition, users can communicate with each other in the VideoSelfie community, which is similar to Instagram.
Noriega explained:
CEO Oscar Yasser Noriega
Many users take a video clip with their smartphone and send it a friend with a message. While video editing is getting popular, most apps have yet to adopt traditional ways, which lets users follow a step-by-step process for recording, editing, and adding filters. But VideoSelfie allows you to manage all these tasks in real-time in one screen and share the completed video clip instantly.
The VideoSelfie app is available in English, Japanese, and Spanish. Some 50% of their users are in North America, 25% from Southeast Asia, and the rest from other regions. While the app provides the same functions regardless of geographical conditions, some content or functions may be offered in specific markets. They will share a function focused on the Japanese market when it becomes available.
Taking selfie videos like ‘purikura’ photos
Looking at their user demographics, girls aged from 12 to 19 years are the majority. The penetration of the “selfie culture” varies from market to market. Selfies are popular in North America and Southeast Asia, but not in Japan. To be widely accepted, the team believes that they need to educate people so that they will take selfie videos like they do in taking purikura photos with friends.
The team plans to generate revenue by selling additional filters and effects as in-app purchases, but it could also license its technology to bigger companies as another avenue for monetization.
With the real-time editing, the VideoSelfie app may lower the psychological hurdle that a user might have in conventional video editing methods. The app may become popular among young Japanese girls if they can easily create cute video clips with it.
Tokyo-based Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), the seed round investor focused on tech startups in Japan and China, and known as the host of Japanese semi-annual startup showcase event Infinity Venture Summit, announced today that it has formed its third fund called Infinity e.ventures Asia III, L.P. See also: Infinity Venture Summit 2013 Spring in Sapporo Infinity Venture Summit 2013 Fall in Kyoto Infinity Venture Summit 2014 Spring in Sapporo The new fund has raised $32 million from corporate and individual investors in Japan alone, but the amount is expected to reach $100 million next year with additional funding from foreign investors who have participated in their past funds. According to IVP, investors in the third fund include Recruit Holdings, Daiwa Securities, Sammy Networks (game developer), Orso (mobile developer), Mixi, and United. Since its launch in January 2009, IVP has invested $128 million in over 40 tech startups in Japan and China, including Groupon Japan, Smart Education, Freee (cloud-based accounting platform in Japan), Yeahka (the Chinese equivalent to the Square payments platform), and 36kr (startup database platformer in China). In addition, the group has also invested in international tech companies like AppAnnie (app store analytics) and The RealReal Japan (luxury consignment)…
Infinity Venture Partners’ co-founders and managing partners L to R: Akio Tanaka, Hirofumi Ono, Masashi Kobayashi
Tokyo-based Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), the seed round investor focused on tech startups in Japan and China, and known as the host of Japanese semi-annual startup showcase event Infinity Venture Summit, announced today that it has formed its third fund called Infinity e.ventures Asia III, L.P.
The new fund has raised $32 million from corporate and individual investors in Japan alone, but the amount is expected to reach $100 million next year with additional funding from foreign investors who have participated in their past funds. According to IVP, investors in the third fund include Recruit Holdings, Daiwa Securities, Sammy Networks (game developer), Orso (mobile developer), Mixi, and United.
Since its launch in January 2009, IVP has invested $128 million in over 40 tech startups in Japan and China, including Groupon Japan, Smart Education, Freee (cloud-based accounting platform in Japan), Yeahka (the Chinese equivalent to the Square payments platform), and 36kr (startup database platformer in China). In addition, the group has also invested in international tech companies like AppAnnie (app store analytics) and The RealReal Japan (luxury consignment) in partnership with e.ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage VC firm.
IVP launched a co-working and incubation space called TechTemple in Beijing last year to nurture Chinese startups and their ecosystem in the world’s second largest startup community.
See the original story in Japanese. Backpacking is fun. We sometimes experience unexpected troubles during a trip, such as finding no public transport introduced on a guidebook or facing the fact that a town on a traveler’s map has vanished. But travel can turn them into a joy. I often visit many startup communities around the world, and that may be due to such a mindset of a backpacker. A curated information portal site focused on local festivities was recently launched in Bangkok, one of the world’s top backpacker hubs. The website is called Event Carnival and was developed by former Social Recruiting COO Kota Saito and prominent Japanese globetrotter Hiroki Takagi. In fall of 2013, the duo promised each other in Tokyo that they would meet together in Thailand six months later. Saito went to India to help set up an English conversation school, and Takagi left Japan to polish his programming skills. Six months later in April this year, they met in Bangkok and participated in Songkran, the local traditional festival where people throw water on each others to celebrate. The duo counts many travel aficionados among their friends, and they have always been hearing of complaints like: Participating in a local festival maximizes the attraction of a travel destination where it’s happening. But nobody in advance knows when and…
Backpacking is fun. We sometimes experience unexpected troubles during a trip, such as finding no public transport introduced on a guidebook or facing the fact that a town on a traveler’s map has vanished. But travel can turn them into a joy. I often visit many startup communities around the world, and that may be due to such a mindset of a backpacker.
A curated information portal site focused on local festivities was recently launched in Bangkok, one of the world’s top backpacker hubs. The website is called Event Carnival and was developed by former Social Recruiting COO Kota Saito and prominent Japanese globetrotter Hiroki Takagi.
In fall of 2013, the duo promised each other in Tokyo that they would meet together in Thailand six months later. Saito went to India to help set up an English conversation school, and Takagi left Japan to polish his programming skills. Six months later in April this year, they met in Bangkok and participated in Songkran, the local traditional festival where people throw water on each others to celebrate. The duo counts many travel aficionados among their friends, and they have always been hearing of complaints like:
Participating in a local festival maximizes the attraction of a travel destination where it’s happening. But nobody in advance knows when and where to visit in order to join local festivals they may like.
Despite the fact that there are many guidebooks about sightseeing spots around the world, I have had no chance to find a one-stop information resource that presents how, when and where to join local festivals to be found worldwide. For this exact reason the duo launched the festival-focused portal site. Carnival, the company behind the portal, fundraised an undisclosed sum in a seed round from Tokyo-based East Ventures in July.
As of today, most of the content on the website adopts images or videos provided by third parties under the Creative Commons license. However, the Event Carnival team will visit and cover as many festivals as possible by themselves; it will replace the content with their own article as it becomes available. While the website has an English interface, articles showing on up festivals are mainly comprised of images or videos rather than text, which makes it easier to ask their friend backpackers to contribute to the website without concerns about language barriers.
The Event Carnival team with backpackers staying at Startup House, Bangkok.
The Event Carnival team is currently managing a share house called Startup House in central Bangkok. They haven’t mobilized any massive promotional campaign for the service yet, but guests staying there have been spreading the word and helped the team a lot to build a solid user base. The team is currently focused on increasing content but not quite in a phase to consider massive monetization. Since these users are staying under the same roof with the team, it’s easy both to carry out user validation and to fathom user needs.
The Event Carnival team is planning to start developing an Android mobile app first because they have chosen Southeast Asia as their main battlefield. In the future, they think that they will provide users with solutions meeting needs around festival participation, almost like what Meetup.com or Couch Surfing are providing as an ‘Event’ menu. Saito elaborated:
When you go on a trip, you should participate in local festivities at your destination. That’s our message. If you participate, your trip experience will be changed permanently and likely to stay in your heart forever. There are many Gullivers in the hotel or flight booking industry. But I think there’s no Gulliver delivering better travel experience as well. We aim to become the top player in this space.
Many of our readers may think that Japanese startups like Trippiece or Voyagin can be competitors for Carnival; however, each company provides different user experiences. Carnival looks to differentiate themselves from others by focusing on festival matters rather than an entire travel experience, in addition to targeting backpackers not only in Asia but also around the planet as potential users. It will indeed be intriguing to see how they fare with this strategy in such a competitive sector.
The Event Carnival team attended the Yeepeng Sansai ceremony in Chiangmai, Thailand. Carnival CEO Koki Saito is pictured on the left.
See the original story in Japanese. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) announced on Tuesday that it has launched a competition called Japan-UK Tech Awards to bring promising Japanese startups to the UK. The competition is in partnership with NTT Docomo Ventures and Deloitte’s Tohmatsu Venture Support. The competition is for Japanese startups that want to expand into the UK and other European countries. Applicant startups must: Have been running their business in Tokyo for three years or more. Have four or more employees. Have a service or product that they can market. Submit an application and a three to five page plan on how they will market their product or service in the UK. Applications will be screened by five judges from Japan and the UK, and UKTI will announce the finalists in December. The following awards will be given out: Complimentary accommodation for five nights in London and complimentary flights by British Airways (scheduled in March 2015). Lunch with Tim Hitchens, the UK ambassador to Japan. Complimentary one-month membership to London-based incubator The Bakery Lord Livingston, the minister of UKTI, visited Tokyo last week to announce the competition. At a news conference, he said that the UK’s ratio of…
The competition is for Japanese startups that want to expand into the UK and other European countries.
Applicant startups must:
Have been running their business in Tokyo for three years or more.
Have four or more employees.
Have a service or product that they can market.
Submit an application and a three to five page plan on how they will market their product or service in the UK.
Applications will be screened by five judges from Japan and the UK, and UKTI will announce the finalists in December. The following awards will be given out:
Complimentary accommodation for five nights in London and complimentary flights by British Airways (scheduled in March 2015).
Lunch with Tim Hitchens, the UK ambassador to Japan.
Complimentary one-month membership to London-based incubator The Bakery
Lord Livingston, the minister of UKTI, visited Tokyo last week to announce the competition. At a news conference, he said that the UK’s ratio of the Internet economy to GDP is the highest in the world and people in the UK commonly use e-commerce sites to do their shopping. He invited Japanese startups to be a part of TechCity, a startup community in London.
Nobuyuki Akimoto, vice president of NTT Docomo Ventures, said they began investing in the UK in October 2013, by investing in CertiVox, a startup based in London that has been developing a password-less authentication system. He expects Japanese startups to leverage this opportunity to find a path to global markets rather than through Silicon Valley.
The application deadline is 10 December. Visit their website for more details.
At a press briefing of the Japan-UK Tech Awards competition in Tokyo on Tuesday. L to R: Masayuki Kimura (Deloitte’s Tohmatsu Venture Support), Lord Livingston (Minister, UK Trade & Investment), Tim Hitchens (UK ambassador to Japan), and Nobuyuki Akimoto (Vice President, NTT Docomo Ventures)
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
