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Japan’s Incubate Fund holds its first global edition of bootcamp program in Singapore

Masaru Ikeda 2015.03.07

See the original story in Japanese.

Incubate Camp is a startup bootcamp program that lets entrepreneurs brush up their business idea with mentoring support from investors on a face-to-face basis, periodically organized by Japanese startup-focused investment firm Incubate Fund. Seven editions of the program have been held to date in Japan.

The firm held its first global edition called Incubate Camp Asia on February 25th, at Singapore University of Technology Design, SUTD for short. SUTD is known for Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab, which has been nourishing gaming developers in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

During the first global edition dubbed Incubate Camp Asia, gaming developers (entrepreneurs) from all across Asia and gaming publishers (investors providing mentoring support) mainly from Japan came together, teamed up and presented their polished business ideas after several review sessions.

Their ideas were scored by mentors and participating SUTD students with consideration of investment potentials, where three startups were selected out of all participating 10 startups upon their final pitch session.

Note: Some of gaming titles featured in this article are still under development.

Top Prize: JOY Entertainment J.S.C. (Vietnam)

(Mentoring by Allan Simonsen, Founder and CEO, Boomzap)

JOY Entertainment J.S.C. is a Vietnam-based gaming developers and has acquired 2 million users in the Southeast Asian region with their 3D MMOTPS (multiplayer onlinne third-person shooter) gaming titles. Going forward, the company wants to expand their business beyond to mainland China, Japan, Korea, and other markets, exploring potential partnership with gaming companies like Tencent in China as well as DeNA and Gumi in Japan. They are currently raising money to start self-publishing their titles in Vietnam.

Allan Simonsen, who has been working for over a decade in this space, lectured about improvements in user experience and monetization strategies. He acclaimed the team because of their passion and the promising achievement of having introduced apps that have attracted many users in the region.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-joy-ent-2 — Allan Simonsen provides mentorship.

2nd Prize: Alkemis Games (Indonesia)

(Mentoring by Juno Shin, Business Development Leader, Tencent Japan)

Alkemis Games is now developing a gaming title which will be launched this coming spring in Indonesia. They are interested in keeping the app in the higher rank on the AppStore for a long time, rather than taking a stab at top rank fame.

The team introduced their use case based on Pickfu.com, where developers can receive feedback from the market through presentation of multiple improvement proposals. Tencent’s Shin advocated some ideas like adding a GvG (Guild vs Guild) flavor or the concept of swapping and renting virtual items in the game, aiming to help them differentiate from other competing titles in the U.S.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-alkemis-games-2 — Juno Shin reviews his mentoring sessions.

3rd Prize: SnoozeFox (Thailand)

(Mentoring by Minori Iwaki, COO and Senior Vice President, Sega Networks)

Bangkok-based SnoozeFox has developed a game title called Chaos Sphere. They were advised to add some features like auto-batting mode as well as increasing the variety of characters, weapons and consuming virtual items in the game, aiming to gain a lifetime value of users.

Iwaki praised the team for its awesome game assets and having adopted GvG experience in their app.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-snoozefox-2 — Minori Iwaki (right) reviews his mentoring sessions.

What impressed me during the event was a comment given by David Ng, CEO of Gumi Asia. According to him, gaming developers who have less experience in working with gaming publishers usually start developing an app without considering its publishing process. These developers are so devoted to refining user interface and experience that the size of their app may be larger than 1 gigabytes. Such a huge size for gaming apps means a quick death regardless of quality, especially when broadband connectivity is likely unavailable such as in Indonesia.

Although it may be hard for developers in Southeast Asia where they typically have few gaming publishers in the neighborhood, Ng noted that developers should stay alert on the publishing side but not scamp the improvement process of user interface and experience regardless of whether your title is a major or indie one. Other participating mentors also agreed with his insight that encourages developers to listen to market voices.

Other participating startups and mentors were:

Altitude games (the Philippines), mentoring by Jakob Lykkegaard, Co-Founder/CEO, Playlab
Dreamlords Digital (the Philippines / US), mentoring by Akira Abe, General Manager, DeNA Asia Singapore
Firebeast Studio (Indonesia), mentoring by Kazuyuki Hagiwara, COO, Aiming
Hextek (China), mentoring by David Ng, CEO of Gumi Asia
Ixora Studios (Singapore), mentoring by Gerald Tock, Co-Founder/CEO, Inzen Studio
Touch Dimensions (Singapore), mentoring by Kent Byers, Co-Founder/CEO, Booster Pack
Witching Hour (Singapore), mentoring by Yusuke Murata, General Partner, Incubate Fund

1st-incubate-camp-asia-discussion-2 — A scene from mentoring sessions.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-discussion-1 — A scene from mentoring sessions.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-mentors — Entrepreneurs deliver their pitch to a crowd of mentors.

1st-incubate-camp-asia-sutd-view-1 — The first edition of Incubate Camp Asia took place here at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

Disclosure: Incubate Fund is a sponsoring member of The Bridge.

Translated by Sumi Yo via Mother First
Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Meet Laxus, Japan’s luxury handbag rental app for women

SCORE 4,401

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.03.05

See the original story in Japanese. I want to buy a classy, branded handbag, but it costs a thousand dollars. Too costly to buy multiple items, so I need to pick one with a ‘bland’ design for long-term use. More than a few women have experienced such a dilemma upon purchase of a new handbag. To help women solve this problem, Es Corporation, a Japanese Internet service company based in Hiroshima, recently launched an online luxury handbag rental app called Laxus. Make your choice from over 1,000 branded handbags Laxus allows users to rent their favorite handbag from more than 1,000 choices from 11 fashion brands by paying a monthly subscription fee of 6,800 yen ($57). Handbags are typically valued around $2,500 and includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, and Chanel. To eliminate the possibility of piracy, these bags are procured by Es Corporation from partnered suppliers belonging to Japan’s Association Against Counterfeit Product Distribution. The rental procedure is simple. After signing up for the service, you can choose and reserve a handbag of your preference using a smartphone app. You may rent it for as long you wish, and send it back after use with an attached…

See the original story in Japanese.

I want to buy a classy, branded handbag, but it costs a thousand dollars. Too costly to buy multiple items, so I need to pick one with a ‘bland’ design for long-term use.

More than a few women have experienced such a dilemma upon purchase of a new handbag. To help women solve this problem, Es Corporation, a Japanese Internet service company based in Hiroshima, recently launched an online luxury handbag rental app called Laxus.

Make your choice from over 1,000 branded handbags

Laxus allows users to rent their favorite handbag from more than 1,000 choices from 11 fashion brands by paying a monthly subscription fee of 6,800 yen ($57). Handbags are typically valued around $2,500 and includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, and Chanel. To eliminate the possibility of piracy, these bags are procured by Es Corporation from partnered suppliers belonging to Japan’s Association Against Counterfeit Product Distribution.

laxus-available-brands — Available fashion brands

The rental procedure is simple. After signing up for the service, you can choose and reserve a handbag of your preference using a smartphone app. You may rent it for as long you wish, and send it back after use with an attached receipt via courier service. Upon returning your rental, your next choice will be delivered to you. Since the rental period for each item has no limit, you can keep using the same choice as long as you pay the subscription fee.

Easy-to-use interface

There have been handbag rental services, but Laxus improved problems concealed in conventional services and adjusted it to fit the needs of today’s consumers. Unlike other conventional services designed for desktop use, Laxus lets users complete the entire booking flow via mobile phone. Prices do not vary according to which item you rent, but it’s entirely available for a flat-rate monthly fee of 6,800 yen. While typical rental services for luxury items require you to present an ID when receiving an item, all you need to do with Laxus is upload your portrait during the sign-up process.

Shoji Kodama, ES Corporation founder and CEO, told The Bridge what motivated him to launch the app.

If you buy a $2,000 handbag under a 20-month installment plan, you will need to keep paying $100 every month but can buy just one handbag. But our service allows you to make any choice from more than 1,000 handbags for less than $60 a month. You can even change it to a new one in any number of times.

The limit in the number of handbags users can buy has narrowed the range of their choice. We want to help them enjoy choosing the best handbag for their outfit in a bolder manner.

Global expansion

Laxus was officially launched on 23 February. During the pre-opening period, a new user signs up for the service every 6.5 seconds, which suggests a high need for women who want to enjoy fashion in a more casual way. Kodama says his team wants to acquire over 1,700 members in the first year, looking to reach 37,000 members in the next year and 400,000 members in five years.

Luxury branded handbags are popular in Japan as well as overseas. Es Corporation’s four founders have illustrious backgrounds in this space, such as global sales to 85 countries and 19 years of experience in the e-commerce industry. Leveraging this expertise, the company plans to expand globally next year.

The Laxus app is available for iOS on iTunes AppStore and for Android on Google Play.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson and “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Recruit acquires Berlin-based restaurant booking site Quandoo for $220 million

Masaru Ikeda 2015.03.05

Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098), one of Japan’s larger employment and Internet services companies, announced today that it has acquired Berlin-based online restaurant booking site Quandoo for 26.5 billion yen (about $221 million). Since its launch back in April 2013 in Berlin, Quandoo has served more than 6,000 restaurants in 13 countries. Prior to the acquisition, Recruit Holdings invested an undisclosed sum in Quandoo during the previous round in October 2014. We have learned that Recruit Technologies, a systems engineering-focused subsidiary under Recruit Holdings, has been engaging in Berlin’s local startup community, which suggests that the Japanese conglomerate is massively exploring investment opportunities in promising startups in the region. See also: Recruit Technologies brings five Berlin startups to pitch in Tokyo Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Since its launch back in April 2013 in Berlin, Quandoo has served more than 6,000 restaurants in 13 countries. Prior to the acquisition, Recruit Holdings invested an undisclosed sum in Quandoo during the previous round in October 2014.

We have learned that Recruit Technologies, a systems engineering-focused subsidiary under Recruit Holdings, has been engaging in Berlin’s local startup community, which suggests that the Japanese conglomerate is massively exploring investment opportunities in promising startups in the region.

See also:

Recruit Technologies brings five Berlin startups to pitch in Tokyo

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s mom-focused Q&A app secures $1.3 million, helping solve problems on childcare

Takeshi Hirano 2015.03.04

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Connehito, the company behind a mobile Q&A app for female users, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 150 million yen (about $1.25 million) from B Dash Ventures and Primal Capital. The company will use the funds to strengthen development efforts around the mobile app service. Connehito provides two services: Mamari, a how-to website for mothers at the time of childbirth or while nursing a child, and MamariQ, a mobile app for questions and answers among mothers. Focused on dealing with female-specific problems, these services have acquired more than 1 million monthly unique visitors and been seeing a 140% MoM growth in the number of articles posted by users. Shunsuke Oyu, CEO of Connehito, has been known for having developed Creatty, an online portfolio showcase and marketplace for independent product designers. However, the service faced pretty tough going because of flourishing competitors such as Etsy, and subsequently pivoted. See also: Japan-based design site Creatty launches e-commerce channels Oyu elaborated: We thought of shutting down our company. However, we changed our minds and started taking on the challenge again in late 2013. Subsequently, we launched a health-focused Q&A site in 2014, where we keep writing stories like how to mitigate pains from…

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

Tokyo-based Connehito, the company behind a mobile Q&A app for female users, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 150 million yen (about $1.25 million) from B Dash Ventures and Primal Capital. The company will use the funds to strengthen development efforts around the mobile app service.

Connehito provides two services: Mamari, a how-to website for mothers at the time of childbirth or while nursing a child, and MamariQ, a mobile app for questions and answers among mothers. Focused on dealing with female-specific problems, these services have acquired more than 1 million monthly unique visitors and been seeing a 140% MoM growth in the number of articles posted by users.

Shunsuke Oyu, CEO of Connehito, has been known for having developed Creatty, an online portfolio showcase and marketplace for independent product designers. However, the service faced pretty tough going because of flourishing competitors such as Etsy, and subsequently pivoted.

See also:

Japan-based design site Creatty launches e-commerce channels

Oyu elaborated:

We thought of shutting down our company. However, we changed our minds and started taking on the challenge again in late 2013. Subsequently, we launched a health-focused Q&A site in 2014, where we keep writing stories like how to mitigate pains from stiff shoulders and lumbago. But when the numbers of articles posted reached around 400, we learned that the most trendy topics were about how to call and use a cab for a hospital when the mother feels the beginnings of labor.

Since Oyu also got married when he was 23 years old, he well recognizes many problems around childbirth or childcare. So his team decided to abandon their past and shift to their focus to addressing female-specific problems.

In addition to VC firms participating this funding round, we see many investors in Conehito from young entrepreneurs in Japan, such as Coach United CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu and seed stage-focused investor Anri Samata.

connehito-shunsuke-oyu — Connehito CEO Shunsuke Oyu

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s outsourced logistics platform OpenLogi secures $500,000 funding round

SCORE 1,224

Takeshi Hirano 2015.03.04

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based OpenLogi, a startup that provides an outsourced logistics platform focused on SMEs and freelancers, announced today that it has fundraised about 60 million yen ($500,000) from Japanese investment fund Infinity Venture Partners (IVP) and Kotaro Chiba, executive vice-president of Japanese mobile game company Colopl (TSE:3668). Upon this funding round, Masashi Kobayashi, managing partner at IVP, and Kimiyuki Suda aka Sudax, who has been serving as an auditor for recently-IPOed Japanese companies such as Bengo4.com (legal consulting platform) and Crowdworks (crowdsourcing platform), joined the board of management. The company also invited Star Mica (TSE:3230) Chairman Masashi Mizunaga as an advisor. OpenLogi is an outsourced logistics service offering affordable rates that leverages unused warehouse assets and downtime of logistic facilities. The company plans to use the funds to enlarge their four-person management team and to strengthen system development. In accordance with the company’s business expansion, IVP intends to make an additional investment of several million dollars. OpenLogi was founded in December 2013 by Hidetsugu Ito, who was previously involved in launching Japanese magazine subscription service Fujisan.co.jp. Based on his experience in discussing and negotiating with logistics companies, he founded OpenLogi…

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

Tokyo-based OpenLogi, a startup that provides an outsourced logistics platform focused on SMEs and freelancers, announced today that it has fundraised about 60 million yen ($500,000) from Japanese investment fund Infinity Venture Partners (IVP) and Kotaro Chiba, executive vice-president of Japanese mobile game company Colopl (TSE:3668).

Upon this funding round, Masashi Kobayashi, managing partner at IVP, and Kimiyuki Suda aka Sudax, who has been serving as an auditor for recently-IPOed Japanese companies such as Bengo4.com (legal consulting platform) and Crowdworks (crowdsourcing platform), joined the board of management. The company also invited Star Mica (TSE:3230) Chairman Masashi Mizunaga as an advisor.

OpenLogi is an outsourced logistics service offering affordable rates that leverages unused warehouse assets and downtime of logistic facilities. The company plans to use the funds to enlarge their four-person management team and to strengthen system development. In accordance with the company’s business expansion, IVP intends to make an additional investment of several million dollars.

OpenLogi was founded in December 2013 by Hidetsugu Ito, who was previously involved in launching Japanese magazine subscription service Fujisan.co.jp. Based on his experience in discussing and negotiating with logistics companies, he founded OpenLogi to address logistics solutions for small e-commerce players.

Looking at the recent upward trend in the C2C business in Japan thanks to instant e-commerce platforms like Base or Stores.jp, as well as resale shopping app Mercari, C2C-based commerce businesses have become more common, so logistics services for professional use lags behind those for small commerce business players in terms of service flexibility.

In view of the fabless business concept, OpenLogi is very similar to online printing startup Raksul or online laundry startup Lenet, where they have no assets to provide services. Upon signing up with OpenLogi platform, it provides management features on a dashboard, such as warehouse inspection, warehouse storage, shipping, and management of returned merchandise at affordable rates.

Since its launch in beta in June 2014, OpenLogi has successfully attracted many SMEs and freelancers because of its price transparency and affordable rates, and is seeing a 400% growth on a month-to-month revenue basis. While planning to expand the service to warehousing of frozen foods and hazardous materials, they are working on the launch of a cross-border shipping service to serve international e-commerce businesses, and is expected to launch in April.

openlogi-hidetsugu-ito-kimiyuki-suda — L to R: OpenLogi CEO Hidetsugu Ito and newly-appointed auditor Kimiyuki Suda aka Sudax

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson

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Japan’s P2P lending platform Crowdcredit raises $1.7 million from trading giant Itochu

Masaru Ikeda 2015.03.04

See the original story in Japanese. As Nikkei reported last week, Tokyo-based Crowdcredit, a startup behind a peer-to-peer lending platform focused on financing emerging markets under the same name, officially announced on Monday that it has fundraised 200 million yen ($1.7 million) from Japanese trading house Itochu (TSE:8001). According to the Nikkei article, Itochu has taken an 18% stake in the lending company, so the latter’s market cap is valued at over 1 billion yen ($8.4 million). See also: Meet Crowdcredit, Japan’s peer-to-peer lending platform for emerging markets Crowdcredit will use the funds to enhance features on the lending platform, looking to give users currency-hedging options, which will make Japanese users more likely to invest. Having dealt with funding projects for individuals and SMEs in Peru, they will expand the coverage to other countries like Mexico, Italy, Spain, and Finland from April. Crowdcredit fundraised from Femto Startup just after its launch in 2013, and subsequently secured additional funding from Monex Ventures, GCI Capital, and Femto Startup in July. Details of these investments have not been disclosed. With this investment round, Itochu has become the second-largest stockholder for Crowdcredit. Edited by Kurt Hanson

CEO Sugiyama visits Peru to study local market conditions. — Crowdcredit CEO Tomoyuki Sugiyama visits Peru to study local market conditions.
(Photo courtesy of Crowdcredit)

See the original story in Japanese.

As Nikkei reported last week, Tokyo-based Crowdcredit, a startup behind a peer-to-peer lending platform focused on financing emerging markets under the same name, officially announced on Monday that it has fundraised 200 million yen ($1.7 million) from Japanese trading house Itochu (TSE:8001). According to the Nikkei article, Itochu has taken an 18% stake in the lending company, so the latter’s market cap is valued at over 1 billion yen ($8.4 million).

See also:

Meet Crowdcredit, Japan’s peer-to-peer lending platform for emerging markets

Crowdcredit will use the funds to enhance features on the lending platform, looking to give users currency-hedging options, which will make Japanese users more likely to invest. Having dealt with funding projects for individuals and SMEs in Peru, they will expand the coverage to other countries like Mexico, Italy, Spain, and Finland from April.

Crowdcredit fundraised from Femto Startup just after its launch in 2013, and subsequently secured additional funding from Monex Ventures, GCI Capital, and Femto Startup in July. Details of these investments have not been disclosed. With this investment round, Itochu has become the second-largest stockholder for Crowdcredit.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Japan’s Incubate Fund holds its first global edition of bootcamp program in Singapore