Dentsu Ventures, a corporate venture capital of giant Japanese ad agency Dentsu (TSE:4324), announced today that it has invested in NYC-based Ninoch in a seed round. Financial details have not been disclosed. For Dentsu Ventures, this is the second investment in startups following the one in Jibo, a robotics startup born out of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where the investment company injected about $3 million in the startup in early August.
Ninoh was founded by two people who graduated from Columbia University in late 2012, being born out of NYC-based Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator in 2013. The company has developed a curated content publishing platform called Agolo. Using their natural language processing and big data analysis engine, the platform sorts out and reedits an enormous amount of unstructured data including reports, articles, social network posts, news updates, and images. It allows media site owners to change the method of digesting information as well as to automate the article generation process, in addition to handling real-time content-based marketing and contextual advertising.
Our readers may recall that BuzzFeed recently announced an upcoming expansion into the Japanese market in partnership with Yahoo Japan, while a number of new media sites like Vice Media, Contently, NowThis and Upworthy, not to mention Business Insider, are emerging out of the U.S.; as a means of enabling media sites to keep creating popular content pieces at a lower cost, such platforms including Agolo will be in the future spotlight in Japan.
In a past CNN program featuring Israel as a Startup Nation, I saw a startup developing an engine which can generate headlines from news articles based on machine learning. While I unfortunately forgot the name of the startup, I can assume Ninoh may have at least several competitors cultivating similar technology around the world.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kabuku, the startup known for its 3D printing service brand Rinkak, announced today that it has fundraised 400 million yen ($3.3 million) from Global Brain. This round is not yet closed but Global Brain leads other investors who have potential business synergy with Kabuku. The funds will be used to develop a cloud-based production management system for 3D printing factories as well as expand partnerships with third-party 3D printing manufacturing services, both of which were recently announced. Launched back in 2013, Kabuku fundraised 20 million yen from angel investors in June of the same year, followed by securing 200 million yen ($1.7 million) funding from CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) and Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV) in June 2014. Originally launched as a showcase and marketplace of 3D printing products, Kabuku has diversified its business to providing other solutions such as Rinkak 3D Printing PPP (Printing Partner Program) that connects orders to relevant printing factories based on manufacturing needs, and Rinkak 3D Printing MMS (Manufacturing Management Service) that provides a cloud-based production management system for 3D printing factories. As part of their open-innovation effort where a startup collaboratively works with corporates, Kabuku provides customized choices of…
Tokyo-based Kabuku, the startup known for its 3D printing service brand Rinkak, announced today that it has fundraised 400 million yen ($3.3 million) from Global Brain. This round is not yet closed but Global Brain leads other investors who have potential business synergy with Kabuku. The funds will be used to develop a cloud-based production management system for 3D printing factories as well as expand partnerships with third-party 3D printing manufacturing services, both of which were recently announced.
Launched back in 2013, Kabuku fundraised 20 million yen from angel investors in June of the same year, followed by securing 200 million yen ($1.7 million) funding from CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) and Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV) in June 2014.
Originally launched as a showcase and marketplace of 3D printing products, Kabuku has diversified its business to providing other solutions such as Rinkak 3D Printing PPP (Printing Partner Program) that connects orders to relevant printing factories based on manufacturing needs, and Rinkak 3D Printing MMS (Manufacturing Management Service) that provides a cloud-based production management system for 3D printing factories.
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co. released a new product called Boost in beta on August 27th, as a platform for system developers to save and share their source codes. In March, Maisin was graduated from the second batch of Slogan Viling Ventures, an EduTech-focused acceleration program in Tokyo. Subsequently the company secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Slogan Coant and Viling Venture Partners, in addition to the BonAngels Pacemaker Fund. Based on a series of interviews with some hundred system developers, Maisin CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo found out that they would save pieces of their source codes using various tools. In order to help them put these pieces together and manage them with a tool, Yokomizo and his team developed the Boost app and introduced it as beta this time. The app allows developers to save short codes and snippets as well as markdown files for every module into the cloud then share them with their other team members, while completed source codes are typically shared via GitHub. The Boost app is provided as a Mac App, allowing users to save and retrieve their codes in the app. While the app is available for free to individual users, Maisin is considering a charge fee for team usage after the official release. Looking ahead, the…
Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co. released a new product called Boost in beta on August 27th, as a platform for system developers to save and share their source codes.
In March, Maisin was graduated from the second batch of Slogan Viling Ventures, an EduTech-focused acceleration program in Tokyo. Subsequently the company secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Slogan Coant and Viling Venture Partners, in addition to the BonAngels Pacemaker Fund.
Based on a series of interviews with some hundred system developers, Maisin CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo found out that they would save pieces of their source codes using various tools. In order to help them put these pieces together and manage them with a tool, Yokomizo and his team developed the Boost app and introduced it as beta this time.
The app allows developers to save short codes and snippets as well as markdown files for every module into the cloud then share them with their other team members, while completed source codes are typically shared via GitHub. The Boost app is provided as a Mac App, allowing users to save and retrieve their codes in the app.
Saving source codes.Retrieving source codes.Sharing source codes with other team members.
While the app is available for free to individual users, Maisin is considering a charge fee for team usage after the official release. Looking ahead, the company plans to strengthen functions like real-time update of shared source codes and team-wide communication, trying to make the app available as an open source platform.
The Boost project was launched as part of Yokomizo’s effort to fill the engineering skills gap with his CTO Junyoung Choi, with Yokomizo’s aim being elimination of extraneous programming steps upon developing an app. It will be interesting to see how favorably their concept will be received by other system developers.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Farmnote is based in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and has been developing a cloud-based solution for dairy farmers. The company announced today that it has fundraised 210 million yen (about $1.7 million) from Tokyo-based trading company Kanematsu (TSE:8020), Kanematsu Agritech, Japanese mobile gaming company Gree (TSE:3632), Colopl (TSE:3668) co-founder and executive vice president Kotaro Chiba, Six Apart CTO Daiji Hirata as well as an undisclosed Japanese company. Farmnote will use the funds to strengthen the development of wearable devices and peripherals for monitoring livestock, specifically collecting daily performance data on dairy cows. Incorporated in November 2013, Farmnote has been developing sensor devices and cloud-based systems focused on streamlining dairy and livestock farming operations since June 2014, leveraging a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, called the Supporting Industry initiative. The company won the top prize at Zenkoku Startup Day (literally meaning “All-Japan Startup Day”) held in Hokkaido in September 2014 despite the fact that it had been only a few months since they started working on the project. Farmnote founder Shinya Kobayashi is also known for managing Skyarc, a Hokkaido-based company providing system integration services using content management system…
Farmnote is based in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and has been developing a cloud-based solution for dairy farmers. The company announced today that it has fundraised 210 million yen (about $1.7 million) from Tokyo-based trading company Kanematsu (TSE:8020), Kanematsu Agritech, Japanese mobile gaming company Gree (TSE:3632), Colopl (TSE:3668) co-founder and executive vice president Kotaro Chiba, Six Apart CTO Daiji Hirata as well as an undisclosed Japanese company. Farmnote will use the funds to strengthen the development of wearable devices and peripherals for monitoring livestock, specifically collecting daily performance data on dairy cows.
Incorporated in November 2013, Farmnote has been developing sensor devices and cloud-based systems focused on streamlining dairy and livestock farming operations since June 2014, leveraging a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, called the Supporting Industry initiative. The company won the top prize at Zenkoku Startup Day (literally meaning “All-Japan Startup Day”) held in Hokkaido in September 2014 despite the fact that it had been only a few months since they started working on the project.
Farmnote founder Shinya Kobayashi is also known for managing Skyarc, a Hokkaido-based company providing system integration services using content management system Movable Type. Paying attention to the fact that 93% of livestock farmers in Japan are small-scale and keep less than 100 heads of cattle, Kobayashi has been providing these farmers with the Farmnote cloud platform for free, allowing them to manage their livestock individually via smartphone. While farmers feeding more than 100 heads of cattle have to subscribe to the premium plan, the freemium business model has made the company successful in attracting farmers. We were told that almost 3% of the entire population of dairy and livestock farmers in Japan are using Farmnote.
Kobayashi explained:
Farmnote CEO Shinya Kobayashi delivers a pitch at Zenkoku Startup Day in Sapporo, Hokkaido. (September 2014)
We are currently developing sensor devices collecting data on the cattle. Unlike typical wearable devices for humans, our unit has to be fault tolerant with a long-lasting battery because it is attached to animals, meaning difficulty attaching and removing them. We are spending our time and money to develop such a device to conduct a field test on an actual ranch.
We will provide dairy and livestock farmers using our cloud service with these sensor devices. We are not yet sure if we can sell it via one-time payment or need to adopt a monthly subscriptions model. However, our device at any rate will be easy to install so that livestock owners can handle them by themselves, without professional set-up.
The wearable devices will transmit behavioral data using radio waves while the company is not yet to announce which wireless technology will be adopted. Users have to place ‘gateway’ station equipment in multiple locations on their ranch so that signals from the devices can be appropriately captured regardless of how much their livestock moves about. While it’s typically difficult to gain access to power supply or internet on a ranch, it seems the company is addressing the issue in developing a signal-collections platform. If they can establish a technology enabling users to collect data from sensors in a field environment like on a ranch at a reasonable price, that can be applied to the entire agricultural industry beyond dairy or livestock farming and bring data-driven approaches to their businesses. Farmnote is focused on developing sensors devices and peripherals, with shipping slated from next Spring.
Kobayashi added:
The Japanese livestock market is larger than rice farming and valued about $20 billion. Consolidated with other businesses like feed producers or distribution channels for livestock, the market can be considered three or four times bigger. Starting with the services for the livestock industry, we want to collect data on animals and crops in the global farming market of the future.
The global population explosion will cause a widespread scarcity of food and farmlands in the future. To avoid this, we need to further streamline the food production process. As the streamlining efforts based on gene modification technologies are being made in the world, we would like to contribute to the improvement of food productivity, by providing methods to better manage livestock and farm products as well as helping farmers keep doing business with less dependency on their intuition.
While Farmnote has been focused on developing the cloud system, they want to hire data scientists as well as software engineers since they have some good prospects on the development of sensor devices. These positions as available not only in Tokyo but also several locations in Hokkaido. If one is interested in serving the livestock and farming industry leveraging IT skills, you can contact them to get hired.
Bloomberg reported earlier today that Kyoto-based GLM, the Japanese startup focused on developing electric sports cars, has secured 1.7 billion yen (about $14 million) in series B round from 24 sources including VC firms and corporations in Japan as well as the rest of the world. The company will use the funds to enhance after-sales support in addition to expanding sales in Europe and Middle East, not to mention in Asia. Investors participating in this round include Saudi Arabian government-backed fund Riyadh Valley Company and Taiwanese government-backed Golden Asia Fund Ventures, plus the University of Tokyo Edge Capital. This follows the series A round in 2013 when the startup fundraised 410 million yen (about $3.5 million) from Globis Capital Partners and other VC firms. GLM was launched as part of incubation efforts by Kyoto University, hired former engineers from Toyota and Nissan Motors to develop a series of cool designed electric vehicles. Tommy Kaira ZZ, the company’s flagship lightweight sports car, was launched as a limited number edition with a sales cap of 99 orders in August last year, while the company has secured 180 pre-orders for the vehicle’s next shipping schedule. Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Bloomberg reported earlier today that Kyoto-based GLM, the Japanese startup focused on developing electric sports cars, has secured 1.7 billion yen (about $14 million) in series B round from 24 sources including VC firms and corporations in Japan as well as the rest of the world. The company will use the funds to enhance after-sales support in addition to expanding sales in Europe and Middle East, not to mention in Asia.
GLM was launched as part of incubation efforts by Kyoto University, hired former engineers from Toyota and Nissan Motors to develop a series of cool designed electric vehicles. Tommy Kaira ZZ, the company’s flagship lightweight sports car, was launched as a limited number edition with a sales cap of 99 orders in August last year, while the company has secured 180 pre-orders for the vehicle’s next shipping schedule.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Freee, a cloud-based accounting platform startup under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 3.5 billion yen ($29 million) from US-based VC firm DCM, Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098), Japan Coinvest Limited Partnership in the series C round. With the latest funds, the company has fundraised 5.2 billion yen ($43 million) since its launch in 2012. See also: Japan’s accounting startup Freee raises $6M from Pavilion Capital and Recruit Holdings Japanese cloud-based accounting startup Freee raises $8M Japanese accounting startup Freee raises $2.7 million from Infinity Venture Partners and DCM At a news conference this July, Freee CEO Daisuke Sasaki revealed that he aims to make his company a unicon, a startup worth over $1 billion. Cloud-contained society, a new product concept by Freee, was announced following the introduction of several initiatives by the Japanese government, such as the launch of e-Gov API (application program interface) and the national identification number system, as well as the change of the electronic form storage method for tax documents. These changes may accelerate the adoption of cloud-based systems into many business applications, encouraging many startups to focus on cloud-based services for businesses. Freee also aims…
Tokyo-based Freee, a cloud-based accounting platform startup under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 3.5 billion yen ($29 million) from US-based VC firm DCM, Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098), Japan Coinvest Limited Partnership in the series C round. With the latest funds, the company has fundraised 5.2 billion yen ($43 million) since its launch in 2012.
At a news conference this July, Freee CEO Daisuke Sasaki revealed that he aims to make his company a unicon, a startup worth over $1 billion.
Cloud-contained society, a new product concept by Freee, was announced following the introduction of several initiatives by the Japanese government, such as the launch of e-Gov API (application program interface) and the national identification number system, as well as the change of the electronic form storage method for tax documents. These changes may accelerate the adoption of cloud-based systems into many business applications, encouraging many startups to focus on cloud-based services for businesses.
Freee also aims to be a platform that supports small businesses. Using the funds, the company plans to develop services supporting a wider range of back office operations for small businesses. Freee launched a company foundation support service in June, followed by other menus like cloud-based accounting and payroll services. The company will launch a new service supporting the Japanese national identification number system for businesses in October, followed by supporting the change of the electronic form storage method by end of 2015.
Competition in this sector is heating up as many companies are shifting to cloud-based services. Sasaki explained how his company beats the competition:
Freee has the top share in Japan for cloud-based accounting, having accumulated much knowledge. In addition, we are the only company focused on cloud-based services for small businesses, which means our resources are focused on the targeted niche.
Based on all these factors, our designs for easy user operations are common in our all services. Many surrounding services will be integrated into the Freee accounting platform – taking a high share of the industry, which will also benefit our users.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
