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Japan’s Ietty secures $1.6 million in funding to improve your apartment hunt

Ietty

Junya Mori 2015.11.17

ietty-taihei-ogawa — Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa

The movement to promote the utilization of IT in the fields of legacy has been increasing in a couple of years. Real estate is one of the fields where various players are acting to try to assimilate with technology.

The movement of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is one of the backgrounds which is activating the players’ activities. The ministry has established an investigation committee to enable non face-to-face explanation of important matters, which had to be done face to face so far, by using the Internet and other tools. The committee had been held repeatedly in 2014.

The Japan Association of New Economy, led by founders of Japanese internet businesses including Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures, also has been making some actions such as makin proposals in the committee. As a result, social experiments focusing on the ban of online real estate transactions have been started since this August.

A movement is also following among startups as if corresponding these movements. Ietty, the Japanese startup behind an online real estate platform under the same names, has now secured a total of 200 million yen (approximately $1.6 million) from Investors Cloud (cloud service provider for apartment investors), Sansei Capital (the investment arm of Mitsui Life Insurance), Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mizuho Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital.

A business synergy by cooperation with each subscriber is also expected. Since real estate is often related with insurance and finance, there is a potential of cooperation with Mitsui Life Insurance, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, and Mizuho Bank. Investors Cloud has a business synergy as a real estate company which is strong in the Internet, and Dentsu as a company which has knowledge to reach the masses.

Since the beta launch of its platform in June of 2013, Ietty fundraised $500,000 from I Mercury Capital, or the investment arm of Japanese mobile gaming giant Mixi, followed by another $1.9 million funding from YJ Capital (the investment arm of Yahoo Japan), and Incubate Fund. The company started expanding its business range such as providing Ietty Biz , the welfare service for corporations while also setting up a real store in Tokyo.

Ietty initially started as a recommendation service of real estate. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gradually replace recommendation function though our readers might know. Even in Ietty, about 80% of proposals of properties are performed by the algorithm. When the environment over real estate changes as introduced in the introduction, the replacement of existing works, making network of people who have real-estate and building license and ordering business by cloud sourcing for example, will be possible.

Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa explained:

As online system of real estate develops, AI replaces salespeople and cloud sourcing is going to be used actively. Then, the cost of operation side decreases and a commission competition will occur.

The real estate world was not facing users so far. Ietty focuses on the attitude of user first thoroughly. The business model is going to be different than what it is now from now on. Nothing will be more important than telling no lies to users for sustainable grow up. We attend to users as a 24-hour real estate agent in smartphones anytime.

If a commission war occurs, Ogawa predicts that some companies among online real estate agent survive and the different shades of services are expected to be made. For Ietty, being ”user first” might be a feature of its service. On the other hand, it will be difficult for real estate agents in town, the business model of labor intensive, to remain if commission fees are lowered. How does ietty ,who has been providing its service by building network with real estate agents in town manage?

In response, Ogawa says,

Certainly, the service which was provided by agents in town thus far is going to be completed online. However, locality might be lost with that kind of service-providing. No one can beat local real estate agents at the information such as what the town is like and what kinds of stores are around. We want ietty to keep the network with local agents and vary the relationships.

Ietty plans to have a service renewal around next February and is going to perform enhancement of service development, repletion of sales structure and enhancement of marketing function based on this funding. Ietty currently expects to have over 100 million yen ($810,000) annual sales and aims positive balance within this year.

Translated by Azusa Murano via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

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NES cartridge-like device Picocassette to offer novel gaming experiences on mobile

Junya Mori 2015.11.17

See the original story in Japanese. Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983. However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone. Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette. See also: Beatrobo raises $1.1M, has ambitions to replace the CD The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims…

See the original story in Japanese.

Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983.

However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone.

Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette.

See also:

Beatrobo raises $1.1M, has ambitions to replace the CD

The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims to nurture this into its mainline business.

hiroshi-asaeda-takahiro-ishiyama — From the left: Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda, Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama

Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama comments:

Once license management of a game has been permitted, Sirok optimizes the property for playing with smartphones. By adopting touch operation or swiping, we can fine tune the product offerings from the game feature perspective. Development of original games is also planned for the future.

While some “old favorite” game remakes for smartphones tend to be avoided by game geeks due to differences in the operation feel, their optimization may reduce mismatches in platform porting.

Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda outlines the vision of Picocassette:

To provide games as smartphone apps, we need to have users search them from among a million titles on App Store or Google Play. Being limited to this market alone is too restrictive. Picocassette enables game sales at a variety of locations. It can also be used as a premium for making a certain purchase so the purchasers for play it on a trial basis. I foresee future use of Picocassette as a sales promotion tool too.

Asaeda added that it would be interesting if games within Picocassette can be sold at events like Comiket (“flea markets” for comics buffs in Japan); it could possibly be handled like CD-Rs of yore.

Today, when just a smartphone and apps are needed to play games, the Picocassette approach of aiming to develop a game software device may appear irrational. Yet, the goal set by Asaeda and Ishiyama appears to be the redesign of the “game purchase” experience itself. Godspeed!

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Mago Channel helps grandparents stay connected with far-off grandkids

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.11.17

See the original story in Japanese. These days, many people have smartphones on them all the time and it seems that the distance between people has been lessened. However, the “distance” (gap) in contrast between the smartphone-savvy generations and those who aren’t has grown. Mago Channel from Tokyo-based startup called Chikaku forms a link from the younger to senior generations. Check out grandchildren on TV from home Mago Channel directly broadcasts videos and photos to TVs that grandparents usually watch. One photographs / videos oneself on a smartphone on the specialized app for broadcast to one’s home TV. Since the communication lines are built in, one needs not have the Internet or a wireless LAN to use it. Grandparents can watch their grandchildren just like when watching a program/photos on a TV channel. Mago Channel has only three steps needed for setup. Plug in the terminal’s power cable, connect the HDMI cable to the TV and turn it on. That’s it, then Mago Channel will be added to the home TV lineup for selection, accessible using a normal TV remote control. Chikaku CEO Kenji Kajiwara explained: It doesn’t force you to be aware of things like the Internet but you…

See the original story in Japanese.

These days, many people have smartphones on them all the time and it seems that the distance between people has been lessened. However, the “distance” (gap) in contrast between the smartphone-savvy generations and those who aren’t has grown. Mago Channel from Tokyo-based startup called Chikaku forms a link from the younger to senior generations.

Check out grandchildren on TV from home

Mago Channel directly broadcasts videos and photos to TVs that grandparents usually watch. One photographs / videos oneself on a smartphone on the specialized app for broadcast to one’s home TV. Since the communication lines are built in, one needs not have the Internet or a wireless LAN to use it. Grandparents can watch their grandchildren just like when watching a program/photos on a TV channel.

Mago Channel has only three steps needed for setup. Plug in the terminal’s power cable, connect the HDMI cable to the TV and turn it on. That’s it, then Mago Channel will be added to the home TV lineup for selection, accessible using a normal TV remote control.

Chikaku CEO Kenji Kajiwara explained:

It doesn’t force you to be aware of things like the Internet but you just have to connect the terminal then you get a channel added. What we aimed for was to offer an experience that can be used easily by the grandparents generation which may not be familiar with digital products. Elderly people can enjoy it just like watching TV, but it acts as a channel for watching grandchildren like a channel added to conventional channels.

Technology cozies up to grandparents

chikaku-team — The Chikaku team – L to R: Kenta Kuwata, Kenji Kajiwara, Michi Sato

Those parents and grandparents who live far away are not using their smartphones fully, so it is often not easy to maintain contact. Unfortunately, one can make contact once every several months. Although it is said that the world has become convenient because of the technological revolution, there’s a gap being created with those who can’t keep up with technology.

Kajiwara was born and raised on Awaji Island and is the last of three generations spanning from his grandparents, to his parents to him. His grandparents have passed away already, but he is in a situation where he is located in Tokyo with two children and his parents are still on the island. His family can only go home once or twice a year. So, he tried the existing services such as digital photo frames to try getting his grandchildren closer to the grandparents, but none of them were easy for use by the grandparents.

Kajiwara continued:

I was made to realize that there’s no product or service for the elderly like my parents’ generation in this IT world. IT products are made with the expectation of people being able to use smartphones and PC’s, so there are few ways for users with limited IT knowledge to “come closer.” I thought about what it would like if really easy-to-use items from my grandparent’s viewpoint were made available and that led to this channel being born.

Close communication that ‘brightens up home’

Kajiwara continues by noting that since they began developing the Mago Channel service, the Chikaku team has heard a lot about existing services like digital photo frame. There are quite a few stories where people gave digital photo frames as a gift, but they stopped using them after a while. The reason was that one couldn’t tell if the products are in use, one can’t know if the recipients are really checking the photos and there is no instant feedback coming through, so one gets less motivated to send photos.

On the other hand, the Mago Channel icon is designed to look like a house. When photos and videos taken by the specialized app come through, a ‘house-shaped’ window lights up. It’s as if it tells one that the grandchildren have returned home to the distant grandparents’ place. Also, when grandparents start watching the Mago Channel, the app sends a push notification that they have started watching the Mago Channel to the “broadcaster” (grandchildren’s guardians).

Kajiwara added:

We focused on the communication between families and grandparents who are apart so they can feel closer to each other naturally in their daily life. “Oh, they are watching, well let’s send more. Let’s phone (call) them because they are watching now.” Things like that, we worked on the communication mode to promote increased contact between families who live apart.

In a recent campaign on the Makuake crowdfunding site, the Chikaku team has raised almost six times the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $8,100).

Mago Channel’s pre-order is no longer available but early-bird bookings were priced at a special 21,260 yen (about $175) for the initial year; 12,800 yen for the Mago Channel inbox and 980 yen ($8) for the regular monthly fee are free to use during the first three months.

Chikaku said that they will go into mass production of setup boxes in response to foreseen demands and service needs highlighted by trial marketing.

Translated by Chieko Frost via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

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Myojo Waraku: Japan’s rendition of SXSW begins in Fukuoka with showcasing prominent startups

Masaru Ikeda 2015.11.15

Myojo Waraku is an annual festival taking place in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka with a flavor of America’s South by South West (SXSW) festival, showcasing prominent startups, digital media and music performers from the land of the rising sun. The first edition took place in 2011, followed by holding of the festival’s global versions in Taipei and London. This year’s event was kicked off with a pitch session today where five Japanese startups delivered a pitch to a crowd from the local startup community and investors from outside Japan. Here’s a quick rundown of startups showcased at the event: Capitalico by Alpaca Alpaca has developed a forex trading platform using the deep learning technology called Capitalico. Based upon image recognition deep learning technology, the Capitalico platform allows users to easily find a forex chart from an archive since 2001 as well as a live forex chart which is similar to what you have on hand so that users don’t need to acquire programming skills to backtest their trading strategies. See also: Japan’s deep learning startup Alpaca raises $1M to launch AI-based forex trading platform UnlimitedHand by H2L H2L has a haptic game controller called UnlimitedHand. With a bandage-like device having motion sensor…

This year’s event was kicked off with a pitch session today where five Japanese startups delivered a pitch to a crowd from the local startup community and investors from outside Japan.

Here’s a quick rundown of startups showcased at the event:

Capitalico by Alpaca

Alpaca has developed a forex trading platform using the deep learning technology called Capitalico. Based upon image recognition deep learning technology, the Capitalico platform allows users to easily find a forex chart from an archive since 2001 as well as a live forex chart which is similar to what you have on hand so that users don’t need to acquire programming skills to backtest their trading strategies.

See also:

Japan’s deep learning startup Alpaca raises $1M to launch AI-based forex trading platform

UnlimitedHand by H2L

H2L has a haptic game controller called UnlimitedHand. With a bandage-like device having motion sensor and muscle displacement sensor around the arm, it allows users to input their hand motions into a game. The device has a functional electrical stimulator that gives users a virtual touch, allowing users to “feel” the impact or the touch of a character in a game.

See also:

Japan’s H2L unveils haptic wearable controller UnlimitedHand on Kickstarter

Symax

Symax is a sensor device that can be attached to western-style toilets, telling users their health condition by analyzing their urine on a daily basis for a monthly charge of about $10. Based on a unique analysis algorithm, their technology detects lifestyle diseases such as gout and diabetes with 99% accuracy.

The team won at a startup competition at Health 2.0 Asia in Tokyo earlier this month, looking to acquire companies which want to optimize medical cost for their employees as well as nursing homes and condo developers which serve elderly people in particular.

Skydisc

Skydisc has developed a variety of sensor devices and the cloud for storing, then analyzing data from these devices. Their device typically can detect temperature, humidity, three-axis acceleration, carbon dioxide concentration, and PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5) concentration so that it can be applied to environment managing businesses, logistics and distribution, agriculture, and other business sectors. The company is expecting to secure funds worth 110 to 150 million yen (about $897,000 to $1.22 million) by the end of this November.

Soracom

Soracom is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) focused on distributing SIM cards, allowing IoT developers to distribute SIM cards for 3G or 4G (LTE) cellular data connectivity under their brand to customers. In this way, it aims to help IoT developers shift their business model from from hardware sales to recurring subscription-based charging.

See also:

Japan’s Soracom launches cellular network service for Internet of Things developers

Following the showcase on the stage, four venture capitalists from different markets discussed what they expect from the Japanese startup scene. Participating investors are:

Chee-Kong Choun, Pavilion Capital, the north Asia-focused investment initiative by Singapore’s state-run Temasek Holdings
Steve Jang, San Francisco-based angel investor
Tina Cheng, Partner and Chief Representative of Taiwan, Cherubic Ventures
Keith Nilsson, co-founder and Managing Partner Visionnaire Ventures

This panel was moderated by James Riney, the new head of 500 Startups Japan, the regional microfund by US-based startup-focused investment fund 500 Startups.

myojo-waraku-2015-vc-panel-keith — Keith Nilsson

Keith explained that many investors in the US are looking at the Japanese market, exploring investment opportunities especially in key categories like hardware development, one of the strengths in the Japanese startup scene.

Tina pointed out that Japanese angel investors are looking for opportunities outside Japan, encouraging more entrepreneurs to gain a mindset of risk-taking.

myojo-waraku-2015-vc-panel-chee-kong — Chee-Kong Choun

Chee-Kong says, one of the key values in transitioning trends in the region is that more investors have begun investing in startups because of their company or product quality rather than the conventional criteria of their founder background or experience in business.

Steve says that many Japanese companies have turned to Silicon Valley and spend a week or more there to meet up with local entrepreneurs, which is very useful for both sides in understanding each others. In addition, he also pointed out that more startups from Japan and Korea are starting by forming a multilingual team, developing products targeting the global market from the beginning, in contrast with conventional startups starting the global expansion after stabilizing the sales in their home turf market.

myojo-waraku-2015-vc-panel-steve — Steve Jang

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Bizer, cloud-based back-office service for SMEs, raises $815,000 in funding

Junya Mori 2015.11.14

See the original story in Japanese. The progression of cloud migration of small and medium sized companies is predicted, and a variety of players are acting on this trend. BizGround, providers of the small to mid-sized company geared cloud-based back-office service Bizer, is also one of these players. Tokyo-based BizGround recently announced that it has fundraised 1 million yen (about $815,000) from Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce.com, as well as from Incubate Fund. See also: Bizer mitigates company registration paperwork, leveraging crowdsourced professionals Launched as a platform for businesses to get counseling from professionals such as tax accountants and lawyers, Bizer subsequently added features for automatically generating paperwork and forms that are to be submitted to government offices as well as features to take care of other tasks involved in business operations. Gradually the service is becoming a total support back office platform. Along with the announcement of this round of funding, the company has announced a large scale site renewal as well as support for smartphone and tablet users, a 30-day free trial plan, and more. The screens of each feature have been completely redesigned for clarity and ease of use as shown below. CEO Yuichi Hatakeyama…

See the original story in Japanese.

The progression of cloud migration of small and medium sized companies is predicted, and a variety of players are acting on this trend. BizGround, providers of the small to mid-sized company geared cloud-based back-office service Bizer, is also one of these players.

Tokyo-based BizGround recently announced that it has fundraised 1 million yen (about $815,000) from Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce.com, as well as from Incubate Fund.

See also:

Bizer mitigates company registration paperwork, leveraging crowdsourced professionals

Launched as a platform for businesses to get counseling from professionals such as tax accountants and lawyers, Bizer subsequently added features for automatically generating paperwork and forms that are to be submitted to government offices as well as features to take care of other tasks involved in business operations. Gradually the service is becoming a total support back office platform.

Along with the announcement of this round of funding, the company has announced a large scale site renewal as well as support for smartphone and tablet users, a 30-day free trial plan, and more. The screens of each feature have been completely redesigned for clarity and ease of use as shown below.

CEO Yuichi Hatakeyama says that in managing BizGround he feels there are two main values they must offer, those are “optimizing business with the cloud” and “crowdsourcing support”.

Hatakeyama commented on the necessity of human support and contractors as a small to medium sized business aimed service:

“We’re getting users who no matter what can’t get the cloud to work for them, but by also offering the human power of the “crowd”, I think we can expand the ways businesses get aid. Makitori, another service specifically focused on paperwork around hiring and retirement, is also seeing increased use.

From this I also feel that there are a certain number of users out there who are in need of this kind of human power. Moving forward we will continue strengthening the two main pillars of our services, “cloud” and “crowd”, but we also plan to strongly reinforce the human power support of the “crowd” part. Soon we are planning on releasing a new human power service, and we are also thinking about expanding the scope of our offerings.”

For small to medium sized businesses who haven’t made the move to the cloud yet, support to help handle that transition is indispensable. It seems that this may be Bizer’s biggest strength, as they focus their attention on their “cloud” and “crowd” hybrid service.

With this latest funding, aiming to strengthen the management system of the company, staff member Akiha Tanaka will take the position of company director while Keisuke Wada, a partner of Incubate Fund, will assume the role of external director. Currently the company is supporting the establishment of over 150 new companies, with requests for company establishment increasing monthly. Through this recent funding, the company will be strengthening their marketing efforts as well as offering their services to more people who are preparing to start companies.

In Japan, around 100,000 companies are established annually. As for Bizer, they have helped in the establishment of 10,000 companies, 10% of the year’s total, and in the future they are looking to help bring Japan’s business foundation rate up from the present 5% to 10%.

Translated by Connor Kirk

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Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten launches $100M fund for FinTech startups worldwide

rakuten

Masaru Ikeda 2015.11.12

Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten announced today the launch of Rakuten FinTech Fund, which is valued at $100 million. According to the announcement, the new fund will invest in FinTech startups in London, San Francisco, New York City, and Berlin, operated by the fund’s managing partner Oskar Miel. He has been working closely with FinTech startups and Rakuten’s financial services units, having led investments in Bitnet and WePay for Rakuten. The fund was formed by and received funds from FinTech businesses under the Rakuten group, such as Rakuten Card, Rakuten Securities, Rakuten Bank, and Rakuten Life Insurance. Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Kurt Hanson

mikitani — Rakuten Chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani

Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten announced today the launch of Rakuten FinTech Fund, which is valued at $100 million.

According to the announcement, the new fund will invest in FinTech startups in London, San Francisco, New York City, and Berlin, operated by the fund’s managing partner Oskar Miel. He has been working closely with FinTech startups and Rakuten’s financial services units, having led investments in Bitnet and WePay for Rakuten.

The fund was formed by and received funds from FinTech businesses under the Rakuten group, such as Rakuten Card, Rakuten Securities, Rakuten Bank, and Rakuten Life Insurance.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Kurt Hanson

Japan’s Ietty secures $1.6 million in funding to improve your apartment hunt

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NES cartridge-like device Picocassette to offer novel gaming experiences on mobile