Japanese IoT (Internet of Things) startup Vinclu announced on Monday that it is developing Gatebox, a hologram-based communication robot allowing users to enjoy their daily lives with their favorite 2D character. The company also announced that it has fundraised from several Japanese investors to prepare for the launch of the product by a crowdfunding campaign in the fall of 2016. Participating investors in this round are Incubate Fund, Primal Capital, and iSG Investment Works, in addition to loans from various financial institutions are utilized.
The fund gathered totaled some 90 million yen (about $768,000). Along with the funds announced, Hiroshi Sasaki (General Partner, Primal Capital) as external board director and Toru Akaura (General Partner, Incubate Fund) as auditor, joined the management board of Vinclu. As for details such as the third-party shareholdings ratio and fund transfer date have not been disclosed.
The Vinclu investor/founder team
Now, some very intriguing products and approaches. As shown in the moving pictures Gatebox has a 2D character as a hologram projected inside the box which can be spoken to for provision such as turning on lamps and setting the alarm. Vinclu CEO Minori Takechi notes that in principle the hologram tech as well as the boxtop projector were those used at a Miku Hatsune concert.
There are outlooks that during 2016 the Smart Home will become commonplace upon dissemination and in fact many startups related to smart locks and security in Japan.
As of now the role of robots in the Smart Home is within the “home controller” realm. The development of social media our lives have come to adopt lifelogs and updates online without being conscious of them.
Although at first glance the gatebox 2D character is a product with strong “geeky” features, but it is characterized as a versatile controller which makes everyday life smarter. Again as shown before in the moving pictures (and as indicated by the prototype) it is now at the simple consumer electronics control and character operations stage that henceforth is seen operating on respective storage data.
Yet according to Takechi, although specific moves are not ready his main goal currently is to enhance the corporate structure in time for a crowdfunding campaign in the fall.
Recently in Japan SoftBank’s Pepper has shown the possibilities, and this year’s CES saw several Japanese companies garnering attention across the Pacific in Las Vegas. On the other hand there are recurrent problems with robots that constantly require maintenance and occupy space. In view of this the Vinclu software approach that is constantly updated online through use of a hologram offers new possibilities.
Personally (though ignoring the visual aspects) this software approach is seen becoming the ultimate family use form. As an aside, Takechi’s explanation was that not only is the hologram just “for the box” but can be “materialized” in the room as well.
Translated by “Tex” Pomeroy Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen ($12.8 million) in a series B round from Jafco, Shinsei Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, and GMO Venture Partners. This follows the company’s previous $2.5 million funding in April 2015. The latest funding means the company has raised 1.8 billion yen ($15.3 million) to date. Since its launch in March of 2011, the Chatwork app has been providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. They are serving 86,000 corporate users worldwide, many of whom are small and medium-size enterprises. With the funding, the company will boost service expansion in the United States and Asian markets, aiming to acquire 150,000 companies as users in three years. See also: Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe Edited by Kurt Hanson
Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen ($12.8 million) in a series B round from Jafco, Shinsei Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, and GMO Venture Partners. This follows the company’s previous $2.5 million funding in April 2015. The latest funding means the company has raised 1.8 billion yen ($15.3 million) to date.
Since its launch in March of 2011, the Chatwork app has been providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. They are serving 86,000 corporate users worldwide, many of whom are small and medium-size enterprises. With the funding, the company will boost service expansion in the United States and Asian markets, aiming to acquire 150,000 companies as users in three years.
Fukuoka-based Skydisc, a Japanese startup focused on developing detachable sensors and cloud services for data management, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 100 million yen (about $855,000) from three Japanese VC firms. Participating investors are Nissay Capital (investment arm of Japan’s leading insurance company) , Archetype Ventures (investment arm of Archetype), and Fukuoka-based VC firm Dogan. Since its launch back in October of 2013, Skydisc has been developing a variety of detachable sensor devices and the cloud for storing, then analyzing data from these devices. Prior to founding Skydisc, the company’s founder and CEO Osamu Hashimoto had been committed to the study of data analysis using high-speed distributed processing at Kyushu University. He was also developing sensor devices to acquire data in the study, which led him to launch the Skydisc business. Ginga Box, the company’s flagship sensor product line-up, allows users to choose up to three detachable sensors out of 14 different sensors to plug into a circuit board. Data acquired with these sensors can be monitored on Ginga Cloud, the company’s data management and analysis platform. Skydisc’s devices typically can detect temperature, humidity, three-axis acceleration, carbon dioxide concentration, and PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5) concentration so that it…
Skydisc’s Ginga Box detachable sensor series (Image: Fukuoka Startup Selection, Fukuoka City Office)
Fukuoka-based Skydisc, a Japanese startup focused on developing detachable sensors and cloud services for data management, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised 100 million yen (about $855,000) from three Japanese VC firms. Participating investors are Nissay Capital (investment arm of Japan’s leading insurance company) , Archetype Ventures (investment arm of Archetype), and Fukuoka-based VC firm Dogan. Since its launch back in October of 2013, Skydisc has been developing a variety of detachable sensor devices and the cloud for storing, then analyzing data from these devices.
Prior to founding Skydisc, the company’s founder and CEO Osamu Hashimoto had been committed to the study of data analysis using high-speed distributed processing at Kyushu University. He was also developing sensor devices to acquire data in the study, which led him to launch the Skydisc business.
Ginga Box, the company’s flagship sensor product line-up, allows users to choose up to three detachable sensors out of 14 different sensors to plug into a circuit board. Data acquired with these sensors can be monitored on Ginga Cloud, the company’s data management and analysis platform.
Skydisc’s devices 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. Especially for the agricultural industry, Skydisc already started offering an optimized package called Hatamori, literally meaning vegetable field keeper.
The company claims that they will use the funds to solidify management foundation, hire talents to strengthen developing sensors and analyzing acquired data, in addition to polishing up the product management process for mass-manufactured sensor devices.
Skydisc CEO Osamu Hashimoto delivers his pitch at Myojo Waraku 2015, Fukuoka, Japan
See the original story in Japanese. Taiwan-based Shiryouko Studio, offering online video marketing for mobile game developers and other companies, unveiled on Friday that it has fundraised 30 million yen ($256,000) from Accord Ventures, Adways (TSE:2489), and Spicemart. Accord Ventures was launched back in November by Fumihiko Ishimaru, the former CEO of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, while Spicemart is a mobile game-focused research firm spun off from Japanese mobile game developer (The) One of Them. Shiryouko Studio is being managed by Capsule, a startup launched back in 2013 by Shusei Hanibuchi (a.k.a. Xiaoha in Mandarin) who used to work with Shanghai-based Adways China as an account managing director. Doing business mainly in Taiwan, the company streamcasts live programs every day from their satellite studio in Ximending, Taiwan’s busiest shopping district and the source of local fashion and subculture. In their interactive show, popular YouTubers as emcees feature gameplays of participating players in the studio involving spectators passing by to help Japanese game developers expose their product to the local market. According to Hanibuchi, the program production cost varies depending on the size or the frequency of the show but their client can order producing a show starting at…
Shiryouko Studio is located just in front of Ximen Station of Taipei Metro (Image: Google Street View)
Taiwan-based Shiryouko Studio, offering online video marketing for mobile game developers and other companies, unveiled on Friday that it has fundraised 30 million yen ($256,000) from Accord Ventures, Adways (TSE:2489), and Spicemart. Accord Ventures was launched back in November by Fumihiko Ishimaru, the former CEO of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, while Spicemart is a mobile game-focused research firm spun off from Japanese mobile game developer (The) One of Them.
Shiryouko Studio is being managed by Capsule, a startup launched back in 2013 by Shusei Hanibuchi (a.k.a. Xiaoha in Mandarin) who used to work with Shanghai-based Adways China as an account managing director. Doing business mainly in Taiwan, the company streamcasts live programs every day from their satellite studio in Ximending, Taiwan’s busiest shopping district and the source of local fashion and subculture. In their interactive show, popular YouTubers as emcees feature gameplays of participating players in the studio involving spectators passing by to help Japanese game developers expose their product to the local market.
Shusei Hanibuchi, Founder of Capsule / Shiryouko Studio
According to Hanibuchi, the program production cost varies depending on the size or the frequency of the show but their client can order producing a show starting at hundreds of thousand dollars including fees for emcees, performers and directors. Shiryouko Studio wants to use the funds to enhance a platform to analyze video marketing effects, acquire clients from other verticals beyond mobile gaming, and start working on the expansion to mainland China.
Hanibuchi explained:
We already have an online dashboard for in-house use so that our team members can measure and analyze performance to report to our clients. However, we will enhance it so that our clients can log onto it by themselves to check out the performance of their sponsored shows.
In addition, we will be expanding to mainland China. In China, they typically use messaging apps to find and hire online video show emcees but we want to build an online marketplace dealing with them.
In China, there’s no YouTuber because YouTube is unavailable there, however, many video show emcees are actively performing on local video sharing sites like BiliBili and YoukuTodou (NYSE:YOKU). As seen in an example like China-based cross-border e-commerce platform Bolome, it is obvious that the demand of such video show emcees or LP-ers is steadily increasing. The recent Asian expansion of Kamcord and other gameplay video sharing platforms is boosting such trends.
Siryouko Studio now has about 30 staffers in Taipei for studio management and program production as well as expanding to the Cantonese speaking market represented by Hong Kong. They plan to strengthen sales in Tokyo to serve more Japanese companies from other verticals than game developers, which typically expect inbound demands from the Greater China market.
Hanibuchi is well known in Taiwan as an entrepreneur doing his business all across Asia, presenting at IdeasShow and other many startup conferences out there.
In the video below, a local news channel reports how Siryouko Studio’s livecast attracts local game players and viewers.
See the original story in Japanese. A platform linking mountain climbers and guides has been born. Two Japanese based in Berlin has founded Berguide. Berguide is a platform which matches climbers with local guided tours. At present it is only offered for tours of Mt. Kilimanjaro, offering people wishing to ascend the Tanzanian mountain tours for half a dozen possible climbing routes. Each tour has a web page detailing the price, itinerary and other content in addition to offering snapshots and video clips of the guide or the tour, enabling climbers to compare and then apply, not to mention make payments, online. Almost dying upon mountain-climbing in Bolivia The two Japanese, Takashi Sato and Yuji Gakuji founded Berguide in summer of 2015 in Berlin. Both men are 26 years old. The idea of Berguide was born out of the dangerous experience Sato had some two years ago. A mountain climber himself, Sato decided to go climbing in Bolivia. Although an English-speaking private guide was hired, his health suffered tremendously during the ascent due to altitude sickness. Though he asked to descend the guide decided to place priority on the other tour participants’ pace, making it impossible to head down. Fortunately…
A platform linking mountain climbers and guides has been born. Two Japanese based in Berlin has founded Berguide.
Berguide is a platform which matches climbers with local guided tours. At present it is only offered for tours of Mt. Kilimanjaro, offering people wishing to ascend the Tanzanian mountain tours for half a dozen possible climbing routes. Each tour has a web page detailing the price, itinerary and other content in addition to offering snapshots and video clips of the guide or the tour, enabling climbers to compare and then apply, not to mention make payments, online.
Almost dying upon mountain-climbing in Bolivia
The two Japanese, Takashi Sato and Yuji Gakuji founded Berguide in summer of 2015 in Berlin. Both men are 26 years old.
The idea of Berguide was born out of the dangerous experience Sato had some two years ago. A mountain climber himself, Sato decided to go climbing in Bolivia. Although an English-speaking private guide was hired, his health suffered tremendously during the ascent due to altitude sickness. Though he asked to descend the guide decided to place priority on the other tour participants’ pace, making it impossible to head down.
Fortunately at 5500 meters’ altitude the other participants noticed how ill Sato was and convinced the guide to cut short the trip and head downhill. By then Sato was facing a life-threatening situation. After the tour, Sato was shown the notes taken by the other climbers; they all had negative views concerning the guide. In hindsight, Sato thought that:
If only I had been able to see such reviews about the guide by participants, I would never have selected this guide’s tour.
Sato found out the hard way how such information regarding guides for mountain climbing tours were not open generally and not easily accessible.
Berguide currently provides tour information concerning the six ascent routes available for Mt. Kilimanjaro
Quit Adidas to launch a startup in Berlin
There was a need to provide as much information and choice to mountain climbers by opening up the information on guides and tour content. Sato thus decided two years after his Bolivian experience to build his own platform to make such information available publicly.
After graduation from a Japanese university, Sato went to Adidas headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, where he became the first Japanese to be selected in the corporate officer training program, working in the global strategy team. He obviously had an “elite career” promised ahead at the company, but he decided to abandon that route in favor of establishing Berguide.
His reasoning was that I had kept this idea of ‘a service like this is a must’ in my mind from 2 years ago, but I saw no one else moving to set up such a service.”
He said:
I began to study programming on my own and felt that I could offer such a service.
Upon leaving Nuremberg he decided to set up base in Berlin because not only is it a location conducive to foreigners but also in recent years has been a hot spot for startups.
Berguide co-founders Takashi Sato (left) and Yuji Gakushi (right)
In the beginning Sato was thinking of going alone, but his endeavor was joined by another Japanese person. This was Yuji Gakushi who has been Sato’s friend since middle school; Gakushi is now an engineer. Skilled as a software handler since school days and experienced with work at an IT startup, Gakushi decided to respond to request for advice about technical problems when Sato was preparing his platform’s prototype. As the two friends conferred late into the night, Gakushi himself became interested in the project.
Upon returning to Tokyo from Germany, Sato invited Gakushi for a drink. Then over drinks he said, “I’ll give you this – can you come along to Berlin with me?” and presented a piece of paper written with a ballpoint pen that said “50% of my company’s shares”… Gakushi thus joined Berguide and moved to Berlin about a month later.
Launch at Kilimanjaro
Last September the two pals rented an apartment in Berlin to prepare for the launch. They targeted Tanzania as the launch place, with the aim of attracting the service’s first users from among the climbers and the guides engrossed by Africa’s tallest mountain. Since the two men had no connection in Tanzania, they prepared meticulously before going there.
First they contacted the head of the 2000-guide strong Kilimanjaro Guide Association in Berlin to explain Berguide’s business content. They also emailed local Tanzanian tour companies with details about the service, to see what kind of response they would get. The response even before going to Africa was positive, such as those saying “would definitely like to use such a service if one exists.”
The sojourn in Tanzania was limited, a little under 3 months. The two men could not afford to even waste a day, so they had made preparations to the fullest extent possible. As a result, they were able to move effectively upon arrival in Tanzania. Thus, they were able to present their services in front of some 300 people at a specially-convened main session of the Kilimanjaro Guide Association.
They could also visit the local guides who had been contacted via email from Berlin. Additionally, one introduction to another from local tour companies led to a wide network being built. There were more than a few occasions where tour guides who found out of Berguide’s existence even visited the hotel the two were staying at.
Over 300 guides attended Berguide explanation session in Tanzania
“Making it possible to see what the situation is for guides”
What is it with Berguide’s service content that attracts so many people?
Sato notes:
There are many tours of Mt. Kilimanjaro available, with overseas agents making reservations and taking a hefty margin for these.
When individual climbers search for tour information over the Internet, they oftentimes end up at sites from the U.S., UK and Canada where SEO (search engine optimization) measures have been adopted that look attractive on the surface; yet these sites crowd out local guides’ sites.
Although Berguide does take a success fee upon matching between the tour companies and climbers being completed, it costs less than going through agents and thus help the guides to be paid more. Furthermore, Berguide provides a system where an evaluation of local guides can be found when choosing a tour, with “peer review” by climbers is made possible to provide guides with direct feedback of participants, which may be reflected on future expeditions.
Such merits have led some 30 local tour companies to register with Berguide. According to Sato, because only nationally-authorized tour companies can offer guide services in Tanzania, it is not possible to match freelance individuals as guides. Should it become possible for individual guides to become authorized by the government such matching service for individual guides and climbers will also be offered. As for the climbers, the merit is high since not only can tours be reserved at lower prices but they can fathom the information concerning the guide and the tour.
Sato explains:
Currently it is possible to reserve a tour but details such as who will be the guide are not availed. I always thought this haphazard method of finding out who will be climbing with me was not a happy thing and so wanted some way to make such information publicly accessible.
He wanted to make it possible to at least see what kind of situation the mountain guides are in by using moving pictures and audio, without having to meet them directly. This makes sense since for a trek up Kilimanjaro-class peaks means a tour taking up about a week. Knowing who will guide you offers an increased feeling of security beforehand.
Although for now the guide-matching service is available only for Mt. Kilimanjaro, the platform plans to expand the selection of tours to other famous mountains around the globe. There are platforms focused on mountain climbing such as summitpost.org without functions like making reservations or searching for guides/tours while a Japanese community site Yama Reco covers only mountains in Japan.
Berguide’s challenge has only just begun. However, the potential of changing the landscape for tour guides, mountain climbers and the industry overall looms big.
Translated by “Tex” Pomeroy Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based influencer marketing startup Tagpic announced in December that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum in a series A round from Nissay Capital and several angel investors including Shigeru Urushibara, the CEO of Tokyo-based consulting firm / cloud solution provider ULS Group (TSE:3798). Nissay Capital is the investment arm of a Japan’s leading insurance company. The funds were paid on December 25th but the other details, including the amount of money raised or the percentage of issued shares, haven’t been disclosed. In the meantime, the company announced the addition of Shuichi Takenaga, CEO of Aucfun (TSE:3674) and a specialist in big data, as an outside adviser. Founded in September 2015, Tagpic has been offering influencer marketing targeting 8.1 million Instagram monthly active users in Japan using famous personalities (so-called Instagrammers), such as amateur models, TV personalities and artists. Its main business is casting, introduces and mediates Instagrammers who match the marketing measures requested by companies. Tagpic has casted about 670 Instagrammers until now. According to CEO Ayumi Yasuoka, most of them are amateur models. Those networking Instagrammers are followed by a total of 10.8 million people. They can make use of their influence for…
Tokyo-based influencer marketing startup Tagpic announced in December that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum in a series A round from Nissay Capital and several angel investors including Shigeru Urushibara, the CEO of Tokyo-based consulting firm / cloud solution provider ULS Group (TSE:3798). Nissay Capital is the investment arm of a Japan’s leading insurance company.
The funds were paid on December 25th but the other details, including the amount of money raised or the percentage of issued shares, haven’t been disclosed. In the meantime, the company announced the addition of Shuichi Takenaga, CEO of Aucfun (TSE:3674) and a specialist in big data, as an outside adviser.
Founded in September 2015, Tagpic has been offering influencer marketing targeting 8.1 million Instagram monthly active users in Japan using famous personalities (so-called Instagrammers), such as amateur models, TV personalities and artists.
Its main business is casting, introduces and mediates Instagrammers who match the marketing measures requested by companies. Tagpic has casted about 670 Instagrammers until now. According to CEO Ayumi Yasuoka, most of them are amateur models.
Those networking Instagrammers are followed by a total of 10.8 million people. They can make use of their influence for promoting brands. In addition, Yasuoka has worked in the apparel industry in addition to being an amateur model and an Instagrammer. She says that this experience helps her now when she does the casting.
Since the launch back in September, we’ve been working with about 30 ad agencies. We mainly use Line for communicating with Instagrammers. Because it is easy for them to communicate through Line, and there’s a knack in creating relationships with them.
Tagpic CEO Ayumi Yasuoka
On the other hand, they will end up being a simple small casting agency by continuing to work with this analog method. Therefore they are thinking of making a database of Instagrammers.
She continued:
Because people don’t possess much information on amateur model Instagrammers, we are developing a database called Caspic (spelling not confirmed), dedicated to casting Instagrammers. We still haven’t upgraded all the information, such as who has big eyes or who plays sports. This data is mainly used inside our company. Yet we are thinking of releasing it to other agencies later on.
After upgrading the information on the Caspic, the company can continue casting amateur models even if there are problems on the Instagram platform or changes of rules, for example. She expects it will also reduce dependence on the platform to a minimum.
Translated by Mariko Kobayashi via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda