Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has closed a series A round having fundraised about 5 million yen ($4.4 million). The company had secured 270 million yen ($2.2 million) before they announced the start of the series A fundraising last November. In addition to existing investors, Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Omron Ventures participated in this round to invest 230 million yen ($2 million). Hence, the total amount fundraised in this round has surpassed the company’s initial target of 4 million yen ($3.5 million).
LifeRobotics was founded in December 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon, who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team has been developing cooperative working robots, which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse, or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing a co-robot called Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to position, as well as to improve people’s productivity and to automate manufacturing.
LifeRobotics will use the funds to boost its technology development and hire sales staff. The company is also hiring software and hardware engineers as well as interns who want a career in robotics.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year. Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded. Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of…
Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year.
Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded.
Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of their apps.
Since its official release in April of 2015, the platform has been adopted by major e-commerce sites, games, news media and other various apps from the IT industry, according to Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata.
The lastest funding is to strengthen the foundation of our system development and hiring talents. At the same time, we would like to start our global expansion efforts, planning to conduct a test marketing in the overseas market followed by launching an overseas office next year.
Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata
While many users are app developers in Japan, the company has been receiving numerous inquiries from overseas developers despite no massive promotion and adopted by more than 1,400 mobile apps from 18 countries. Upon funding at this time, the company wants to expand the implementation of its mobile app growth hack solution to fashion, real estate, automotive, human resources, marriage counseling, among other non-IT sectors.
Leveraging their past experience of developing and implementing the solution, Repro provide wants to provide app developers with a more comprehensive solution rather than just offering an SDK.
Hirata explained:
When developers release their app, many of them definitely want to gain sales, customer satisfaction, or touch points with their users. Based on these strategies, we will offer a growth hacking expertise for mobile app development such as setting KPIs (key performance indicators) or magic numbers, which we have learned through serving 1,400 mobile apps.
Repro recently introduced a new API (application program interface) supporting mobile push notification. This allows business owners to integrate statistics from other sales channels like a website or a real store with their mobile app so that they can conduct more personalized marketing to each and every customer.
Hirata continued:
For e-commerce sites offering both a website and a mobile app, they can push a mobile notification via our platform to the smartphone of the users who have selected items to buy but not yet completed the purchase on the website. By connecting the two interfaces, we can allow e-commerce sites to offer a cross-channel experience for their customers.
As of now Repro is focused on mobile growth hacking, but they may expand its support to a desktop or website interface in the future. Using the funds, the company plans to prepare for a global expansion without pause.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Venture Business Creation Council, Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, The Tokyo New Business Conference (Connect!), and Japan New Business Conferences held the award-presenting ceremony for the 2nd Nippon Venture Awards last week in Tokyo, where Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, economy minister Mikio Hayashi, and eight winners of the awards were invited. At the beginning of the ceremony, Abe gave the following speech highlighting Peptidream’s history, the company having won the Prime Minister award. The company chosen for the Prime Minister award had realized an innovation for fighting ailments such as cancers and infections. I was told that they started from a garage-like office filled with used laboratory tables. By putting technologies for pinpoint attacks on cancer cells into practical use, it has grown into a huge company with a market capitalization of more than 200 billion yen (about $1.75 billion) in just ten years. […] I would like to conclude my remarks by wishing Japan to become a major startup power led by you the winners as a new force and by other entrepreneurs who will follow you. The following are the details of the award winners. Prime minister’s award winner:…
Venture Business Creation Council, Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, The Tokyo New Business Conference (Connect!), and Japan New Business Conferences held the award-presenting ceremony for the 2nd Nippon Venture Awards last week in Tokyo, where Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, economy minister Mikio Hayashi, and eight winners of the awards were invited.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Abe gave the following speech highlighting Peptidream’s history, the company having won the Prime Minister award.
The company chosen for the Prime Minister award had realized an innovation for fighting ailments such as cancers and infections. I was told that they started from a garage-like office filled with used laboratory tables. By putting technologies for pinpoint attacks on cancer cells into practical use, it has grown into a huge company with a market capitalization of more than 200 billion yen (about $1.75 billion) in just ten years. […]
I would like to conclude my remarks by wishing Japan to become a major startup power led by you the winners as a new force and by other entrepreneurs who will follow you.
The following are the details of the award winners.
Prime minister’s award winner: Peptidream
Kiichi Kubota, CEO of Peptidream, receives the testimonial from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Image credit: Cabinet Public Relations Office
Peptidream is a University of Tokyo-originated venture focusing on research and development of drugs under academia-industry cooperation. By utilizing a special peptide developed at RCAST (Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology) of the University of Tokyo, which improved the disadvantages of the conventional peptide having poor in-vivo stability or no cell membrane permeability, Peptidream has been creating new peptide pharmaceuticals.
Economy minister’s award winners (partnership of venture and established company): ZMP, DeNA, and Sony Mobile Communications
ZMP has been developing platforms for development of autonomous driving technologies and sensor systems, or engaging in development support of autonomous driving technologies for automakers. It established Robot Taxi, aiming to facilitate mobility in cooperation with DeNA, in May of 2015. With Sony Communications, it had started Aerosense last August for the survey and analysis business using drones.
Economy minister’s award winner (female entrepreneur): Genequest
GeneQuest is a startup focusing on gene analysis, established by researchers at the University of Tokyo and others in 2013. Sending back one’s saliva collected by the sampling kit which was sent from the lab after the order, one can receive evaluation with 300 items regarding congenital onset risks of diseases or constitutions based on the results of gene analysis.
Special jury award winner (global expansion): Mercari
Mercari, providing a mobile marketplace app for C2C (consumer-to-consumer) under the same name, established a branch office in San Francisco in March 2014 and entered the US market. Recently, it has tried to strengthen its services and to secure human resources as well through investment in other startups. On 1 February, it revealed that the app achieved seven million downloads just within the US.
Special jury award winner (social problem solution): Surala Net
Tokyo-based Surala Net developed educational materials utilizing interactive animation that enable learning with a game feel via the Internet, targeting children from the higher grades of elementary school to high school. Tying up with domestic cram schools, the service has realized an education model consisting of both self-learning support using these materials and follow-ups by tutors.
Special jury award winner (intrapreneurship): Sony
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mercari, the Japanese startup behind C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 8.4 billion yen ($74 million) in a series D round. Participating investors include Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab (WiL), Global Brain, Mercari’s board members, Mitsui & Co., Development Bank of Japan, and Japan Co-invest Limited Partnership. With the latest funding, the company has fundraised a total of 1.26 billion yen ($110 million) since its launch in February 2013. Coinciding with this announcement, the company disclosed that the app has surpassed 25 million downloads in Japan and 7 million downloads in the US, and has transacted more than 10 billion yen ($88 million) in deals through the platform. They claim that the primary purpose of this round is to boost global expansion, especially in the US. In addition, they will use the funds to develop new business at Souzou, a subsidiary of Mercari, as well as strengthening the team for mergers and acquisitions, and investing in other businesses. See also: Japanese mobile flea market app Mercari raises $14 million, will expand to US market Japanese flea market app Mercari…
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Mercari, the Japanese startup behind C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 8.4 billion yen ($74 million) in a series D round. Participating investors include Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab (WiL), Global Brain, Mercari’s board members, Mitsui & Co., Development Bank of Japan, and Japan Co-invest Limited Partnership. With the latest funding, the company has fundraised a total of 1.26 billion yen ($110 million) since its launch in February 2013.
Coinciding with this announcement, the company disclosed that the app has surpassed 25 million downloads in Japan and 7 million downloads in the US, and has transacted more than 10 billion yen ($88 million) in deals through the platform. They claim that the primary purpose of this round is to boost global expansion, especially in the US. In addition, they will use the funds to develop new business at Souzou, a subsidiary of Mercari, as well as strengthening the team for mergers and acquisitions, and investing in other businesses.
See the original story in Japanese. Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced today that it has fundraised up to $35 million from Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Jafco in a series B round. INCJ will undertake an investment worth up to $30 million while Jafco will invest $5 million from their fund raised from other several investors. The latest funding round is followed by securing a $7.7 million series A round back in February of 2015 where Jafco, Mistletoe as well as angel investors like Kotaro Yamagishi (Gree co-founder), Kenji Kasahara (Mixi co-founder), Shuhei Morofuji (SMS founder) and Kiyoshi Nishikawa (Netage founder) paid in. At the beginning of the press conference in Tokyo today, Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki made a keynote speech to elaborate the danger of space debris which she experienced through her space shuttle Discovery mission STS-131. Ground-based radar telescopes can detect the Earth’s debris down to 10 centimeters in size so that a space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS) can be warned to avoid space debris. However, space debris are so fast (circling the Earth at a velocity of…
From the left: Shigeyuki Tsuchida (Senior Executive Officer, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan), Naoko Yamazaki (astronaut), Mitsunobu Okada (CEO, Astroscale)
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced today that it has fundraised up to $35 million from Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Jafco in a series B round. INCJ will undertake an investment worth up to $30 million while Jafco will invest $5 million from their fund raised from other several investors. The latest funding round is followed by securing a $7.7 million series A round back in February of 2015 where Jafco, Mistletoe as well as angel investors like Kotaro Yamagishi (Gree co-founder), Kenji Kasahara (Mixi co-founder), Shuhei Morofuji (SMS founder) and Kiyoshi Nishikawa (Netage founder) paid in.
At the beginning of the press conference in Tokyo today, Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki made a keynote speech to elaborate the danger of space debris which she experienced through her space shuttle Discovery mission STS-131. Ground-based radar telescopes can detect the Earth’s debris down to 10 centimeters in size so that a space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS) can be warned to avoid space debris. However, space debris are so fast (circling the Earth at a velocity of about 7.5 kilometers per second) that even tiny space debris smaller than 10 centimeters and larger than 1 centimeter, which cannot be detected with ground-based radar telescopes, may greatly damage rockets, artificial satellites and the ISS.
Receiving sponsorship from Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Astroscale started developing a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 last year, which aims to detect small space debris which cannot be detected with ground-based radar telescopes. To remove space debris, they will develop capturing satellites called ADRAS 01 which is to use lightweight but sticky adhesives to capture space debris which is relatively smaller and located at a relatively lower altitude, and then reenter the atmosphere to burn the captured debris out. For ones larger or located at a higher altitude, these will be decongested from a heavy traffic orbit rather than being removed because it will require higher energy consumption to move them. Capturing satellites are to incorporate advance technologies from Japanese ultra-microsatellite series Hodoyoshi, have an ion engine, hydrogen peroxide solution-based attitude control system and ESP (Electric Solid Propellent) thrusters.
From the left: Space-debris capturing satellite ADRAS 1, space-debris detection satellite IDEA OSG 1
Mitsunobu Okada, CEO of Astroscale, emphasized that his company has been receiving cooperation from 11 laboratories at 9 universities, two technical colleges, JAXA (Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency) and 50 other private-sector companies including machine manufacturing company Yuki Precision. Okada named a team of these people involved in this Space Sweepers project, and stated his aspiration that they all unite together to lead the project to success.
Astroscale plans to launch the first IDEA OSG 1 satellite from Russia between 2016 and early 2017. Following that, they will launch ADRAS 01 in the first half of 2018 to begin conducting proof of concept (PoC) tests. Represented by Japanese space startup Axelspace, the upcoming trend of satellite business will be shifting to satellite constellation, which allows users to observe many parts of the planet without timing constraints. Astroscale wants to monetize by acquiring these satellite business operators as clients and receiving entrusted tasks such as removing failed satellites or securing orbits.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Port is preparing for the beta launch of Port Medical, a telemedicine platform allowing chronic patients to consult a doctor online. The company announced today that it has fundraised 900 million yen (about $7.9 million) from Eight Roads Ventures Japan (previously known as Fidelity Growth Partners Japan), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Global Brain. Port has been serving businesses with employment consulting services through the leveraging of social media as well as offering several vertical media sites such as CareerPark (tips for careerbuilding) and Tabimo (travel tips). The company learned of many issues in the healthcare and medical sectors through Medicil, a health and beauty tips website launched back last November, and then launched the Port Medical platform to address these issues. The latest funds will be used to improve media content, strengthen technology capability and launch new businesses. Port is expecting to attract 30 million readers for vertical media sites during 2016, expanding into other sectors beyond careerbuilding, travel, healthcare and financial topics. They are planning to develop a recommendation engine using natural language processing and artificial intelligence (AI) for their existing and new services. Regarding the Port Medical platform, the company claims…
Tokyo-based Port is preparing for the beta launch of Port Medical, a telemedicine platform allowing chronic patients to consult a doctor online. The company announced today that it has fundraised 900 million yen (about $7.9 million) from Eight Roads Ventures Japan (previously known as Fidelity Growth Partners Japan), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Global Brain.
Port has been serving businesses with employment consulting services through the leveraging of social media as well as offering several vertical media sites such as CareerPark (tips for careerbuilding) and Tabimo (travel tips). The company learned of many issues in the healthcare and medical sectors through Medicil, a health and beauty tips website launched back last November, and then launched the Port Medical platform to address these issues. The latest funds will be used to improve media content, strengthen technology capability and launch new businesses.
Port is expecting to attract 30 million readers for vertical media sites during 2016, expanding into other sectors beyond careerbuilding, travel, healthcare and financial topics. They are planning to develop a recommendation engine using natural language processing and artificial intelligence (AI) for their existing and new services. Regarding the Port Medical platform, the company claims that they will be more focused on partnering with governments, hospitals and other stakeholders in the medical industry.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Masaru Ikeda
Shintaro Eguchi
Takeshi Hirano
Yukari Mitsuhashi
