Tokyo-based Fablic, the Japanese startup behind flea market app Fril, will be acquired by Rakuten for several billion yen (or several tens of million US dollars) and turned into an affiliate, as Nikkei reported early this morning. Combining with its own existing flea market app Rakuma, the e-commerce giant expects to grow its total trading volume up to about 3 billion yen (about $30 million).
Founded in April of 2012, Fablic was born out of the 4th batch of the Open Network Lab accelerator and launched the app in September of the same year. The company introduced the concept of ‘flea market app’ for the first time in Japan. Followed by unveiling their trading volume hitting 500 million yen back in July of 2014, they secured a $10 million funding from Cookpad, Colopl and Jafco in October of said year.
Fablic recently launched a new flea market app focused on trading motorcycles between individuals, called Ride, in an attempt to expand beyond fashion item peer-to-peer trading. While the app has been seeing a good growth, Mercari… another marketplace app from Japan launched in July of 2013… leapt forward and opened up a lead by reaching 10 billion yen (about $100 million) in deals through the platform.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, this week announced that it has secured 50 million yen (about $500,000) in its seed round. This round was led by Korea’s startup-focused fund BonAngels as well as five investors…namely, Jun Narimatsu (ex-CFO of Cookpad, also as a strategic adviser and an angel investor), Yusuke Sato (founder of FreakOut and Ignis), Yoshinari Matsuda (attorney), Hiroyuki Kato (ex-CTO of Atlantis and current CEO of web service developer Irodori) and Goushi Yamaguchi (formerly worked at Cookpad and Lancers, currently involved in management of 30 startups). With this fundraising, Pulit has started making a serious effort to develop a new content distribution channel and services based on its own patents relating to ‘SuperDistribution System (SDS)’ for digital images. Pulit was founded in 2015 by K.W. Lee (CEO), a Tokyo Institute of Technology graduate who had been engaged in R&D at Samsung Electronics, Min-Soo Kim (CTO) who had been developing apps as a freelance programmer and Shohei Komatsu (Director) who had been involved in fund management or technical advisory work at Tokyo-based startup accelerator Slogan. The firm was born out from the first batch…
L to R: Min-Soo Kim (CTO), K.W Lee (CEO), Shohei Komatsu (managing director)
Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, this week announced that it has secured 50 million yen (about $500,000) in its seed round. This round was led by Korea’s startup-focused fund BonAngels as well as five investors…namely, Jun Narimatsu (ex-CFO of Cookpad, also as a strategic adviser and an angel investor), Yusuke Sato (founder of FreakOut and Ignis), Yoshinari Matsuda (attorney), Hiroyuki Kato (ex-CTO of Atlantis and current CEO of web service developer Irodori) and Goushi Yamaguchi (formerly worked at Cookpad and Lancers, currently involved in management of 30 startups). With this fundraising, Pulit has started making a serious effort to develop a new content distribution channel and services based on its own patents relating to ‘SuperDistribution System (SDS)’ for digital images.
Pulit was founded in 2015 by K.W. Lee (CEO), a Tokyo Institute of Technology graduate who had been engaged in R&D at Samsung Electronics, Min-Soo Kim (CTO) who had been developing apps as a freelance programmer and Shohei Komatsu (Director) who had been involved in fund management or technical advisory work at Tokyo-based startup accelerator Slogan. The firm was born out from the first batch of seed acceleration program Supernova which is jointly managed by Draper Nexus, Slogan, Coent Venture Partners and Viling Venture Partners (however, their participation was undisclosed because they were still in a stealth mode as of Demo Day) .
In the distribution of fee-charged video content, video distribution platforms such as Hulu, Netflix or Amazon Prime are commonly used. Although content holders or video creators hope to perform marketing according to their own will, in practice most of them depend on these platforms. Besides, since platformers grasp distribution path to viewers related to content, the profit of content holders or creators tend to be reduced under this income structure. What Pulit tries to propose is a disruptive business model in order to regain the initiative of video content distribution to content holders or creators.
In the SDS scheme developed by Pulit, as content holders or creators upload videos to be distributed onto cloud, Robust Image Watermark is embedded on the cover image and direct access link (URL) is issued for each video. Clicking the direct access link, OS-native players are activated and then users are allowed to watch the videos on PC or smart devices. Also, DRM (digital rights management) control is available, so that users can save the videos on local environment or watch them again according to conditions set by content holders or creators.
As a result, users need not be a video distribution platform member just because he / she wants to watch a certain drama or a movie. Content holders or creators have become able to freely conduct marketing or promotion activities according to their own direction without being restricted by any contract condition such as exclusive distribution. Since the promotion for content viewing will be done only by sharing link URL, it can be simply displayed as-is on the timeline advertisement of Facebook or Twitter. Actually, Pulit seems to expect such an operational manner of the service that allows content holders or creators to set the direct link URL to the video content for DSP (demand-side platform) advertisement, thereby raising the conversion ratio of the videos, and that may be the reason why the lineup of the angel investors for this round includes some who are familiar with the ad-tech field.
In addition, content holders or creators can distribute videos in pay-per-view method, and can change it to free-distribution method with commercial insertions (as with the commercial broadcasting) for each content just with a switch on the control dashboard. If reserving unreleased content for viewing, users can receive push-notification with direct access link for the video via LINE when the content has been released.
Currently Pulit consists of four members but plans to increase to six from September based on the fundraising this time. Considering demands for the Japanese content from overseas, the firm will start business promotion from intellectual property management agencies of Manga contents or animation production companies.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Planet Table, a ‘food tech’ innovator specializing in food delivery using big data, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised about 400 million yen (about $4 million) from SBI Investment, Genuine Startups and Mistletoe. Details such as the payment date are kept private. This follows their previous $850,000 funding back in a series A round in January of this year. The company unveiled, together with this, that the number of restaurants using their farm products distribution platform Send (released August of 2015) has reached around 1000, with the number of food producers topping out at 3000. The funds secured this time around are being used to establish a new distribution center in Tokyo named “Gate Meguro” whose focus will be to expand the deliverable area, among other things, and also to take on the challenge of constructing a new logistics model. Additionally, Seasons!, a direct trading platform for food producers and buyers that was launched in June as a closed beta for authorized parties only, is set to open to the general public this fall. Over the next year and a half the company plans to increase the number of personnel from the…
Tokyo-based Planet Table, a ‘food tech’ innovator specializing in food delivery using big data, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised about 400 million yen (about $4 million) from SBI Investment, Genuine Startups and Mistletoe. Details such as the payment date are kept private. This follows their previous $850,000 funding back in a series A round in January of this year.
The company unveiled, together with this, that the number of restaurants using their farm products distribution platform Send (released August of 2015) has reached around 1000, with the number of food producers topping out at 3000. The funds secured this time around are being used to establish a new distribution center in Tokyo named “Gate Meguro” whose focus will be to expand the deliverable area, among other things, and also to take on the challenge of constructing a new logistics model.
Additionally, Seasons!, a direct trading platform for food producers and buyers that was launched in June as a closed beta for authorized parties only, is set to open to the general public this fall. Over the next year and a half the company plans to increase the number of personnel from the current 20 to about 35.
The Gate Meguro distribution Center
‘Cloudizing’ farm products distribution
Send, the farm products distribution service that carefully connects producers and users by their respective supply and demand data in an effort to solve the problem of food loss, will move toward the next big stage. To read more about the future aims of SEND please refer to the following article written last year.
The investigation into whether the attractiveness of food made by producers of agricultural, livestock and marine products came across, and if there was a decrease in loss of opportunities for restaurants, etc. for their users, revealed that by a large number of interested parties welcome their distribution service. Planet Table CEO Shin Kikuchi responded thus:
Thanks to all the support, we have moved our center (previously in Shibuya) to Meguro. The one truck we had one year ago has grown to 8 trucks. To evaluate the restaurant side of business, at first there were many items to assemble, or cheap items.
There were a lot of these types of things, but gradually we moved toward never experiencing shortages, etc., and usability. On the producer side, we are getting the same products put into circulation before now bought at 1.2 times the price, one effect being customers have come out pleased with their price per acreage more than doubling.
Now, business is booming and the company receives so many requests, such as the desire by some to increase the meat services, that its finding it difficult to keep up.
The outsourced delivery network is set to increase to 10 trucks this year
On the one hand, it takes time and effort for distribution. They posses the physical distribution center and trucks, and also an internet business with the commonly held notion with its forced management could create a contrarian environment, thus making it risky. Naturally, the increase of trucks and delivery personnel creates a heavy burden on management as well.
The construction of a virtual distribution network solves these problems. Kikuchi remarked from when the project was originally launched on whether an Uber inspired model might be a good choice or not. And now, in order to achieve this they are beginning delivery tests of an outsourcing format.
Maybe we can call it a delivery-sharing model. This model answers the problem of how to deliver efficiently in an urban area, so we are testing it with our outsourcers. To pick up regionally produced farm products, we can have them go around to venues such as Michi-no-Eki, or roadside stations across Japan. We’re trying various ideas.
To explain a little, the producers make a crop which must then be collected by a Send team member. It is easy to imagine how the system would be the best option for finding the most efficient route. However, then delivering the goods to restaurants will require some technique.
A dish of Sausages handled by Send. Kikuchi finds most products himself by traveling around Japan.
Kikuchi added:
We will share revenue from the sales restaurants buy from the deliverers. So, it’s not just just delivering goods that have been ordered, but requires presenting the goods to restaurants in an enticing way.
Here the data becomes key. The Send platform owns the data showing what kind of customer each restaurant is and what product they will want and when. So based on this information, delivery people can obtain the knowhow to make attractive propositions.
Production, distribution, and usage–place these three entities into the virtual network and the patform can provide the data to connect them together. Because the virtual network does not stick to any one of these resources, it becomes easy to scale.
On top of this, the team has also prepared measures to reduce loss that occurs at the time distribution. We will report the details of this at a later date.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Psychic VR Lab, based in Tokyo, announced on Monday that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding in an angel round. The angel investors participating in this round include Tadasu Nakamura, Nobuhiko Watanabe (professor, Graduate School of Project Design), Akira Takashima (consultant, eBook Initiative Japan) and Tetsufumi Takimoto (angel investor / visiting associate professor, Kyoto University). In total six angel investors participated in this round, with two investors’ names withheld from publication. In conjunction with this, it was revealed that Nakamura has been appointed to Psychic VR Lab’s Board of Directors and Watanabe will join the company as the enlightener of all things VR (virtual reality). Psychic VR Lab was founded in April of 2007 by Masahiro Yamaguchi who previously served Japanese data security product vendor ED Contrive (TSE:7853) as the president. Initially based in Tsukuba City, well known as a science and technology park area in Tokyo’s suburb, as a VR research and development business under the name of Ozmiq. After participating in the 4th batch of Recruit Holdings’ startup incubator Tech Lab Paak, the team recognized that VR is becoming the main business objective and to that end the company’s name…
Psychic VR Lab’s management and investors – L to R: Tadasu Nakamura (managing director), Masahiro Yamaguchi (CEO), Nobuhiko Watanabe (evangelist), Akira Takashima (advisor)
Psychic VR Lab, based in Tokyo, announced on Monday that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding in an angel round. The angel investors participating in this round include Tadasu Nakamura, Nobuhiko Watanabe (professor, Graduate School of Project Design), Akira Takashima (consultant, eBook Initiative Japan) and Tetsufumi Takimoto (angel investor / visiting associate professor, Kyoto University). In total six angel investors participated in this round, with two investors’ names withheld from publication. In conjunction with this, it was revealed that Nakamura has been appointed to Psychic VR Lab’s Board of Directors and Watanabe will join the company as the enlightener of all things VR (virtual reality).
Psychic VR Lab was founded in April of 2007 by Masahiro Yamaguchi who previously served Japanese data security product vendor ED Contrive (TSE:7853) as the president. Initially based in Tsukuba City, well known as a science and technology park area in Tokyo’s suburb, as a VR research and development business under the name of Ozmiq. After participating in the 4th batch of Recruit Holdings’ startup incubator Tech Lab Paak, the team recognized that VR is becoming the main business objective and to that end the company’s name changed to Psychic VR Lab ushering in a new era.
Currently Psychic VR Lab, in an effort to describe the essence of various fashion brands to consumers online, as well as showcase the charm of their original products, is developing Styly as a VR-based shopping platform devoted to fashion. More than 30 fashion brands and outlets are expected to test out the platform soon, including Shinjuku branch of Isetan (a leading Japanese department store), which deployed an online shopping service using Styly from August 24 and is set to continue it through the middle of September.
Each of the angel investors who participated in this angel round come from particularly distinguished backgrounds.
Newly appointed Psychic VR Lab director Nakamura, after working for Nomura Securities, established a 30 billion yen (approx. 300 million US dollars) fund for internet business companies as the president of Hikari Tsushin Capital. Most recently, he served as an executive officer for the office of Investor Relations with leading Japanese textile producer Takihiyo (TSE:9982).
For Nakamura, the use of VR as a means to increase sales is a given; but, in regards to the dilemma of brands wishing to open a physical store and facing the setback of paying rent, Nakamura believes the resolution will come with time. Rather, he brings forth a dilemma that he has carried with him from his Takihiyo days: how to explain the fine details of fashion to people who know nothing. “I thought this is all there is,” emphasized Nakamura on his reason for investing and entering into a management position with Psychic VR Lab.
Psychic VR Lab’s new VR savior Nobuhiko Watanabe previously served as an Executive Officer and the chief of Open Innovation Institute at Information Services International-Dentsu (TSE:4812). Currently, Watanabe is the CEO of Japan Next Generation, which is the main force behind “one+nation” a regional music co-creation project. Around 7 or 8 years ago, when Second Life (which can be labeled the predecessor of current VR) was in its prime, Watanabe led Japan in using Second Life for events and in business settings.
Watanabe asserts that VR in its attempt to replicate the real world, could fall into the same trap as Second Life, eventually losing to the real world itself. At Psychic VR Lab Watanabe’s aim is thus to design an entire atmosphere and show a sense of what cannot be seen in real life using media and UI capable of meeting such a demand. By changing the representation of the products and how the creators of fashion create, the way in which consumers consume fashion may also change. In this way, he believes VR is sure to make an impact on society.
CEO Yamaguchi introduced Styly at the 4th batch demo day of the Tech Lab Paak incubation program.
Psychic VR Lab’s investor and advisor Akira Takashima is the co-founder of e-book platform giant eBook Initiative Japan and currently also serves as an advisor. The company was listed on the TSE Mothers Market in 2011, and in 2013 was reassigned to the first section of the exchange. While the e-Book market is currently booming, during the 2000’s Takashima is credited with etching out a new market from the ground up.
According to Takashima, there is a limit to the two dimensional commerce of the internet now. He gives the example that if you go into a bookstore in the city and see the books stacked on lined neatly on the bookshelves, you are compelled to buy many. In the current world of e-commerce, this sort of phenomena is unlikely to occur. By using VR to recreate the feeling of being in a store, new business opportunities arise, and it is expected that web creators will take the opportunity to produce something altogether new.
Tetsufumi Takimoto
Tetsufumi Takimoto, who will also support Psychic VR Lab as an investor and advisor, was responsible for the management reorganization of McKinsey deemed taxi giant, Nihon Kotsu. Takimoto is currently serving as Visiting Associate Professor of Kyoto University in the department of Industry-Government-Academia Innovation Management Science Research Division. With expansive connections in across industries, he will be supporting Psychic VR Lab’s business cooperation with large enterprises, as well as small and medium sized operations.
Psychic VR Lab has, from its Ozmiq days, arranged numerous businesses and events using VR, but intends to focus the current funding on management resources for the development of the Styly fashion commerce platform. The company has developed a 3D scanner that specializes in apparel in addition to a shopbuilder app that facilitates the construction of 3D shops; and they plan to hold an event where general users can try out the platform in the near future. They are currently searching for VR engineers, server-side engineers, and front-end engineers to join their team. Interested readers please feel free to contact them.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kufu, the company behind cloud-based personnel management platform SmartHR, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $5 million) in the latest round. This round was led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) with participation from Beenext and 500 Startups Japan as well as three angel investors: Kotaro Chiba (co-founder of Japanese mobile gaming developer Colopl), Yu Akasaka (CEO and co-founder of Japanese dating app developer Eureka) and Jun Nishikawa (COO and co-founder of Eureka). The company plans to use the fund to expand the team of 20 people to 35 people. See also: Japan’s Eureka, developer of dating and couple apps, acquired by Match Group According to Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata, Akasaka and Nishikawa (of Eureka) were the first paying enterprise user for SmartHR while they and Chiba have been playing a mentor-like role for Kufu who has had no angel investor aboard his company. Founded in January of 2013, the company fundraised the first funding from Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, followed by a $300,000 seed funding in July of last year as well as a $400,000 additional seed funding from East Ventures,…
Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Kufu, the company behind cloud-based personnel management platform SmartHR, announced today that it has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $5 million) in the latest round. This round was led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) with participation from Beenext and 500 Startups Japan as well as three angel investors: Kotaro Chiba (co-founder of Japanese mobile gaming developer Colopl), Yu Akasaka (CEO and co-founder of Japanese dating app developer Eureka) and Jun Nishikawa (COO and co-founder of Eureka).
The company plans to use the fund to expand the team of 20 people to 35 people.
According to Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata, Akasaka and Nishikawa (of Eureka) were the first paying enterprise user for SmartHR while they and Chiba have been playing a mentor-like role for Kufu who has had no angel investor aboard his company.
Founded in January of 2013, the company fundraised the first funding from Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, followed by a $300,000 seed funding in July of last year as well as a $400,000 additional seed funding from East Ventures, DG Incubation (the incubation arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage) and Beenext in January of this year.
While Kufu had been engaged in entrusted system development for a time being since launch, their cloud-based management tool SmartHR was unveiled in November of 2015 and became a smash hit. The company claims that the tool has acquired 1,700 corporate users in nine months since launch.
The fee pricing depends on how many employees a corporate user wants to manage using the platform. Miyata declined to disclose how many people they are dealing with through the platform as a whole, but he said that they are adjusting pricing plans so that a corporate user can use it for about $5 per employee.
Starting off at Open Network Lab, Kufu has been sweeping many startup competitions in Japan, with such winnings as gaining the top prize at TechCrunch Tokyo, B Dash Camp as well as Infinity Ventures Summit.
Based on the market size of cloud-based accounting services in Japan, Kufu estimates there are about 200,000 potential enterprise users for SmartHR. Despite the high user persistency rate of 98%, it’s true that the company is receiving feedback from some small businesses that do not think the service is beneficial, so they still have to keep working to improve it.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based LeapMind, providing business solutions with deep learning technologies for enterprise users, has secured a total of 340 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Itochu Technology Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Archetype Ventures. LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now. The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields. LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly. The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies: For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes…
LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now.
The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields.
Black Star Image credit: LeapMind
LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly.
The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies:
For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes cooking recipes for using leftover foodstuff.
Juiz System Image credit: LeapMind
With Fujitsu (TSE:6702), LeapMind has cooperatively made a 20,000 dining photo data to marketing data by automatic analysis, so that various services becomes possible even at this stage as far as I see from case examples on the website.
The firm plans to launch the platform within this year.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
