This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here.
Bloomberg published an article last week on the failed Pepper program, the emotionally intelligent robot originally developed by French company Aldebaran Robotics which was largely acquired in 2012 by Japan’s SoftBank for approximately $100 million.
The demise of Pepper has long been rumored (in fact The Rude Baguette originally broke the story nearly two years ago), though only recently is it becoming acknowledged more openly in Japan. On a recent visit to a business meeting in Tokyo, I was warmly welcomed at the interphone (despite my poorly accented Japanese), directed into a elevator, escorted to a conference room and offered coffee, all by a charmingly hospitable Pepper receptionist.
Although the Rude Baguette post‘s comments go deeper in speculation and entertaining mud-slinging, one part of the Bloomberg piece in particular resonated with me:
Aldebaran and SoftBank’s cultures didn’t mesh well. Engineers in Japan fumed when their French counterparts disappeared for weeks on vacation.
Aldebaran employees, accustomed to a flat structure, suddenly found many of their decisions second-guessed by an army of managers in Tokyo.
The Japanese parent created SoftBank Robotics Corp. to oversee the business and sell Pepper. It named Fumihide Tomizawa, a business manager who doesn’t speak English or French, to oversee development. Son put Takashi Tsutsui, a close ally and a veteran network engineer, in charge of technology.
So here are a few lessons from the unfortunate and probably avoidable demise of Pepper.
Acquisitions don’t magically solve organizational dysfunction. I understand from some of the firm’s early investors that Aldebaran faced internal lack of cohesion in the period prior to the SoftBank’s rescue, with allegedly some investors reaching the limits of their patience with Aldebaran management. Cleaning up personnel challenges in French companies is already difficult enough for shareholders locally, let alone a foreign acquirer.
Cross-cultural training is critical in transcontinental acquisitions like this one. The company cultures of SoftBank and Aldebaran fell in stark contrast: a hierarchical organization vs. a flat one; structured vs. chaotic; a work environment where office face time is valued vs. one in which the minimum 5 weeks vacation plus RTT days are prized.
Employees with an affinity to bridge the cultural divide — be it thanks to their languages skills, international experience, etc. — should be empowered to play a prominent role in such partnerships. Even among those who are not viewed as sufficiently senior in the hierarchy or as sufficiently expert in the domain, any individuals who can help facilitate the interpersonal connections are valuable during the initial critical phase of a merger.
Finally, perhaps the Aldebaran / SoftBank experiment shines light on a need that efforts like #LaFrenchTech might address: with its access to a pool of resources who are versed in political relations and diplomacy, a government initiative like #LaFrenchTech could provide guidance to startups in finding their way in unfamiliar territory.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. October has seen many confabs where startups have been able to appeal their products and services, beginning with CEATEC which however was not held in Tokyo. Instead there were several others that attracted much attention. One was the Edo/Tokyo crafts & technology fair at the Tokyo International Forum. Last year it had robots such as those provided a startup by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University as well as Tokyo startup Ex Machina displayed at center stage, with participants like YRP IoT which is actually based in Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This year it appears the only startup there was Shannon Lab, a Tokyo firm researching Artificial Intelligence applications. More prominent were the Security & Safety Trade Expo (RISCON 2016) and Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT 2016) gatherings held concurrently at the Tokyo International Convention Center “Big Sight” in mid-October. Within RISCON there also was the new section dubbed “Cyber-security World” that focused on cyberspace, gathering companies ranging from Kaspersky the computer vaccine provider to PSI, a Japanese outfit working together with U.S. UK startup Darktrace. As…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Image credit: Wikimedia
October has seen many confabs where startups have been able to appeal their products and services, beginning with CEATEC which however was not held in Tokyo. Instead there were several others that attracted much attention. One was the Edo/Tokyo crafts & technology fair at the Tokyo International Forum. Last year it had robots such as those provided a startup by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University as well as Tokyo startup Ex Machina displayed at center stage, with participants like YRP IoT which is actually based in Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This year it appears the only startup there was Shannon Lab, a Tokyo firm researching Artificial Intelligence applications.
As for SEECAT this year using two floors, had drones showcased in use during all types of emergencies upstairs, while lime-lighting the latest measures on the ground floor as to access restrictions for dealing with the heighted risks from terrorists organizations, not to mention startups involved in enhancing surveillance generally. It was noted that there would be increased need in Tokyo over the next few years, with both the Rugby World Cup (although this will be a nationwide event including a new stadium in the Tohoku region which was hit by the 2011 Tsunami disaster) in 2019 and the Olympics/Paralympics in 2020 being centered on the games to be hosted by the capital of Japan.
The Challenge team at their booth
At RISCON seminars covering crowd control, disaster countermeasures and public health threats were held as well. This year, University of Electro-Communications Prof. Masashi Hayakawa who had established a spin-off venture from school ventured that earthquakes may be predictable, unfortunately not scientifically proven at this time. Other startups such as Cybozu Startups exhibited measures to mitigate post-disaster effects quickly by use of expedited information-gathering from the Japan Meteorological Agency, which provides Early Earthquake Warning among other alerts related to natural including non-weather-emanating disasters.
Cybozu Startups’ booth
There were earthquake sensor maker on exhibit by Challenge, whose latest version of early temblor alert network EQguard-III could be checked alongside the SchoolGuard panic-button system for teachers. CEO Kazuo Sasaki noted that all these items are aimed at reducing casualty. The latest EQguard allows for 10 foreign languages to be used in announcing an impending major quake in enough time to increase the survival rate by 80%, with an eye to use at the Olympics. Digital signage and portable devices will also become linked to the EQGuard network. Challenge is said to be providing EQGuard anew in the Los Angeles area, near Caltech, too.
Renowned geophysicist & Caltech Prof. Emeritus Hiroo Kanamori (right) with Challenge CEO Kazuo Sasaki (left)
Sensor use was also focused on at ITpro Expo 2016 sponsored by Nikkei BP. Here also the emphasis was on Artificial Intelligence as well as security. Startups running the gamut from Abeja to Uhuru were talking Deep Learning and Internet of Things. Soracom had a large booth covering their solutions while other startups were offering Virtual Reality-related solutions. It is expected that more ventures will be honing in on such products and services over the coming years.
See the original story in Japanese. As per some media reports, Tokyo-based Base, the Japanese startup behind an instant e-commerce platform, recently announced it has fundraised a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $14.4 million) from SBI Investment, SMBC Venture Capital and Suneight Investment. The details of the plan concerning the investment ratio or the payment date were not disclosed. The secured money will be spent upon hiring additional personnel in order to expand business for the e-commerce platform Base and the payment platform PAY.JP. See also: Japanese e-commerce platform Base raises $3M from Global Brain Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base raises $2M from CyberAgent Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base introduces new iPhone app Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead Currently 300,000 online stores is open on Base and the number of PAY ID which works as customer ID reached 200,000. Therefore, the annual transaction amount now totals at tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) according to Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka. There has been plenty of topics in this arena, such as one of the rival companies STORES.jp unveiling its new development to become a private-held company again; overseas competitor The Stripe’s…
As per some media reports, Tokyo-based Base, the Japanese startup behind an instant e-commerce platform, recently announced it has fundraised a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $14.4 million) from SBI Investment, SMBC Venture Capital and Suneight Investment. The details of the plan concerning the investment ratio or the payment date were not disclosed. The secured money will be spent upon hiring additional personnel in order to expand business for the e-commerce platform Base and the payment platform PAY.JP.
Currently 300,000 online stores is open on Base and the number of PAY ID which works as customer ID reached 200,000. Therefore, the annual transaction amount now totals at tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) according to Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka.
There has been plenty of topics in this arena, such as one of the rival companies STORES.jp unveiling its new development to become a private-held company again; overseas competitor The Stripe’s entering the Japan market in the financial sector including payment, investment and remittance; Coiney’s expansion into online business from its offline field; or, the appearance of AnyPay led by a serial entrepreneur Shinji Kimura.
The Bridge interviewed Tsuruoka about how Base which has succeeded in large-scale fundraising will compete in this era in a “warring nations.”
The Bridge: First of all, I would like to ask you about Base’s development plan. I am wondering if the pace of growth will become modest soon and whether you have any ideas such as strengthening sales promotion which targets enterprise merchants?
I assume you mean to ask if we are going to make something like a Rakuten (TSE:4755) or not. This is the same situation I think for STORES.jp. Regarding this point, we came to a crossroads about a year ago.
Sales promotion is a must-do in acquiring stores with hundreds of millions of yen sales, but it is more efficient to automatically acquire small stores with sales of less than millions of yen. I think that style befits the situation. Since the stores acquired through sales promotion could be stolen away by sales promotion, I do not want to compete in such a field.
From the perspective of being a technology company, I would like to take on the creation of a good product in order to form an ecosystem semi-automatically and make people happy through the power of technology.
The Bridge: What was the purpose of launching a mall app?
It was to challenge selling products as Base. The way we were going, we could estimate where we would end up businesswise, so we decided to enhance the budget and human resources at that point in time. It is not still clear if that answer is the mall or the media but we will continue to strengthen those parts too.
The Bridge: Is it a method to attract a lot of customers?
It aims to gain customers who purchase products on the web once a month but could purchase them twice or thrice in a month because we cannot become a Rakuten or an Amazon. Rather, we provide a system of helping stores instead of us gathering people easily. Although the mall has an image as proactively gathering customers in general, I look upon our mall as a method of supporting management of stores after gathering customers.
The Bridge: I understand it is the policy to increase LTV (Life Time Value) under the current growth situation. On the other hand, Mercari — which invested in your company — has succeeded with the style of expanding its body size anyhow. It there any possibility of doing like that?
I think that it is a good idea to expand the body size eagerly as a challenge. Since it has become quite common recently for a customer who purchased a product to purchase it again at other stores, I think that is worth trying.
L to R: Kazuma Ieiri (Co-founder of Base), Shintaro Yamada (CEO of Mercari), Yuta Tsuruoka (CEO of Base), Fumiaki Koizumi (CFO of Mercari)
The Bridge: What did Shintaro Yamada of Mercari advise you?
He told me to be on the offensive (laughing).
Based on the fact that Base is growing modestly and that there are only a few platforms grasping merchants as much as we do, he told us to take on as much challenges as possible. I received a lot of advice through information exchange using Mercari’s data that could be disclosed.
The Bridge: What was the advice especially helpful to you?
About organization. We had fully changed our company’s organization. Since initially any organization did not exist, we started reforming from this spring and have become a company capable of having a report line or more staffers.
My work content has also changed drastically. Although I had been in the very middle of the creation process until last year, I have moved to a more “upper” (executive-like) position now. I am not working as a communication hub by leaving responsible persons with the power of discretion to some extent. But I still cannot act like Shintaro who keeps staying in US for a long time (laugh).
The Bridge: What is the priority for your company?
Although the priority of recruitment was lower until last year, it has become a top priority now. With Mercari’s style spreading to us, we intend to form a new employee-friendly work environment. I had not been aware of the importance of recruitment well because I had been involved in our business since university. Mercari was the first external company for me, so that it was easy to absorb the culture.
The Bridge: How have you been with co-founder Kazuma Ieiri?
We meet three or four times a week even now, but he mainly tends to discuss his current project CAMFIRE rather than Base (laugh).
Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka
Competing in the financial vertical
The Bridge: What is the most valuable number for you now?
Of course we make much of the total transaction amount which is growing to the hundreds of million dollars in scale annually, so we aim the next digit.
The Bridge: In the stage of the next digit, Mercari stands as a Goliath. Do you have any ideas about expanding business into the C2C field as a management person?
The business characteristics between us and them are completely different; the culture is different from the player in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) arena, and the customers differ too. There are some elements in their products which can be a useful reference for us. However, originally we started our business with a theme how much we can optimize the exchange of value. Of course, it is no doubt that a drastic increase in the transaction amount is better, but it is highly doubtful whether it would lead to our company’s mission directly.
Some people say the C2C market has a higher potential growth than the SME one, but I do not agree with that. Look at Rakuten. It is huge enough.
The Bridge: As for payment business, the service directions are gradually being clarified, such as short-term loans, payments and remittances. What is PAY.JP especially focusing on?
Maybe I would start from payment service first. PAY ID is available for 300,000 stores and is linked to 200,000 users now. This is the situation I was looking forward to and I think it is a good timing as a whole.
The Bridge: Is there any rival company to watch out for?
Thankfully, we are faced with many rival companies in all time-periods (laugh).
The Bridge: I feel Mr. Kimura (of AnyPay) has a philosophy which seems close to ours. I suppose their direction is to replace trading with money to that using the Internet, so that could lead into the remittance and financial areas in the future.
We had focused on how much we can increase the number of merchants over the past three years. Now the team has separated into Base team for gathering stores and PAY.JP team for gathering consumers, and I think we have entered a new phase focused on increasing the number of consumers.
The Bridge: Thank you for your time today.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp, together with volunteer Takako Teruyama. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Kengo Osaka. Makers Boot Camp’s monthly event, “Monozukuri Hub Meet up” had its 7th edition on Wednesday, 16 October at MTRL Kyoto, entitled as “Design For Manufacturing for Startups”. Sabrina Sasaki, Marketing at Makers Boot Camp, got events rolling with a brief introduction on Design For Manufacturing (DFM). She broke down each stage of Manufacturing starting from concept to retail, the final stage startups want to reach, and also mentioned about how conventional ways of manufacturing, a.k.a “Over Wall Manufacturing”, where each expert at different stages are separated, are inefficient and time consuming because one needs to find the right person to move up to every stage, even if coming up with superb ideas for products. Literally there is a wall existing between each stage because there is no direct relationships among the experts. When it comes to startups, obviously they have limited financial and human resources so that these walls…
Sabrina Sasaki
This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp, together with volunteer Takako Teruyama. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.
Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Kengo Osaka.
Makers Boot Camp’s monthly event, “Monozukuri Hub Meet up” had its 7th edition on Wednesday, 16 October at MTRL Kyoto, entitled as “Design For Manufacturing for Startups”.
Sabrina Sasaki, Marketing at Makers Boot Camp, got events rolling with a brief introduction on Design For Manufacturing (DFM). She broke down each stage of Manufacturing starting from concept to retail, the final stage startups want to reach, and also mentioned about how conventional ways of manufacturing, a.k.a “Over Wall Manufacturing”, where each expert at different stages are separated, are inefficient and time consuming because one needs to find the right person to move up to every stage, even if coming up with superb ideas for products.
Literally there is a wall existing between each stage because there is no direct relationships among the experts. When it comes to startups, obviously they have limited financial and human resources so that these walls stonewall their way. As startups always have to start from scratch, how are they going to jump over these walls, when they can keep only limited things in handy? Also, how to keep prototyping until getting some results, when they can not afford to? Well, in the bridge Paris-Kyoto, the French team of prototype experts, guest-speakers, can provide some insights for makers.
Natsuo Akazawa, PLEN projects
First speaker was Natsuo Akazawa, CEO at PLEN projects, where he has developed biped robot “PLEN”. “PLEN2” robot was crowdfunded through Kickstarter as a printable open source, meaning that anyone can build up robots on its own, anywhere in the world, as long as referring to their 3D open source data. In terms of their business model, the company can’t make money out of it because it’s an open source, however, people who used their data and assembled robots share their own robots through SNS, which spreads widely and effectively compared to advertisements.
It does not pay money back but the company lasts as a collaborative platform for humanoids. In the end, Akazawa also introduced their new joint venture “PLENGoer Robotics”, which was first offered by Chinese EMS company, Goertek and launched this year. They are now teamed up and working together to develop new robots that will be first shown next January. Born in a small town factory, now he is involved in this huge international project where the size of manufacturing is bigger than he has ever experienced before.
Second Speaker, Jean-Dominique Francois from La French Tech Tokyo, explained about the special agency launched by the French government. He works to bridge startups between France and Japan. Well, we all love France for its food, wine, fromage and arts but also as a source of very good IoT startups, like the case of the software ones giving Pepper a Latin movement.
With 20 years of International Business Development Experience in Europe and Asia (mostly Japan), Jean-Dominique acquired a comprehensive understanding of start-ups and their ecosystem. For the last years, as member of the French Economic Diplomacy, he is also helping French high-tech start-ups and SMBs to develop in the Japanese market.
Akihiko Tanaka, Director of the Academic Program at Dassault Systemes, spoke about their 3D Experience Lab Incubation startup related to CAD systems and System Management tools required for better Project Management, all in the cloud. Toyota, Honda and many others already use this platform that is also available for startups. Imagine the future using the virtual world, with amazing stories from clients.
Startups incubation project – gathering together startups from all over the world. There are 6 categories that startups can apply to join their City, Life, Lifestyle, IoT, Ideation and FabLabs. The criteria for being selected are being collaborative, disruptive innovation in products and services, and also make a positive impact on the society.
Benjamin Davoult, crossEffect
After a break, the Design for Manufacturing experts had the chance to introduce their company and their work, before joining the panel discussion.
The first one panelist was from crossEffect, Benjamin Davoult (Product Designer), who introduced himself as a French nerd. He came to Japan after finishing his Master Degree in Industrial Design, when he was hired by crossEffect. His work as a Product Designer also consists as a Silicone Mold Designer for Vacuum Casting and Prototypes/trial models creator.
He explained the process for rapid prototyping: receiving a 3D data from a client, upon a new project request, so they can check the design details and make sure it’s ready to build the physical part- that’s when they use a 3D printer, a huge laser machine called stereolithograph, where a laser soft with metal plates sink inside the liquid resin, and then the laser fits again and become a new layer of the part. This process is done during the night (it takes around 8-10h), so the team can start building the model on the next day. Sometimes the physical model is provided by the client, but either way, they still have to finish the master model. The next part is to frame, with the silicone inside, and then, after one day, the master model is ready for vacuum casting machine, where they fill in the model with resin. Then they open the machine to finalise the details, in the painting room, so the prototype will look very similar to the industrial mass-manufactured product: if you have both side by side, you can’t say which one is the prototype.
The company where he works also started a new branch focused on Industrial Design, so the main idea is to start from concept to 3D modelling, 3D printing and vacuum casting.
They can start any project just by concept (an idea), from hand drawing, from hardware with a PCB (a circuit board). Within one week, his team is able to come with many proposals, as speed is their main focus. They can also offer multiple services like, but of course the price can vary a lot, depending on the specialty.
He showed some recent IoT products by crossEffect for brands like Panasonic, Rohm, Sanyo and Omron.
Ben likes to make things, especially useful new inventions, spending most of his spare time creating devices and machines of all kinds, with his own 3D printer at home.
Emery Delmotte, Saijo Inx
Emery Delmotte, Sales Specialist at Saijo Inx, a Japanese company founded in 1950, was also born in France. He is now in charge of International sales at Saijo Inx, where he’s been supporting the company to expand its business overseas. Currently, their main customers are Japanese large corporations, as Kyocera, Omron, Murata, Fujitsu, Denso and NIDEC. Saijo Inx main business is to make prototypes from thin sheet metal working and plastic resins, press stamps, folding and cutting and die-sets making.
Their production speed is focused on small pieces for high precision 0.03mm margins, for prototypes with less than 2mm² and sheet metal thickness until 0.05 mm. The lead time is about 7 days: prototype corresponds to 46% of Sales, while Mass production is around 45% – the other small fractions are molding and thins. Over 400 projects are handled a month from medical products, motors, in-vehicle relays and connectors, industrial equipment, communication modules, electronic components, switches, batteries & fuel cells to heat fins.
Together with Kyoto Shisaku Net, Saijo Inx provides a complete support: from development, prototyping, mass production, fast realisation, smooth transition to mass production, early market introduction, implement incrementations.
The French Engineer introduced his company, showing a photo with not many workers in the factory ground, and they’re starting an automatization process to control machines with new customized software – Antoine is the Project Leader of the Smart Factory Project, in charge of the factory’s automation, using IoT and Industry 4.0 concepts and technology to bring the company to the new era of fast prototyping.
His team work is focused on automation and right now there is a new trend in the company with IoT devices and consumer products. He showed some cases of B2B solutions created internally by his development team, from idea to the next steps of development for customers, such as testing devices, bicycle safety lights, aroma diffusers, transporting robots, etc.
Hilltop can provide Prototype, Mechanical Design, Assembly and even mass production support for IoT.
The panel discussion spoke about maker’s issues and how Kyoto Shisaku members can support hardware startups as a group, part of Makers Boot Camp main activities.
Click here if you would like to check the presentation deck from all speakers, with detailed information about each one.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Earlier this month, CEATEC 2016 was held in Chiba at the Makuhari Messe convention center. Many startups were gathered this year at the waterfront venue to the south of Narita International Airport, with Japanese firms joining forces with older companies while overseas startups entering Japan such as those from the U.S. and France gained support from their governments. One conspicuous corner was Kyoto-based startup Techmac which with electronics manufacturer Rohm (TSE:6963), also a Kyoto denizen, exhibited a joint application currently under development which is being called Pulse Launcher Unit (PLU). The enhanced IoT focus of the former Consumer Electronics/Telecom event from this year matched the exhibit items. The gun-shaped “launcher” is replete with sensors, obviously provided by Rohm, that enable users to participate in a “game” being developed, dubbed Z.O.N.E.(β). This game evaluates a person’s concentration ability as well as other traits. It may be used for example to check both physical and mental health status in the future for workers, students and other people whose performance needs to be monitored. Regarding sensors Rohm also has a subsidiary, Lapis Semiconductor…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Image credit: CEATEC JAPAN Organizing Committee
Earlier this month, CEATEC 2016 was held in Chiba at the Makuhari Messe convention center. Many startups were gathered this year at the waterfront venue to the south of Narita International Airport, with Japanese firms joining forces with older companies while overseas startups entering Japan such as those from the U.S. and France gained support from their governments.
Pulse Launcher Unit Image credit: Techmac, Rohm
One conspicuous corner was Kyoto-based startup Techmac which with electronics manufacturer Rohm (TSE:6963), also a Kyoto denizen, exhibited a joint application currently under development which is being called Pulse Launcher Unit (PLU). The enhanced IoT focus of the former Consumer Electronics/Telecom event from this year matched the exhibit items.
The gun-shaped “launcher” is replete with sensors, obviously provided by Rohm, that enable users to participate in a “game” being developed, dubbed Z.O.N.E.(β). This game evaluates a person’s concentration ability as well as other traits. It may be used for example to check both physical and mental health status in the future for workers, students and other people whose performance needs to be monitored.
Regarding sensors Rohm also has a subsidiary, Lapis Semiconductor (located in Shin-Yokohama), which is readying sensors that fathom environmental conditions of soil. It is thought that such sensors, which monitor non-soil mechanics properties like temperature and humidity, could be applied to fields ranging from agriculture to zoology.
Tokimeki Sensor Image credit: Rohm
Reverting to applications for human beings, in the past Techmac and Rohm had produced jointly also a game entitled Tokimeki Sensor, of course using a sensor as the name implies. In Japanese the word Tokimeki means “the throbbing heart brought on by infatuation”; actually what is sensed by the system that was exhibited at CEATEC last year is in fact heart palpitation.
Image credit: Kabuku
Another Japanese endeavor was that of Kabuku, a design startup, who joined forces with Honda (TSE:7267) the automobile maker to produce an automobile whose body is made with parts printed using a three-dimensional printer. The Kabuku system is called Rinkak, a mass customization solution for cars and other vehicles; Rinkak in Japanese means “profile.”
L to R: Tsubasa Koseki (Styler), Jumpei Notomi (Tohmatsu Venture Support) Image credit: Styler
The thrust of CEATEC being changed toward IoT was underscored as well by a day-long session of seminars centered on IoT and fashion, which brought together such startups in this industry like Styler – as represented by CEO Tsubasa Koseki – taking part in discussions emceed by Jumpei Notomi of Tomatsu Venture Support.
Lyon mayor Gerard Collomb speaks at CEATEC 2016 Image credit: Jerry Suppan, Visionworks Productions
French startups were highlighted by an event held in Tokyo in addition to the Chiba CEATEC site with the French government presence including a delegation from the startup capital Lyon. Headed by the Socialist mayor, Gerard Collomb, this city announced a tie-up with DMM.make in Akihabara.
As for the U.S., the American corner of CEATEC supported by the Embassy had Darktrace, a startup involved in cybersecurity, appealing its services. In Japan it has its own local subsidiary based in Shibuya at Cerulean Tower, while working together with a Japanese firm known as PSI.
Tokyo-based Digital Grid, developing a prepaid solar power delivery service to off-grid areas in rural Africa by networking kiosk vendors (or rather, perhaps better referred to as “jacks-of-all-trade”) named Wassha, last week announced that it has raised 300 million yen (about $2.89 million) in its series B series A extension round from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before that, the firm closed its A round of 800 million yen (about $7.71 million) with the participation of The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Innovative Venture Fund (jointly run by NEC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. group) and J-Power, and has secured 400 million yen (about $3.86 million) in its series B series A extension round while adding the funding this time, totaling at 1.2 billion yen (about $11.6 million) as a cumulative amount since its launch. Updated on Nov. 8, 2019: Wassha told The Bridge that they positioned this as an series A extension round instead of a series B round. Some words were modified accordingly. Started in 2013, Digital Grid spun off from a research on the power network innovation (digital grid) suggested by Professor Rikiya Abe at The University of Tokyo. It installs…
L to R: Atsufumi Konishi (Deputy Manager of Public-Private Partnership Department, JICA), Masato Tahara (Director of Environment / CSR Department, DBJ), Satoshi Akita (CEO, Digital Grid), Kenichi Tomiyoshi (Administration Officer, JICA), Tomotaka Gouji (CEO, UTEC), and Yuichiro Sano (Chief Assistant of Public-Private Partnership Department, JICA) From the signing ceremony at JICA’s Tokyo headquarters (photo courtesy: Shinichi Kuno / JICA)
Tokyo-based Digital Grid, developing a prepaid solar power delivery service to off-grid areas in rural Africa by networking kiosk vendors (or rather, perhaps better referred to as “jacks-of-all-trade”) named Wassha, last week announced that it has raised 300 million yen (about $2.89 million) in its series Bseries A extension round from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Before that, the firm closed its A round of 800 million yen (about $7.71 million) with the participation of The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Innovative Venture Fund (jointly run by NEC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. group) and J-Power, and has secured 400 million yen (about $3.86 million) in its series Bseries A extension round while adding the funding this time, totaling at 1.2 billion yen (about $11.6 million) as a cumulative amount since its launch.
Updated on Nov. 8, 2019: Wassha told The Bridge that they positioned this as an series A extension round instead of a series B round. Some words were modified accordingly.
Started in 2013, Digital Grid spun off from a research on the power network innovation (digital grid) suggested by Professor Rikiya Abe at The University of Tokyo. It installs solar panels or battery chargers, then provides 30 LED lanterns, radios, tablets to kiosk operators; the kiosks rent these out to villagers and collect fees from them for charging power at the kiosks. The owners settle the electricity bills from smartphones and power charging boxes for the appliances, not to mention earning at each kiosk by charging money for use of mobile phones.
For JICA, leading Japan’s international cooperation efforts including Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV), it is the first attempt to invest in projects targeting Sub-Sahara Africa (the region in Africa south of the Sahara) although it has invested in development funds in some cases for the Middle East or North Africa. The raised money was made from JICA’s Base of the Pyramid – Feasibility Study (BOP FS) scheme, and it is also the first investment case for the scheme in any business project (which is not limited to surveys).
According to Yuichiro Sano who is Chief Assistant of Public-Private Partnership Department of JICA and in charge of this investment, although JICA has to collect the fund in the end because it is not a grant but is funded by tax money, JICA decided to invest in Wassha as a growth capital because “provision of development efficacy” can be expected through business expansion in addition to its supports possibly reaching areas where yen loans / grants / conventional ODA cannot cover.
L to R: Satoshi Akita (CEO, Digital Grid) and Atsushi Shito (CFO, Digital Grid) (photo courtesy: Shinichi Kuno / JICA)
JICA has local offices in almost all of the 54 African countries and has been dispatching JOCV or senior overseas volunteer staffs there. Since it grasps the demand of local residents’ daily life, as well as building a strong network of governments and relevant ministries in the African countries, Digital Grid will be able to realize a smoother business scale by leveraging said network.
During the previous interview in June, Wassha was provided to 650 partner kiosks mainly in two cities including the largest city of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam; thereafter the number of partner kiosks increased to 820 as of late October. Currently Digital Grid develops the service in ten regions in Tanzania and covers three cities as bases for dispatching of technical staffs or the repairing item. Besides the power provision services, the firm plans to work with other startups in sales of their service or test marketing utilizing its partner kiosk network in the future.
The Bridge
More prominent were the 
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
