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Japanese business card management app Eight forays into HR and Ad Tech fields

Masaru Ikeda 2017.06.23

From left: Kenji Shiomi (MD and co-founder of Sansan), Hiroshi Senju (Chief Producer of Eight Dept., Sansan)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Sansan, the company offering cloud-based business card management platforms, announced on Thursday that a major update will be given to its app Eight, implementing the “company page” which displays user company content receivable on the feeds of Eight. Company users having their own pages will be allowed to place ads or recruiting information to targeted users based on their business card profiles on Eight. The next version of the Eight app having this function is planned for launch in late June, and will be available for desktop, iOS and Android from June 28th at the earliest.

Eight is the business card management app for individuals officially launched in 2012. The app is provided in the freemium model; users can use basic functions for free except for data export function and so on. The number of users surpassed the million mark in 2015, while Sansan added functions such as feed (similar to timeline) or group message in order to promote communications between users. The current number of users has exceeded 1.5 million.

The business card data registered by users is linked with company information on Eight. Based on the linked information, users can create their company pages via desktop. For company users, for example, recruitment staffs can send invitation messages directly to potential employees (Eight Talent Solution) or marketing staffers can put ads on the Eight Feed timeline (Eight Ads). Since the registered company data on Eight is also linked with database of Teikoku Databank, a Japanese corporate credit research company, Eight proposes the optimal targets for sending message or ad by analyzing registered data and business card information utilizing AI (artificial intelligence).

At the press conference held in Tokyo on Thursday, Kenji Shiomi (Managing Director / co-founder of Sansan) and Hiroshi Senju (Chief Producer of Eight Dept, Sansan) made comments. Both Eight Talent Solution and Eight Ads will be provided as paid services but the charge system is undecided at this moment. According to Shiomi, the price range will probably be much the same as conventional services. Regarding the additional functions including the “company page”, about 10 Japanese companies including Nissan Motor (TSE:7201), Okamura (TSE:7994), CyberAgent (TSE:4751), Cybozu (TSE:4776) and Lancers had expressed their intention to use these functions as soon as it is launched.

The launch of additional functions for Eight this time can also be viewed as Sansan the CRM (customer relationship management) startup having advanced into HRTech (Human Resource Tech) and AdTech fields. In contrast, another Japanese HRTech startup Wantedly had advanced into the CRM field with its app Wantedly People last November.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s accounting startup Money Forward forays into B2B deferred payments service

Masaru Ikeda 2017.06.22

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Money Forward, the Japanese startup offering cloud-based asset and accounting management services, announced on Tuesday that it has newly established a subsidiary called MF Kessai focusing on deferred payments service for B2B (business-to-business) transactions. Adopting the know-how of data-driven approach that they have been cultivated in Money Forward, MF Kessai aims to shorten the time to collect account receivables and to minimize the credit risk. In the press conference, CEO of Money Forward Yosuke Tsuji explained the purpose of both the new subsidiary and the new service is to clear up worries about money in business management and to increase B2B transactions. In respect to personnel matters of MF Kessai, Naomichi Toyama who joined Money Forward in 2014 and has been involved in promotion of MF Cloud to accounting firms or small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) across Japan was appointed to CEO of the new firm. The office of MF Kessai will be established within the Finolab FinTech startup hub in Tokyo’s financial district of Otemachi, not in Tamachi where Money Forward is headquartered due to the difference of each business condition and the necessity to focus on the business field with a view to…

R to L: Yosuke Tsuji (CEO of Money Forward) and Naomichi Toyama (CEO of MF Kessai)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Money Forward, the Japanese startup offering cloud-based asset and accounting management services, announced on Tuesday that it has newly established a subsidiary called MF Kessai focusing on deferred payments service for B2B (business-to-business) transactions. Adopting the know-how of data-driven approach that they have been cultivated in Money Forward, MF Kessai aims to shorten the time to collect account receivables and to minimize the credit risk. In the press conference, CEO of Money Forward Yosuke Tsuji explained the purpose of both the new subsidiary and the new service is to clear up worries about money in business management and to increase B2B transactions.

Tsuji introduces the team members of MF Kessai

In respect to personnel matters of MF Kessai, Naomichi Toyama who joined Money Forward in 2014 and has been involved in promotion of MF Cloud to accounting firms or small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) across Japan was appointed to CEO of the new firm. The office of MF Kessai will be established within the Finolab FinTech startup hub in Tokyo’s financial district of Otemachi, not in Tamachi where Money Forward is headquartered due to the difference of each business condition and the necessity to focus on the business field with a view to future growth, according to Tsuji.

See also:

Japanese personal accounting startup Money Forward launches enterprise version

Toyama explained that five billing works arise when a seller sells any product or service to a buyer in an inter-enterprise trade: credit examination, billing information inputting, bill issuing / sending, depositing management, and payment urging. Among them, the new service MF Kessai automates the four works (90% of the entire billing works) except for billing information inputting by outsourcing on cloud and significantly reduces a burden of billing works which tend to concentrate on the beginning or the end of months.

As a recent business trend, implementation of cloud or direct sales can often be seen in every kind of business with the spread of internet. Since the implementation of cloud often causes a reduction of the sales per customer, sellers need to sell their products to more customers in order to secure the same sale as before. The direct sale forces pure retailers to engage in inexperienced works such as depositing management or credit examination even for customers who never be seen before. By performing billing works in these scenes for them, MF Kessai provides an environment where sellers can focus on their main work.

Among functions of MF Kessai, noteworthy points are the credit transfer as of completing billing data (early deposit) and the guarantee of account receivable collection. When a seller uses MF Kessai, it automatically performs a credit examination of a buyer. Although this process is not disclosed, transaction will be done in one minute at the shortest utilizing big data based on information obtained from external organizations and that Money Forward has accumulated. According to the results of the test operation, 98% of buyers has passed the examination so far.

After this, MF Kessai takes on the credit on behalf of the buyer and can pay to the seller as the seller completed the billing data in the shortest case. It is a similar service to the so-called factoring service, and the commission fee for MF Kessai will be set to about several present, according to Toyama. Since the charge system of MF Kessai has not been announced yet, it is not known at present whether this early deposit service will be provided for free as a default function or will be charged.

By shortening the time from billing to payment, it may generate various business merits; manufacturers will be released from necessity of the external dependence of funds required for stocking materials, or agricultural producers, whose business is basically promised on advance payment style, will get an opportunity to transact with unseen potential customers all over Japan. To provide this service, it is felt that MF Kessai needs a fixed fund. Tsuji commented on this matter giving an example of the firm’s financing service for enterprises MF Cloud Finance:

We are a tech company, so we will secure the fund through cooperating with external financial organizations, rather than depending on the balance sheet of MF Kessai.

Thus he implied the possibility of a fundraising from financial organizations. Since MF Kessai was established as a subsidiary independent of Money Forward, the possible cooperation scheme with financial organizations can be easily imagined whether it is equity-based, debt-based, or introduction of potential customers.

Kotaro Kurasaki (CEO of Rita Foods, running Kumamoto Basashi.com, an online marketplace for sashimi of horse meat) attended the press conference online and explained the merit of MF Kessai as a user.

The strength of MF Kessai must be the API (application programing interface); it greatly improves business efficiency with lots of information gathered by linking with users’ billing / account receivable management system or by linking with bank system. Although MF Kessai started its service that day, the API will be launched around this autumn so that its serious operation phase seems to start after that.

In the context of the credit / investment service for SMEs or proprietaries by data-driven approach, Japan’s CreditEngine had launched Lendy; in addition, a Japanese major account software developer Yayoi and ALT provided by d.a.t. plans to the service launch within this year as well.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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AI-based health diagnosis app for plants wins AgriTech startup competition in Tokyo

AG/SUM

The Bridge 2017.06.21

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. From May 23rd to 25th at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, a series of start-up pitches were given during Japan’s Agritech Summit (AG/SUM). The event was sponsored by the Japanese financial newspaper group Nikkei, and modeled after the American version which is replete with start-up participation. It was the second AG/SUM confab held by the Japanese side following a February pitch preliminaries that saw a dozen teams selected to prepare for the Harvest finals in May…10 teams ended up pitching in May. Three AG/SUM accelerator participants also made their Green Pitch presentations. Last year, Nikkei hosted Fintech Summit, in line with the mainstay business full of start-up activity in recent years. The news outfit will this year again organize the fintech event. In 2016 Nikkei had also backed Pioneers Asia, focused on the startup ecosystem in the Asian region. Regarding agritech as a concept it covers not only agribusiness but entails applying technology and innovations to solve a variety of problems ranging from labor shortage due to the steep decline in farms, the global environment and food supply, among other pressing…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.

The Banana Dream team
Image credit: AG/SUM

From May 23rd to 25th at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, a series of start-up pitches were given during Japan’s Agritech Summit (AG/SUM). The event was sponsored by the Japanese financial newspaper group Nikkei, and modeled after the American version which is replete with start-up participation.

It was the second AG/SUM confab held by the Japanese side following a February pitch preliminaries that saw a dozen teams selected to prepare for the Harvest finals in May…10 teams ended up pitching in May. Three AG/SUM accelerator participants also made their Green Pitch presentations.

AG/SUM Harvest in Tokyo, February 2017
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Last year, Nikkei hosted Fintech Summit, in line with the mainstay business full of start-up activity in recent years. The news outfit will this year again organize the fintech event. In 2016 Nikkei had also backed Pioneers Asia, focused on the startup ecosystem in the Asian region.

Life Sciences session at Pioneers Asia 2016
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Regarding agritech as a concept it covers not only agribusiness but entails applying technology and innovations to solve a variety of problems ranging from labor shortage due to the steep decline in farms, the global environment and food supply, among other pressing issues.

Automation for improved yield management, utilization of drones both apian and artificial, food safety and security, rural medicine — though as for veterinarians, Japan has a surplus of practitioners — these are fields in which biomedical and life sciences will be gaining in importance.

Banana Dream’s health diagnosis app
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Regarding AG/SUM pitch competitions Harvest’s top winner, with a big monetary award from the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, was GreenPlanet Biotech-led Team Banana Dream while the special award went to agriculture-use fintech start-up Plus A, which will be provided direct access to the pitch finals at Fintech Summit 2017 being held again by Nikkei in a challenge for the top award there.

The Banana Dream team has developed an AI-based health diagnosis technology for plants using images of the veins of a leaf based on a technique called “freeze-thaw awakening method”. Plus A proposes a new funding option for farmers to help their business expansion and optimization.

The Green Pitch presentation were given followed by Livin Farms, Plant Data and Vegetalia, the last outfit being led by Satoshi Koike, a well-known in the startup field. Additionally seminars and workshops as well as exhibits were held (container-based Freight Farms being a favorite for urban/weekend farmer candidates, for example) plus smaller conferences… business and press…at the mid-city venue.

The Plant Data team
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

There was also an announcement made at AG/SUM of a joint endeavor by the City of Rikuzentakata (Mayor Futoshi Toba), Kyoto-based confectioner Salon de Royal (President Machiko Maeuchi) and the University of Tokyo’s Agriculture and Life Sciences Department as well as Institute of Industrial Science (efforts headed by Prof. Hiroyoshi Iwata, Assoc. Prof. Kazuo Oki, etc.) establishing a company and a pilot farm centered on pecan-nut production for revitalization of the rural region devastated by the March 2011 tsunami strike.

The Pecan team and their partners
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s One Visa helps companies better manage visa applications of foreign workers

Takeshi Hirano 2017.06.19

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Residence recently unveiled the open beta version of One Visa, the online visa applications management platform. It allows Japanese companies to submit visa applications for their employees and manage when their visas will become expired and must apply for a new one. Usage fee is 40,000 yen per company. Residence also announced that it has recently raised 36 million yen (about $324,000) from Primal Capital and Skyland Ventures. The platform allows companies to manage the profiles of their foreign employees. It will notify the personnel department when their visa expiration timing comes closer, then tell them automatically what kind of visa will be needed and take them into an automated visa application flow. Users can download forms in need for their visa application simply by asking questions, or can even ask a paralegal to conduct the entire process through the platform instead of doing themselves. According to the company, there’s an increased demand in managing visa applications for foreign employees at Japanese companies as the population of foreign visitors and residents in Japan are on the rise. About 1.6 million visa applications were made in Japan in 2015, which is 6% higher than…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Residence recently unveiled the open beta version of One Visa, the online visa applications management platform. It allows Japanese companies to submit visa applications for their employees and manage when their visas will become expired and must apply for a new one. Usage fee is 40,000 yen per company. Residence also announced that it has recently raised 36 million yen (about $324,000) from Primal Capital and Skyland Ventures.

The platform allows companies to manage the profiles of their foreign employees. It will notify the personnel department when their visa expiration timing comes closer, then tell them automatically what kind of visa will be needed and take them into an automated visa application flow. Users can download forms in need for their visa application simply by asking questions, or can even ask a paralegal to conduct the entire process through the platform instead of doing themselves.

According to the company, there’s an increased demand in managing visa applications for foreign employees at Japanese companies as the population of foreign visitors and residents in Japan are on the rise. About 1.6 million visa applications were made in Japan in 2015, which is 6% higher than its previous year’s stats, while we also see a 18% increase in the number of foreign employees in Japan. There’s also the Japanese Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry’s predication that the population of foreign workers in Japan will hit 2.06 million by the year 2020.

Meanwhile, the visa application process requires expertise in application procedures and selecting a relevant visa type, as well as preparing relevant documents to attach for submission, while language barriers are also a huge obstacle in this process. It usually takes several weeks for preparing attaching documents only, and is likely to force applicants to wait for long hours at the immigration office.

The One Visa platform is now being used as closed beta by about 10 companies from restaurant chain operators and Internet service companies to financial institutions. Going forward, the team plans to enhance the service that will even allow users to report the employment status of foreign workers to the Japanese Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry.

Albert Okamura, founder and CEO of Residence, is an entrepreneur in his 20s, originally from Peru. Following his work experience at the Japanese immigration office where he has processed 20,000 visa applications, he made up his mind to tackle this issue.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Z-Works secures $3.6M series A to assist elderly caregivers by IoT monitoring

Z-Works

Masaru Ikeda 2017.06.19

See the original story in Japanese. Several news websites reported on Friday that Tokyo-based Z-Works, the Japanese startup developing IoT (Internet of Things) healthcare monitoring solutions especially for elderly care, has secured 400 million yen (about $3.6 million) in a series A round. Participating investors in this round are Spiral Ventures, Canon Marketing Japan (CMJ for short, TSE:8060), Infocom (TSE:4348), Lixil (TSE:5938), Kokusai Kogyo, plus the KSP Venture Investment Funds by Kanagawa Science Park. Coinciding with this funding, Spiral Ventures’ partner Hiroshi Oka, Infocom’s Open Innovation Center chief Yoichi Shirono and someone from CMJ will join Z-Works’ management board as external directors. Z-Works has developed an IoT-based platform called Life Engine, aiming to reduce the burden of professionals and family members caring for elderly people, by leveraging a variety of sensors and a cloud-based platform to remotely watch over the elderly without possible invasion of their privacy. It intends to prevent the elderly from becoming bedridden, especially during the period between life expectancy and health expectancy — 9 years for men, 12 years for women on average each. Using a heart rate monitoring sensor, motion sensors and other sensors which are not required to be attached to the elderly people’s…

See the original story in Japanese.

Several news websites reported on Friday that Tokyo-based Z-Works, the Japanese startup developing IoT (Internet of Things) healthcare monitoring solutions especially for elderly care, has secured 400 million yen (about $3.6 million) in a series A round. Participating investors in this round are Spiral Ventures, Canon Marketing Japan (CMJ for short, TSE:8060), Infocom (TSE:4348), Lixil (TSE:5938), Kokusai Kogyo, plus the KSP Venture Investment Funds by Kanagawa Science Park. Coinciding with this funding, Spiral Ventures’ partner Hiroshi Oka, Infocom’s Open Innovation Center chief Yoichi Shirono and someone from CMJ will join Z-Works’ management board as external directors.

Z-Works has developed an IoT-based platform called Life Engine, aiming to reduce the burden of professionals and family members caring for elderly people, by leveraging a variety of sensors and a cloud-based platform to remotely watch over the elderly without possible invasion of their privacy. It intends to prevent the elderly from becoming bedridden, especially during the period between life expectancy and health expectancy — 9 years for men, 12 years for women on average each. Using a heart rate monitoring sensor, motion sensors and other sensors which are not required to be attached to the elderly people’s bodies so that they are unlikely to feel uncomfortable, the system can remotely monitor their heart rate, breath rate, getting out of bed, turning over in bed or taking an extra-long bathroom break so that caregivers will be notified when necessary or something unusual.

The company won Runways to Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 at Tokyo, subsequently became the runner-up at the Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 arena finals, as well as winning a pitch competition in Tokyo by Aging 2.0, a startup accelerating focused on elderly healthcare. Moreover, the team was selected for I-Challenge!, the ICT Innovation encouragement program hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications back in 2016.

Among the investors participating in this round, Z-Works has been partnering with CMJ to develop a system that enables remotely monitoring elderly people’s rooms, planning to deploy it into 115 care homes in Japan run by Japanese nursery care provider Sompo Care Next. Alongside this, CMJ will also set up a new department specifically focused on an elderly care business. Meanwhile, another investor, Kokusai Kogyo, is supporting Z-Works by offering an indoor location detection technology which works without GPS (global positioning system).

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Tatsuya Takahashi, co-CEO/co-founder of Z-Works, delivered their pitch at the Tech in Asia Singapore conference back in 2016.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

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New graduates: There is more than one track for you

Shin Iwata

The Bridge 2017.06.12

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. A recent conversation with my friend Shin Iwata from Atomico inspired me to reflect on the choices facing young people nowadays as they embark on their professional careers. Shin penned a poignant post discussing the difference between stability and security in the professional context in Japan, concepts denoted by the same Japanese word of antei. I cannot possibly do justice to Shin’s elegant piece, but one of his key arguments is that Japanese youth need to consciously choose which version of antei represents their ultimate goal, because stability and security can diverge. Traditionally, the Japanese educational system conditioned young people to pursue professional security. Work hard in elementary school, participate in after-hours juku (cram school) in order to gain admission into a top university, and subsequently enter the pool of fresh graduates recruited by large…

mark-bivens_portrait 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.

A recent conversation with my friend Shin Iwata from Atomico inspired me to reflect on the choices facing young people nowadays as they embark on their professional careers.

Shin penned a poignant post discussing the difference between stability and security in the professional context in Japan, concepts denoted by the same Japanese word of antei. I cannot possibly do justice to Shin’s elegant piece, but one of his key arguments is that Japanese youth need to consciously choose which version of antei represents their ultimate goal, because stability and security can diverge.

Traditionally, the Japanese educational system conditioned young people to pursue professional security. Work hard in elementary school, participate in after-hours juku (cram school) in order to gain admission into a top university, and subsequently enter the pool of fresh graduates recruited by large corporations. Traditionally, the young graduate would join one of these large firms or conglomerates and work their butt off for several years with the implicit promise of a guaranteed job for life. I contend that this phenomenon was not limited to Japan.

The social pact of lifetime employment afforded workers full job security, and simultaneously a high degree of stability, so the two concepts became intertwined in people’s minds. Globalization ushered in the first wedge between the two by fostering conditions in which an employee might be expatriated to another geography for 2 to 5 years. I grew up as an expat child and derived nothing but benefit in bouncing around internationally in my youth. However, I also witnessed firsthand the dependency my father had on his firm. When the company asked us to relocate, my father was, at minimum, strongly discouraged from declining their request. In a Japanese corporation, such a refusal would be unthinkable.

I submit that stability and security have fallen even deeper into contradiction over the past decade, and that this trend is accelerating. The main driver is the second information technology revolution, i.e. the internet.

Large companies ≠ stable. Innovative companies = stable.

I’ve heard convincing arguments that the first IT revolution — the invention of the semiconductor and its ensuing proliferation of computing resources — represented sustainable innovation. In other words, the innovation of the silicon revolution was dramatic, but it was sustaining rather than disruptive. This innovation wave disproportionately benefited large companies by enabling them to leverage new efficiencies into their economies of scale.

In contrast, the subsequent wave of innovation, ushered in by the internet, is radically disruptive. The first ripple of this wave appeared in the technology sector (look what Slack means for Microsoft, or MongoDB means for Oracle, or AWS means for Cisco, etc.). Now technology startups conceived in the paradigm of the internet and unshackled by legacy baggage are going after large, non-tech industries, whether it be transportation (Lyft), consumer products (Dollar Shave Club), finance (TransferWise), agriculture (The Climate Corporation), etc. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the increasing connectivity to the physical world is enabling us to close the loop in industry, agriculture, and the environment.

Accordingly, large companies may still be able to offer workers a certain degree of security by force of their sheer size, inertia, and a protective labor regulatory context. However, stability in such firms is far from assured.

My message to newly-minted college graduates: Think about your ultimate goal as you embark on your career. The path that worked well for your parents is not necessarily an effective one anymore to achieve the same goal because times have changed. Finally, don’t feel you have to follow the same track as everyone else because conventional wisdom says so. There is more than one track.

Japanese business card management app Eight forays into HR and Ad Tech fields

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