Tokyo-based HoloEyes, the Japanese VR (virtual reality) startup specialized in the medical field by developing surgical simulation content for doctors, announced today that it has fundraised 150 million yen (about $1.3M US) from Nissay Capital in a series A round. This follows a seed round in which the company fundraised 10 million yen (around $89K US) from Japanese VR-focused acceleration program Tokyo VR Startups (TVS) after graduating from its its 2nd batch.
HoloEyes was founded back in October of 2016 by app developer Naoji Taniguchi (CEO and CTO), surgeon and visiting professor/associate professor at more than a few universities Dr. Maki Sugimoto (Managing Director and COO), and Kenichi Shinjo (Managing Director and CSO), who has previous work experience as the producer of AllAbout and COO of Appliya. In December of 2016 they won the Tech Lab Paak award at the Tech Lab Paak’s 6th batch Demo Day, and in January of 2017 they were awarded the Amazon AWS prize at the Demo Day of the 1st batch of “Brave”, the acceleration program by Tokyo-based life science-focused startup VC/accelerator Beyond Next Ventures’.
Images used for medical diagnosis such as CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays, are generally expressed in two dimensions. However, surgeons often assemble a three-dimensional image in their heads based on these images, perform diagnosis based on what they learn using their stethoscope, and then perform surgery. HoloEyes developed a VR content solution for medical use called HoloEyes VR with the idea that surgeons and other medical staff can understand more intuitively when they are provided with 3-dimensional images. Currently, the company provides cloud services that can convert patient-specific CT data into polygons and freely view them in 3D space via VR devices.
Collecting the data from CT scans, forming 3D human body models, and accumulating it creates a so-called medical VR database. For example, it could be possible by searching with the keywords “60s male prostate cancer” to retrieve 3D images of a similar case which can be used by a doctor for diagnosis, and then used for training for surgery. The possible use cases include pre-operative conferences (surgical planning), sharing surgical plans among medical staff, education for young doctors and students, and as explanation to patients, etc. They are assuming a business model that provides VR viewers to hospitals and sells the data gathered with patient consent to medical universities and pharmaceutical companies.
HoloEyes plans to use the funds raised this round to build the system and business base for HoloEyes VR and expand its staff.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Campfire, one of leading crowdfunding sites in Japan, announced earlier this month that it has fundraised 600 million yen (about $5.5 million US) from JAFCO (TSE:8595) and SBI Investment. Details such as the payment date and investment ratio were not announced. The company also revealed that their total funding so far has reached 1 billion yen (around $9.1M US). See also: Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire secures $3M to launch social lending service Since the company’s beginning in 2011, they have seen over 6,500 projects, had 240,000 backers participate in crowdfunding while the total amount of deals transacted on the platform has reached 2.4 billion yen (about $22M US). In particular, they have experienced remarkable growth in the past year, and in 2017 the total value of transactions has increased to 12 times that of the period from January to March of 2016. With this funding, the company expands into cryptocurrency, P2P payments, and investment businesses. One year since founder’s return as CEO It has been awhile since the idea of crowdfunding appeared. Around eight years ago Kickstarter took the lead in 2009. If we look at the annual review published by them we can…
Campfire, one of leading crowdfunding sites in Japan, announced earlier this month that it has fundraised 600 million yen (about $5.5 million US) from JAFCO (TSE:8595) and SBI Investment. Details such as the payment date and investment ratio were not announced. The company also revealed that their total funding so far has reached 1 billion yen (around $9.1M US).
Since the company’s beginning in 2011, they have seen over 6,500 projects, had 240,000 backers participate in crowdfunding while the total amount of deals transacted on the platform has reached 2.4 billion yen (about $22M US). In particular, they have experienced remarkable growth in the past year, and in 2017 the total value of transactions has increased to 12 times that of the period from January to March of 2016. With this funding, the company expands into cryptocurrency, P2P payments, and investment businesses.
One year since founder’s return as CEO
It has been awhile since the idea of crowdfunding appeared.
Around eight years ago Kickstarter took the lead in 2009. If we look at the annual review published by them we can get a general feel for their numbers. About 580 million dollars is invested in nearly 58,000 annual projects, and since the numbers published by Campfire are cumulative it is difficult to compare the two.
In February of last year Kazuma Ieiri returned as CEO of Campfire. At that time he expressed a feeling of crisis.
It’s been five years since we began Campfire out of love for crowdfunding, but honestly if Campfire itself and crowdfunding as a whole is left as it is, I’m worried about shrinking.
At the time, Ieiri was grappling with a 5% cut to commission fees.
I want to launch 1000 individual projects for 50,000 yen (about $460 US) from one large project totaling 50 million.
This train of his thought lead to the concept of the “democratization of funding.”
His next move was swift.
They made a rapid fire succession of announcements about use cases leveraged by the crowdfunding platform: Local businesses that promote local initiatives, fan clubs that are allowed to charge on a subscription basis, in addition to music performance supporting projects currently showing great growth.
In addition to cutting fees, the company also gradually removed hurdles so that more people could participate in crowdfunding, for example, adding the “All-In” function that allows projects to receive funds even if they do not reach their target. As a result, the total transaction amount will increase greatly, and after seeing an increase in capital, etc. via external funding, they will once again be on the path to growth.
Breaking away from crowdfunding
So, what are Ieiri’s views on crowdfunding and the future?
First, it is easier to understand by organizing the new business expansions announced this time around. The business will be comprised of the FireX cryptocurrency exchange (recently launched), a P2P (peer-to-peer) payments service called Polca (scheduled to launch in June), investments, and their major existing business area dealing with crowdfunding projects.
What they all have in common is the matching of people who intend to start something and those who wish to support them. Of course, their cryptocurrency business is not solely for trading; an even bigger incentive is likely that they are more easily able to decide rules based on comparisons with legal currency.
Polca is an extremely personal support/financing project, and Campfire a slightly larger project, with the businesses that could stem from them bringing investments and loans. Through the use of crothe ghosts of transaction fees that haunt them at every turn can be exorcised.
To tie it all together, the hazy picture the company paints of their platform, with people connecting at the center and the goal of support through distribution of their own money effectively creates an economy.
The next stage of the “Democratization of Funding”
In an interview conducted in November of last year, Ieiri confided his thoughts on expanding the scope of the project from crowdfunding to a social and money lending business. He reiterated those sentiments this time around.
He said:
Japan is full of challenges–so much so, that they even say we’re a developed country with problems. […] A redistribution of wealth, I think is what it’s called–I believe it’s necessary to create a system to circulate money from private citizens who have it to those who do not. However, it remains, how to do it through a steady business scheme rather than charitable activities.
Crowdfunding was supposed to be the ideal democratization method for Ieiri. However, as the beginning numbers show, the wall remains high to make it even bigger and turn it into a financial method anyone can access. The announced funding appears to be a way to break through the wall.
At the time of this news was revealed, I was able to get in contact with Ieiri in Kobe during the invitation only conference, Infinity Ventures Summit. He had this to say on the funding:
It’s been about one year, February of 2016, since returning full-scale to Campfire, which had 3 employees at the time. Now that number has increased to nearly 70, and we moved offices just the other day. In regards to finance, as we announced, we have earned nearly 1 billion yen cumulatively.
In terms of the total transaction voume, this year it’s expected to be around 3.5 billion yen, bringing the total to 5 billion. We’ve seen some growth, but we still have a ways to go. Until now we were ‘Campfire for Crowdfunding’, but from here on out we will evolve into Campfire–aiming for a world where anyone can raise their voice for any funding needs, including crowdfunding. I intend to use the funding to advance our new image, one that goes beyond the framework of crowdfunding in order to advance the democratization of funding.
I plan to continue checking the trend of how the crowdfunding model evolves in Japan.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Bizcast, the Japanese startup behind a matchmaking platform for YouTuber marketing called BitStar, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. This round succeeds their seed round where they fundraised an undisclosed amount from East Ventures backed in 2014 followed by their series A round where they have raised an estimated amount of several million dollars from Japanese gaming company Colopl (TSE:3668) back in August last year. This is a actual series B round, but the secured amount scale and the investment conditions apparently correspond to a series A round. Due to this funding, Kazuhiko Miyama (Partner of Global Brain) is appointed to Outside Director of Bizcast. Since this round has not closed yet, Bizcast implied the possibility of additional funding within the round from other companies having a potential of business synergies with it. Founded back in July 2014, Bizcast launched the BitStar platform that matches YouTubers with their client companies in September 2015. Currently, the platform has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to specific MCNs (multi-channel networks) and have more than 80 million followers in all. In…
Tokyo-based Bizcast, the Japanese startup behind a matchmaking platform for YouTuber marketing called BitStar, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.7 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. This round succeeds their seed round where they fundraised an undisclosed amount from East Ventures backed in 2014 followed by their series A round where they have raised an estimated amount of several million dollars from Japanese gaming company Colopl (TSE:3668) back in August last year. This is a actual series B round, but the secured amount scale and the investment conditions apparently correspond to a series A round.
Due to this funding, Kazuhiko Miyama (Partner of Global Brain) is appointed to Outside Director of Bizcast. Since this round has not closed yet, Bizcast implied the possibility of additional funding within the round from other companies having a potential of business synergies with it.
Founded back in July 2014, Bizcast launched the BitStar platform that matches YouTubers with their client companies in September 2015. Currently, the platform has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to specific MCNs (multi-channel networks) and have more than 80 million followers in all.
In typical MCNs, about 20% of monthly ad incomes from YouTube is charged as the commission fee; however, Bitstar aims acquisition of major YouTubers by allowing registration for free and by offering business matters, as well as accompanying services such as tax returns procedures or exposure support. According to the company, over 1,000 video clips are served via the platform while the repeat ratio of their clients reaches 51%.
Bizcast has developed unique tools on its own to crawl audience reactions on social media regarding YouTubers registered to the platform. By analyzing which YouTuber will have the most powerful effect for each topic, Bizcast brings the best matchmaking to satisfy with both YoutTuber and client companies.
Finding next YouTube stars and overseas expansion
Originally started as a matching platform for YouTube marketing, BitStar wants to enhance the functions of producing high-quality video content and managing its own media channels in order to expand the area of activities of YouTubers, seeking to collaborate with entertainment business companies having lots of artists or performers. The company’s vision can be seen in, for example, the “WEGO YouTube” channel jointly provided by WEGO, a popular Japanese apparel brand among the younger generation, as well as a recent partnership with China’s up-and-coming news app Toutiao which is now entering into the Japanese market.
Taku Watanabe (CEO of Bizcast) told that it will also focus on accelerating the cycle of finding talents, raising personnel, and monetization:
I think it is a great advantage that we already have a close relationship with clients since we started as an advertisement platform. We know which kind of needs clients have and which type of talents to raise.
Coincidentally with this funding, Bizcast also announced that it has tied up with Japanese travel agency giant JTB. There is a background factor to this tying-up that BitStar was used in the promotion of one of JTB’s travel product series. By enforced marketing efforts using BitStar-suggested YouTubers, the staying time of JTB website increased four-fold and the daily page view increased seven-fold at most; therefore, JTB evaluates BitStar highly for driving a new traffic of young customers.
JTB, also being a LP (limited partner) of the Global Brain’s 6th fund in 20 billion yen ($180 million)-scale, aims to push on business collaborations in attracting foreign visitors and overseas promotion support for the Japanese companies in anticipation of 2020 Tokyo Olympics, for example, the cooperation with Fun Japan Communications, a JTB-affiliated digital marketing company specifically targeting the Asian market.
As seen in cooperation with Toutiao, Bizcast seemingly attempt to advance into the Chinese influencer market as well. There is a possibility that the firm will expand into Taiwan within this year, and may become a competitor of AdAsia Holdings, the leading player in this field. As an aside, AdAsia Holdings announced last week that it appointed a new vice president to enhance the entry into the Taiwanese market.
The following is one of JTB’s video clips that promote travels to Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, made by a BitStar-suggested YouTuber.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, announced on Wednesday that it has closed a pre-series A round. The investors participating and the scale of funding were not revealed, but some sources say that the investors are the corporate venture capital of a leading ad agency and an IT business company both of which can see potential synergy with Pulit’s business. This follows Pulit’s previous funding 50 million yen in a seed round back in August of 2016. In the Super Distribution Scheme (SDS) 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. After the launch of their business announcement last year, Pulit carried out PoCs (Proof of…
Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, announced on Wednesday that it has closed a pre-series A round. The investors participating and the scale of funding were not revealed, but some sources say that the investors are the corporate venture capital of a leading ad agency and an IT business company both of which can see potential synergy with Pulit’s business. This follows Pulit’s previous funding 50 million yen in a seed round back in August of 2016.
In the Super Distribution Scheme (SDS) 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.
After the launch of their business announcement last year, Pulit carried out PoCs (Proof of Concept) with 6 major Japanese private TV broadcasters (3 in Tokyo and 3 in Osaka), 4 major publishing companies, 3 animation studios from March to April this year (Low-Fidelity PoC). From May-June this year PoC was carried out by participating new media companies and social network services in addition to 10 TV broadcasters, 6 big publishing companies, and 3 animation studios (Middle-Fidelity PoC). From here, they plan to hold closed beta tests from July to August (which will also serve as High-Fidelity PoC), followed by open beta tests from September to October, with the goal of launching this service alongside Android/iOS viewer apps within the year.
Until now, when content holders and producers distribute content, they had to rely on a distribution platform run by third-party operators. Because of this, it was difficult for content holders to distribute their top tier content since it was impossible to implement marketing measures freely, and there was a minimum guarantee (a minimum fee for delivery consignment paid by the content holder to the platform operator regardless of the user’s viewing number), making it difficult to handle niche content.
According to Pulit CEO K.W. Lee, by introducing Pulit, content holders can directly distribute their own content without using any other content distribution platform, so it is easier to distribute top tier content, as well as niche content, and they hope that a long tail market will be born from this as well. He remarked that he plans to extend the service categories beyond to microcontent, picture books, photographs of comics, novels and magazines in the future through partnerships with broadcasters and publishers all over Japan,
If we investigate video content IP holders in Japan, we come across three companies in total, with Pulit pulling through as the dominant company if all the three were left to duke it out. Although the details remain unknown, it is thought that the funding sources are closely related to this strategy.
In response to this funding, Pulit says it will strengthen the organization from the current 4 to 6 people (to 10 people including the external development collaborators).
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Vaqso revealed at a press conference held on Thursday that they have raised around $600,000 in a seed round from Weru Investment, the investment arm of Waseda University. a Waseda University VC. At the same time, the company announced the pre-release of the company’s product Vaqso VR (semi-prototype) to developers, and are aiming for a full launch in winter of 2018. The funds raised will be used to cover the initial cost for mass production, as well as for PR costs and exhibition exhibits. Since the launch back in January by Kentaro Kawaguchi who has been involved in promotional services for restaurants using smells, Vaqso has been developing VAQSO VR, a scent emitting device to attach to a head-mounted display (HMD). Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to 5-10 cartridges in the finished product. Also, the device is equipped with a small fan, which is…
Tokyo-based startup Vaqso revealed at a press conference held on Thursday that they have raised around $600,000 in a seed round from Weru Investment, the investment arm of Waseda University. a Waseda University VC. At the same time, the company announced the pre-release of the company’s product Vaqso VR (semi-prototype) to developers, and are aiming for a full launch in winter of 2018. The funds raised will be used to cover the initial cost for mass production, as well as for PR costs and exhibition exhibits.
Since the launch back in January by Kentaro Kawaguchi who has been involved in promotional services for restaurants using smells, Vaqso has been developing VAQSO VR, a scent emitting device to attach to a head-mounted display (HMD).
Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to 5-10 cartridges in the finished product. Also, the device is equipped with a small fan, which is currently under development, but by synchronizing the rotation speed of the fan with the VR content when the user moves closer to or away from the object in the virtual space it will be possible to strengthen or weaken the smell accordingly.
Coinciding with this funding announcement, the company also launched a smell production service for businesses where Vaqso is in charge of producing smells to be emitted in synch with VR content for content providers. Vaqso is mainly targeting ad agencies, gaming studios and companies, video production companies, etc. Corresponding to both VR 3D content and 360-degree video, it assumes use cases such as street promotion for food companies, science-fiction movie trailers, and simulating rescue operations at disaster scenes.
Vaqso will collaborate with Aoi Pro., a Japanese video production company that produces VR content title Wonderful World, and in addition to exhibiting at next week at the Content Tokyo 2017 confab. They will also join forces to Illusion, the adult game developer renowned for its signature game title VR Kanojo (literally meaning VR Girlfriend), to hold hackathon events, as well as exhibit at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles in July.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
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…
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