This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
In view of Panasonic celebrating its centennial in 2018, the Osaka electronic company has set up this July with startups Loftwork and Cafe Company – under the banner of “setting up an experimental space that seeks to enrich the world over the next hundred years” – a collaborative space in the area just south of Japan Railways Shibuya station.
The three-story structure dubbed 100BANCH comprises the “Loft” collab space on the top floor supported by Panasonic and the “Garage” work space for members on the second floor. The ground floor will be occupied by “Kitchen” which will be a cafe space operated by Cafe Company. Shibuya is a hotbed of startup in Japan, and Panasonic, which started out small a century ago, wishes to support such companies taking on business challenges.
The opening ceremony brought together some of the slated occupants of the building, ranging from an aquaponics venture with the backing of Assoc. Prof. Hiroyoshi Iwata of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Science, to a Non-Profit Organization project (Re:recipe) looking to invigorate regional cities by introducing to travelers unique local dishes that can be found all over Japan.
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. The Voyager accelerator program Demo Day was held on July 14th in Shibuya. Run by the Nomura group of companies under the auspices of Nomura Holdings, support from the Nomura side with an eye to producing synergy – in addition to outside private-sector mentors (like former Intel Japan chief Ikuo Nishioka) as well as advisors such as academics and field professionals helped five startups gain traction in their business. The five firms presented their plans, as below: Chikaku, which offers a service providing links for senior citizens to their relatives as exemplified by their grandchildren via video tech (“Mago” in Japanese, hence “Mago Channel” as the service name), tried out their productline at half a dozen Nomura Securities branches. Much positive feedback from the trial participants and the securities sales staff was gained. Chikaku hopes to expand their service further in cooperation with Nomura Securities. Simulatio, a venture business born out of research at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), unveiled its natural language-grounded “Logic & Arithmetic Network Database” (LAND). The startup aims to promote analysis and…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
The Voyager accelerator program Demo Day was held on July 14th in Shibuya. Run by the Nomura group of companies under the auspices of Nomura Holdings, support from the Nomura side with an eye to producing synergy – in addition to outside private-sector mentors (like former Intel Japan chief Ikuo Nishioka) as well as advisors such as academics and field professionals helped five startups gain traction in their business.
The five firms presented their plans, as below:
Chikaku, which offers a service providing links for senior citizens to their relatives as exemplified by their grandchildren via video tech (“Mago” in Japanese, hence “Mago Channel” as the service name), tried out their productline at half a dozen Nomura Securities branches. Much positive feedback from the trial participants and the securities sales staff was gained. Chikaku hopes to expand their service further in cooperation with Nomura Securities.
Simulatio, a venture business born out of research at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), unveiled its natural language-grounded “Logic & Arithmetic Network Database” (LAND). The startup aims to promote analysis and solution provision for the financial sector while improving the reliability of financial information for users. By collaborating with the Nomura group of companies, it looks to realize further enhancement of its services.
Giftee in conjunction with Nomura Securities Koshigaya (Saitama Prefecture) branch gave a trial run of its casual gift service “eGift” which focuses on the grandparents generation wishing to provide younger family members with small gifts. The Nomura group also stands to gain by making in-roads into the elder generation through jointly marketing the “eGift” services.
A10 Lab is offering the “MinChallenge” (meaning “Take on the challenge with everyone”) software which seeks to motivate those involved in various activities but prone to possibly dropping out. The startup hopes to improve people’s lifestyles so the general public will be motivated to be active in society. Research work on this endeavor was carried out jointly with Nomura Research Institute.
Nagoya University Medical School-spawned Prevent wishes to set up a health-oriented community where residents can lower insurance, medical and other social costs based on proper diet or training. Such communities are to be establish by working together with real estate developers such as Nomura Real Estate.
The Nikkei reported early this morning that Japan’s second largest telco KDDI will acquire a full stake in Tokyo-based Soracom, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) startup offering data service optimized for IoT (Internet of Things). The acquisition price is reportedly about 20 billion yen ($180 million US). Founded in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services engineer Ken Tamagawa, the mobile company has now become a 40-people team serving about 7,000 businesses in Japan as well as around 800 companies in the US and Europe. See also: Japan’s Soracom launches SIM cards and services for IoT service operators in US Japanese IoT-focused MVNO Soracom snags additional $5.8M funding for series B round Japan’s IoT-optimized cellular operator Soracom raises $22M series B for global expansion Japan’s Soracom launches cellular network service for Internet of Things developers KDDI started working on IoT-optimized services last year including several efforts like a massive partnership with Toyota for serving connected cars. In February of this year the Japanese telco acquired Iret, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based solution suite Cloudpack, while the former also announced in March that it would jointly set up a new company called ARISE Analytics with Accenture, aiming to promote data analytics…
The Nikkei reported early this morning that Japan’s second largest telco KDDI will acquire a full stake in Tokyo-based Soracom, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) startup offering data service optimized for IoT (Internet of Things). The acquisition price is reportedly about 20 billion yen ($180 million US). Founded in 2014 by former Amazon Web Services engineer Ken Tamagawa, the mobile company has now become a 40-people team serving about 7,000 businesses in Japan as well as around 800 companies in the US and Europe.
KDDI started working on IoT-optimized services last year including several efforts like a massive partnership with Toyota for serving connected cars. In February of this year the Japanese telco acquired Iret, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based solution suite Cloudpack, while the former also announced in March that it would jointly set up a new company called ARISE Analytics with Accenture, aiming to promote data analytics businesses.
Tokyo-based Uuum, Japan’s leading YouTuber management agency, announced today that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 30 August with plans to offer 302,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 77,500 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 292,300 shares. Nomura Securities will lead the underwriting. Its share price range will be released on 10 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 14 August and pricing on 21 August. According to the consolidated statement as of May 2017, they posted revenue of 3.30 billion yen (about $29.7 million) with an ordinary profit of 221.7 million yen ($2.0 million) and a net profit of 185.9 million yen ($1.7 million). Led by the company’s CEO Kazuki Kamada (holding a 39.45% stake), its major shareholders include Anri (16.97%) and Jafco (TSE:8595 15.43%). Since its launch back in 2013 under its previous name of On Sale, Uuum has been becoming Japan’s largest multi-channel network (MCN) by employing renowned Japanese YouTubers such as Hikakin. The company recently partnered with Nintendo for a blanket agreement regarding the use of the latter’s game characters for livestreaming. See also: Japanese…
Image credit: Uuum
Tokyo-based Uuum, Japan’s leading YouTuber management agency, announced today that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 30 August with plans to offer 302,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 77,500 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 292,300 shares. Nomura Securities will lead the underwriting.
Its share price range will be released on 10 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 14 August and pricing on 21 August. According to the consolidated statement as of May 2017, they posted revenue of 3.30 billion yen (about $29.7 million) with an ordinary profit of 221.7 million yen ($2.0 million) and a net profit of 185.9 million yen ($1.7 million). Led by the company’s CEO Kazuki Kamada (holding a 39.45% stake), its major shareholders include Anri (16.97%) and Jafco (TSE:8595 15.43%).
Since its launch back in 2013 under its previous name of On Sale, Uuum has been becoming Japan’s largest multi-channel network (MCN) by employing renowned Japanese YouTubers such as Hikakin. The company recently partnered with Nintendo for a blanket agreement regarding the use of the latter’s game characters for livestreaming.
See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Over the last year several FinTech startup activity bases were established around the Tokyo Station. Finolab relocated and renewed their space, and a number of events were held at FinGate, which was established by Heiwa Real Estate. There are also many FinTech startups at the Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT), which is also home to 500 Startups Japan among others. The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more. This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided…
MUFG Digital Accelerator’s “The Garage” was born in Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho, Tokyo. There are many people who enter under the impression that it is a bank on account of the conspicuous signage.
This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.
The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more.
This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided over by the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) opened up their first co-working space called The Garage. I popped in to see their space after the dust settled from renovations.
The MUFG Digital Accelerator currently operates a four month acceleration program about once a year, and it is time for them to finalize the batch for their second phase. The 7 startup teams currently participating in the batch have reached the final stage and are putting the finishing touches on their plans for collaboration for the demo day on July 28.
The five teams that participated in last year’s first batch, as well as the logo of the seven teams of the second batch currently in progress are displayed at the entrance.
On the premise of cooperating together, “Facilitators” from the MUFG Digital Accelerator assign MUFG employees called “MUFG Mentors” to each of the seven participating startups, as well as external collaborators from VCs and other accelerators who are participating as “Pro-mentors”. Over the course of the program, monthly pitch days, weekly and biweekly mentoring, API meet-ups and mini Hackathon gatherings are held at The Garage.
The first floor houses a desk space overflowing with the feeling of opennessIn the basement a living room space gives off a relaxed airThe demo day countdown timer. There are about 3 weeks left.
(Unlike corporate accelerators) an independent accelerator is one that aims to support entrepreneurs trying to develop businesses from scratch with various resources, encourage market-ready products to be released to the world, and lead the companies to the next fundraising round. On the other hand, corporate accelerators will look for startups to collaborate with, the aim being to create some sort of output, but it is rare for truly productive collaborations to be born by merely matching up startups and in-house business personnel.
In the case of MUFG, each group company recently established a department called the “FinTech Promotion Office”, and each company has devoted active internal personnel to lead, thus creating a smoother environment for collaboration with startups. Much like a reality talent competitions such as American Idol, during the second stage representatives from each group company listen to pitches made by the startups, nominate teams they see as compatible for potential business collaborations, and commit themselves to supporting the team until the program ends (or even after that).
Some people from the management team and participating startups of MUFG Digital Accelerator
The MUFG accelerator program has evolved from its first batch as a FinTech accelerator, to a broader scope with the second batch as a digital accelerator. Until now, participation in the program was restricted to domestic Japanese startups, but starting with the next batch, they will actively focus on accepting overseas startups. But before that, we look forward to the demo day for the second batch on July 28th.
A sign in front of The Garage showing the place of origin of Japan’s banks
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced on Friday that it has fundraised $25 million in a series C round. Japanese venture investment company aStart, ANA Holdings (TSE:9202), Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Jafco as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in this round. INCJ, Jafco and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital have participated in the past rounds. Astroscale said that it will use the funds to expand the operations of their UK subsidiary and strengthen their management team. For Astroscale, this follows their $7.7 million series A round funding and $35 million series B round funding. Among the newly-joined investors, Astroscale has received sponsorship from OSG to start developing a a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 in 2015. Astroscale plans to launch IDEA OSG 1 in early 2018 followed by a magnet-use space debris removal satellite prototype ELSA-d in the first half of 2019. The company aims to start commercializing its business in 2020. Astroscale claims that it expects ANA to share their knowledge about safe flight operations and control as well as OSG to provide tools for…
Image credit: Astroscale
Astroscale, a Singapore- / Tokyo-based startup developing satellites to remove space debris from Earth’s orbit, announced on Friday that it has fundraised $25 million in a series C round. Japanese venture investment company aStart, ANA Holdings (TSE:9202), Japanese cutting tool manufacturer OSG (TSE:6136), Japanese government-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Jafco as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital participated in this round. INCJ, Jafco and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital have participated in the past rounds. Astroscale said that it will use the funds to expand the operations of their UK subsidiary and strengthen their management team.
For Astroscale, this follows their $7.7 million series A round funding and $35 million series B round funding. Among the newly-joined investors, Astroscale has received sponsorship from OSG to start developing a a space debris detection satellite called IDEA OSG 1 in 2015. Astroscale plans to launch IDEA OSG 1 in early 2018 followed by a magnet-use space debris removal satellite prototype ELSA-d in the first half of 2019. The company aims to start commercializing its business in 2020.
Astroscale ELSA-d Image credit: Astroscale
Astroscale claims that it expects ANA to share their knowledge about safe flight operations and control as well as OSG to provide tools for producing satellites. In terms of ANA’s investments in space-related businesses, this is the second case following the one in Japanese spaceflight developer startup PD Aerospace (about $180,000) back in December of 2016. ANA launched their in-house R&D initiative Digital Design Lab in April of 2016, aiming to promote innovations in their group in order to expand themselves beyond aerospace business, by also running a crowdfunding site called WonderFLY.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
