Tokyo-based Crowd Realty, the Japanese startup offering a real estate-focused crowdfunding platform under the same name, announced on Monday that it has raised 350 million yen (about $3.1 million US) from SBI FinTech Fund in addition to three affiliated companies of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG): The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Kabu.com Securities. Founded back in December of 2014, the Tokyo startup secured an estimated 6-digit figures in US dollars from Global Brain in a seed round back in November of 2015, followed by securing an undisclosed amount in another funding from SBI FinTech Fund in December of 2016.
Crowd Realty said that it will use the funds to strengthen the platform.
The company launched a project called Kyomachiya No.1 Fund on May 26th this year, aiming to raise funds to renovate traditional wooden townhouses in Kyoto into vacation rental suites for inbound visitors. They successfully reached their funding target of 72 million yen in about three weeks after launching the project. Some of our readers may remember that Kyoto-based vacation rentals operator Tomaruba has recently secured funding from Crowdworks and others. Crowd Realty also manages several overseas crowdfunding projects such as mortgage loans for real estates in Estonia.
The company was selected in 2016 for the 2nd batch of startup accelerator “Tokyo Accelerate Program” which is run by one of Tokyo’s leading private railway companies, followed by winning the Demo Day competition of MUFG Digital Accelerator’s 2nd batch this year. Through their efforts at MUFG Digital Accelerator, Crowd Realty gains a partnership with Kabu.com Securities for integrating an investor base with each other, alongside Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance for creating a system to help more money circulate in rural areas of Japan.
Focused on the Long Tail market in the real estate sector, the company aims to create a decentralized peer-to-peer direct financing system for real estate.
See the original story in Japanese. Kyoto-based Tomaruba, the Japanese startup running vacation rentals businesses focused on traditional Japanese houses, announced today that it has secured funding from Japanese crowdsourcing platform operator Crowdworks (TSE:3900). Tomaruba also unveiled that it has fundraised 83 million yen (about $732,000 US) in total, with prior funding from B Dash Ventures, Anri, and unnamed angel investors. Tomaruba offers planning, managing and attracting customers for vacation rentals, especially focused on the whole building rentals. The company has been renovating traditional Japanese houses into vacation rentals sites while driving customer traffic from inbound visitors. In addition to managing more than 10 facilities including Yadoru Kyoto Washi-no-yado, the company also offers Machiya Support, a management agency service for vacation rentals owners. In September, Tomaruba released an iPad app called Smart Vacation Rental Pad, which allows vacation rentals guests to control home appliances in their accommodation or check out hot spots in their neighborhood, aiming to implement it into 50 vacation rentals sites including Tomaruba’s own facilities. In addition to remote control functions of air conditioners and smart home devices, the iPad app has a sensor that will notify a vacation rentals owner when it detects sound louder than…
Kyoto-based Tomaruba, the Japanese startup running vacation rentals businesses focused on traditional Japanese houses, announced today that it has secured funding from Japanese crowdsourcing platform operator Crowdworks (TSE:3900). Tomaruba also unveiled that it has fundraised 83 million yen (about $732,000 US) in total, with prior funding from B Dash Ventures, Anri, and unnamed angel investors.
Tomaruba offers planning, managing and attracting customers for vacation rentals, especially focused on the whole building rentals. The company has been renovating traditional Japanese houses into vacation rentals sites while driving customer traffic from inbound visitors. In addition to managing more than 10 facilities including Yadoru Kyoto Washi-no-yado, the company also offers Machiya Support, a management agency service for vacation rentals owners.
Smart VR Pad Image credit: Tomaruba
In September, Tomaruba released an iPad app called Smart Vacation Rental Pad, which allows vacation rentals guests to control home appliances in their accommodation or check out hot spots in their neighborhood, aiming to implement it into 50 vacation rentals sites including Tomaruba’s own facilities. In addition to remote control functions of air conditioners and smart home devices, the iPad app has a sensor that will notify a vacation rentals owner when it detects sound louder than a certain decibel degree, aiming to contributing to improving convenience for both of owners and guests of vacation rentals.
Tomaruba partially utilizes crowdsourced workers for responding to online inquiries and telephone inquiries from their customers. Tomaruba claims that the funding was made because their business model meets the Crowd Ecosystem, the new concept that Crowdworks recently announced as one of their medium-term management plans in the latest financial results briefing. Tomaruba uses the funds to strengthen developing the Smart VR Pad app, expand beyond Kyoto, and hire talents to gaining the service level.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Refcome, the Japanese startup behind a referral recruitment platform under the same name, announced earlier this month that it has raised 205 million yen (about $1.8M US) in the latest round. This round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV) with participation from Beenext, Anri, and Draper Nexus. This follows funding from Movida Japan when the company was established, and the 50 million yen fundraised in the seed round back in October of 2016. Beenext, Anri, and Draper Nexus are follow-ons from the last round while this is the first investment in Refcome for ITV. Refcome had been operating under the company name of Combinator since its foundation. Coinciding with the funding this time, the company has been rebranded into Refcome to match with the name of the service. The company was founded in March of 2014 with launching a web service called Combinator, aiming to help startups find their potential employees leveraging social graph integration. In January of 2016 the company had a change of direction and started the trial operation of the Recome referral recruitment platform, followed by its official roll-out back in July of the same year. The platform is…
Tokyo-based Refcome, the Japanese startup behind a referral recruitment platform under the same name, announced earlier this month that it has raised 205 million yen (about $1.8M US) in the latest round. This round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV) with participation from Beenext, Anri, and Draper Nexus. This follows funding from Movida Japan when the company was established, and the 50 million yen fundraised in the seed round back in October of 2016. Beenext, Anri, and Draper Nexus are follow-ons from the last round while this is the first investment in Refcome for ITV.
Refcome had been operating under the company name of Combinator since its foundation. Coinciding with the funding this time, the company has been rebranded into Refcome to match with the name of the service.
The company was founded in March of 2014 with launching a web service called Combinator, aiming to help startups find their potential employees leveraging social graph integration. In January of 2016 the company had a change of direction and started the trial operation of the Recome referral recruitment platform, followed by its official roll-out back in July of the same year.
The platform is focused on helping companies strengthen their referral recruiting effort. It is characterized by its focus on performance measurement in addition to providing general ATS (Applicant Tracking System) functions such as a hiring page. In February of this year, the company unveiled the Refcome Engage platform, aiming to help companies lower their employee turnover rate by analyzing employee satisfaction.
The company has not disclosed how many companies are using the service, but according to Refcome’s CEO Takumi Shimizu told The Bridge that the total number of registered employees of companies using the service has expanded from 2,700 at the start of service to 30,000, making the current number more than 10 times what it was originally. The company claims that the monthly user growth rate (MoM growth) is about 20% while the monthly recurring revenue (MRR) has reached 15 times as much as when the service started.
In addition, compared to immediately after the launch one year ago, Shimizu discussed how the use of Refcome is changing.
Changes in the user industries: Previously, there were many cases of use by IT ventures. But now, it is used in the recruitment for dispatch companies, where staff members call other staff, exemplary cases such as veterinarians recruiting other veterinarians to work in veterinary hospitals increased. It is also being used by real estate and apparel business operators.
Change in the recruitment phase: Before, 15% recruitment for new graduates, 10% part-time recruitment. But now, 10% recruitment for new graduates, 40% for part-time employment and temporary recruitment and 50% for mid-career recruitment.
As a more interesting trend, Refcome is used by staffing agencies for recruiting part-time workers for companies like Hanamaru Udon (noodle restaurant chain), Don Quixote (discount chain store), and Daimaru (department store), but the high tendency to call upon friends by Chinese and Indian users of Refcome is remarkable. According to Shimizu, in China and India calling friends to your workplace is a daily act, and the company is analyzing whether such cultural backgrounds may have an influence.
So far, Refcome has win the top at the 9th Incubate Camp in 2016, the runner-up at the B Dash Camp 2016 Fall in Sapporo pitch finals, and also won the IBM Blue Hub Award at TechCrunch Tokyo 2016.
Using the funds, the company will enlarge the team from 10 to 13 persons. Because there is use from various industries, the company will increase the staff supporting customer success according to the user’s business needs, and strengthen marketing activities. Also, in the medium to long term time span, the company plans to advance the development of new services with special attention to expanding functions that include not only cultivating a human resource pool for acquiring new employees but also talent management for retaining existing employees.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Base Food, developing a nutritionally complete food product capable of becoming a staple food named Base Pasta, in late October announced it had raised 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Global Brain in its seed round. With this money, Base Food is going to prepare overseas expansion mainly targeting the U.S., to diversify their product range, as well as to create a community for repeat customers and to increase staffers for it. Base Food is the food-tech startup founded in April of 2016 by Shun Hashimoto, formerly engaged in the autonomous driving business at DeNA and other activities. Most of its members are around thirty and with background in Internet ventures, and it is interesting that these members established a food product manufacturer. The firm started developing the product in July of said year and successively conducted a crowdfunding campaign in November. This year, it launched Base Pasta and commenced full-scale sales with the regular purchase model in February. As the number of people who are increasingly conscious about their health grows, Base Pasta targets those who do not know which nutrients to take, as a complete nutritious food allowing…
CEO Shun Hashimoto (third person from left) and his co-founders / colleagues at Base Food Image credit: Base Food
Tokyo-based Base Food, developing a nutritionally complete food product capable of becoming a staple food named Base Pasta, in late October announced it had raised 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Global Brain in its seed round. With this money, Base Food is going to prepare overseas expansion mainly targeting the U.S., to diversify their product range, as well as to create a community for repeat customers and to increase staffers for it.
Base Food is the food-tech startup founded in April of 2016 by Shun Hashimoto, formerly engaged in the autonomous driving business at DeNA and other activities. Most of its members are around thirty and with background in Internet ventures, and it is interesting that these members established a food product manufacturer. The firm started developing the product in July of said year and successively conducted a crowdfunding campaign in November. This year, it launched Base Pasta and commenced full-scale sales with the regular purchase model in February.
Package of Base Pasta Image credit Base Food
As the number of people who are increasingly conscious about their health grows, Base Pasta targets those who do not know which nutrients to take, as a complete nutritious food allowing intake of 31 kinds of nutrients just in a single meal. Unlike other complete foods such as Soylent or Comp, Base Pasta does not only have functional immediacy, but also provides satisfaction with its delicious taste and can become a staple food. Hashimoto commented on the concept of Base Pasta.
The idea of nutritiously complete foods like Soylent are excellent, but it may be difficult for some people to adopt because they are forced to change their eating habits into drink-based ones. I thought that improving conventional food itself would be better than serving something new.
The purpose of a meal is to take in nutrients, in addition to having a close relationship with others or to enable change in mental pace. At the Peperosso Italian restaurant in Setagaya, Tokyo Peperosso or the Odorumen Akira food truck, menus with Base Pasta have been already served.
Asked about its taste, they quickly cooked it in the office kitchen. Photo shows one with tomato sauce. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Although Base Pasta can be easily cooked with separately sold sauces, the firm is expending efforts to create recipes which offer higher levels of nutrition and satisfaction with support from many nutritionists and restaurants. Alex Ramirez, the manager of the professional baseball team DeNA Baystars, recommends Base Pasta to players who need to be aware of nutritional management while having tight schedules. Hashimoto noted about the business plan:
As gradually becoming recognized by the market while only a year having passed since foundation, the business balance is going into the black on a single month basis. Our speed of execution is highly evaluated by investors with this fundraising. I think the secured money can be used for future business positively without producing deficits.
To the US, the complete food’s birthplace
Base Food is going to advance into the US later this year and throughout next year. The firm expects Amazon or D2C (direct to consumer) with regular purchase model as its distribution channel as in Japan. Hashimoto thinks it is significantly meaningful to venture into the home of health consciousness since D2C has an affinity for healthcare.
Well, why was such a complete nutritious food with a good taste capable of being staple food born in Japan, not in the US?
Hashimoto said:
Yes, what we are doing may be “Columbus’s egg”. It is what anybody can do once heard the idea, but few people hit the idea and further few people actually do.
I think the reason why no product capable of being staple food exists in the US where complete nutritious food was first created is because they tended to focus on the increase of drink-style variation as seen in organic Soylent. Additionally, the idea of making staple food healthy may be easy for the Japanese to come up with. Well, the Japanese love tasty food.
Sometimes startups face language or culture barriers in overseas countries in their international development, but the Base Food team shows great eagerness to target global market with food. Following Kombucha which attracted New Yorker’s attention or Oi Ocha Tea which is favored in Silicon Valley, can Base Pasta penetrate into the new market as a health-conscious food from Japan.
The Base Food team with investors from Global Brain. Global Brain has recently been focusing on food tech. Image credit: Base Food
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mrk & Co, the Japanese startup behind mobile dating app Dine, announced earlier this month that it has raised a total of 150 million yen (about $1.3M US) in funding from marriage agency big name Partner Agent (TSE: 6181), Venture United, and through a loan from Japan Finance Corporation. For Mrk & Co, this follows their previous funding approximately 40 million yen (about $349K US) from CyberAgent Ventures and iSGS Investment Works in March of last year. Additionally, the company announced the official launch of the app in Japan. The Dine app is available on iTunes (with the Android version set to release at the beginning of 2018). Mrk & Co was established in 2015 by Keisuke Kamijo (CEO) and Takashi Morioka (CTO) who were previously involved in developing social game apps at DeNA (TSE: 2432). For those familiar with the Internet in the 2000’s, Kamijo is well known as the auther of his blog, “Ganbare, Seikyou no Shiraishi-san.” Much like coffee, according to Kamijo the “third wave” has come to dating apps too. The original “1st Generation: Search Type” services took advantage of a large number of users; however, the probability of…
Tokyo-based Mrk & Co, the Japanese startup behind mobile dating app Dine, announced earlier this month that it has raised a total of 150 million yen (about $1.3M US) in funding from marriage agency big name Partner Agent (TSE: 6181), Venture United, and through a loan from Japan Finance Corporation. For Mrk & Co, this follows their previous funding approximately 40 million yen (about $349K US) from CyberAgent Ventures and iSGS Investment Works in March of last year.
Additionally, the company announced the official launch of the app in Japan. The Dine app is available on iTunes (with the Android version set to release at the beginning of 2018).
Mrk & Co was established in 2015 by Keisuke Kamijo (CEO) and Takashi Morioka (CTO) who were previously involved in developing social game apps at DeNA (TSE: 2432). For those familiar with the Internet in the 2000’s, Kamijo is well known as the auther of his blog, “Ganbare, Seikyou no Shiraishi-san.”
Much like coffee, according to Kamijo the “third wave” has come to dating apps too. The original “1st Generation: Search Type” services took advantage of a large number of users; however, the probability of obtaining a first date was not very large. The “2nd Generation: Casual Type” services, such as Tinder and Happn, took advantage of the left and right swipe function on smartphones to increase the matching probability, but although they take an innovative approach to the user interface (UI), it is said that users often use the encounters for entertainment elements.
Finally, based on what the company learned from the 1st and 2nd generations, the biggest feature of Dine is the dramatically increased possibility of interactions that lead to a date. With the Dine app, five people per day who seem to suit the user will be introduced to them. When the user approaches the other user, they select up to three places to go on a date and propose the first date. For date locations, with the US version of Dine users can choose a restaurant freely from Yelp’s API (application programming interface), but with the idea of providing the best user experience (UX) the Japanese version is tuned to allow users to choose from 100 locations, 50 in Ginza and 50 in Ebisu.
From left: Mrk & Co CEO Keisuke Kamijo, CTO Takashi Morioka Image credit: Mrk & Co
Kamijo explained:
For Tinder or Happn, some say that cases leading to actual dates is less than 10%. What often happens is that when both of the users approve and the message opens, it starts with a conversation like “Hi!” or “How’s it going?”, and after continuing what feels like an unnecessary conversation, users become tired and stop responding.
With Dine, the first screen a user sees when a message is opened is the schedule adjustment. According to the service evaluation up to now in the US, if users match and the conversation starts, about 40% of the time it leads to a date. It is a very high number.
The app’s matching capabilities learn the preference of the user based on their preferred physical appearance, age, and the chosen destination for the date, and the accuracy gradually increases. The company uses a subscription model set at 6,500 yen (about $57 US) per month or 4,800 yen (about $42 US) per month if users pay for three months upfront. A common fee system is applied to both male users and female users from the viewpoint of gender equity, and if either a male or female user pays the fee, it is possible to arrange dates. Although this makes it rather highly priced among dating apps, the result is users committed to dates and high quality matching. Also, Dine’s UI creates a sophisticated atmosphere that somewhat reflects the desire of Kamijo to, “Not make dating apps embarrassing.”
Dine has already launched in North America in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Vancouver. In Japan, following Tokyo, the company would like to expand services mainly in metropolitan areas such as Osaka, Yokohama and Fukuoka while monitoring how users in Japan are using the app. In New York and Los Angeles, when a couple matched via Dine visits a restaurant, they are offered a service called Dine Pass, which makes the first drink free, which also shows its potential as an O2O (online-to-offline) app.
Image credit: Mrk & Co
Among the companies that Mrk & Co raised funds from this time, it appears there may be a strategic alliance with Partner Agent, but both parties have not disclosed specific details of the alliance at this time. For Mrk & Co, in the past year there was North America, in the coming year there will be Japan and identifying the market potential, and in the future, there may be expansion into the Asian and European markets. Kamijo remarked that he is aiming for a system that can secure approximately half of its sales outside Japan and the rest from within Japan.
In this field, there are a couple of fellow apps that offer similar commitment to dating. Behind the scenes, it seems that multiple dating apps launched by CyberAgent TSE:4751) under their Coupling Union initiative are seeing increasingly good results across the board, which has led to a revitalization of the entire vertical. For now, it appears that the ban on dating app commercials on TV stations, which was supposed to be lifted this autumn, has been postponed until after next year, but in any case, as long as the basic human instinct to find partners stays in tact, we should continue to be able to see the evolution of the dating app.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Meleap, the Japanese startup developing the Hado augmented reality(AR)-powerd sports game series and expanding a franchise of arcade stores that offer gaming experiences in town, announced on Monday that it had raised 300 million yen (about $2.6M US) in funding from Incubate Fund, DBJ Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital. The funding round is unknown, but it is estimated to be a Series A round. This follows their previous funding of 60 million yen (around $528K US) by Meleap in a seed round (investors not disclosed) conducted in January of 2016. Meleap plans to open branch offices in Los Angeles (US) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), strengthen the structure of arcade store development and customer support, and spur global development with the funds raised this time around. In addition, the company is developing a new AR-powered game title and is planning to strengthen the development system for a release next year. Hiroshi Fukuda (current CEO of Meleap), previously of Recruit, and Hitoshi Araki (current CTO of Meleap), previously of Fujitsu, established Meleap in 2014. The company is developing games for release with AR that simulates anime’s “Kamehameha” and “Surge Fist”, as well as developing a…
Tokyo-based Meleap, the Japanese startup developing the Hado augmented reality(AR)-powerd sports game series and expanding a franchise of arcade stores that offer gaming experiences in town, announced on Monday that it had raised 300 million yen (about $2.6M US) in funding from Incubate Fund, DBJ Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital. The funding round is unknown, but it is estimated to be a Series A round. This follows their previous funding of 60 million yen (around $528K US) by Meleap in a seed round (investors not disclosed) conducted in January of 2016.
Meleap plans to open branch offices in Los Angeles (US) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), strengthen the structure of arcade store development and customer support, and spur global development with the funds raised this time around. In addition, the company is developing a new AR-powered game title and is planning to strengthen the development system for a release next year.
Hado is a sport where players fight by shooting energy balls Image credit: meleap
Hiroshi Fukuda (current CEO of Meleap), previously of Recruit, and Hitoshi Araki (current CTO of Meleap), previously of Fujitsu, established Meleap in 2014. The company is developing games for release with AR that simulates anime’s “Kamehameha” and “Surge Fist”, as well as developing a franchise of arcade stores that allows players to experience the games as sports in town. Today, there are 43 permanent stores in nine countries (25 in Asia and 13 in Japan), and more than 600,000 users have experienced the Hado AR sports series. In terms of worldwide effects and keeping in mind that e-sports are growing steadily, with AR users must actively use their bodies and experience a greater sense of immersion, which means AR sports can be defined as a field that has advanced even further than e-sports.
Meleap has participated twice in Incubate Camp, an annual 2-day bootcamp program by Incubate Fund offering budding entrepreneurs with mentoring opportunities, first in the 7th camp (2014) and secondly in the 10th camp (2017). At the 7th camp, the company was still in the phase of how to realize AR sports technically, but at the 10th camp held this year, Fukuda suggested that Hado’s service development was on track and that he was craving financing to accelerate the development of the sports gaming experience stores worldwide, and the company got a high rating from the investors and gained the top ranking overall during the event. Additionally, the company was adopted to the seventh batch of KDDI Mugen Labo in 2015, nominated for the Pitch Contest of Hack Osaka 2016, and received the PR Times Award at SLUSH Asia 2016.
Meleap plans to hold its second AR sports festival titled “Hado World Cup 2017” with a grand prize of 3 million yen (about $26K US) in winter of this year in order to raise awareness of AR sports such as Hado. A selection of teams from up to six countries will gather and they are supposed to battle it out at the Star Rise Tower next to Tokyo Tower.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
