The Japanese startup Dely, which runs video-centric culinary media Kurashiru, announced today that it has raised 3.35 billion yen (about $30 million US) from Softbank, YJ Capital (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Akatsuki and United. YJ Capital and United have taken part in the previous round.
In terms of the funding amount, the latest round let Dely beat its main rival Every, the company behind Delish Kitchen, which had recently secured $18 million in last year’s end. According to disclosed figures, Dely has raised more than $60 million in total while Delish Kitchen has secured about $50 million to date.
Dely will use the funds to strengthen hiring and marketing efforts, while undertaking new businesses build-up and putting acquisition of other companies into consideration. Coinciding with the announcement, the company unveiled that their mobile app has surpassed 10 million downloads last month.
Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year the Tokyo-based company received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as the inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of 2016 the firm pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business.
Tokyo-based Folio, the Japanese startup offering an online asset management platform, announced today that it has raised 7 billion yen (about $63 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors are Line, Goldman Sachs, Dentsu Ventures, Mitsui & Co., SMBC Venture Capital, DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures. With previous funds in a seed round and a series A round conducted last year, the company has raised a total of 9.1 billion yen (about $82 million US) since its launch. Apart from the funding, Folio has partnered with messaging giant Line to give access to the startup’s investment services for the massive user base of 71 million monthly active users in Japan on the the latter’s messaging platform. Foilo also says it will launch an in-house R&D department focused on developing services leveraging Machine Learning, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT for short, also known as blockchain) and other emerging technologies. See also: Japan’s Folio secures $16 million to help non-savvy investors better trade stocks Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Tokyo-based Folio, the Japanese startup offering an online asset management platform, announced today that it has raised 7 billion yen (about $63 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors are Line, Goldman Sachs, Dentsu Ventures, Mitsui & Co., SMBC Venture Capital, DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures. With previous funds in a seed round and a series A round conducted last year, the company has raised a total of 9.1 billion yen (about $82 million US) since its launch.
Apart from the funding, Folio has partnered with messaging giant Line to give access to the startup’s investment services for the massive user base of 71 million monthly active users in Japan on the the latter’s messaging platform. Foilo also says it will launch an in-house R&D department focused on developing services leveraging Machine Learning, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT for short, also known as blockchain) and other emerging technologies.
This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk. In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku. See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors. Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community. Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan),…
This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk.
In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku.
L to R: Anri Samata (founder of Anri), Kazumasa Yokomizo (CEO of BoostIO CEO), Choi Junyoung (BoostIO CTO) Image credit: BoostIO
Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors.
Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community.
Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan), Yusuke Sato (President of FreakOut Holdings) and an unnamed angel investor.
Angel investors participating in this round Image credit: BoostIO
With native apps for platforms including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, Boostnote allows system developers to save and share their source codes online. The open source project was launched in beta under the previous name of Boost back in 2015 but it has succeeded in engaging contributors from around the world to build up a global community.
Programmers worldwide are now participating in development and improvement of Boostnote, which is also so loosely operated as a warm community that their users can help each others solve questions and bugs. Going forward, the team expects to provide more versatile solutions while verifying technical issues.
Boostnote Image credit: BoostIO
Boostnote is characterized by its global spread in both developers and users since almost all developers and 82% of users are based outside Japan. With user access from more than 200 countries, the service has seen a good growth by taking the “global-first” strategy from Day One. In view of a notebook app, many of us will first come up with Evernote but the app has become complicated and heavy because of too many functions that are overloaded and eventually churn existing users. I wish Boostnote maintains simplicity yet still excites programmers.
The BoostIO team has strength not only in software development but also as to community of open source programmers that they have been steadily building. Their co-founders CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo and CTO Choi Junyoung are looking at future workstyle through open source activities while having started stepping toward the next growth under the stealth mode. Just after they finished a meeting with their investors, I had a chance to talk with them. They looked full of energy and told me:
I want to make big things happen within 2018.
Happy new year to all!
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based MiddleField, operating the auto parts database website Garage, announced back in December that it had raised 250 million yen ($2.2 million) from Femto Growth Fund 2.0. The detail of the investment including share ratio is not disclosed. Femto Growth Fund 2.0 is managed by Femto Growth Capital where Tetsuya Isozaki acts as General Partner. Garage provides information about auto parts from engine to exterior by category / manufacturer, used for dressing-up or tuning-up of autos for race or enjoyment. When a user chooses a car model on the website, the car is displayed by linking with information about each additional part, allowing him / her to make inquiries for purchasing. Currently, Garage covers 1,500 brands and is tied up with 300 shops which deal with attachable aftermarket parts. Garage does not only provide auto parts information, but also intermediates between purchase wishers and shops supporting mounting work to allow users to get reservation. Shota Nakayama, CEO of MiddleField, says most of its users visit Garage by smartphone: Like other industries, the major inflow path is the search with smartphone shifted from magazine in this field as well, and 80% of our users visit…
Tokyo-based MiddleField, operating the auto parts database website Garage, announced back in December that it had raised 250 million yen ($2.2 million) from Femto Growth Fund 2.0. The detail of the investment including share ratio is not disclosed. Femto Growth Fund 2.0 is managed by Femto Growth Capital where Tetsuya Isozaki acts as General Partner.
Garage provides information about auto parts from engine to exterior by category / manufacturer, used for dressing-up or tuning-up of autos for race or enjoyment. When a user chooses a car model on the website, the car is displayed by linking with information about each additional part, allowing him / her to make inquiries for purchasing.
Garage Image credit: MiddleField
Currently, Garage covers 1,500 brands and is tied up with 300 shops which deal with attachable aftermarket parts. Garage does not only provide auto parts information, but also intermediates between purchase wishers and shops supporting mounting work to allow users to get reservation. Shota Nakayama, CEO of MiddleField, says most of its users visit Garage by smartphone:
Like other industries, the major inflow path is the search with smartphone shifted from magazine in this field as well, and 80% of our users visit Garage with smartphone. The purchase wishers of auto parts tend to take enough time to consider which parts to choose within the budget. Although they formerly used to collect information mainly from magazines, magazines are not suitable for carrying and covering information only about a part of auto makers, so that they have come to search with smartphone.
The author of this article also likes cars and have purchased such magazines covering parts information (have not attached parts though). As the main information gathering means having shifted from magazine to smartphone, a certain format is needed to overcome problems such as underdevelopment of shops’ website or complexity of information about attachment means or costs, and Garage aims to fill in the blank. According to Nakayama, the firm plans to renew the website early this year.
MiddleField was founded in December of 2015 by Nakayama, who had experienced business development in the racing team Lexus Team Sard which participated in many races, and have developed auto-related media Motorz.
In 2017, with Garage, the firm took part in the Asahi Shimbun Accelerator Program, an acceleration program by the Japanese major newspaper company Asahi Shimbun. After its Demo Day, the service was showcased at Incubate Camp 10th held by Incubate Fund or StarBurst managed by ProtoStar, and was highly evaluated by investors.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors. Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month. According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch. Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge: The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process). The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to…
Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors.
Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month.
According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch.
Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge:
The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process).
The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to gain more market share in this sector.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative. The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows: Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University 3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University Internet of Things ecosystem…
Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada introduces in-house AI research initiative Mercari R4D Image credit: Sekiko Suzuki/The Bridge
Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative.
The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows:
Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp
Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo
Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University
Internet of Things ecosystem with Cross-tech Design Lab, Kyoto University of Art & Design
Application of quantum annealing technology to art field with Ohzeki Lab, Tohoku University
According to Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada, the investment amount to these research activities has not been clearly set yet, but it will be at several hundred millions of yen (several millions of dollars)-scale next year. The research themes are chosen from mid-to long-term plans requiring 3 to 5 years, as well as ones utilizing IoT or blockchain technologies having application possibility of social infrastructure.
Research is already being undertaken in the above eight themes and more themes will possibly be added. The commercialization and deployment of research results may be brought about as a Mercari product in the future. Yamada explains the background to the foundation of R4D:
Mercari achieved 100 million downloads just the other day. Meanwhile, we have implemented the wrongful exhibit detection system utilizing AI technology or the auto-estimation of weight of items to the app for the U.S.. One of our purposes is to differentiate the app by technologies through R&D.
The firm plans to enhance its engineer structure to 1000-staffer organization from current 100-staffer one. In addition, it started establishment of an organization capable of scaling by micronizing each function. Kimura explains the firm’s future vision:
As Fujifilm engaged in development of cosmetics, we may start different business in the future and are considering how to make good use of our owned technologies.
As the Japanese artist Sputniko!, a renowned British/Japanese artist and designer, who joined the team as Senior Producer, various direction of deployment can be seen, for example utilizing technologies which are hard to deploy immediately into a form of design or art. The firm focuses on research as well as commercialization and visualization of technology jointly with external research organizations.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based 
The Bridge
Takeshi Hirano
