Tokyo-based Styler, the Japanese startup offering an O2O (offline to online) support service for fashion and apparel stores called Facy, announced today that it has set up an office in Taiwan, officially launching the Facy Taiwanese version. The app is available for iOS and Android.
Some of our readers may recall that the company has seen a sign preparing the Taiwan expansion by hiring local employees and launching a Facebook fanpage in Traditional Chinese. It took over half a year to prepare for their first overseas launch but finally their effort has seen the light of day.
Initially launched in open beta under the previous name of Styler, the Facy app allows users to ask fashion retailers for advice on picking out outfits. In response to these requests, sales representatives at participating retailers will recommend which items users should buy. For retailers, the app works as an O2O (online-to-offline) platform that drives potential customers to real stores.
Styler’s Taiwan team working in Impact Hub Taipei Image credit: Styler
In May of 2016 the app added a new social communication function that allows users to comment and ‘like’ other user’s posts, followed by rebranding and adding the commerce function that allows physical fashion and apparel stores to easily set up their online storefront back in September last year. The company says they now have acquired about 500,000 monthly active users and have made monthly 4,520 matches between retailers and users.
About 70 fashion retailers in Taipei and Taichung are participating in the Facy Taiwan platform while featured articles posted on Facy are expected to be reproduced on Taiwan’s major media outlets such as GQ Taiwan, Vogue Taiwan, Line Taiwan, and Niusnews. The total number of likes on their Facebook fan pages for male and female customers in Taiwan are nearly double that targeting Japanese users. Since the company has been developing services for Asia from an office in Vietnam for some time, their further regional expansion beyond Taiwan can be also expected.
See the original story in Japanese. Kyoto-based Bertland, offering a SaaS (Software as a Service) based shipping and invoice issuing platform named Ship&co, announced ealier this month that it had fundraised 100 million yen (about $920,000) from Spiral Ventures in its pre-series A round. The money will be spent for recruitment of human resources and additional development of the system. BERTLAND was founded in November of 2008 by French entrepreneur Bertrand Thomas whose base for his activity is in Kyoto. Thomas came to Japan in 2003 to study at Kyoto University, and started writing a blog around 2005. His blog, dealing with Japanese culture, gradually became popular as to acquire 800-1,000 daily visitors. One day, Thomas wrote a post about Bento (Japanese lunch box). The post was received favorably by French readers and his friends, but it was pointed out that there is no means to purchase beautiful Bento boxes for people living abroad and that they have to depend on mail orders like eBay. Thomas sensed a business opportunity in this comment, and three weeks later, he launched an online marketplace dealing in Bento boxes named Bento&co using Shopify, with support from his wife and friends. Subsequently, he opened…
Bertrand Thomas, CEO of Ship&co Image credit: Ship&co
Kyoto-based Bertland, offering a SaaS (Software as a Service) based shipping and invoice issuing platform named Ship&co, announced ealier this month that it had fundraised 100 million yen (about $920,000) from Spiral Ventures in its pre-series A round. The money will be spent for recruitment of human resources and additional development of the system.
BERTLAND was founded in November of 2008 by French entrepreneur Bertrand Thomas whose base for his activity is in Kyoto.
Thomas came to Japan in 2003 to study at Kyoto University, and started writing a blog around 2005. His blog, dealing with Japanese culture, gradually became popular as to acquire 800-1,000 daily visitors. One day, Thomas wrote a post about Bento (Japanese lunch box). The post was received favorably by French readers and his friends, but it was pointed out that there is no means to purchase beautiful Bento boxes for people living abroad and that they have to depend on mail orders like eBay.
Thomas sensed a business opportunity in this comment, and three weeks later, he launched an online marketplace dealing in Bento boxes named Bento&co using Shopify, with support from his wife and friends. Subsequently, he opened a real shop Bento&co Kyoto in the Shinkyogoku area of Kyoto in 2012, and also started to exhibit products at various overseas events. The online shop has grown bigger as to receive orders from more than 100 countries.
One of the big problems that most e-commerce operators faced when their businesses have grown is the remarkable increase of product dispatch work. Especially for e-commerce operators who have to handle a lot of orders from overseas, it is common to reduce shipping fees by choosing suitable delivery companies according to transport destination. However, since each transportation operator has a unique format as to the invoice to be attached to a package, it is complicated to issue an invoice in handwriting or to properly use multiple invoice printing software provided by transportation operators. Additionally, customs invoices are needed for shipping overseas.
Ship&co (click to enlarge) Image credit: Ship&co
Thomas also considered a way to simplify the complicated work, and then he himself constructed a system, as Ship&co. The delivery companies that Ship&co cooperate with through API (Application Programming Interface) include Japan Post (international post / Yu-pack), FedEx, DHL, UPS, Sagawa and Yamato Transport (currently only its invoice-issuing system ‘C2’ is supported but ‘B2’ will also be supported from next month). It also covers e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, eBay, Base, PrestaShop, Magento, Amazon Marketplace, Rakuten, Next Engine, Stripe and WooCommerce, and plans to support Yahoo Shopping of Japan from next month.
Japanese delivery companies had been providing discount services to their customers in exchange for large-lot delivery orders. However, due to labor shortage in the delivery industry and the resulting rise in price therein, overseas shipping fee eventually becomes comparatively expensive as dependence on a certain transportation operator was born even for discount services.
Looking at global trends in this field, Shippo which raised $20 million in series B round last October, ShipStation which was purchased by Stamps.com (NYSE:STAMP) or ShippingEasy have gained power in the U.S. and Temando which was purchased by Neopost (EPA:NEO) appear to be in ascendancy in Australia, but Europe and Asia including Japan are still blue ocean markets.
Ship&co plans to cover La Poste of France in addition to Singapore Post and Australia Post, and will launch API enabling third-party developers to incorporate Ship&co into their own services around this summer. Looking to start overseas expansion, the firm is aiming for series A round fundraising in early 2019.
Ship&co is the first service listed on Shopify’s app store as a Japanese startup and is also recognized as the first FedEx Compatible Provider in the Asia-Pacific region. The firm aims to acquire approval of UPS Ready Provider as well in the future. The service will be showcased at E-commerce Fair 2018 Tokyo which will be held in Tokyo Big Sight, February 13th through 14th.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fund raise surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds. Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fundraise run surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust and Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds. The first fund is intended to invest in startups with focusing on “X-Tech” (fusion areas between Internet/technology and real industry), especially in two areas: industry-changing business and industry-creating business. The fund has invested a total of 2.1 billion yen ($19.3 million)…
Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fund raise surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds.
Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fundraise run surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust and Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds.
The first fund is intended to invest in startups with focusing on “X-Tech” (fusion areas between Internet/technology and real industry), especially in two areas: industry-changing business and industry-creating business. The fund has invested a total of 2.1 billion yen ($19.3 million) in 19 startups including OpenLogi (logistics), BizReach (human resource), Nurve (preliminary inspection of apartment rooms using virtual reality solutions), Z-Works (elderly caregiving solutions powered by Internet of Things) and Future Standard (rapid hardware/software prototyping). The fund’s typical investment size is 50 to 300 million yen ($460,000 to $2.8 million) for an early/middle-stage startup and up to 500 million yen ($4.6 million) for a later-stage startup.
See the original story in Japanese. The Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA) is the world’s largest pitch completion focused on EdTech startups whose global finals event annually take place in London. Led by Israeli EdTech startup incubator MindCET, the initiative was jointly founded by European Union’s EdTech incubator Open Education Challenge and EdTech UK. Tokyo-based Arcterus, the Japanese startup behind study notes organizer app Clear, won the Japanese regional preliminary in December, and then won the 4th GESA world finals in London last week. The Arcterus team won the awards for the first time as a Japanese startup followed by the runner-up, Kenya’s mobile learning management platform M-Shule, and the 3rd place winner, India’s MentorMind, which helps students work on real-time work situations in the form of challenges put forth by companies. This year’s GESA has received 600 2,000 applications from more than 70 countries and regions around the world. 18 teams including Arcterus were chosen as global finalists this year while many of the judges came from EdTech-focused VC firms and other education-related organizations in eight countries. I’m so impressed that a Japanese startup won the competition where Asian teams had a less strong presence. As winner awards from…
Arcterus CEO Goichiro Arai receives the award at GESAwards 2017 Global Finals in London. Image credit: MindCET
The Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA) is the world’s largest pitch completion focused on EdTech startups whose global finals event annually take place in London. Led by Israeli EdTech startup incubator MindCET, the initiative was jointly founded by European Union’s EdTech incubator Open Education Challenge and EdTech UK.
Tokyo-based Arcterus, the Japanese startup behind study notes organizer app Clear, won the Japanese regional preliminary in December, and then won the 4th GESA world finals in London last week. The Arcterus team won the awards for the first time as a Japanese startup followed by the runner-up, Kenya’s mobile learning management platform M-Shule, and the 3rd place winner, India’s MentorMind, which helps students work on real-time work situations in the form of challenges put forth by companies.
GESAwards 2017 Global Finalists Image credit: MindCET
This year’s GESA has received 600 2,000 applications from more than 70 countries and regions around the world. 18 teams including Arcterus were chosen as global finalists this year while many of the judges came from EdTech-focused VC firms and other education-related organizations in eight countries. I’m so impressed that a Japanese startup won the competition where Asian teams had a less strong presence. As winner awards from the competition organizer, Arcterus will receive support for their global expansion efforts in the educational ecosystem plus for public relations, in addition to mentorship and business assistance opportunities.
The Clear app has been especially attracting users in Asian markets including Japan where classmates and friends have a culture of teaching and helping each others while their entrance exams are fiercely competitive. Winning at the Western community-based competition in Europe will definitely help them expand beyond the Asian region. Arcterus CEO Goichiro Arai understood there could be a possibility of meeting the demand of the app in UK, France and Russia given how students in these markets may think in line with the GESA event attendee perspective while the company’s judgment for expansion will be based on a market survey.
Attendees at GESAwards 2017 Global Finals in London Image credit: EduLab
Since its launch four years ago, the app has acquired over 1.6 million downloads in the Asian region including more than 1.2 downloads in Japan alone. Considering the 7 million population of middle and high school students in Japan, 1 out of 2 students there use Clear. In addition, the company is offering the service in Thailand, Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia while planning to expand into Brazil, India and Vietnam after this year.
Besides Clear, Arcterus is handling a teaching tool for tutor school named Caiz or a individual tutoring cram school in the residential area of Ota City, Tokyo named Shiki Gakuin. The company raised about 130 million yen (about $1.05 million) from Startia (TSE:3393) and other companies in July of 2015, followed by securing 110 million yen ($1 million) series B round funding from The Asahi Gakusei Shimbun and Z-kai in 2016. They recently partner with Yoyogi Seminar Education Research Institute, the R&D arm of Japan’s leading cram school chain, to offer them with ClearS, a lecture support tool optimized for educational organizations.
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Goichiro Arai with his commemorative shield at GESAwards 2017 Global Finals Image credit: EduLab
At an emergency press briefing held on Friday midnight, Tokyo-based Coincheck — one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan — confirmed that they had just been hacked and lost 58 billion yen (about $530 million) worth of NEM, a new cryptocurrency especially popular among Japanese and Chinese crypto investors. The exchange was yet to be registered as an official dealer with the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) since they say the registration process takes a while due to the number of cryptocurrencies (13) to be dealt with. The company is still investigating how many users have been affected by the incident but says all NEM tokens stored in the exchange’s digital wallets have been lost. They have reported the issue to FSA and the Japanese National Police Agency, and have started exploring possibilities about how they can compensate customers for their damages in discussions with NEM Foundation. The company is currently suspending all dealing operations for NEM and all other cryptocurrencies on their exchange, forcing their customers to lose access for cash withdrawals. See also: Japan’s ResuPress launches online bitcoin exchange and payment gateway Coincheck Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
At an emergency press briefing held on Friday midnight, Tokyo-based Coincheck — one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan — confirmed that they had just been hacked and lost 58 billion yen (about $530 million) worth of NEM, a new cryptocurrency especially popular among Japanese and Chinese crypto investors. The exchange was yet to be registered as an official dealer with the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) since they say the registration process takes a while due to the number of cryptocurrencies (13) to be dealt with.
The company is still investigating how many users have been affected by the incident but says all NEM tokens stored in the exchange’s digital wallets have been lost. They have reported the issue to FSA and the Japanese National Police Agency, and have started exploring possibilities about how they can compensate customers for their damages in discussions with NEM Foundation. The company is currently suspending all dealing operations for NEM and all other cryptocurrencies on their exchange, forcing their customers to lose access for cash withdrawals.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company). Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales. Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances…
L to R: Shogo Kawada, Eisuke Tokiwa (Founder/CEO of Amegumi), and Yuzuru Honda Image credit: Amegumi
Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company).
Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales.
Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances through open innovation in the future, especially with leading telcos, ad agencies, app developers, IoT product developers and other companies.
A smartphone prototype running on the Sunblaze OS Image credit: Amegumi
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
