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.
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.
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 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.
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…
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
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Base, the e-commerce platform provider dubbed Japan’s answer to Shopify, announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million US) from Japanese VC firm Global Brain and Japanese accounting SaaS (Software as a service) provider Money Forward (TSE:3994). This round was led by Global Brain but no financial term of the deal has been disclosed. Base has partnered with Money Forward to share a potential user base of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with each others. Using the funds, Base plans to strengthen hiring talents to solidify management foundation. On the same day, Base announced that it has spun off payments platform businesses, such as PAY.JP and PAY ID, to set up a fully-owned subsidiary called Pay. Kenichi Takano, the current project leader for payment platform businesses at Base, was appointed CEO for the new company while Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka joined the management board. See also: Base, Japan’s answer to Shopify, snags $14M to strengthen payment solutions unit Expanding beyond e-commerce platform The highly anticipated e-commerce platform has been advanced to the next stage by serving 450,000 merchants and 3 million mobile app users while their payments business…
Tokyo-based Base, the e-commerce platform provider dubbed Japan’s answer to Shopify, announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million US) from Japanese VC firm Global Brain and Japanese accounting SaaS (Software as a service) provider Money Forward (TSE:3994). This round was led by Global Brain but no financial term of the deal has been disclosed. Base has partnered with Money Forward to share a potential user base of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with each others. Using the funds, Base plans to strengthen hiring talents to solidify management foundation.
On the same day, Base announced that it has spun off payments platform businesses, such as PAY.JP and PAY ID, to set up a fully-owned subsidiary called Pay. Kenichi Takano, the current project leader for payment platform businesses at Base, was appointed CEO for the new company while Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka joined the management board.
The highly anticipated e-commerce platform has been advanced to the next stage by serving 450,000 merchants and 3 million mobile app users while their payments business has processed transactions 40 times more than that one year ago. Tsuruoka showed his confidence by seeing some actual performance indicators are higher than disclosed ones while his company claims that it saw the greatest growth last year since its launch.
In response to our question about the situation of Base Live, the company’s recently-launched live commerce platform that enables merchants to introduce and sell products through live performance, he told us that it still gives them some impact on transactions while there are many apparel merchants whose monthly sales reach nearly 1 million yen ($8,800). However, the live commerce platform has become popular among merchants in view of another channel for creating a fan base.
This large-scale funding may be based on all these results. Regarding the purpose of the funding, Tsuruoka says:
Our funding purpose has been changed from surviving to growing.
No doubt that the payments business was spun off because this space has high potential for extensive growth. While the Base platform has been esteemed because it allows anyone to easily build an e-commerce presence, the company’s payments businesses have to deal with different types of data and serve diverse user demographics. So the company spin-out is reasonable in optimizing their decision-making process from now on.
The company now has a staff of about 100 people, which is doubled from last year, including 20 staffers in charge of payments businesses.
On a related note, Base unveiled on Thursday that it has launched another fully-owned subsidiary called Base Bank. They claim the new company will target a new business area but no further details have been disclosed. In view of Japanese C2C marketplace startup Mercari having invested in Base and founded a new business-focused subsidiary called Souzoh, Base Bank may aim at a similar goal like building various apps and diversifying businesses.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy