Tokyo-based Activ8 (pronounced ‘activate’), the Japanese startup behind the Upd8 (pronounced ‘update’) ‘Virtual YouTuber’ supporting project, announced on Tuesday that it has raised 600 million yen (about $5.4M US) in funding from Hong Kong-based Makers Fund and Tokyo-based gaming company Gumi (TSE:3903).
Details regarding the payment date and investment ratio were not disclosed. Activ8 graduated from the 3rd batch of Tokyo XR Startups and this is the third time it has raised outside funds. The company has also previously received funds from a fund managed by Gumi, and the current capital stands at 695 million yen (about $6.3M US). The company employs 40 people.
Since is launch back in September of 2016, Activ8 has been supporting original “virtual talents” in the expanding field of “Virtual YouTubers”. Kizuna AI, an AI-powered virtual YouTuber backed by the company, is ranked most popular on User Local’s ranking survey based on the number of fans and total number of views.
Upd8 Image credit: Activ8
Additionally, at the end of May this year the company released the Upd8 virtual support platform. It provides support projects for virtual talent job matching and original goods sales after passing an examination conducted by the company. They have 25 registered talents and 26 registered YouTube channels. In Japan this type of project is preceded by the MCN (Multi-Channel Network) developed by UUUM, and can be regarded as a derivation.
According to Activ8’s CEO Takeshi Osaka one idea for future expansion includes developing an IP (intellectual property) licensing business. For example, Marvel has produced not only individual titles but has also combined them to form episodes under the main title of Avengers.
Osaka remarked that one strength of virtual talent lies in, “Being able to come in contact with it more frequently, rather than, say, seeing a movie once a year”. Moreover, compared to the period when global access was nearly half what it is now, he noted the borderless feature of this market.
Future plans include increasing the main virtual talent to about 20 by the end of next year, and for Upd8, which is open for general use, the company has a goal of about 1,000 members for the platform as a whole.
Upd8 Image credit: Activ8
Even though everything is virtual, it is still a support platform for gathering talent that will have a strong influence, and since anonymity is high we thought to confirm the level of safety such as the countermeasure to prevent it from being possibly exploited by antisocial forces. Activ8 would like to protect and cherish the world of virtual talent, and unless publicly announced by the talent themselves, the company will not release identities.
Osaka says,
“In terms of judging, we are focusing on diversity. We value the culture of this market.”
With regards to registered talent, the company takes measures to make direct contact with the talent and confirm the safety. When a behavior concern arises the corresponding virtual talent takes direct responsibility and as a platform it will take action according to the code of conduct.
The funds raised this time around will go to strengthening human resources in order to accelerate the company’s virtual talent entertainment activities.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Three months have passed since we first covered Leapfrog Ventures which started invested in the Sub-Saharan African market, but we just got another news update for their investment from Nairobi, Kenya. The firm announced today that it has invested $50,000 US in Kenya-based Biashara Viral Gains, which develops the BiasharaBot social commerce solution suite consisting of a messenger bot and SaaS (service as a service) to help merchants streamline their sales management processes. Biashara was selected in April as one of top three startups at the Demo Day of Pangea, the Norwegian startup accelerator conducting their programs in Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. And then the Kenyan startup successfully raised $50,000 US from the accelerator followed by Leapfrog Ventures’ investment at this time. Derived from ‘Sell’ & ‘Buy’ in Arabic, Biashara is a Swahili word meaning business. In Africa, e-commerce customers sometimes receive wrong or counterfeit items since logistic systems and customer relationship management efforts are sloppy. To address this issue, Biasharabot offers a messenger bot helping merchants encourage potential customers purchased items through recommendations from their friends and celebrities, in addition to sales management SaaS solution enabling order receiving, delivery management and payments acceptance….
Moses Korir, Co-founder of Biashara Viral Gains, delivered his pitch at the recent Pangea startup accelerator Demo Day. Image credit: Biahara Viral Gains
Three months have passed since we first covered Leapfrog Ventures which started invested in the Sub-Saharan African market, but we just got another news update for their investment from Nairobi, Kenya. The firm announced today that it has invested $50,000 US in Kenya-based Biashara Viral Gains, which develops the BiasharaBot social commerce solution suite consisting of a messenger bot and SaaS (service as a service) to help merchants streamline their sales management processes.
Biashara was selected in April as one of top three startups at the Demo Day of Pangea, the Norwegian startup accelerator conducting their programs in Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. And then the Kenyan startup successfully raised $50,000 US from the accelerator followed by Leapfrog Ventures’ investment at this time.
Derived from ‘Sell’ & ‘Buy’ in Arabic, Biashara is a Swahili word meaning business. In Africa, e-commerce customers sometimes receive wrong or counterfeit items since logistic systems and customer relationship management efforts are sloppy. To address this issue, Biasharabot offers a messenger bot helping merchants encourage potential customers purchased items through recommendations from their friends and celebrities, in addition to sales management SaaS solution enabling order receiving, delivery management and payments acceptance.
BiasharaBot Image credit: Biashara Viral Gains
Customer acquisition efforts and sales management activities are totally different processes, but the messenger bot engages customers and receives their orders so that it can connects these processes to make a seamless workflow from order receipt to delivery monitoring. Integrated with Kenyan mobile payments system M-Pesa and local on-demand delivery service Sendy, the suite allows merchants to call a driver by one-click to deliver items to customers.
Using the funds raised at this time, Biashara plans to develop and release plug-ins for major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, while attracting up to 1,000 paying merchants. Not to mention service expansion in Kenya, the company espouses an ambition to advance in Nigeria, South Africa and among other highly-populated Sub-Saharan African markets in the future.
Leapfrog Ventures CEO Takuma Terakubo told The Bridge that our recent coverage about Exuus’ funding encouraged Biashara to get in touch with Terakubo for investment. We were told that the deal was secured in as early as two weeks since the first appointment. We are looking forward to bring you another news update around Leapfrog Ventures soon.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round. This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating. Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably…
The BitStar and Global Brain teams Image credit: Global Brain / BitStar
Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round.
This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating.
Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably around 2 billion yen (about $18M US).
Additionally, BitStar announced its partnership with WFLE, in which WFLE will support the 3D conversion, recording, and distribution of VTubers from 2D models produced by BitStar, with the two companies jointly producing multiple VTubers (Virtual YouTubers) in 2019. The investments from multiple broadcasters are reflective of BitStar CEO Taku Watanabe’s previous remarks on moving to produce products in collaboration with them. The company is also collaborating with Asahi Broadcasting and Asahi Shimbun for the creation of next-generation media under the latter two companies’ #ONE! new channel brand.
Makers Fund is a $180 million US fund established by Jay Chi, who led the McKinsey Video Game Project, and Michael Cheung, also hailing from McKinsey and the former Senior Director of Tencent Holdings. In May of this year, BitStar started a promotion for the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets through a business tie-up with Fun! Japan, but Makers Fund seems to further spur this movement.
BitStar (formerly known as Bizcast) was established in July 2014 and launched BitStar, a matching platform for companies looking to do promotions for and with YouTubers. It has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to a specific MCN (multi-channel network) and their total number of followers exceeds 80 million (as of September 2016). Recently, the company has started new business such as the Costar fan club service Costar, a quantitative analysis program to measure the effect of influencers called Influencer Power Ranking (IPR), and the VTubers business.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Metro Engines, the Japanese startup offering Dynamic Pricing functions for hotels leveraging Deep Learning-powered demand forecast, announced today that it has raised 700 million yen (about $6.3 million US) from SBI Investment, NEC Capital Solution, Evolable Asia, JR East Start Up, Tap, Vector, Venture Labo Investment and Kiyohiro Sugashita. The latest funding follows the previous one raising estimated several million US dollars from Beenos back in December of 2016. Metro Engines will use the funds to increase the number of engineers and data scientists up to about 100, aiming to improve the accuracy of the dynamic pricing technology and accelerate business expansion using it. Metro Engines has developed a tool that allows hotel to set pricing leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning based on real-time Big Data. It collects Big Data regarding booking behaviors of hotel guests, and provides AI-powered analysis and optimized room pricing based on real-time data. By repeatedly verifying whether or not the suggested pricing is appropriate with Deep Learning, it can help hotels improve work efficiency and customer’s experience as well as reduce cost. The company claims dozens of notable hotel chains in Japan have decided to adopt it….
Tokyo-based Metro Engines, the Japanese startup offering Dynamic Pricing functions for hotels leveraging Deep Learning-powered demand forecast, announced today that it has raised 700 million yen (about $6.3 million US) from SBI Investment, NEC Capital Solution, Evolable Asia, JR East Start Up, Tap, Vector, Venture Labo Investment and Kiyohiro Sugashita.
The latest funding follows the previous one raising estimated several million US dollars from Beenos back in December of 2016. Metro Engines will use the funds to increase the number of engineers and data scientists up to about 100, aiming to improve the accuracy of the dynamic pricing technology and accelerate business expansion using it.
Metro Engines has developed a tool that allows hotel to set pricing leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning based on real-time Big Data. It collects Big Data regarding booking behaviors of hotel guests, and provides AI-powered analysis and optimized room pricing based on real-time data. By repeatedly verifying whether or not the suggested pricing is appropriate with Deep Learning, it can help hotels improve work efficiency and customer’s experience as well as reduce cost. The company claims dozens of notable hotel chains in Japan have decided to adopt it.
Metro Engines won the top award at Demo Day of IBM BlueHub’s Open Innovation Program Inbound Travel back in May of 2017. Their competitors include Sora, the Japanese startup behind AI-powered pricing strategy support platforms for hotels called Hotel Hanzuke and MagicPrice.
See the original story in Japanese. Entrepreneurs are often eccentric, and that may be a kind of honorable title worthy of praise but there must be no one else as unconventional in the world as this guy. Peter Rothenberg graduated UCLA and came to Japan in 2007 to study at International Christian University. In 2014, he founded the English learning service Eigooo! from MOVIDA Japan 5th batch and seems to have focused on service provision but suddenly changed jobs to become a driver of human-powered rickshaw in Asakusa, Tokyo. This was followed by an appointment to Tokyo-based chief editor of Singapore-headquartered startup media outlet Tech in Asia. It became gradually rare to see Rothenberg’s posts since around last summer. I heard he had been preparing something new at his office in East Ventures in Roppongi, and it is finally unveiled. I, as a writer covering entrepreneurs, would like to say welcome back to him, as he returns to the entrepreneurial field. Peter Rothenberg founded a craft beer startup Best Beer Japan and raised a total of 15 million yen (about $136,000) in its angel round. 15 venture capitals and individual investors as shown below participated in this round. NOW (the…
L to R: Peter Rothenberg (CEO/founder, Best Beer Japan), Eldad Bribrom (Chief Beer Officer, Best Beer Japan) Image credit: Best Beer Japan
Entrepreneurs are often eccentric, and that may be a kind of honorable title worthy of praise but there must be no one else as unconventional in the world as this guy. Peter Rothenberg graduated UCLA and came to Japan in 2007 to study at International Christian University. In 2014, he founded the English learning service Eigooo! from MOVIDA Japan 5th batch and seems to have focused on service provision but suddenly changed jobs to become a driver of human-powered rickshaw in Asakusa, Tokyo. This was followed by an appointment to Tokyo-based chief editor of Singapore-headquartered startup media outlet Tech in Asia.
It became gradually rare to see Rothenberg’s posts since around last summer. I heard he had been preparing something new at his office in East Ventures in Roppongi, and it is finally unveiled. I, as a writer covering entrepreneurs, would like to say welcome back to him, as he returns to the entrepreneurial field.
Peter Rothenberg founded a craft beer startup Best Beer Japan and raised a total of 15 million yen (about $136,000) in its angel round. 15 venture capitals and individual investors as shown below participated in this round.
NOW (the fund launched last month by Kazuma Ieiri )
Makoto Takano (CEO / Chief Editor of Forbes Japan, CEO of D4V, CEO of MT Partners)
Mamoru Taniya (D4V, CEO of Asuka Asset Management)
Jun Ogawa (Director of Teambox, Managing Director of Pixie Dust Technologies)
Koji Yamada (CEO of Boundary Spanner)
Norihiro Matsudaira (Chief Investment Officer of Hoops Partners)
Masashige Obara (CEO of StartPoint)
Hiroaki Watatani (CEO of AS-accelerator)
Hisamizu Takahashi (Miz Partners)
Ken Soga (SG Capital)
Yasushi Oga (CEO of Flier)
Naoki Yamada (CEO of Anydoor)
Kengo Ito (D4V)
2 undisclosed individual investors
Best Beer Japan’s logo Image credit: Best Beer Japan
Not a few readers of The Bridge love craft beer (and the investors of this round must be craft beer lovers too), but unfortunately the price becomes higher than major brand beer when drinking at bars. There are two reasons for this: craft beer is not on mass-production and the distribution channel is not established. The former one cannot easily be solved due to dependency on consumer demands, but the latter one went beyond my expectations.
With respect to the major brands, beer produced at their breweries is distributed to wholesalers, and then it is supplied to consumers through retailers or liquor stores. We often see a beer barrel connected to a beer server in a bar or restaurant. On the other hand, in the craft beer industry, restaurant users have to put in orders directly to craft beer brewers and receives them directly using low-temperature delivery services (aka cold storage delivery). Unlike the major brand beer, there is no system to collect empty beer barrels by wholesalers so that restaurant users send them back to brewers themselves via delivery services.
As described above, the distribution system of craft beer is quite inefficient. For example, with a glass of craft beer sold by 1,000 to 1,500 yen (about $9.1 to $14) for one pint in restaurant, its cost is about 650 yen (about $5.9) and the distribution cost accounts for 20 to 30% of it. Rothenberg’s aim is this: if the cost is reduced by improving efficiency of distribution, restaurant can provide craft beer at a cheaper price than the current one and that may lead to increased consumer desire for craft beer. As the demand increases, brewers can increase the production and one of the former reasons for high pricing mentioned above is likely to be solved.
The form of craft beer barrel is not standardized but brewers do not promote its brand with beer barrels. They compete for the quality of their products. Best Beer Japan’s first challenge is to improve the distribution efficacy by sharing beer barrels among brewers. The firm has commenced beer barrel collection services in cooperation with brewers and restaurants which participate in this concept in the Tokyo area. It is in the so-called user validation phase, and Rothenberg said that the main purpose of this phase is to observe whether restaurants’ behavior will change or not by introducing the beer barrel service.
Aims to beer company of 21th century
Recipe image of made-to-order beer Image credit: Best Beer Japan
Best Beer Japan’s goal is not to be a startup to improve craft beer distribution, although starting with the beer barrel collection service. Leveraging market data and knowledge acquired from this service, the firm eyes a possible future that it provides an E-commerce of craft beer or makes made-to-order beer by itself six months or a year later. The firm can use time for preparing these new services effectively by acquiring licenses of liquor manufacturing and liquor sales business while providing the beer barrel collection service. As Japan’s Raksul succeeded in the printing and delivery service by networking printing factories, Rothenberg expects that the similar model can be realized in the beer industry because not a few existing breweries have surplus production capacity.
Digital tools will also be useful for the craft beer sales. The craft beer lovers form a strong and heavy layer of enthusiasts and the craft beer business basically focuses on repeat users. Although certain marketing efforts and branding strategies will be needed, it can acquire heavy users at very low cost apart from the severe share competition among major brands. In this field, web media players like Beer Girl which was purchased by Cocolable this February exist, and such an online marketing style using story content seems to go well with craft beer too.
In the context of the startup, cooperation with the unmanned convenience store system 600 would be possible. It is well-known that free beer is provided at WeWork’s co-working spaces after working time, so that it is a reasonable culture that craft beer is provided from 600’s refrigerator at startup offices where labor environment is regarded as important. Based on the data-driven sale strategy, the firm can deliver a best-selling craft beer product in an optimum distribution flow.
If Best Beer Japan grasps the brewery, distribution and sales channel, a D2C (direct to consumer) model of craft beer will be completed. The beer industry has a long history so that it is not so easy for existing beer companies to introduce innovative management style. The firm will also focus on the brewing process improvement by digitalizing the recipe in order to create an environment where everyone can drink craft beer in everyday life. The firm’s tag-line ‘To life. To beer. To exploration’ are included in Rothenberg’s tenets.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing). The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund. See also: Drone Law Japan During the press conference held…
For the press conference at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, a drone demonstration flight was given, having obtained permission from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing).
The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund.
Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda (left) shakes hands with and Kotaro Chiba (right), the founder of Drone Fund Image credit: Drone Fund
During the press conference held at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, Chiba explained the purpose of the second fund as focusing on investment in ‘creation of drone-based society’ and ‘preparation for air-mobility society’. Additionally, its official character Misora Kanata was introduced, aiming to improve awareness of drone and air-mobility society. This character, with the personality of a high school girl living in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward in 2022 was designed by Japanese designer Yamakitakumi.
Misora Kanata, Image character of Drone Fund Image credit: Drone Fund
After the press conference, demonstrations of the first fund’s investment targets were offered: Speeder-One, the hoverbike runnable on public roads as developed by Aerial Lab Industries and ACSL-PF1, industrial drone platform developed by ACSL. In addition, Chiba’s own light aircraft PA-28 Cherokee as his training plane was shown. The illustration of Misora Kanata is drawn on its main wings and main body.
Yukino Moroe, fashion model riding on mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One Image credit: Masaru IkedaKeisuke Honda’s signature on head of mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, recently announced that the Japanese government will formulate a progression schedule of air-mobility development and promote entry of new drone-related players.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
