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Japanese microsatellite startup Axelspace secures $23M series B round

Axelspace

Masaru Ikeda 2018.12.07

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese microsatellite startup Axelspace annoufnced on Friday that it has raised about 2.58 billion yen (about $23 million US) in a series B round. This round was led by “31 Ventures – Global Brain Growth I”, the joint venture fund by Mitsui Fudosan (TSE:8801) and Global Brain, with participation from INCJ (previously known as Innovation Network Corporation of Japan), UTokyo Innovation Platform (investing about $2.7 million US), SBI Investment, and Dai-ichi Life Insurance.

For Axelspace, this follows their series A round back in September of 2015. The latest round brings their total equity funding to-date to 4.5 billion yen (about $40 million US).

Axelspace was spun off from the University of Tokyo and incorporated as a company in 2008. The company has been developing small and inexpensive satellites weighing some 60 kilograms, and launched satellites outsourced from Japanese weather company Weathernews (TSE:4825). Leveraging these low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites, Axelspace plans to collect weather and terrain data to sell to governmental organizations and private businesses.

The first model of the GRUS satellite
Image credit: Axelspace

The company has postponed the launch of its GRUS first satellite which was initially planned back in 2017, but unveiled at this time it will be launched on December 27th by Soyuz from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

In 2015 the company announced AxelGlobe, the earth observation infrastructure which will provide imagery of more than half of the planet’s dry land once every single day. In pursuit of better turning that idea into reality, the company appointed their co-founder and managing director Naoki Miyashita as CTO, and also named their marketing manager and business development expert Yasunori Yamazaki as CBDO (chief business development officer) at this time.

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Japanese deep learning startup Abeja raises series C extension round from Google

Abeja

The Bridge 2018.12.05

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced on Tuesday that it has secured funding from Google in a series C extension round. The company says this brings their total equity funding to date to over 6 billion yen (approximately US$53 million US). The company hasn’t disclosed financial terms on the latest round from Google but it can be estimated worth 1 billion yen or 10 million US based on their past funding records. Abeja has provided their AI-powered analytics suite Abeja Platform to more than 150 companies while over 520 stores at more than 100 companies have adopted Abeja Insight for Retail, their retail industry store analysis solution. See also: Science fiction becomes reality? Abeja unveils futuristic ad at Tokyo’s busiest station Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing…

Abeja CEO/CTO Yosuke Okada explains about Abeja Platform Partner Ecosystem
(Photographed at Docomo Innovation Village in November of 2016)
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced on Tuesday that it has secured funding from Google in a series C extension round. The company says this brings their total equity funding to date to over 6 billion yen (approximately US$53 million US). The company hasn’t disclosed financial terms on the latest round from Google but it can be estimated worth 1 billion yen or 10 million US based on their past funding records.

Abeja has provided their AI-powered analytics suite Abeja Platform to more than 150 companies while over 520 stores at more than 100 companies have adopted Abeja Insight for Retail, their retail industry store analysis solution.

See also:

Science fiction becomes reality? Abeja unveils futuristic ad at Tokyo’s busiest station

Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing 700 million yen (about $7 million at the exchange rate then) in a series B round from INCJ, Archetype, Inspire-PNB Partners back in 2016 as well as securing 4.25 billion yen ($38.4 million at the exchange rate then) in a series C round from 9 investors including VC firms and business companies back in June this year.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese AR sports platform provider Meleap raises $6.6M to cultivate viewership

Hado
Meleap

Takeshi Hirano 2018.12.04

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 Thursday that it has raised 720 million yen (about $6.3M US) from I-Mercury Capital, DBJ Capital, IncubateFund, Canal Ventures, Yugengaisya Hide Inter, and SMBC Venture Capital. The company has secured a cumulative total of 1.11 billion yen (around $9.8M US) in fundraising so far. It plans to use the funds raised to increase the store numbers, and with the prospect of forming a pro-league in its sights, it will strengthen the business pertaining to viewership. See also: Japan’s Meleap raises $2.6M to offer augmented reality-based sports experiences globally Hado is an AR sports game that requires players to wear a head mounted display and an arm sensor to battle each other three on three. Players use energy balls and shields freely to earn points over a period of 80 seconds. The company currently operates 52 stores in 23 countries in Asia, North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 1.3 million people have played the game and the overseas sales ratio is 60%….

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 Thursday that it has raised 720 million yen (about $6.3M US) from I-Mercury Capital, DBJ Capital, IncubateFund, Canal Ventures, Yugengaisya Hide Inter, and SMBC Venture Capital. The company has secured a cumulative total of 1.11 billion yen (around $9.8M US) in fundraising so far. It plans to use the funds raised to increase the store numbers, and with the prospect of forming a pro-league in its sights, it will strengthen the business pertaining to viewership.

See also:

Japan’s Meleap raises $2.6M to offer augmented reality-based sports experiences globally

Hado is an AR sports game that requires players to wear a head mounted display and an arm sensor to battle each other three on three. Players use energy balls and shields freely to earn points over a period of 80 seconds.

The company currently operates 52 stores in 23 countries in Asia, North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 1.3 million people have played the game and the overseas sales ratio is 60%.

Additionally, with regards to the pro-league, which is the reason for the fundraising this time around, Meleap will hold the Hado World Cup on December 8th. It has assembled the national teams that won the preliminary rounds held in seven countries around the world, including Japan and the UK, in order to decide the world’s best. With the evolution to a pro-league, from now the company will broadcast content for viewers to watch as teams compete in the game. Furthermore, it has also prepared prizes for the programs.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s Clear, study notes organizer app, gets $880K to help fresh grads find right job

Clear (formerly Arcterus)

Masaru Ikeda 2018.12.02

See the orioginal story in Japanese. Japan’s Arcterus, providing educational services including a notebook-sharing app named Clear, announced on Friday that it has fundraised 100 million yen in a series C round. Participating investors consist of a fund by Shinsei Bank and Shinsei Corporate Investment in addition to Zoshinkai Holdings, a leading Japanese company behind correspondence education service and cram school chains. With the series A round back in July of 2015 and the series B round back in November of 2016, this round brings the EdTech startup their total equity funding to about 400 million yen (about $3.5 million US). Arcterus was founded in 2010 October by Goichiro Arai (CEO) who has held various posts including Resort Business Manager at Japanese resort development / management major Hoshino Resort together with Yoshiki Shiraishi (COO/CFO) who was Arai’s classmate at Keio Business School. Clear, launched in December of 2013, allows notebooks sorted by subject or educational unit to be shared with other users and is available for Android, iOS and web. After five years from launch, the app has marked 2.2 million downloads, over 1 million monthly active users, and about 250,000 shared study notes online, boasting its popularity in…

Goichiro Arai, CEO of Arcterus
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the orioginal story in Japanese.

Japan’s Arcterus, providing educational services including a notebook-sharing app named Clear, announced on Friday that it has fundraised 100 million yen in a series C round. Participating investors consist of a fund by Shinsei Bank and Shinsei Corporate Investment in addition to Zoshinkai Holdings, a leading Japanese company behind correspondence education service and cram school chains. With the series A round back in July of 2015 and the series B round back in November of 2016, this round brings the EdTech startup their total equity funding to about 400 million yen (about $3.5 million US).

Arcterus was founded in 2010 October by Goichiro Arai (CEO) who has held various posts including Resort Business Manager at Japanese resort development / management major Hoshino Resort together with Yoshiki Shiraishi (COO/CFO) who was Arai’s classmate at Keio Business School.

Clear, launched in December of 2013, allows notebooks sorted by subject or educational unit to be shared with other users and is available for Android, iOS and web. After five years from launch, the app has marked 2.2 million downloads, over 1 million monthly active users, and about 250,000 shared study notes online, boasting its popularity in Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, and other Asian markets.

See also:

Japan’s Arcterus wins Global EdTech Startup Awards with study notes organizer app Clear

Goichiro Arai joined a fireside chat at Techsauce Summit 2017 in Bangkok.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

The company will use the funds to foray into recruiting business, aiming to eliminate the mismatch between enterprises and job-seeking fresh graduates while the level of “churn” in new hires is getting higher these days. According to Arai, study skills needed at university and business skills are different, however, it is supposed they will primarily assess personality and aptitude of users based on their study log on the Clear app and then propose the right job to them.

Given the fact that students majoring (or to be expected to major) in science and medical courses account for half of all Clear users, the company wants to answer the needs of companies hoping to hire these graduates as employees.

Arcterus is launching an ad service on the Clear app, aiming to help cram schools better reach students. Unlike other conventional ads targeting parents of students, the app can offer a direct access students and allows advertisers more efficiently market their service according to the user profile, such as where they live or which grade they are in.

Tokyo-based Itokuro (TSE;6049), a potential competitor for Arcterus and the Japanese education company behind portal sites on cram schools and private schools, is now boasting a market cap of over $600 million US with a P/E ratio of 60. Besides Clear, Arcterus is handling a teaching tool for tutor school named Caiz or an individual tutoring cram school in the residential area of Ota City, Tokyo named Shiki Gakuin. Insights from these businesses are expected to help expand their new revenue stream.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s biotech firm Spiber raises $44M to set up synthetic spider silk plant in Thailand

Spiber

SCORE 1,232

Masaru Ikeda 2018.12.01

See the original story in Japanese. Considering that the spider’s silk is the toughest biological material ever studied, Japanese startup Spiber has researched and succeeded in developing synthesis spider thread for multiple purposes. At the press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, the company announced it has secured about 5 billion yen (about $44 million US) in the latest round led by government-backed Cool Japan fund. Cool Japan revealed it has invested 2 billion yen ($17.6 million US) in this round while other participating investors have not been disclosed. Founded back in 2007, Spiber is a spin-off from Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, and headquartered in Yamagata, three hours north of Tokyo by bullet train. Prior to this round, the company had reportedly raised over $210 million US. It is said that this round brings their total equity funding to date to over $260 million US. See also: With new silk-producing technology, Japanese biotech startup does what a spider can With new silk-producing technology, Japanese biotech startup does what a spider can The fund will be used to establish a mass-production facility while the spiber company is now in transition from the research and technology development phase to the mass-production…

Spiber director Kazuhide Sekiyama (left) shakes hands with Cool Japan COO/CIO Yuji Kato
before the Moon Parka hooded sweatshirt
Imge credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Considering that the spider’s silk is the toughest biological material ever studied, Japanese startup Spiber has researched and succeeded in developing synthesis spider thread for multiple purposes. At the press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, the company announced it has secured about 5 billion yen (about $44 million US) in the latest round led by government-backed Cool Japan fund. Cool Japan revealed it has invested 2 billion yen ($17.6 million US) in this round while other participating investors have not been disclosed.

Founded back in 2007, Spiber is a spin-off from Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, and headquartered in Yamagata, three hours north of Tokyo by bullet train. Prior to this round, the company had reportedly raised over $210 million US. It is said that this round brings their total equity funding to date to over $260 million US.

See also:

With new silk-producing technology, Japanese biotech startup does what a spider can

With new silk-producing technology, Japanese biotech startup does what a spider can
The fund will be used to establish a mass-production facility while the spiber company is now in transition from the research and technology development phase to the mass-production phase. The company plans to develop a huge world-class plant for protein fermentation and purification operations in eastern Thailand (Rayong Province), planning to produce structural protein products for apparel and automobile industries.

The area of the new plant in Thailand will be about 100 times that of the pilot plant located within their headquarters in Yamagata. The new plant construction will start in mid-2019, with launch of commercial production targeted during 2021. After the new plant starts operating, structural proteins will be fermented / purified in Thailand and then carried to Japan for textile production (including yarn twisting and fabric processing). Production volume varies depending on the targeted kind of proteins but is expected to be several million tons on an annual basis.

Kazuhide Sekiyama, Director and Representative Executive Officer of Spiber, says they chose Thailand as a base for the new plant because the country is highly ranked in producing and exporting sugar, proving it can provide abundant biomass resources for protein fermentation.

Aerial view of Spiber’s headquarters and plant, located adjacent to Institute for Advanced Biosciences,
Keio University in Tsuruoka, Yamagata

Since 2015, Spiber has been developing a hooded sweatshirt using their synthetic spider silk-based garment called Qmonos in partnership with leading Japanese sports apparel manufacturer Goldwin. The new prototype (ver. 2.75) of the Moon Parka sweatshirt was introduced at the press conference.

This is the 31st investment case for the Cool Japan fund since its foundation. After Naoki Kitagawa (former CEO of Sony Music Entertainment) and Yuji Kato (CEO of East Investment Capital) were appointed as new CEO and COO/CIO respectively in July, the firm invested in US video production startup Tastemade prior to this investment.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Next-gen drone startup Aeronext wins pitch arena at B Dash Camp Fall 2018 in Fukuoka

B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2018

Masaru Ikeda 2018.11.24

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese outstanding VC firm B Dash Ventures held its flagship semi-annual conference B Dash Camp 2018 Fall in Fukuoka from October 3rd to 5th. 16 startups which passed document examination participated in the preliminary of Pitch Arena, and 6 teams were chosen for finalists. The top prize went to Aeronext, a startup developing next-gen drone technologies. This article introduces the finalists and their pitches. The judges for the final round of Pitch Arena were as follows: Kotaro Chiba (Investor / Drone Fund) Shinji Kimura (AnyPay) Taichi Murakami (Livesense) Yusuke Sato (Hey) Genki Shiota (Akatsuki) Ken Tamagawa (Soracom) Top Prize / PERSOL Award winner: Aeronext Aeronext develops next-gen drone technologies. Using its own technology called 4D Gravity, the firm had launched drone products optimized for various use cases: Next VR optimized for 360-degree VR photographing, Next DELIVERY specialized in delivery services and Next INDUSTRY available for infrastructure inspection, surveying, security and agriculture. By improving drone airframes from hardware perspective, these products acquired significant technical superiority in body axis stability or high-speed flight. The firm aims a business scaling-up by founding joint ventures in cooperate with major companies specialized in each use case. Currently, the firm…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese outstanding VC firm B Dash Ventures held its flagship semi-annual conference B Dash Camp 2018 Fall in Fukuoka from October 3rd to 5th. 16 startups which passed document examination participated in the preliminary of Pitch Arena, and 6 teams were chosen for finalists. The top prize went to Aeronext, a startup developing next-gen drone technologies.

This article introduces the finalists and their pitches. The judges for the final round of Pitch Arena were as follows:

Kotaro Chiba (Investor / Drone Fund)
Shinji Kimura (AnyPay)
Taichi Murakami (Livesense)
Yusuke Sato (Hey)
Genki Shiota (Akatsuki)
Ken Tamagawa (Soracom)

Top Prize / PERSOL Award winner: Aeronext

Aeronext develops next-gen drone technologies. Using its own technology called 4D Gravity, the firm had launched drone products optimized for various use cases: Next VR optimized for 360-degree VR photographing, Next DELIVERY specialized in delivery services and Next INDUSTRY available for infrastructure inspection, surveying, security and agriculture.

By improving drone airframes from hardware perspective, these products acquired significant technical superiority in body axis stability or high-speed flight. The firm aims a business scaling-up by founding joint ventures in cooperate with major companies specialized in each use case. Currently, the firm is developing Next VTOL, the airplane capable of vertical take-off and landing with fixed wings utilizing its own multicopter technologies.

They fundraised from Drone Fund in May of last year.

2nd Place / Lexus Award winner: Medulla by Sparty

Sparty provides the hair-care brand Medulla for female users, allowing periodical purchase of shampoo and hair treatment customizable in accordance with hair quality and condition. The shampoo market in Japan is formed with many varieties and even the most popular product can acquire only 5% of the share. The firm expects that the next trend in the shampoo market must be personalization and launched this service in May 22nd.

Just answering to seven questions, users can periodically receive optimal shampoo and hair treatment chosen from among more than 100 recipes. The firm aims to encourage an innovation in the data-driven hair-care market. It currently has six demonstration spots within Tokyo are and is going to expand them nationwide through cooperation with hair-salons.

Jobcan Award winner: Kuraseru by Kuraseru

When an inpatient who is hardly treated by home medical care leaves hospital, social workers or care managers in hospital have to look for a nursing facility which can accept him. Kuraseru develops and manages the hospital-leaving arrangement SaaS (Software as a Service) Kuraseru targeting social workers and care managers.

These procedures are currently done by phone and facsimile, and Kuraseru aims to improve the efficacy of the work by replacing all these procedures. The firm had fundraised 50 million yen (about $450,000) from 500 Startups Japan in June.

600 by 600

600 is the refrigerator-based drink / convenience goods sales service. It is, so to speak, the free convenience store for offices, hospital, or apartment houses. All goods have IC tags attached, and the refrigerator detects which goods were picked and then calculates the price automatically triggered by opening and closing the door. Purchasers pay for them by swiping credit cards to reader on the door.

The firm had officially launched the service this June and commenced a new integrated service of storage / unmanned convenience store from this month. 600 replenishes commodity goods in the refrigerator twice a week and also provides a concierge service; users can purchase their favorites items from among 600 items by requesting through a chat tool in advance.

The firm had fundraised from Apricot Ventures back in June.

Ginco by Ginco

Ginco developed the wallet app under the same name available for multiple cryptocurrency. Not a few users in Japan deposit cryptocurrency to the exchange and leave it untreated, but Ginco suggests that users should own and manage their cryptocurrency by themselves to secure safety. Since its launch back in April 2018, the app has been downloaded more than 30,000 times, and the total dealt amount on the app comes to more than 3 billion yen (about $27 million).

The firm monetizes the app through customer transferring to various services where cryptocurrency is available. The firm added DEX (Decentralized Exchange) function enabling overseas users to trade tokens between users on Ginco and plans to launch hardware wallet next year too.

The firm fundraised 150 million yen (about $1.3 million) from Global Brain.

Choole by Rexit

Rexit provides the bridal reservation support platform Choole, allowing couples about to be married to choose wedding dress, hair-do, photographer, videographer and wedding hall. The choice of wedding dress or flowers is generally narrow because bridal item providers are tied up with each wedding hall, but Choole enables users to order to any provider directly and hold ceremonies in at reasonable price.

Since its launch back this June, more than 130 wedding halls have participated in this platform. The firm fundraised 55 million yen ($490,000) from Shinichiro Sugiyama (CEO of Valetudo), Genki Arai (CEO of Happy Element) and individual investors.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japanese microsatellite startup Axelspace secures $23M series B round

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