Japan port city of Kobe, 500 startups showcase 18 teams at 3rd batch Demo Day

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See the original story in Japanese.

Kobe City along with 500 Startups held a Demo Day for the 3rd batch of the 500 Kobe Accelerator program in December. The Program held a Pre-Demo Day in Kobe the week prior, while the actual Demo Day took place in Tokyo with the intention of introducing the companies to investors and corporate open innovators. The organizers announced that some 400 people participated.

Beginning with mentoring, the majority of the program content for the 3rd batch took place over a month and a half from October 29th to December 1st at the Design Creative Center Kobe (KIITO). There were 237 applicants for the 3rd batch, of which 20 teams (14 from Japan, 6 from overseas) were selected and participated (from which 18 pitched at the Demo Day).

The following is a short description of the teams and service content (based on materials provided by 500 Startups) in the order that they took the stage.

  • Tokyo Techies by Tokyo Techies (Tokyo) … offers a professional education service for cybersecurity, personalized data science and AI for companies and individuals
  • Bonyu by Bonyu (Tokyo) …. analyzes the makeup of breast milk and provides dietary guidance and supplements to reduce mother’s stress and give healthy breast milk to children
  • Kiara by Jenio (Tokyo) … a video conferencing tool suppoting simultaneous interpretation with subtitles in 120 languages
  • Beacon by Lizuna G.K (Tokyo) … an app using big data to detect and prevent online fraud
  • Honey Magazine by Okko (Tokyo) … offers virtual novels for iOS and Android, mainly dealing with love comics for women
  • T-ICU by T-ICU (Ashiya) … allows remote ICU physicians to monitor the condition of a patient at ICU (intentive care unit) 24/7 and propose appropriate medical treatment to the patient’s non-ICU phyisician
  • TeamFinder by Noborder (Tokyo)  … An AI-powered recruiting platform that allows companies to build the best team
  • ExCamp by Forent (Tsukuba) … a sharing economy service for using idle land as campgrounds
  • BuyandShip by E-Buy Global (China) … an integrated sales and distribution platform for cross-border e-commerce linking Asia and the world (see related article here)
  • Doot! by Doot! (South Africa) … a matching service for visitors to Japan to experience traditional food and culture throughout the country
  • Clarity by Clarity (Tokyo) … a word-of-mouth platform/database that makes the work environment for companies transparent and allows users to search for jobs based on what it is like to work for the company
  • Web2ship by Web2ship (US) … helps online shoppers in Southeast Asia and the US choose an optimal shipping method
  • Sagri by Sagri (Hyogo) … a SaaS platform that analyzes and visualizes tacit knowledge of farmers along with space and agricultural land data
  • Elxr by Elxr (Singapore) … a fitness support app based on DNA analysis
  • Shokunin-san.com by Shokunin-san.com (Kobe) … a job matching site for construction workers
  • Pisces by Pisces (Tokyo) … a 3D online business communication tool for teams with their people working remotely
  • Visual Design Cafe by Visual Design Cafe (Kobe) … an online library of 3D models to improve the speed and quality of game development
  • GPU Eater by Pegara (US) … offers hardware and operating system as PaaS (Platform as a Service) for machine learning (deep learning)

The following two teams were unable to present due to unforeseen circumstances.

  • Vaak by Vaak (Tokyo) … leverages computer vision and deep learning to prevent shoplifting and constructing unmanned stores
  • Driver Design Studio by Driver Design Studio (Thailand) … allows auto manufacturers to propose products and services to customers based on data collected from their cars.
Web2ship by Web2ship
Visual Design Cafe by Visual Design Cafe
Tokyo Techies by Tokyo Techies
TeamFinder by Noborder
T-ICU by T-ICU
Shokunisan.com by Shokunin-san.com
Sagri by Sagri
Pisces by Pisces
Kiara by Genio
Honey Magazine by Okko
CPU Eater by Pegara
ExCamp by Forent
Elxr by Elxr
Doot! by Doot!
Clarity by Clarity
Buyandship by Buyandship
Bonyu by Bonyu
Beacon by Lizuna G.K

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda