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Japanese crowdsourced translation startup Gengo acquired by Lionbridge

SCORE 1,531

The Bridge 2019.01.21

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation startup Gengo announced on Thursday that it has been acquired by Lionbridge Technologies. Financial terms on the deal have not been disclosed.

Gengo was founded back in 2009 by Robert Laing and Matthew Romaine. Laing served the company as CEO in their early days while the position was handed over to Romaine in 2015. They have raised more than $26 million from Atomico, Intel Capital, 500 Startups and other investors.

Since its launch back in 1996, Lionbridge has been globally offering translation and localization services, now in 27 countries. They were listed on NASDAQ back in 1997 but then delisted when they were acquired by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital for $360 million. The acquisition at this time is the first for Lionbridge following H.I.G. Capital’s purchase of them in May 2017.

Lionbridge says Romaine and the rest of the Gengo team will join Lionbridge post transaction and assume key leadership roles in the company. It appears that Lionbridge will send someone to the board of Gengo’s directors.

In 2018, Gengo launched GengoAI, a learning data platform for natural data processing-focused AI development, which has been fully leveraged by their existing translation services. The platform is expected to strengthen Lionbridge’s position in the machine learning and content relevance markets.

Tokyo-based Conyac, another Japanese translation startup launched around the same time with Gengo, was acquired for $14 million by Japanese translation service giant Rosetta back in August of 2018. Our readers may also recall that Korean translation tech startup Flitto has raised funding from Colopl Next for market expansion into the Japanese market.

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American Express buys Japanese restaurant reservation startup Pocket Concierge

Pocket Concierge

The Bridge 2019.01.15

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Pocket Concierge, the Japanese startup offering an online restaurant reservation platform under the same name, has been fully acquired by American Express (Amex). Financial terms regarding the deal has not been disclosed. The platform was founded in March of 2013 by Kei Tokado who was has experience in the restaurant business, including time as a restaurant chef (the company’s name was Pocket Menu at the time). Based on the quality of menu and service as well as concept and their chef’s thought, more than 800 restaurants have been carefully selected according to the platform’s proprietary standards. With the acquisition by Amex, Pocket Concierge will be more focused on providing their card holders with access to Japanese premium restaurants. However, even after the acquisition, the platform is expected to continue offering their existing services to anyone regardless of whether or not he/she is an Amex member. It’s not clear about how much money the company has fundraised to date. Their investors partcipating in past rounds include Adways, Allied Architects, 500 Startup Japan, Monex Ventures, iMercury Capital, Line, Nippon Venture Capital, Fuji Startup Ventures, and Isetan Mitsukoshi Innovations. See also: Japan’s Pocket Concierge starts accepting…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Pocket Concierge, the Japanese startup offering an online restaurant reservation platform under the same name, has been fully acquired by American Express (Amex). Financial terms regarding the deal has not been disclosed.

The platform was founded in March of 2013 by Kei Tokado who was has experience in the restaurant business, including time as a restaurant chef (the company’s name was Pocket Menu at the time). Based on the quality of menu and service as well as concept and their chef’s thought, more than 800 restaurants have been carefully selected according to the platform’s proprietary standards.

With the acquisition by Amex, Pocket Concierge will be more focused on providing their card holders with access to Japanese premium restaurants. However, even after the acquisition, the platform is expected to continue offering their existing services to anyone regardless of whether or not he/she is an Amex member.

It’s not clear about how much money the company has fundraised to date. Their investors partcipating in past rounds include Adways, Allied Architects, 500 Startup Japan, Monex Ventures, iMercury Capital, Line, Nippon Venture Capital, Fuji Startup Ventures, and Isetan Mitsukoshi Innovations.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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Japanese investment firm aSTART launches $46M space tech fund

aSTART

Masaru Ikeda 2019.01.08

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese investment firm aSTART announced on Monday it has formed the Space aSTART new fund specializing in space tech startups. The scale of the fund has not been finalized because the fundraising has not been closed yet, but it is said to be on a scale of 5 billion yen (about $46.2M USD). Their ticket size could be in the tens of billions of yen, and as a result it is expected that the startups on the receiving end will be limited to just a handful. aSTART will be focused on investing in space startups which are almost certain to become unicorns. Last November Singapore- / Tokyo-based Astroscale, the startup cleaning up space debris, announced that it secured $50 million US dollars in a series D round. aSTART participated and the funds provided for this round are from this new fund (aSTART also invested in a series C round from its No. 1 fund). aSTART was established in 2015 by Kazumasa Watanabe who has helped companies like internet cafe chain Next Japan and food delivery giant Ride On Expresss get public through IPO as their CFO respectively. Because of his experince as a business…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese investment firm aSTART announced on Monday it has formed the Space aSTART new fund specializing in space tech startups. The scale of the fund has not been finalized because the fundraising has not been closed yet, but it is said to be on a scale of 5 billion yen (about $46.2M USD). Their ticket size could be in the tens of billions of yen, and as a result it is expected that the startups on the receiving end will be limited to just a handful. aSTART will be focused on investing in space startups which are almost certain to become unicorns.

Last November Singapore- / Tokyo-based Astroscale, the startup cleaning up space debris, announced that it secured $50 million US dollars in a series D round. aSTART participated and the funds provided for this round are from this new fund (aSTART also invested in a series C round from its No. 1 fund).

aSTART was established in 2015 by Kazumasa Watanabe who has helped companies like internet cafe chain Next Japan and food delivery giant Ride On Expresss get public through IPO as their CFO respectively. Because of his experince as a business owner to exit companies succesfully while he’s now serving the VC industry, many fellow investors and entrepreneurs often request him to participate in their funding rounds with the expectation of his hands-on effort. The firm’s No.1 and No.2 funds, which have grown to billions of yen in size, is uniquely active in terms of focusing on investing in tech-oriented startups such as Sora (offering AI-powered dynamic pricing solution) and Connected Robotics (creating cooking robots for restaurants).

Watanabe says the reason to launch a space tech-focused fund is that there are certain conditions that only exist for space startups. Contrary to the fact that many startups in Japan typically start with focusing on the domestic market before trying their luck overseas, the fate of space tech startups lies in competing in the world market from their inception. And after giving it some thought, it is true, I have never heard of a space business targeted only for domestic demand, and it is more difficult for such businesses to proceed without being conscious of the world outside of Japan, including finding human resources and a place to launch their rockets or satellites.

Additionally, to become successful as a space tech startup requires significant investment. Traditionally, large enterprises such as Nissan, IHI (then Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, under the direction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were going head to head over the Japanese Space Industry, but startups determined to survive in this field are also appearing. Rocket and satellite development require large amounts of funds, but the supply of risk money to this sector in Japan is far less than in the US and Europe.

Watanabe wants to attract risk money to this vertical through the formation of and investment from this fund. Given that space tech startups require much more money than other verticals, it is reasonable to say one approach could be an early listing on the TSE Mothers, whose terms are not as severe as other exchanges around the world. Obtaining funds widely from the market through an IPO makes sense especially for them.

aSTART will close its funding in spring this year, and in addition to the aforementioned Astroscale, it is expected to invest in several promising space startups in Japan within the year.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Kamereo raises $500K to help restaurants in Vietnam manage suppliers, food orders

Kamereo

Masaru Ikeda 2019.01.07

See the original story in Japanese. Ho Chi Minh City-based Kamereo, the startup behind a B2B food marketplace for restaurants in Vietnam under the same name, announced today that it has raised $500,000 from Genesia Ventures in Tokyo and Velocity Ventures Vietnam (VVV). VVV is not well known in the startup scene but appears to be a Hanoi-headquartered $30 million investment fund focused on early stage startups. Kamereo was founded back in June of 2018 by HCMC-based Japanese entrepreneur Taku Tanaka. Prior to launching the startup, he previously worked at Credit Suisse followed by joining Pizza 4Ps, one of the most popular pizza chains in Vietnam, as the Chief Operating Officer. According to Tanaka, most of restaurants in Vietnam are heavily dependent on phone calls or the Zalo chat app when placing an order of food ingredients to suppliers. Kamereo addresses this insufficiency to streamline by digitalizing interactions between restaurants and suppliers. See also: Fancy a four flowers or ginger fried pork pizza? (BBC) Zalo Hits 2 Million Users and Plans for 5 Million Soon [INFOGRAPHIC] (Tech in Asia) Vietnam’s Messaging App Battle Just Got Hotter: Zalo Reaches 1 Million Users (Tech in Asia) Food waste may occur at some…

See the original story in Japanese.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Kamereo, the startup behind a B2B food marketplace for restaurants in Vietnam under the same name, announced today that it has raised $500,000 from Genesia Ventures in Tokyo and Velocity Ventures Vietnam (VVV). VVV is not well known in the startup scene but appears to be a Hanoi-headquartered $30 million investment fund focused on early stage startups.

Kamereo was founded back in June of 2018 by HCMC-based Japanese entrepreneur Taku Tanaka. Prior to launching the startup, he previously worked at Credit Suisse followed by joining Pizza 4Ps, one of the most popular pizza chains in Vietnam, as the Chief Operating Officer. According to Tanaka, most of restaurants in Vietnam are heavily dependent on phone calls or the Zalo chat app when placing an order of food ingredients to suppliers. Kamereo addresses this insufficiency to streamline by digitalizing interactions between restaurants and suppliers.

See also:

Fancy a four flowers or ginger fried pork pizza? (BBC)
Zalo Hits 2 Million Users and Plans for 5 Million Soon [INFOGRAPHIC] (Tech in Asia)
Vietnam’s Messaging App Battle Just Got Hotter: Zalo Reaches 1 Million Users (Tech in Asia)

Kamereo’s web-based dashboard (click to enlarge)
Image credit: Kamereo

Food waste may occur at some restaurants due to an unclear order from their staffers but others may have experienced their staffers intentionally order food ingredients too much to bring the surplus back home. Meanwhile, suppliers or farmers have few chances to cultivate sales channels to restaurants. Kamereo allows restaurants owners to tackle tiresome tasks, such as finding better suppliers or managing orders, and put them all on the web.

In the Vietnamese food distribution industry, there’s no intermediary wholesaler bundling multiple small-scale suppliers like that of Japan. That’s why restaurants in Vietnam are forced to interact with many small suppliers, causing the high complexity in dealing with delivery notes, invoices, and payments. In addition to helping restaurants improve their efficiency, Kamereo considers to offer payment functions so that restaurants can streamline their payments and accounting operations. Furthermore, the company also has a plan to expand into Singapore where few restaurants can afford to keep additional personnel for stock management because of high labor cost. As a benchmark they are seeing Informart (TSE:2492), the Japanese listed company operating a B2B food ordering platform which Tanaka was keeping his eyes on during his days at Credit Suisse.

In addition to the platform’s currently available functions like supplier introduction and order management functions, the Kamereo team wants to provide enterprise resource planning (ERP) for restaurants in the future. When Kamereo has been infiltrated into suppliers well, they can expect the network effects that these suppliers can introduce their client restaurants to the platform. Using the funds, the company will expand their team from 3 to 8 people, aiming to accelerate system development and gain customer success effort.

See also:

7 Outstanding B2B Food Marketplaces That Inspire (Apiko)

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CyberAgent rebrands investment arm, looks at synergies between core biz and portfolio

Masaru Ikeda 2019.01.07

See the original story in Japanese. CyberAgent (CA) announced today that CyberAgent Ventures (CAV), a consolidated subsidiary of the company to develop its VC business, has been rebranded into CyberAgent Capital (CAC). Hirofumi Kondo, who served as the Japan Lead for CAV, is being appointed as CEO of CAC. Established as CyberAgent Investment (CAI) back in 2006, the company subsequently rebranded itself CAV in 2010. This marks the 2nd rebranding for the company. Growth in the company and the fund are behind these changes. Additionally, as the saying “CAV mafia” goes, the company has produced many venture capitalists, who then went on to join other VCs or establish new, independent VCs. With the birth of CAC, the company appears to be organizing the roles of new team members and increasing its presence. In 2010 when CAI was rebranded CAV, they only had about 100 portfolio startups (including 20 overseas), but now the number has increased to about 350 startups across 8 countries (the cumulative number, including those that have exited). Including the headquarters in Tokyo, CAC has offices in 10 locations in 8 countries mainly in Asia. Along with the establishment of CAC, the company announced that 3rd generation Japanese…

cyberagent-capital-group-photo — The CAC team. Front row, center: CEO Hirofumi Kondo; To his right: Riho Hayama managing the Fujita Fund. 2nd row, center: new team member Mauricio Omura.
Image credit: CyberAgent Capital

See the original story in Japanese.

CyberAgent (CA) announced today that CyberAgent Ventures (CAV), a consolidated subsidiary of the company to develop its VC business, has been rebranded into CyberAgent Capital (CAC). Hirofumi Kondo, who served as the Japan Lead for CAV, is being appointed as CEO of CAC.

Established as CyberAgent Investment (CAI) back in 2006, the company subsequently rebranded itself CAV in 2010. This marks the 2nd rebranding for the company. Growth in the company and the fund are behind these changes. Additionally, as the saying “CAV mafia” goes, the company has produced many venture capitalists, who then went on to join other VCs or establish new, independent VCs.

With the birth of CAC, the company appears to be organizing the roles of new team members and increasing its presence. In 2010 when CAI was rebranded CAV, they only had about 100 portfolio startups (including 20 overseas), but now the number has increased to about 350 startups across 8 countries (the cumulative number, including those that have exited). Including the headquarters in Tokyo, CAC has offices in 10 locations in 8 countries mainly in Asia. Along with the establishment of CAC, the company announced that 3rd generation Japanese Brazilian Mauricio Omura will join the team.

fujita-at-monthly-pitch — CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita commenting at Monthly Pitch
Image credit: CyberAgent

On top of this, the company is also restarting investment activity from so-called Fujita Fund, which was established in 2013 but has remained less active in recent years. Fujita Fund is an investment initiative for seed/early-startups by CA CEO Susumu Fujita in order to support young executives. For the sake of convenience, the term fund is used, but there are no limited partners and the investment comes straight from CA’s main accounts.

Fujita Fund has successfully invested in numerous Japanese startups that reached IPO including Wantedly, CrowdWorks, and Base, but all investment activities were frozen after the fall of 2014 due to the startup bubble. The first company to receive funds after the resumption of activities is Taimee, which launched a work share app of the same name in August of last year. Last year Taimee raised a total of 56 million yen (about $501K US) from Genesia Ventures, CAV (at the time), and Gaiax.

See also:

CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita chats with Japanese entrepreneurs about their journey

The new Fujita Fund collaborates with CAC in making an investment. CyberAgent CEO Office’s Investment Planning Headquarters manages Fujita Fund, but CAC’s CEO Kondo will also be in charge of this Headquarters, while Riho Hayama, who previously worked as a producer at CyberAgent’s entertainment livestreaming service Abema TV, will manage the Fujita Fund full time. Fujita Fund’s ticket size is around 100 million yen (about $895K US) to several hundred million yen and if the startup is internet related the vertical does not matter. So far, the company has decided to invest in four projects including Taimee (the remaining three are unpublished) while CAC has already invested in two of them including Taimee.

CA and CAC are planning to progressively manage Monthly Pitch, a monthly meet-up focused on helping startups get funds, from here on out. With the redevelopment of Shibuya, CA and CAC are planning transfer to a new building, which could mean that events to encourage startups and entrepreneurs will be held more frequently than last year. The number of companies participating in Monthly Pitch has exceeded 160 and it appears the company may be considering global development of the event (in the same manner as the Rising Expo conference).

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Code Republic accelerator debuts 4 startups at Winter 2018 Demo Day

Masaru Ikeda 2019.01.06

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Code Republic, the startup accelerator jointly operated by YJ Capital and East Ventures, hosted the Demo Day of its fifth batch and four teams took the stage. The accelerator claims the total number of its portfolio startups has reached 20, including the fifth batch, and of those nine have succeeded in raising funds in their next pre-series A round. Through its three-month long program launched back in April of 2016, the accelerator has been offering opportunities for its participating entrepreneurs, such as dinner meetings with prominent entrepreneurs, undergo mentoring, and a free use of the Yahoo Japan coworking space Lodge. Additionally, Code Republic invests 7 million yen (about $65K US) in exxhange for acquiring a 7% equity stake in each startup under a 100 million yen (about $925K) post-money valuation. Below are descriptions of the four teams who pitched for the Demo Day of the fifth batch. Each of them are seeking funds for the next round. Although none of the teams are stealth, some of them have yet to launch their services, so they intentionally avoided detailed descriptions of their content. Check by Spur More than 50% of women regardless of age…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Code Republic, the startup accelerator jointly operated by YJ Capital and East Ventures, hosted the Demo Day of its fifth batch and four teams took the stage. The accelerator claims the total number of its portfolio startups has reached 20, including the fifth batch, and of those nine have succeeded in raising funds in their next pre-series A round.

Through its three-month long program launched back in April of 2016, the accelerator has been offering opportunities for its participating entrepreneurs, such as dinner meetings with prominent entrepreneurs, undergo mentoring, and a free use of the Yahoo Japan coworking space Lodge. Additionally, Code Republic invests 7 million yen (about $65K US) in exxhange for acquiring a 7% equity stake in each startup under a 100 million yen (about $925K) post-money valuation.

Below are descriptions of the four teams who pitched for the Demo Day of the fifth batch. Each of them are seeking funds for the next round. Although none of the teams are stealth, some of them have yet to launch their services, so they intentionally avoided detailed descriptions of their content.

Check by Spur

More than 50% of women regardless of age have worries regarding the beauty products they use, such as cosmetic and skincare products not agreeing with their skin, and around 70% of people feel they have sensitive skin. There are word-of-mouth websites specializing in skincare such as Hwahae in Korea and SkinDeep in the US, but Spur feels there is no website in Japan equivalent to those. This is why the company came up with the Check review website.

One of the characteristics of the platfom is that users can search for information by skin trouble, and with just a glance see whether the given skin product has ingredients that cause allergies or not. The company also analyzes characteristics each time the user posts information and can provide information more suitable for that person as the number of postings increases. Check is looking to become a site similar to HairLabo (previously known as HageLabo), in that it is not easily influenced by advertisers and it does not depend on product and dermatological affiliates.

Meily by Meily

Korea comes to mind when speaking of cosmetic surgery, but in Japan the number of cosmetic surgeries exceeds 1.9 million per year which is larger than that of Korea. However, despite the size of the market, there are no means for sharing information like cosmetic review websites, and there are cases of skewed information between service providers and recipients. On blogs there are many instances where clinic names are written using ambiguous characters, and it is difficult to find them even with the help of search engines.

Meily is a social network platform focused on beauty care. It offers a way to search for information as well as Q&A between those who have tried services before and people currently visiting clinics with people considering consultation in the future. Additional functions include case lists of cosmetic dermatology, cosmetic surgery, and aesthetic dentistry clinics while users can compare the provided services. The company has released the app for iOS and Android, and is planning to develop a web app in the future.

Foriio by 1ne Studio

Foriio helps creators match with companies that are looking to order products from creators. For companies seeking creators, there is a limit to their reach, while on the other hand, some creators do not have access to such companies. As a result, work becomes concentrated on a select few creators, and there is an imbalance of opportunity in that work does not come to creators who are buried even though they are capable.

Foriio makes it easy for creators to appeal to companies by simply uploading files to their portfolio where they are converted to an appropriate file format and organized and displayed on the web. Users can change the portfolio to display according to where they are proposing, and for work co-produced by multiple creators, they can also credit each assigned parts. The plan is to optimize human resource matching by visualizing skills.

Winks by Laetia

Winks is a virtual talent agency for China. In Japan, the number of virtual talent increased from 100 people last year to about 5,000 this year. Meanwhile, according to Laetia, the company behind the platform, there are currently only about 200 virtual talent in China, but it will increase rapidly in the next six months.

Currently, Winks sponsors 11 virtual talents for China. With the concept of Japanese “Moe” characters at its core combined with localization by members in China the company is aiming for the top position in China in this field.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japanese crowdsourced translation startup Gengo acquired by Lionbridge

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