Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore to strengthen business expansion into Southeast Asian (SEA) markets. The subsidiary, namely Repro Singapore Pte. Ltd., aims to cultivate the client base in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and among others, while it intends to employ five to ten people in each of these respective markets by the end of 2021.
Marking five years since its launch, the tool has been used by 6,500 companies across 59 countries in the world, which has been good enough for the startup to see the potential in the markets outside Japan. In the SEA market, which the startup will be focused on, the growing penetration of mobile devices has much contributed to promoting e-commerce and other online services among local people. The launch of the subsidiary was based on their conviction that there would be more demand in user-focused marketing measure in the region.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Smartnews, the developer of curated news app under the same name, announced on Monday that it has raised 3.1 billion yen (about $29.3 million) in a series E round. The round was led by Japan Post Capital with participation from Japan Co-Invest Limited Partnership, SMBC Venture Capital (SMBC-VC), and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) according to CrunchBase. Japan Co-Invest, SMBC-VC and DBJ also joined the startup’s series D round back in July of 2016. The latest round brought the total funding to date up to 12.2 billion yen ($115.4 million US). With this funding, the market cap of Smartnews reached $1 billion US and joined the unicorn club. According to CB Insights, the company is the third Unicorn from Japan following AI startup Preferred Networks and Liquid Group which runs a crypto exchange called Liquid by Quoine. (C2C commerce startup used to be a unicorn but went public last year.) Smartnews launched its curated news app in the US back in October of 2014. After nearly five years since then, the company now sees more than 20 million active users in Japan and the US. In particular, the number of users in the…
Tokyo-based Smartnews, the developer of curated news app under the same name, announced on Monday that it has raised 3.1 billion yen (about $29.3 million) in a series E round. The round was led by Japan Post Capital with participation from Japan Co-Invest Limited Partnership, SMBC Venture Capital (SMBC-VC), and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) according to CrunchBase. Japan Co-Invest, SMBC-VC and DBJ also joined the startup’s series D round back in July of 2016. The latest round brought the total funding to date up to 12.2 billion yen ($115.4 million US).
With this funding, the market cap of Smartnews reached $1 billion US and joined the unicorn club. According to CB Insights, the company is the third Unicorn from Japan following AI startup Preferred Networks and Liquid Group which runs a crypto exchange called Liquid by Quoine. (C2C commerce startup used to be a unicorn but went public last year.)
Smartnews launched its curated news app in the US back in October of 2014. After nearly five years since then, the company now sees more than 20 million active users in Japan and the US. In particular, the number of users in the US grew five times in a year, and Parse.ly put Smartnews in the 10th rank in traffic sources bringing users to English-language news outlets. Smartnews will use the funds to accelerate the growth in the US market and strengthen the team for global expansion.
As part of global expansion effort, Smartnews appointed Ken Kutaragi, former CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, as an external director back in June while Youlin Li, former Head of News Feed Infrastructure at Facebook, joined the team as Vice President of Engineering, Backend System and Foundation back in May. The company has presence in six locations in the world: Tokyo, San Francisco, New York City, Palo Alto, Fukuoka, and Shanghai. Going forward, they will strengthen hiring engineers, product managers, data scientists and other talents.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese startup Nature develops an IoT product for smart air-conditioner named Nature Remo. The company announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4.7 million US) from Energy & Environment Investment and Japanese internet company DeNA (TSE:2432). The investment from DeNA will be replaced with the one from Delight Ventures, which was recently introduced as the investment arm of DeNA. For Nature, this follows their 100 million yen ($9.5 million US) funding from Daiwa Corporate Investment back in February of last year but the funding round is unknown. Nature was founded in Boston by Haruumi Shiode who previously worked for Mitsui & Co. and later obtained an MBA at Harvard University. Nature Remo allows users to turn on their air conditioner at home before they arrive by using their mobile, integrate with Google Home and Amazon Echo to control a TV set and room lights, and even develop a third-party service from scratch via API (application programming interface). Nature Remo was introduced back in 2016, and subsequently succeeded in raising a total of 22 million yen from three crowdfunding campaigns at Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Makuake. In 2018, the firm started selling…
Japanese startup Nature develops an IoT product for smart air-conditioner named Nature Remo. The company announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4.7 million US) from Energy & Environment Investment and Japanese internet company DeNA (TSE:2432). The investment from DeNA will be replaced with the one from Delight Ventures, which was recently introduced as the investment arm of DeNA. For Nature, this follows their 100 million yen ($9.5 million US) funding from Daiwa Corporate Investment back in February of last year but the funding round is unknown.
Nature was founded in Boston by Haruumi Shiode who previously worked for Mitsui & Co. and later obtained an MBA at Harvard University. Nature Remo allows users to turn on their air conditioner at home before they arrive by using their mobile, integrate with Google Home and Amazon Echo to control a TV set and room lights, and even develop a third-party service from scratch via API (application programming interface).
Nature Remo was introduced back in 2016, and subsequently succeeded in raising a total of 22 million yen from three crowdfunding campaigns at Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Makuake. In 2018, the firm started selling the product at Amazon, as well as electronics retail stores such as Bic Camera or Kojima, allowing general users other than early adopters to purchase. They have been seeing a steady growth by launching a suite bundling Nature Remo mini with Google Home Mini as a starter kit for smart home beginners this year. We were told that more than 10,000 Nature Remo items have been sold to date.
The company will use the funds to double their team size to strengthen engineering, sales and customer support. Expecting to launch a new home solution called Nature Remo E within this year, they are foraying into energy management business. They will bring their all headquarters functions back to Japan for better global business expansion.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ground, the Japanese startup developing artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions specifically focused on offering intelligent logistics, announced on Friday that it has secured up to 1.71 billion yen (about $16.2 million US) in the latest round. This round was led by Japanese state-owned investment company INCJ with participation from Sony (Sony Innovation Fund), Saphire Capital, JA Mitsui Leasing, IMM Investment (Korea), and IMM INvestment Group Japan. Of these, INCJ has agreed to invest up to 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million US) in the logistics startup. Ground was founded in April of 2015 by Hiratomo Miyata who previously led the respective logistics arms of Japanese e-commerce giants Askul and Rakuten. The startup has formed a capital and business tie-up with Japanese office furniture maker Okamura (TSE:7944) in addition to Frameworx, the logistics-focused subsidiary of Japanese largest homebuilder Daiwa House Industry (TSE:1925). The funding at this time follows 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million US) funding from Daiwa House Industry back in June of 2017. The company has developed a platform that combines robots and AI software to optimize logistics operations including picking in warehouse. Leveraging a customer database to help understand consumer…
AMR, Ground’s autonomous collaborative robot for the logistics industry Image credit: Ground
Tokyo-based Ground, the Japanese startup developing artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics solutions specifically focused on offering intelligent logistics, announced on Friday that it has secured up to 1.71 billion yen (about $16.2 million US) in the latest round. This round was led by Japanese state-owned investment company INCJ with participation from Sony (Sony Innovation Fund), Saphire Capital, JA Mitsui Leasing, IMM Investment (Korea), and IMM INvestment Group Japan. Of these, INCJ has agreed to invest up to 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million US) in the logistics startup.
Ground was founded in April of 2015 by Hiratomo Miyata who previously led the respective logistics arms of Japanese e-commerce giants Askul and Rakuten. The startup has formed a capital and business tie-up with Japanese office furniture maker Okamura (TSE:7944) in addition to Frameworx, the logistics-focused subsidiary of Japanese largest homebuilder Daiwa House Industry (TSE:1925). The funding at this time follows 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million US) funding from Daiwa House Industry back in June of 2017.
Image credit: Ground
The company has developed a platform that combines robots and AI software to optimize logistics operations including picking in warehouse. Leveraging a customer database to help understand consumer behavior, the platform adopts machine learning to allow users to predict how many products should be manufactured and will be sold, thereby improving the overall efficiency of their logistics operations. The platform is unique in terms of offering all at once: both hardware-powered (robotics) and software-driven (AI) approaches.
Ground participated in Rock Thailand, the cross-market open innovation initiative co-hosted by the Japanese Embassy to Thailand and Thailand’s major conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) earlier this year, where the startup suggested the possibility of overseas business expansion. They will use the funds to strengthen hiring talents for business expansion as well as research and development of new technologies in the logistics sector.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based aerospace startup Synspective announced today that it has secured 8.67 billion yen (about $80 million US) in a series A round. This follows their previous round securing 300 million yen (about $2.8 million US) from uTokyo Innovation Platform (uTokyoIPC), Jafco and among other investors back in December. Alongside with their past funding from Abies Ventures, a deeptech-focused fund led by Japanese renowned entrepreneur/investor Taizo Son, the latest round brought the startup’s funding to 10.9 billion yen (about $100 million US). Japanese space business consultancy CSP Japan reported this is the fastest record in terms of securing such a large amount funds in such a short period since the launch of a company. Investors participating in this round are as follows (Jafco, uTokyoIPC, and Abies Ventures have participated in the previous round). The latest round is led by aSTART, which launched $46 space tech fund earlier this year and has participated in series C and D rounds for Astroscale, a Japanses startup known for its space-debris removal technology. aSTART Shimizu Corporation (TSE:1803, Japanese major construction company) Jafco (TSE:8595, investment company) uTokyo Innovation Platform (uTokyoIPC) Keio Innovation Initiative (KII, investment arm of Keio University) Abies…
Synspective’s founders and investors participating in this round Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based aerospace startup Synspective announced today that it has secured 8.67 billion yen (about $80 million US) in a series A round. This follows their previous round securing 300 million yen (about $2.8 million US) from uTokyo Innovation Platform (uTokyoIPC), Jafco and among other investors back in December.
Alongside with their past funding from Abies Ventures, a deeptech-focused fund led by Japanese renowned entrepreneur/investor Taizo Son, the latest round brought the startup’s funding to 10.9 billion yen (about $100 million US). Japanese space business consultancy CSP Japan reported this is the fastest record in terms of securing such a large amount funds in such a short period since the launch of a company.
Investors participating in this round are as follows (Jafco, uTokyoIPC, and Abies Ventures have participated in the previous round). The latest round is led by aSTART, which launched $46 space tech fund earlier this year and has participated in series C and D rounds for Astroscale, a Japanses startup known for its space-debris removal technology.
aSTART
Shimizu Corporation (TSE:1803, Japanese major construction company)
Jafco (TSE:8595, investment company)
uTokyo Innovation Platform (uTokyoIPC)
Keio Innovation Initiative (KII, investment arm of Keio University)
Abies Ventures
Innovations and Future Creation (investment arm of Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking
Fuyo General Lease (TSE:8424)
Mori Trust (real estate developer owning many commercial buildings in Japanese major cities)
SBI Investment (SBI AI & Blockchain)
Mizuho Capital
Synspective CEO Motoyuki Arai Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Synspective was founded in February of 2018 by CEO Motoyuki Arai and co-founder/managing director Seiko Shirasaka (Shirasaka is a professor at System Design and Management, Keio University). Arai was previously working for an American accounting firm while attending the University of Tokyo where he obtained a PhD for Technology Management for Innovation. Subsequently, he was involved in assisting Saudi Arabia to implement renewable energy systems as well as working with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to help Japanese companies expand into this region.
Synspective is building a constellation system for earth observation mini-satellites employing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and integrates SAR data with a variety of ground truth data. Using machine learning and other engineering techniques, the startup extracts meaning and context from the data to provide solutions to meet clients’ problems.
Developing a SAR mini-satellite requires a high degree of difficulty in engineering while SAR data processing does special expertise. The company has enables these challenges by placing research teams and data scientists in both departments of satellite development and satellite image analysis, alongside with assistance from mini-satellite developers engineers participating in ImPACT, a disruptive technologies development initiative by the Japanese Cabinet Office.
Synspective thinks their use case include developing mining resources, monitoring infrastructure construction and fraud in developing countries, and preventing disaster damage. The company announced in April that it has agreed to Arianespace regarding the launch of the former’s mini-satellite StriX-α.
Comparison of conventional earth observation satellites and Synspective’s StriX. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
At the press briefing today, CEO Arai revealed that the company plans to launch one satellite by 2020, six satellites by 2022, and then 25 satellites later on. He said six satellites in operation enables on-demand earth observation at least one time a day for 99 cities with an over-one million population in Asia while 25 satellites in operation can cover 292 cities in the same population scale worldwide. They claim that the latest funding secures the cost for up to the launch of six satellites by 2022 and solution development.
In this space, we have seen active Japanese startups including SAR satellite developer iQPS and satellite image analyzer Sigma-SAR.
See the original story in Japanese. Previously known as Club W, Los Angeles-based Winc has been offering wine subscription service for American individuals. Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the export of Japanese cultural products and services to the global market, and the LA startup held a press conference in Tokyo today where the former has invested $10 million US in the latter. For Winc, this follows their series B round (raising $17.5 million) closed back in November of 2017 and brought their total amount of funding to about $42.6 million. As an investment from outside the US for the company, this follows a previous funding from Shining Capital in China, but is the first one aiming at cross-border strategic partnership. Along with the funding, Cool Japan Fund will closely work with Winc through the following particular efforts: 1) Helps Winc collaborate with Japanese breweries to create new Japanese sake products for the US market, 2) Better reach to target US consumers through recommending Japanese sake to Winc members, 3) Educating people with the new experience of Japanese sake using a tasting room to launch soon in Los Angeles, 4) Shares Japanese sake-related topics through social…
L to R: Brian Smith (Co-founder & President, Winc), Geoffrey McFarlane (CEO, Winc), Yuji Kato (Managing Director / COO & CIO, Cool Japan Fund Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese.
Previously known as Club W, Los Angeles-based Winc has been offering wine subscription service for American individuals. Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the export of Japanese cultural products and services to the global market, and the LA startup held a press conference in Tokyo today where the former has invested $10 million US in the latter.
For Winc, this follows their series B round (raising $17.5 million) closed back in November of 2017 and brought their total amount of funding to about $42.6 million. As an investment from outside the US for the company, this follows a previous funding from Shining Capital in China, but is the first one aiming at cross-border strategic partnership.
Along with the funding, Cool Japan Fund will closely work with Winc through the following particular efforts: 1) Helps Winc collaborate with Japanese breweries to create new Japanese sake products for the US market, 2) Better reach to target US consumers through recommending Japanese sake to Winc members, 3) Educating people with the new experience of Japanese sake using a tasting room to launch soon in Los Angeles, 4) Shares Japanese sake-related topics through social network channels.
Since its launch back in 2012, Winc has acquired 80,000 individual users, primarily in millennials, and is also serving 2,500 retail stores including Whole Foods Market as well as 1,800 restaurants across the US. By eliminating middleman in the supply chain, they made it possible to sell a bottle of wine for a retail price of $13 to $20 US.
Winc’s three best-selling products were showcased to the press. Summer Water, pictured in the extreme right, was developed based on feedback from buyers through direct selling and has now become the best seller at the Whole Foods Market stores in their rosé wine category. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Generally speaking, when you buy a Japanese sake product outside Japan, it tends to be more expensive than wine or other alcoholic beverages because of import tax and shipping cost. But Winc intends to tackle this challenge by making several efforts such as procuring from local breweries and bottling after importing from Japan so that they can keep the same price range with wines even for their sake products. “Winc members — they are typically millennials and always seeking new types of drinks — are relevant to adopting the new experience that Japanese sake may give”, said Winc CEO Geoffrey McFarlane.
Brian Smith, co-founder and President of Winc, told us that they will start with offering a trial kit, or an assortment of small bottles of several different type of Japanese sake, to encourage their members to get interested in the new experience. With regard to the effort to co-develop Japanese sake products, it seems that Winc is already in discussions with Japanese sake makers and breweries by assistance of Cool Japan Fund. Yuji Kato, COO & CIO of the fund, declined to disclose their specific names.
Aiming to cultivate the sales channels of Japanese sake products in China (Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau) , Cool Japan Fund recently invested about 2.2 billion yen ($20.3 million) in Trio, the stock holding company of high-end wine wholesaler EMW (East Meets West). In this particular sector, our readers may recall that Japanese sake brewing startup Wakaze secured a series A round to expand into the European market.
Takeshi Hirano
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
