Kumamoto-based Daiz, the Japanese startup developing plant-based substitutes for meat products, announced on Monday that it has secured about 1.85 billion yen (about $17.1 million) in a series B round.
Participating investors are Ajinomoto (TSE:2802), Marubeni (TSE:8002), Nippon Steel Trading (TSE:9810), Kanematsu (TSE:8020), Kanematsu Foods, ENEOS Innovation Partners, Kichiri Holdings (TSE:3082), Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, The Norinchukin Bank, Global Brain, Kemuri Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Golden Asia Fund Ventures (jointly run by Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute-backed investment arm and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital), QB Capital, Shinkin Capital, and Kirin Holdings (TSE:2503).
Among these investors, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital follows the Series A investment in May 2020 while QB Capital follows the September 2018 round. The latest round brought Daiz’s funding sum to date up to 3.05 billion yen (about $28.2 million).
The company will use the funds to expand its meat substitutes production, strengthen research and development, develop global business channels, and hire new employees. The company plans to expand its annual production capacity up to 4,000 tons from June this year.
Following this round,
Daiz will work with Ajinomoto and Nichirei Foods (Nichirei Foods joined
the series A round) to develop products for household and commercial use
using the startup’s flagship meat substitute Miracle Meat. Leveraging
the network of trading companies like Marubeni, Nippon Steel Trading, and
Kanematsu/Kanematsu Foods, the company expects to cultivate sales channels for
the meat substitute in both overseas and domestic markets. Daiz and
ENEOS Holdings (parent company of ENEOS Innovation Partners) aim to
create a low-carbon society through the spread of the meat substitute,
which has a smaller environmental impact than animal meat and
plant-based substitutes from defatted soybeans.
DAIZ adopts the patented
Ochiai method in germinating soybeans, which activates enzymes and
increases the amount of free amino acid contained by imparting stress
such as lower oxygen level and higher temperature at the right timing of
germination. This eventually contributes to bringing out the flavor of
the raw ingredients and reproducing the meat-like texture without adding
any additives.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Studist, the Japanese startup behind the TeachMe Biz visual workflow management platform and the Hansoku Cloud sales promotion PDCA management platform, announced today that it has secured 1.85 billion yen (about $17.1 million US) in the latest round. In addition to existing investors such as DNX Ventures, Nippon Venture Capital, and Salesforce Ventures, participating investors in this round are 31 Ventures-Global Brain Growth I (jointly run by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Pavilion Capital (a private equity fund by Singaporean Government-backed Temasek Holdings), and Hakuhodo DY Ventures. For Studist, this round follows their series C round back in April of 2019. The company has not disclosed the round stage but this is its fifth round securing funds from external investors. It brought the total sum of funding up to about $29.6 million US. According to the Initial startup database, the company’s post series C round (previous round) valuation is estimated about $63.4 million US. TeachMe Biz is widely used in the manufacturing, retail, and restaurant industries. The platform has served more than 318,000 accounts and saved over 520,000 SOPs (standard operation procedures) as of March of this year. In November of last year,…
Tokyo-based Studist, the Japanese startup behind the TeachMe Biz visual workflow management platform and the Hansoku Cloud sales promotion PDCA management platform, announced today that it has secured 1.85 billion yen (about $17.1 million US) in the latest round.
In addition to existing investors such as DNX Ventures, Nippon Venture Capital, and Salesforce Ventures, participating investors in this round are 31 Ventures-Global Brain Growth I (jointly run by Mitsui Fudosan and Global Brain), Pavilion Capital (a private equity fund by Singaporean Government-backed Temasek Holdings), and Hakuhodo DY Ventures.
For Studist, this round follows their series C round back in April of 2019. The company has not disclosed the round stage but this is its fifth round securing funds from external investors. It brought the total sum of funding up to about $29.6 million US. According to the Initial startup database, the company’s post series C round (previous round) valuation is estimated about $63.4 million US.
TeachMe Biz is widely used in the manufacturing, retail, and restaurant industries. The platform has served more than 318,000 accounts and saved over 520,000 SOPs (standard operation procedures) as of March of this year.
In November of last year, the company launched Hansoku Cloud as a new product line. The platform enables chain retailers, such as small supermarkets and drugstores, to put all instructions from their headquarters to stores in a place. It can reduce the burden on store clerks and encourages them to display new products as the instructions are given in an easy-to-understand manner that does not rely on text alone.
Studist has been focused on the SaaS business, but will strengthen its consulting service for better introducing TeachMe Biz, which has been offered on a testing basis to a total of 12 big companies since August last year. Generally speaking, consulting business is often labor-intensive, but the Studist’s one may rather help bring more users to the SaaS platform.
With Mitsui Fudosan, one of the new investors, Studist intends to introduce the TeachMe Biz platform to Mitsui’s subsidiaries and tenants in their office buildings and shopping malls to help them improve their productivity.
Meanwhile, Studist has been expanding into Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand where about 70 companies are using the TeachMe Biz platform. Having Pavilion Capital onboard, Studist may be more likely to reach potential customers in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.
Based on the Hansoku Cloud platform, Studist plans to launch a new service for brands this summer. Details have not been disclosed but it may be something allowing brands to introduce their new products directly to retailers and use the storefront as a marketing tool. Hakuhodo, another investor in the round, has a creative department with strong ties with these brands.
We first covered Warrantee seven years ago when the company’s founder Yusuke Shono was selected as a finalist at HackOsaka 2014, an annual startup conference hosted by Osaka City. His rare experience that every single home appliance he bought when he started living alone was broken triggered him to launch his first business Warrantee aiming to convert all warranties into digital. It may be often hard for us to find a warranty form when we specifically need it. He created the service because he thought it would be convenient to manage such warranties electronically, but at first he had no idea about how to get companies to pay for it or how to grow the user base. They wondered if they could provide something like, “If you register your warranty on the platform, we’ll give you another year of warranty for free.” That was the beginning of their new insurance concept. In late 2014, Warrantee received investment from Japanese cooking-recipe sharing site Cookpad (TSE:2193) and started exploring business synergy with them. This made Shono keenly aware of the strength of a complimentary service, and he says, “It’s amazing that (Cookpad) can attract so many users even though it’s free,”. This…
Image credit: Warrantee
We first covered Warrantee seven years ago when the company’s founder Yusuke Shono was selected as a finalist at HackOsaka 2014, an annual startup conference hosted by Osaka City. His rare experience that every single home appliance he bought when he started living alone was broken triggered him to launch his first business Warrantee aiming to convert all warranties into digital.
It may be often hard for us to find a warranty form when we specifically need it. He created the service because he thought it would be convenient to manage such warranties electronically, but at first he had no idea about how to get companies to pay for it or how to grow the user base. They wondered if they could provide something like, “If you register your warranty on the platform, we’ll give you another year of warranty for free.” That was the beginning of their new insurance concept.
In late 2014, Warrantee received investment from Japanese cooking-recipe sharing site Cookpad (TSE:2193) and started exploring business synergy with them. This made Shono keenly aware of the strength of a complimentary service, and he says, “It’s amazing that (Cookpad) can attract so many users even though it’s free,”. This may be another reason why Warrantee is focused on developing a complimentary service.
Shono said,
Insurance for home appliances could be provided for free (as a way for sponsoring appliance manufacturers in return to obtain detailed user profiles) because it’s inexpensive, but not for automobiles because of high price. But if, for example, we divide a year by 365 days and ask a companies to pay 200 yen a day for each user, it could work.
Warrantee announced the launch of its first InsureTech business in 2017. Warrantee CEO Yusuke Shono (left), Tokio Marine Nichido Managing Executive Officer Yusuke Otsuka (right) Image credit: Warrantee
In 2017, Warrantee, which had been touting themselves a warranty managing startup, suddenly started talking about insurance. Through its experience launching insurance business, Shono says his company could learn about Japan’s Insurance Business Act and how to coordinate with government agencies. Warrantee’s “Free Insurance” is a way of making on-demand insurance premium-free.
He explained,
One example is our partnership between Japanese air-conditioner giant Daikin and property franchisor Century 21 Japan. Daikin wanted to connect with property owners (such as landlords) who owned a large number of air conditioners in their properties. However, since air conditioners are typically sold through retailers or housing equipment companies, Daikin had no profile of these air conditioner owners as end users.
By having Daikin sponsor our product, Warrantee provided property owners with an additional warranty for their air conditioners free of charge. In return, Daikin could obtain the real estate owner’s profiles. It was a win-win situation for both Daikin and the property owners.
Despite its start with insurance for home appliances, Shono’s company can provide the service even for clinics which typically own expensive medical equipments. In view of how pharmaceutical firms and medical equipment manufacturers approaching medical institutions, we may imagine their sales representatives making on-site visits and phone calls but this is inefficient because medical professionals are often very busy. If Warrantee can provide give the firms sales channels in return for sponsoring Free Insurance for clinics, medical professionals would be willing to find the time slot for meet-up.
He continued,
Many manufacturers are pivoting their business model from product selling to subscription-based. For example, before a product becomes obsolete or broken, they can send customers a new model at no extra cost after 10 years of their first purchase. I believe that our Free Insurance is a great match for this trend.
The Free Insurance concept can be applied not only to “products” but also to “humans”. For example, it may give osteoporosis patients calcium supplements for free, or may allow people to sign up for complimentary health promotion services based on the result of their medical checkup. Some people may be reluctant to give out their profile but many may be willing to receive these rewards if the benefits outweigh the negatives.
He added,
Japan has a universal health insurance system that allows all its nationals to receive advanced medical care at lower cost. But US and Singapore don’t, so doctor bills there vary from hospital to hospital, making it easy for us to launch the Free Insurance in these markets. In the US, not only health insurance but also car insurance is expensive. We decided to open a branch office in Singapore because it is a good place to start something new.
Warrantee’s core members are located in Tokyo and Osaka, but we finally learned why Shono has repeatedly visited Singapore despite the inconvenience of being quarantined for two weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Free Insurance business seems to be doing quite well although the amount of sales is unknown, and the firm is aiming for an IPO in the US through an SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) in the near future, sources say.
In February, Evo Acquisition was incorporated as an SPAC to help get Japanese companies listed in the US. There will be more and more Japanese startups like Warrantee seeking a way out of the global market and aiming for a US IPO.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese MedTech Startup Allm has secured 5.6 billion yen (over $50.5 million) from investors including Mitsui & Co (TSE:8031) and SOMPO Holdings (TSE:8630), Nikkei reported on Sunday. This round is considered to be a series A extension round while Japanese startup database Initial reports the company’s post-valuation has reached about 32 billion yen (about $300 million). According to a statement issued by Allm at 11am on Monday, participating investors are: SOMPO Holdings, Mitsui, Eisai (TSE:4523), Royal Philips (AMS:PHIA), NID (TSE:2349), Cyberdyne (TSE:7779), Financial Agency, Mixi (TSE:2121), Capital Medica, Vector (TSE:6058), SBI Investment, Bonds Investment Group, Mizuho Capital, Asia Africa Investment and Consulting Royal Philips participated in Allm’s previous series A round as well. Allm was founded in 2001 by Teppei Sakano as SkillUp Japan. After selling its video distribution platform business, the company entered the medical ICT business in 2015 and rebranded its name into the current state. Since then, the company has rolled out medical device programs in more than a few countries around the world. Their portfolio products include Join (communication app for medical professionals), Enroll (patient recruitment solution), JoinTriage (triage app for emergency transport), Team (comprehensive regional care system promotion solution),…
Japanese MedTech Startup Allm has secured 5.6 billion yen (over $50.5 million) from investors including Mitsui & Co (TSE:8031) and SOMPO Holdings (TSE:8630), Nikkei reported on Sunday. This round is considered to be a series A extension round while Japanese startup database Initial reports the company’s post-valuation has reached about 32 billion yen (about $300 million).
SOMPO Holdings, Mitsui, Eisai (TSE:4523), Royal Philips (AMS:PHIA), NID (TSE:2349), Cyberdyne (TSE:7779), Financial Agency, Mixi (TSE:2121), Capital Medica, Vector (TSE:6058), SBI Investment, Bonds Investment Group, Mizuho Capital, Asia Africa Investment and Consulting
Royal Philips participated in Allm’s previous series A round as well.
Allm was founded in 2001 by Teppei Sakano as SkillUp Japan. After selling its video distribution platform business, the company entered the medical ICT business in 2015 and rebranded its name into the current state. Since then, the company has rolled out medical device programs in more than a few countries around the world. Their portfolio products include Join (communication app for medical professionals), Enroll (patient recruitment solution), JoinTriage (triage app for emergency transport), Team (comprehensive regional care system promotion solution), and MySOS (life-saving and health app).
Allm will use the funds to focus on research and development of solutions that can contribute to developing countermeasures against COVID-19, not only in Japan but also overseas. The company will team up with Mitsui to help their operating medical institutions in Southeast Asia share information between core hospitals and smaller clinics. It will also develop telemedicine business connecting hospitals in Japan with local doctors in Southeast Asia to support the latter’s medical treatment. It will work with Sompo Holdings to consider creating a system utilizing Allm’s data for insurance and health promotion of nursing home users.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Paidy, the Japanese startup behind cardless online payments and “Buy Now, Pay Later” service, has raised US$120 million in a Series D round, according to Nikkei’s report on Tuesday. It says the amount is one of the largest ever raised by an unlisted startup in Japan. Participating investors include Wellington Management, two funds owned by prominent investor George Soros, and Tybourne Capital Management (Hong Kong). Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, and other financial institutions has set up debt facilities of up to $182.4 million. Prior to this, the company secured $55 million in a Series C round in July 2018, followed by its extension round securing $83 million in November of 2019 and an undisclosed sum in April of 2020. The latest round brought the sum raised up to date to about $337 million while the total amount of debt facilities has reached $248 million. According to sources, their valuation is estimated about $1.32 billion, which means they have join the unicorn club. Paidy was founded in 2008 by Russell Cummer, whose previous work experience includes Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. It started with a P2P finance or social lending service called Aqush…
Entrance of Paidy Headquarters in Tokyo Image credit: Paidy
Tokyo-based Paidy, the Japanese startup behind cardless online payments and “Buy Now, Pay Later” service, has raised US$120 million in a Series D round, according to Nikkei’s report on Tuesday. It says the amount is one of the largest ever raised by an unlisted startup in Japan. Participating investors include Wellington Management, two funds owned by prominent investor George Soros, and Tybourne Capital Management (Hong Kong). Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, and other financial institutions has set up debt facilities of up to $182.4 million.
Prior to this, the company secured $55 million in a Series C round in July 2018, followed by its extension round securing $83 million in November of 2019 and an undisclosed sum in April of 2020. The latest round brought the sum raised up to date to about $337 million while the total amount of debt facilities has reached $248 million. According to sources, their valuation is estimated about $1.32 billion, which means they have join the unicorn club.
Russell Cummer pitching at RISE 2018 in Hong Kong on July 12 Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Paidy was founded in 2008 by Russell Cummer, whose previous work experience includes Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. It started with a P2P finance or social lending service called Aqush followed by the launch of Paidy back in 2014. Subsequently the management of Paidy shifted from ExCo to the operating company Paidy. They became an equity method affiliate of Itochu after the series C round in July of 2018.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a
global phenomenon. In addition to US and European platformers such as
Klarna (Sweden), Affirm (US), and Afterpay (Australia), startups like
Hoolah, Pace, and Atome are beginning to emerge in the Asian market.
Since the concept has a high affinity with digital wallet services,
so-called “super apps,” many of which usually originate from car-hailing
or food delivery apps, may also catch up with this trend.
Tokyo-based VC firm Nextblue announced on Thursday that its first fund targeting to raise up to 3 billion yen ($27.5 million), which was initially set up in April, has reached its first close with completing securing about half of the final target. Disclosed limited partners include Japanese department store chain Marui Group (TSE: 8252), Japanese system integrator Q’sfix, and Japanese social gifting and e-voucher rewards platform Giftee (TSE:4449). The fund’s investment areas are Future of Work, Future of Health, and Future of Lifestyle. It intends to invest in seed stage startups in Japan as well as those in the pre-series A stage in Europe which have completed the product market fit phase and is ready for expanding into the Japanese market. The fund was founded by Yuichi Kori, Kanako Inoue, and Vincent Tan. Followed by launching his own startup Otsumu, Kori has been running his own VC called Reality Accelerator. Both Inoue and Tan have worked at Boston Consulting Group and Tokyo-based VC firm D4V. Nextblue’s goal is to support Japanese startups as well as European startups which usually face similar social issues to the Japanese society in their home turf. For helping these European startups expand into Japan, the…
Nextblue’s partners: From left, Vincent Tan, Kanako Inoue, Yuichi Kori Image credit: Nextblue
Tokyo-based VC firm Nextblue announced on Thursday that its first fund targeting to raise up to 3 billion yen ($27.5 million), which was initially set up in April, has reached its first close with completing securing about half of the final target. Disclosed limited partners include Japanese department store chain Marui Group (TSE: 8252), Japanese system integrator Q’sfix, and Japanese social gifting and e-voucher rewards platform Giftee (TSE:4449).
The fund’s investment areas are Future of Work, Future of Health, and Future of Lifestyle. It intends to invest in seed stage startups in Japan as well as those in the pre-series A stage in Europe which have completed the product market fit phase and is ready for expanding into the Japanese market.
The fund was founded by Yuichi Kori, Kanako Inoue, and Vincent Tan. Followed by launching his own startup Otsumu, Kori has been running his own VC called Reality Accelerator. Both Inoue and Tan have worked at Boston Consulting Group and Tokyo-based VC firm D4V. Nextblue’s goal is to support Japanese startups as well as European startups which usually face similar social issues to the Japanese society in their home turf. For helping these European startups expand into Japan, the fund expects to establish a joint venture with them and provide hands-on support with local partners.
In an interview with Bridge, Inoue told us why her team picked up the two markets to invest in:
The investment market in Europe is still conservative, still giving early-stage and seed companies a limited access to risk money. We also chose the market because it is easier to secure a certain equity stake (compared to the US where valuations are extremely high).
Bring promising European startups to Japan and help them expand into the market is also our mission. We will pour a certain amount of money into them in return for receiving a certain portion of their equity, but we want to commit to them, create a joint venture, and make their business in Japan a success in partnership with our local partners.
Kori had been investing in startups through his own Reality Accelerator, and this activity will be apparently integrated into Nextblue. Kori and Inoue mainly invest in Japanese startups from Tokyo, while Tan is currently based in Berlin to watch the European startup landscape.
As of the announcement, the firm unveiled a portfolio of 14 investees from the first fund so far. Among them, two companies – AZOO and Early Music Company Japan – graduated from the fund’s accelerator program conducted in Tokyo last summer.
From Japan:
AZOO …… Provides Wasimil, an operation automation service for small and medium-sized hotels
Early Music Company Japan …… Provides Smart Accompanist, a platform for selling ”minus-one” sound tracks of classical music
Indigames …… Develops and provides casual games and high-quality game development engines
Kalkul …… Develops and provides Aura, a vertical AR (augmented reality) audio content platform
Matsuri Technologies …… Provides SaaS and platforms for short-term rental residences
Precal …… Provides an automated prescription data-entry service for pharmacies
From Europe:
Ohne (UK) …… Provides organic sanitary product subscription service and PMS (premenstrual syndrome) relief products
Xapix (Germany) …… Provides a platform that automatically integrates data and organizes data suitable for AI use
FounderNest (Spain) …… Provides an AI-powered platform for matching startups and investors
BreakthroughX Health (Germany) …… Provides an app for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis
Lana Labs (Germany) …… Develops and provides AI-based process mining tools
Artivive (Austria) …… Provides AR art creation tools
Nextblue seems to be looking to bring Japanese startups to Europe too. The firm says it is happy to provide support to startups that already have overseas offices or branches.
Inoue added,
There are more and more funds for seed stage startups, but not many of them provide hands-on support yet. Kori has a background in engineering, and the three partners of us, including Vincent and I, are strong in helping teams in the phase creating from the scratch. We would like to actively support startups that can find our value there.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
