The Interstellar Technologies team Image credit: Interstellar Technologies
Headquartered in Hokkaido, Japanese space startup Intersteller Technologies announced on Monday that it has closed a series D round with 3.8 billion yen (about $30 million US) in funding. The round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to over 5.4 billion yen (over $42 million US) as far as we know. Investors participating in the round, including those previously announced, are:
Interstellar Technologies’ MOMO No. 7 and MOMO No. 6 rockets reached space in July of 2021, which let the company mark three successes in terms of reaching space with the MOMO No. 3 rocket launched back in May of 2019. The company is currently in full-scale development of the ZERO rocket which is aimed to be launched in FY2023. The funds will be used for research and development, capital investment, hiring talents, and material costs to further accelerate the development of the ZERO rocket.
Interstellar Technologies aims to realize a future in which space is within reach for everyone by providing low-cost, convenient space transportation services. Establishing its satellite development-focused subsidiary Our Stars in early 2021, the company is working on offering rockets and satellites in an one-stop solution. In recent years, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan and Western countries have been unable to use Russian rockets, which used to account for about 20% of the world’s space transportation, and Interstellar Technologies sees this situation as a tailwind for its business.
Japanese sake brewing startup Wakaze announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in a series B round. The round was led by Jafco Group (TSE:8595) with participation from Takara Holdings (TSE:2531), DBJ Capital, Egg Forward, SMBC Venture Capital in addition to an unnamed angel investor. This brought their funding sum to date up to about 1.5 billion yen ($11.3 million) as far as disclosed. Jafco Group followed their series A round investment. Wakaze will use the funds to expand its business in Europe, the U.S., and the Asian region centered on China through strenthening advertising, establishing an office and hiring personnel in the U.S. in addition to expanding its production facilities in France. The company has partnered with Takara Holdings, one of the investors in this round, to produce Wakaze’s sake products at the manufacturing facility of Takara’s US subsidiary, and will also consider similar expansion efforts in China. Wakaze aims to bring the wave of craft sake and D2C to the world of sake. Prior to founding the company back in 2016, CEO Takuma Inagawa studied at the École Centrale Paris as a French government scholarship student and then worked as a…
Image credit: Wakaze
Japanese sake brewing startup Wakaze announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in a series B round. The round was led by Jafco Group (TSE:8595) with participation from Takara Holdings (TSE:2531), DBJ Capital, Egg Forward, SMBC Venture Capital in addition to an unnamed angel investor. This brought their funding sum to date up to about 1.5 billion yen ($11.3 million) as far as disclosed. Jafco Group followed their series A round investment.
Wakaze
will use the funds to expand its business in Europe, the U.S., and the
Asian region centered on China through strenthening advertising,
establishing an office and hiring personnel in the U.S. in addition to
expanding its production facilities in France. The company has partnered
with Takara Holdings, one of the investors in this round, to produce
Wakaze’s sake products at the manufacturing facility of Takara’s US
subsidiary, and will also consider similar expansion efforts in China.
Wakaze aims to bring the wave of craft sake and D2C to the world of sake. Prior to founding the company back in 2016, CEO Takuma Inagawa studied at the École Centrale Paris as a French government scholarship student and then worked as a business strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. In addition to developing new sake brewing recipes in Japan’s eastern prefecture of Yamagata, the company established a sake brewery called Kura Grand Paris in Suburban Paris back in November of 2019 to offer locally brewed Japanese sake for the French market.
It has become my New Year’s practice to organize the schedule of startup conferences around the world to take place in the first half of the new year. I have suspended the practice since 2020 because of the cancellation of many conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I resumed it this holiday season, which made me recognize a few things. First, many conferences have been disappeared since the start of the pandemic (some of them are temporarily suspended but others were bankrupt or completely shut down) while new ones have been created. As livestreaming has become the norm, it’s no longer necessary to make a long-haul flight to take part in a conference if you are to only to hear keynotes. Conference organizers are now required to provide a new value proposition. Another thing is that it no longer makes less sense for each country to compete for the title of the world’s top startup hub each other. It has been a long time since so-called almighty Silicon Valley playbook was debunked while one of the reasons is that hubs for each industry vertical have come to stand out: London for finance, Los Angeles for entertainment, Chicago for Food…
It has become my New Year’s practice to organize the schedule of startup conferences around the world to take place in the first half of the new year. I have suspended the practice since 2020 because of the cancellation of many conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I resumed it this holiday season, which made me recognize a few things.
First, many conferences have been disappeared since the start of the pandemic (some of them are temporarily suspended but others were bankrupt or completely shut down) while new ones have been created. As livestreaming has become the norm, it’s no longer necessary to make a long-haul flight to take part in a conference if you are to only to hear keynotes. Conference organizers are now required to provide a new value proposition.
Another thing is that it no longer makes less sense for each country to compete for the title of the world’s top startup hub each other. It has been a long time since so-called almighty Silicon Valley playbook was debunked while one of the reasons is that hubs for each industry vertical have come to stand out: London for finance, Los Angeles for entertainment, Chicago for Food Tech, Boston for life sciences, Zug for web3, Tel Aviv for cybersecurity, and so on.
Entrepreneurs and investors alike are now thinking more critically about the benefits they can expect from attending conferences. After the cancellation of both WebSummit Tokyo and Barkation conferences, Tokyo has now no major international startup conferences. What kind of startup hub can the Japanese capital aspire to be?
It was around last fall when we began to hear the word “SusHiTech Tokyo” from the mouth of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The acronym stands for “Sustatinable High City-Tech. Tokyo,” a generic term for a variety of ideas and technologies for overcoming urban challenges. The abbreviation was chosen to stand for sushi, which is needless to say associated with Japan, to make it easier for foreigners to remember the brand.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will hold a startup conference called City-Tech.Tokyo at the International Forum on February 27-28 under the SusHi Tech concept. Since this is the first edition and they are so much focused on attracting foreign startups, the details of the conference have not yet well known to us. So, we could have a a chance to speak with Manabu Miyasaka, Vice Governor of Tokyo. He leads in organizing the conference.
Cities, the next battlefield for tech players
Miyasaka speaks at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, November 2022. Image credit: Bureau of Digital Services, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Unlike industry-specific terms such as FinTech or HealthTech, City-Tech is broadly defined as a concept that encourages technology solutions to unique urban issues. The term was perhaps not well received overseas at first for the vagueness, but subsequently it became very well received after Koike began saying SusHiTech and then Miyasaka introduced it at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.
More than 10,000 people from Japan and abroad are expected to attend City-Tech Tokyo. Keynote speakers will include Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Kengo Kuma, one of the world’s renowned architects and a special professor at Tokyo University. In addition, 100 cities from 30 countries will participate while two-thirds of the 300 booths will be exhibited by startups coming from overseas.
Miyasaka says,
Various cities are working on climate crisis, energy issues, new transportation systems, and so on. These are issues for each city but also ones common to all humanity in the world. We also need to do more open innovation activities among local governments. The solutions that work in Tokyo may work in other cities, and vice versa.
I believe that cities will be the next battlefield for tech players. Seventy percent of the world’s population lives in cities, so I think the world will start competing in exploring how technologies can change cities. Therefore, not only startups and companies, but also governments will participate there. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been leading our open innovation activities, but there is no need to limit it to only Japanese startups as long as they can provide stable services.
In parallel with City.Tech Tokyo, the metropolitan government will hold the G-NETS (Global City Network for Sustainability) conference near their office building, which will bring together the heads of local governments from Japan and abroad. Each city may still have a different motivation and intention for their participation because this year’s City-Tech.Tokyo is the first edition but is expected to annually take place from now on.
What the conference aims at?
City-Tech.Tokyo website Image credit: Tokyo Metropolitan Government
So, what is the goal of City-Tech Tokyo? In a typical startup conference, one of the ultimate goals is for entrepreneurs to find and attract investors, and for investors to find promising startups to invest in. In Web3 conferences, attendees may expect to increase connections with other startups. So what about City-Tech.Tokyo?
Miyasaka says,
On the risk side, the topic includes the climate crisis as mentioned before, but on the upside, I think it is the issue of new employment. There are many jobs that exist today but did not exist 30 years ago. For example, your media business could not have existed 30 years ago. The jobs that exist today were created by startups 30 or 50 years ago.
That’s true for the future too. It is startups that create the jobs for the future. If startups did not create the jobs of the future, we would be forced to just stay on the jobs we have now, which would result in lower wages. If startups can make their business successful, it can lead to creating affluent lifestyles from it and create more jobs. I think that is very important.
Startup Genome annually publishes a ranking of startup-friendly cities, and some of our readers may recall that Tokyo joined the top 10 ranking in 2021 while it dropped to the 12th place last year after being overtaken by Seoul. It is an index published by a private organization, but many officials in local governments are paying attention to the rank. Miyasaka is one such person.
He added,
Of course, we (Tokyo) would like to be ranked higher . But I don’t think there are any cities where only startups are active. Such a city should be vibrant in art, entertainment, and all kinds of things. I don’t think you can start up a business in a city that is culturally stagnant.
Tokyo vice governor MIyasaka speaking with Bridge’s Masaru Ikeda. Photo by Shun Sasaki / Bridge
Paradoxically, in a society with mature infrastructure like Japan, it may be difficult to bring out a unicorn with a simple service like what we usually see in developing countries. However, since developing countries basically aim to advance themselves into developed economies over time, there could be opportunities for startups from developed countries can leverage the “Time Machine” business model even in emerging markets except for leapfrog phenomenon.
He said,
Ecosystems in developed countries tend to be found in rather affluent cities. I think Tokyo is on that side of them. What such a city needs is a challenger. You can challenge yourself in music, film industry, and whatever. But If you do it in business, it means a startup. Attracting challengers in all genres is an important part of a city.
Last year, the Kishida administration announced the strengthening of the startup policy, while the Tokyo Metropolitan Government also announced a strategy called Global Innovation with Startups. Since the launch of Bridge, we’ve seen neither the Japanese Government nor the Metropolitan Government have put startup support a top priority in their agenda in such a massive way. Miyasaka expressed his aspiration that the conference will give an opportunity to the world to witness such a historical turning point.
Tokyo-based Crowd Credit, the Japanese startup behind a cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it will be fully acquired by Osaka-based Bankers Holding for an undisclosed amount. Bankers operates a lending platform for business owners in Japan. The Initial startup database estimates Crowd Credit’s market cap is 10.6 billion yen (about $80 million US) when the company secured the last funding round back in April last year. Crowd Credit was founded in 2013 by Tomoyuki Sugiyama who previously managed investments in Japanese government bonds at Daiwa Securities SMBC followed by managing assets with investing in bonds at Lloyds Bank. In the form of funds with set yields, the Tokyo startup offers funds collected from Japan individual investors to businesses in developing countries in the South America and Eastern European regions. Crowd Credit will maintain its current brand name and management structure after the acquisition. Bankers Holding was founded in December of 2019 by Tsuyoshi Shibuya who previously managed several investment companies. The company has been running a P2P lending platform since December of 2020, which offers loans of a total of over 10 billion yen (about $75 million) to businesses in Japan. Bankers…
Image credit: Crowd Credit
Tokyo-based Crowd Credit, the Japanese startup behind a cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it will be fully acquired by Osaka-based Bankers Holding for an undisclosed amount. Bankers operates a lending platform for business owners in Japan. The Initial startup database estimates Crowd Credit’s market cap is 10.6 billion yen (about $80 million US) when the company secured the last funding round back in April last year.
Crowd
Credit was founded in 2013 by Tomoyuki Sugiyama who previously managed
investments in Japanese government bonds at Daiwa Securities SMBC
followed by managing assets with investing in bonds at Lloyds Bank. In
the form of funds with set yields, the Tokyo startup offers funds
collected from Japan individual investors to businesses in developing
countries in the South America and Eastern European regions. Crowd
Credit will maintain its current brand name and management structure
after the acquisition.
Bankers Holding was founded in December of 2019 by Tsuyoshi Shibuya who previously managed several investment companies. The company has been running a P2P lending platform since December of 2020, which offers loans of a total of over 10 billion yen (about $75 million) to businesses in Japan. Bankers Holding secured 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in April of last year in an unknown round followed by 1.5 billion yen (about $11.3 million) in a Series B round closed last month, which brought their total sum of funding up to approximately 2.6 billion yen (about $19.6 million).
Tokyo-based Neworld, the Japanese startup behind marketing support and an e-commerce platform focused on Japanese craft products, is now planning to develop sales channels by launch campaigns on crowdfunding sites in Taiwan. To strengthen this effort, the company plans to establish a local subsidiary in Taiwan in February next year, Nikkei says. Founded in Fukuoka back in November of 2013, Neworld initially started its business with driving customer traffic to fashion e-commerce sites but subsequently pivoted to an video marketing and e-commerce platform focused on introducing lifestyle products made by local artisans from all across Japan. Neworld has secured several million US dollars through multiple rounds to date from strategic investors including Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake (TSE:4479). Partnerships of crowdfunding and e-commerce sites between Japan and Taiwan have been emerged in recent years. Our readers may recall Japan’s Campfire has recently agreed with mutual listing of crowdfunding projects with Taiwan’s Zeczec (嘖嘖). Makuake has worked with Taiwanese e-commerce platforms such as uDesign (有.設計) and Citiesocial (找 好東西). In October, Taiwanese startup backer iiiNNO (一諾新創) partnered with One More, the Japanese company behind the Green Funding crowdfunding platform to help Taiwanese startups expand into the Japanese market.
Craft Store Image credit: Neworld
Tokyo-based Neworld, the Japanese startup behind marketing support and an e-commerce platform focused on Japanese craft products, is now planning to develop sales channels by launch campaigns on crowdfunding sites in Taiwan. To strengthen this effort, the company plans to establish a local subsidiary in Taiwan in February next year, Nikkei says.
Founded in Fukuoka back in November of 2013, Neworld initially started its business with driving customer traffic to fashion e-commerce sites but subsequently pivoted to an video marketing and e-commerce platform focused on introducing lifestyle products made by local artisans from all across Japan.
Neworld has secured several million US dollars through multiple rounds to date from strategic investors including Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake (TSE:4479). Partnerships of crowdfunding and e-commerce sites between Japan and Taiwan have been emerged in recent years. Our readers may recall Japan’s Campfire has recently agreed with mutual listing of crowdfunding projects with Taiwan’s Zeczec (嘖嘖).
See the original story in Japanese. Nikkei reported on Monday that Japanese FinTech startup Kanmu is expected to be acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank next spring. The Japanese megabank will acquire 70% stake in the startup for abouut $20 billion yen (about $150 million US), which means the startup’s valuation has reached over 25 billion yen (over $190 million US). Founded in January of 2011, Kanmu secured 43 million yen (about $440,000 US) in 2013 from East Ventures, ANRI, and others. They launched the Vandle prepaid Visa card in September of 2016, which became a smash hit especially among the Japanese younger generation. Since January of 2018, Kanmu has gradually received funding from Freakout Holdings. Their other shareholders include ISGS, Adways, Kronos Fund (now known as Entrepreneur), TLM, and five angel investors including Nobuhiro Ariyasu and Hiromasa Umeda. They have secured to date about 4.43 billion yen (about $33.4 million) in funding. MUFG aims to incorporate the Vandle card into the bank’s debit card through the acquisition. The Vandle card’s mobile app has marked at least 6 million downloads so far. The FinTech startup is expected to remain its independence in their brand and management. We have reached out to…
Some of the Kanmu team with their founder and CEO Wataru Yamaki standing in the middle. Image credit: Kanmu
Nikkei reported on Monday that Japanese FinTech startup Kanmu is expected to be acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank next spring. The Japanese megabank will acquire 70% stake in the startup for abouut $20 billion yen (about $150 million US), which means the startup’s valuation has reached over 25 billion yen (over $190 million US).
Founded in January of 2011, Kanmu secured 43 million yen (about $440,000 US) in 2013 from East Ventures, ANRI, and others. They launched the Vandle prepaid Visa card in September of 2016, which became a smash hit especially among the Japanese younger generation.
Since January of 2018, Kanmu has gradually received funding from Freakout Holdings. Their other shareholders include ISGS, Adways, Kronos Fund (now known as Entrepreneur), TLM, and five angel investors including Nobuhiro Ariyasu and Hiromasa Umeda. They have secured to date about 4.43 billion yen (about $33.4 million) in funding.
MUFG aims to incorporate the Vandle card into the bank’s debit card through the acquisition. The Vandle card’s mobile app has marked at least 6 million downloads so far. The FinTech startup is expected to remain its independence in their brand and management.
We have reached out to Kanmu founder and CEO Wataru Yamaki for comment.
Some of our readers may recall that MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), the parent company of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, has recently acquired several BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) startups in the Southeast Asian region such as Akulaku and Home Credit.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
