Bridge learned that SynchroLife, the AI-powered social restaurant discovery app developed and managed by Ginkan, will be acquired by Minkabu the Infonoid (TSE:4436), the parent company of Japanese news portal site Livedoor.
The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Since Livedoor describes the move as a business transfer rather than a company acquisition, it may be possible that Ginkan will explore establishing another business after the deal. Details are unknown at this time but Bridge has reached out to Ginkan for further details.
Launched back in October of 2012, SynchroLife has been dedicated to establishing a community leveraging blockchain technology and its SynchroCoin token to prevent arbitrary bias from influencing the posting of restaurant reviews.
Originally launched by Tokyo-based startup AI Pacific, the app has been run by Hong Kong-registered Ginkan since 2015 to support crypto-powered functions. In July of 2019, the company started allowing users to earn tokens by dining at partnering restaurants.
The app has earned 10,000 monthly restaurant reviews from users to date, which eventually exceeded 400,000 reviews in total as of August. In Japan, more than 1,800 restaurants are using it to help their marketing effort. Companies like credit card services, gas providers and local sports teams are assisting the startup expand the app’s merchant base.
Offering media services such as Livedoor News and Kstyle, Livedoor boasts 70 million monthly active users and 30 million social network followers. By acquiring the social app, the company intends to diversify its media service coverage into gourmet while offering their existing users with new customer experience and the token economy to increase loyalty. In addition, the company wants to enlarge the app’s user base through driving traffic from their conventional services.
Tokyo- / Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam-based Linda Pesa, the Japanese startup developing a business management app for small businesses in Tanzania, announced on Friday that it has raised approximately 30 million yen (about $230,000) in its first and latest round. Participating investors are East Ventures, Marui Group (TSE: 8252), Skylight Consulting, and 01Booster Capital. The company was founded back in March of 2022 by Ayu Yamaguchi who previously worked at Wassha, the Japanese startup offering power supply and other services for off-grid Africa by harnessing local kiosks, and its joint venture with Daikin offering subscription-based air conditioner rental business focused on the region. In Africa, many small business owners still rely on handwritten notes for business management. The company give small business owners a mobile app to help them digitize their business management proocess. By offering credit histories collected from the app to stakeholders, the company helps these owners access financial markets such as loan and investment services. via PR Times
Image credit: Linda Pesa
Tokyo- / Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam-based Linda Pesa, the Japanese startup developing a business management app for small businesses in Tanzania, announced on Friday that it has raised approximately 30 million yen (about $230,000) in its first and latest round. Participating investors are East Ventures, Marui Group (TSE: 8252), Skylight Consulting, and 01Booster Capital.
The company was founded back in March of 2022 by Ayu Yamaguchi who previously worked at Wassha, the Japanese startup offering power supply and other services for off-grid Africa by harnessing local kiosks, and its joint venture with Daikin offering subscription-based air conditioner rental business focused on the region.
In Africa, many small business owners still rely on handwritten notes for business management. The company give small business owners a mobile app to help them digitize their business management proocess. By offering credit histories collected from the app to stakeholders, the company helps these owners access financial markets such as loan and investment services.
This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). He is the Managing Partner of Shizen Capital (formerly known as Tachi.ai Ventures) in Japan. You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. As is customary, we are publishing once again our annual VC Radar for Japan. The VC Radar reflects Japan’s most active Lead VCs. For the 2022 edition, this infographic depicts the number of new investments led by Japan’s independent venture capital funds into domestic startups last year. Only investments in which the VC served as Lead investor for a startup that was not already in their portfolio are counted here. We believe this is an important tool for Japan’s growing startup ecosystem. You can read more about our rationale here (special thanks to Kanako for compiling this data !). [One additional note: we strive for full accuracy on this infographic and apologize for any mistakes. Feel free to direct any…
This
guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native
and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning
to the dark side of VC.”
He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). He is the Managing Partner of Shizen Capital (formerly known as Tachi.ai Ventures) in Japan. You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here.
As is customary, we are publishing once again our annual VC Radar for Japan. The VC Radar reflects Japan’s most active Lead VCs.
For the 2022 edition, this infographic depicts the number of new investments led by Japan’s independent venture capital funds into domestic startups last year. Only investments in which the VC served as Lead investor for a startup that was not already in their portfolio are counted here.
We believe this is an important tool for Japan’s growing startup ecosystem. You can read more about our rationale here (special thanks to Kanako for compiling this data !).
[One additional note: we strive for full accuracy on this infographic and apologize for any mistakes. Feel free to direct any requested corrections to [email protected]].
Updated on 4pm, Feb 9th: Adding Zeal’s funding method, as colored in red. Some of our readers may recall that we have covered Tokyo- / Taipei-based HitoBito=人々 (and its Taiwan branch Bande=邦徳), the Japanese/Taiwanese startup behind the ChiChat chat-based marketing platform, when they secured a seed round back in December of 2019. The company was founded in 2015 by Masaya Ishikawa=石川真也, who was involved in launching the digital marketing business at Softbank Mobile and has experience in digital marketing project management for largest distribution companies. In his seed round announcement, Ishikawa said his team was offering chat-based marketing support on social network services for Japanese e-commerce companies in Taiwan and Thailand, and was looking to expand into mainland China with WeChat support. HitoBito was no exception in receiving the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the World Health Organization and Japan’s Health Ministry first reported pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020, meaning that HitoBito were caught up in the global chaos immediately after securing the seed round. HitoBito’s sales from the cross-border commerce sector has decreased by 70% as not only human traffic was restricted but also logistics became severely disrupted. Facing such a difficulty,…
The HitoBito team with their investors in this round. Founder and CEO Masaya Ishikawa sits in the middle of the first row. Image credit: HitoBito
Updated on 4pm, Feb 9th: Adding Zeal’s funding method, as colored in red.
Some of our readers may recall that we have covered Tokyo- / Taipei-based HitoBito=人々 (and its Taiwan branch Bande=邦徳), the Japanese/Taiwanese startup behind the ChiChat chat-based marketing platform, when they secured a seed round back in December of 2019. The company was founded in 2015 by Masaya Ishikawa=石川真也, who was involved in launching the digital marketing business at Softbank Mobile and has experience in digital marketing project management for largest distribution companies. In his seed round announcement, Ishikawa said his team was offering chat-based marketing support on social network services for Japanese e-commerce companies in Taiwan and Thailand, and was looking to expand into mainland China with WeChat support.
HitoBito was no exception in receiving the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the World Health Organization and Japan’s Health Ministry first reported pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020, meaning that HitoBito were caught up in the global chaos immediately after securing the seed round. HitoBito’s sales from the cross-border commerce sector has decreased by 70% as not only human traffic was restricted but also logistics became severely disrupted. Facing such a difficulty, Ishikawa decided to shut down his company’s Thai subsidiary and settle down in Taipei to focus his chat marketing business on serving the Taiwanese market.
In
the first year (2020) after the decision, the company initially focused
on Japanese companies in Taiwan. And then in 2021, they could obtain
more clients thanks to partnership with Taiwan’s largest retail
conglomerate Uni-President Group (統一集団) which eventually led to having
150 clients to date in Taiwan alone. In 2022, the company started
serving companies in Japan from Taiwan-based operations. In addition to
the chatbot mechanism, the company also hires Japanese staff in Taiwan
to follow up on the chatbots, making it possible to operate the service
with one-fourth the man-hours compared to non-AI powered chat marketing
tools operated in Japan.
ChiChat Japanese version Image credit: HitoBito
HitoBito announced on Friday that it has secured a series A round. Participating investors are GxPartners, Star to Asia (亞星通), MTG Ventures, MicroAd (TSE:9553), XCAPITAL, Globis University’s Graduate School of Management, and AIX Tech Ventures. Star to Asia is also one of the local partners mentioned above while MTG Ventures follows their previous investment in a seed round. The amount secured in this round has not yet been disclosed but is supposedly estimated to be around 200-300 million Japanese yen (about $1.6-2.3 million US) according to sources. The Series A round appears not to have been closed yet, and more investors may be added later on.
In the
future, HitoBito plan to make ChiChat available in English in addition
to Chinese and Japanese languages. The company is expanding into
Singapore to tap into Southeast Asian companies running chat commerce
businesses. In the Japanese market, the company will strengthen sales of
the tool in partnership with digital marketing companies, including
MicroAd, which has been named as one of the investors in this round. As
many browsers have blocked or will do cookies, companies are looking for
new online marketing methods, and ChiChat, which helps marketing on
Line and other messaging platforms, is a convenient way to engage with
users.
Potential competitors to HitoBito in the Japanese market may include Zeals and Chatbook. Zeals postponed its IPO but announced a US expansion with securing 5 billion Japanese yen (over $38 million US) in equity and debt in May while Chatbook was acquired by Monex Group (TSE:8698) in July. HitoBito plans to further enhance its service and competitiveness by advancing its AI-based generative technology, such as a system allowing users to create banners just by specifying target customers and entering description and images.
Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021. Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders. Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery. Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world….
The Secai Marche team Image credit: Secai Marche
Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021.
Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders.
Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery.
Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world. Their improvement effort of delivery efficiency could help reducing the waste rate to 1%. The company will use the funds to expand its fulfillment service areas as well as enhancing demand forecast leveraging artificial intelligence technology.
In view of optimized fresh food supply chain startups in the region, Thailand’s Freshket raised $23.5 million in a Series B round in May, Y Combinator Alumni Eden Farm from Indonesia won $13.5 million in a pre-Series B round yesterday, and Singapore-based Glife raised $3 million in the first close of a series A round last year.
Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings). This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US. Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School…
Bio Leg Image credit: BionicM
Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings).
This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US.
Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. Of the 10 million potential users of prosthetic legs worldwide, only about 40% actually have access to them because they are expensive or have limited functionality. The company established a corporate entity in 2018 to commercialize the product in order to bring a high-performance prosthetic leg to all those who need it at an affordable price.
Product showcased in in Beijing in October of 2021. Image credit: BionicM
According to BionicM, more than 99% of the global prosthetic leg market deals with passive type, and has not benefited from the technological advancements that have taken place in recent years with the proliferation of robotic technology. Passive leg prostheses not only place a heavy physical burden on the user, but also place a mental burden on the user, as they are unable to walk naturally or take turns walking up and down stairs in both legs, making them uncomfortable to watch. Robotic prostheses have the potential to solve this problem.
Since the launch of the Bio Leg commercial version in Japan and China last year, the company has been offering the product via a B2B2C model where robotic leg modules are offered to artificial limb factories to be built into sockets for lower-limb amputees. We were told that a typical powered prosthetic leg costs over 10 million yen ($77,000) in contrast with a passive type for about 1 million yen ($7,700). Bio Leg is available for less than one-third the price of a powered one while adopting robotic technology.
Acquisition of gait data with sensors mounted on Bio Leg. Image credit: BionicM
Given the price tag, government subsidies are likely to be essential for the robotic leg to become widely available. The company is currently testing the product with the aim to apply for such a program next year. Although there are many prosthetic leg users in China, the market for high-end ones is apparently small due to a lack of public support. Therefore, the company is considering expanding into the US market with FDA approval in mind where there is a possibility of obtaining medical insurance coverage.
BionicM intends to explore new possibilities by taking advantage of the product’s ability to acquire gait data as well as its function as a robotic prosthesis. Although prosthetists and physical therapists who assist in the fitting and use of prosthetic limbs are professionals with specialized training, they often rely on their own expertise and knowledge. If the rehabilitation process can be visualized using data, communication with users will become easier and rehabilitation can be expected to become more efficient.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
