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Japanese UX design firm Goodpatch files for IPO, pushing its valuation to $40M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today it has applied to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on June 30with plans to offer 308,900 shares for public subscription and to sell about 98,900 shares in over-allotment options for a total of about 350,900 shares. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Goodpatch’s ticker code will be 7351. Based on the estimated IPO price of 610 yen (about $5.7) a share, the company’s market valuation will be about 4.3 billion yen (about $40 million). Its share price range will be released on June 11 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on June 15 and pricing on June 19. According to the consolidated statement as of August 2019, they posted revenue of 1.41 billion yen (about $13.1 million) with an ordinary profit of 93 million yen (about $865,000). Goodpatch was founded in August of 2011. Prior to the company, CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya worked as an intern at San Francisco’s digital agency Btrax, and founded Goodpatch after returning home to Japan. The company’s name comes from the incubation…

Image credit Goodpatch

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today it has applied to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was approved.

The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on June 30with plans to offer 308,900 shares for public subscription and to sell about 98,900 shares in over-allotment options for a total of about 350,900 shares. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Goodpatch’s ticker code will be 7351.

Based on the estimated IPO price of 610 yen (about $5.7) a share, the company’s market valuation will be about 4.3 billion yen (about $40 million).

Its share price range will be released on June 11 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on June 15 and pricing on June 19. According to the consolidated statement as of August 2019, they posted revenue of 1.41 billion yen (about $13.1 million) with an ordinary profit of 93 million yen (about $865,000).

Goodpatch was founded in August of 2011. Prior to the company, CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya worked as an intern at San Francisco’s digital agency Btrax, and founded Goodpatch after returning home to Japan. The company’s name comes from the incubation space Dogpatch Labs in San Francisco. Their prototyping tool Prott, which was officially launched in October of 2014, has been introduced in major IT companies, startups, design farms, and so on.

Led by founder and CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya, the company’s major shareholders include Digital Garage Group (21.4%, DG Lab and DG Ventures), Blue Rose (8.24%), SBI Investment (7.93%), and Salesforce Ventures (3.08%).

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Japan Embassy in Bangkok, CP Group help Japan startups digitalize Thai conglomerates

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This article was rearranged by our editorial from the original by Momoko Furukawa, Assistant to Executive/PR at TalentEx. TalentEX is a Bangkok-based startup offering a media outlet and an online platform for recruitment and human resources. All the photos in this article were taken by Tomohiro Ueno, Corporate Planning at TalentEx. See our past coverage to learn more about TalentEx. See the original story in Japanese. The Japanese Embassy in Thailand together with the CP Group (Charoen Pokphand Group), operating 7/11 convenience stores in Thailand and also owning local mobile telco giant True, held a Demo Day and matchmaking event called Rock Thailand in March, aiming to help Japanese startups and Thai conglomerates to work together. The event is part of the Open Innovation Columbus (OIC) initiative, which promotes strategic alliances between Japanese startups and Thai conglomerates. With regards to OIC-related events, this follows the DX Summit held by the Japanese Embassy in Thailand last October. The majority of Thai conglomerates do not reap the benefits of a digital economy. In Japan, large companies are moving to start digital transformation (DX) by collaborating with startups (it’s so called ‘open innovation’), while in Thailand, due to the nature of the verticals…

This article was rearranged by our editorial from the original by Momoko Furukawa, Assistant to Executive/PR at TalentEx. TalentEX is a Bangkok-based startup offering a media outlet and an online platform for recruitment and human resources.

All the photos in this article were taken by Tomohiro Ueno, Corporate Planning at TalentEx.

See our past coverage to learn more about TalentEx.


See the original story in Japanese.

The Japanese Embassy in Thailand together with the CP Group (Charoen Pokphand Group), operating 7/11 convenience stores in Thailand and also owning local mobile telco giant True, held a Demo Day and matchmaking event called Rock Thailand in March, aiming to help Japanese startups and Thai conglomerates to work together. The event is part of the Open Innovation Columbus (OIC) initiative, which promotes strategic alliances between Japanese startups and Thai conglomerates. With regards to OIC-related events, this follows the DX Summit held by the Japanese Embassy in Thailand last October.

The majority of Thai conglomerates do not reap the benefits of a digital economy. In Japan, large companies are moving to start digital transformation (DX) by collaborating with startups (it’s so called ‘open innovation’), while in Thailand, due to the nature of the verticals that local startups specialize in, DX through open innovation will likely still take time.

In response to this, OIC selected a team of 10 Japanese startups that lead verticals likely to be useful for DX (AI, robotics, IoT, logistics), and that are particularly interested in advancing into Southeast Asia, including Thailand, and invited them to Bangkok. This is an attempt at targeting cross-border open innovation and focuses on using the power of Japanese startups to foster DX for Thai conglomerates.

Representatives from the 10 Japanese startups pitched in front of top executives from major corporations such as CP Group’s CEO Suphachai Chearavanont, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), major retailer TCC known for its beer brewing brand Chang, Kasikornbank, the Thai royal family-backded SCG (Siam Cement Group), and the big name in hospital management BDMS (Bangkok Dusit Medical Service). Individual consultations between representatives were also made with the goal of establishing cooperative relationships starting with a PoC (proof of concept).

A committee made up of 10 venture capitalists and media personnel from Japan who have deep knowledge of the startup scenes in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, selected the startups to participate in this first edition of the event.

The following is an introduction of the participating startups. They are introduced in the order that they pitched. The collaboration specifics were not disclosed except between the Thai conglomerates and startups, so we introduce only the comments from participating startups.

PKSHA Technology

Yugo Takino, VP of Product, PKSHA TEchnology

PKSHA Technology (TSE: 3993) develops algorithm solutions focused on natural language processing, image recognition, machine learning and deep learning technologies. The company also develops function-specific algorithm modules and provides services to use them as core functions/ sub-functions for various software/hardware. Founded by engineers and researchers who conduct algorithm research, approximately 70% of PKSHA’s engineers who have completed doctoral programs make up their team along with a collection of qualified personnel with academic expertise. PKSHA said that their resources could be used to provide services adapted to each industry such as weather and equipment maintenance.

ABEJA

Naoki Tonogi, Managing Director, ABEJA Singapore

ABEJA provides all kinds of solutions for a variety of industries using its core technology, the AI platform “ABEJA Platform”. The company uses deep learning to automatically extract feature values from accumulated big data without human intervention.

Naoki Tonogi, Managing Director of ABEJA Singapore, cited three of ABEJA’s strengths.

  1. ABEJA can provide services for all industrial fields.
  2. The company has developed services internationally, and has already achieved results, especially in Southeast Asia.
  3. In addition to providing solutions with AI, the company produces its own products.

Tonogi shared the following comments regarding the company’s participation in Rock Thailand.

We were able to talk with major conglomerates including CP Group. Companies that we had already talked to said they’d like to work together, and we were able to propose approaches using AI tailored to each task such as smart factories, smart cities, smart stores to the others. Because of the back-up from the Japanese government, it seems possible to create a cooperative system for innovation with the conglomerates in Thailand, rather than receiving a simple project order from them.¥

It’s been about two years since I came to Singapore and Thailand, but over the past year or so the interest of corporate management in AI has greatly increased, and we were able to put together a number of projects with them. Based on the idea central to our company ‘implementing a fruitful world’, we would like to implement a rich society in Thailand for all the people involved in AI.

See also our past articles of ABEJA.

LPixel

Yuki Shimahara, CEO & Founder, LPixel

Spun off from the University of Tokyo, LPixel has a strength in image analysis for life science. The company is developing software and optimizing AI technology for image analysis in life science such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. They continue to research and develop medical image diagnosis support using AI in cooperation with the National Cancer Center Japan and a number of other medical institutions. They have expanded into Cambridge, US to provide global services.

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Skydisc

Yoshihiko Suenaga, Head of Overseas Strategy Division, Skydisc

Skydisc develops IoT sensor devices and services that allows users to analyze the data collected using AI. It has most often been introduced in the manufacturing industry, and contributes to creating smart factories by diagnosing abnormalities in machines, increasing yield rates, and improving the accuracy of inspections.

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Umitron

Masahiko Yamada, Co-founder and Managing Director, Umitron

Umitron is working on solutions for food and environmental issues by using technology for aquaculture. The company has offices in Singapore and Japan and it provides services using IoT, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning. Umitron Cell, a smart feeder recently announced by the company, allows users to feed cultured fish on schedule and monitor their appearance autonomously or remotely.

Masahiro Yamada, Co-founder and Managing Director of Umitron, shared shared the following impressions regarding participation in Rock Thailand.

I’ve participated in many matching events, but I’ve never been to an event that left me so satisfied. Top class executives from the country’s top conglomerates gathered together, the interviews were set up, and I was able to meet the people I wanted to meet, so it was really great.

I was able to talk with nearly all the conglomerates (that participated), and my first order of business is to begin discussions regarding their on-site issues. As far as business partners in Thailand, I expect there is a good chance for collaboration.

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SmartDrive

Retsu Kitagawa, CEO, SmartDrive

Telematic startup SmartDrive provides services to collect travel data from cars and other mobility devices and then visualize and analyze it. Their services include SmartDrive Fleet (real-time vehicle management for corporations), SmartDrive Cars (flat-rate connected cars for personal use), SmartDrive Families (monitoring of the elderly), and Public Service (mapping of dangerous areas and traffic sharing). The company has also focused on developing sensors, including drive recorders, and creating its own route for data acquisition.

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Smart Shopping

Ryosuke Shimohara, VP of B2B Business, Smart Shopping

Smart Shopping is a price comparison site for daily goods and food and serves over 400,000 users. In October of last year, the company launched a new product called SmartMat, an IoT device equipped with weight sensors that enables automatic recurring orders and inventory replenishment for consumables. It is primarily desgined for corporations tand automates the task of always keeping the necessary amount of items that may be easy to forget to order. With Smart Shopping, the pre-consumption weight of the product is stored in the company’s product database and based on regular weight checks asks the user to authorize purchases when the remaining weight is low.

Ryosuke Shimohara, VP of B2B Business, Smart Shopping, shared the following comments about participating in Rock Thailand.

For WHA, a big name in Thai industrial parks and rental warehouses, we were able to propose added value for logistics facilities, solutions for their factory customers, and supply chain optimization using Smartmats. For the CP Group, Singha (beer brand), and Siam Makro (Thailand’s answer to Costco), we were able to propose the introduction of an automatic recurring ordering solution for retail stores using SmartMats. We hope this will lead to the acquisition of large customers when developing business in Thailand, and lead to partnerships in Southeast Asia, including Thailand.

Ground

Takatsugu Kobayashi, Chief Data Officer and Head of Global Innovation, Ground

Ground provides logistics solutions with “Intelligent Logistics” as its company slogan. Starting with picking operations in warehouses, the company has built a platform combining robots and AI software to optimize logistics.

Problems that companies often encounter include too many options for consumers, consumers becoming easily bored, and the inability to detect consumer behavior in advance (such as cancellations). Ground uses machine learning based on a customer database that can identify consumers’ behavior. Then, based on demand forecasts, it predicts the number of products to be made and the number of sales, and aims to improve the efficiency of all logistics operations.

Takatsugu Kobayashi, Chief Data Officer and Head of Global Innovation, Ground shared his impressions of participating in Rock Thailand.

We talked with several conglomerates, but we are especially considering whether we can provide solutions to the CP Group, Kasikornbank, and WHA. We believe that we can accelerate the development of our company’s AI logistics software ‘DyAS’ and aim for early market-in to Thailand.

For startups that offer both hardware and software like ours, both the speed and scale axes are required–more so than regular startups. In terms of business expansion, if you don’t take the three big steps PoV (Proof of Value) > PoC (Proof of Concept) > PoB (Proof of Business), it is very difficult. In that sense, business development in mature markets tends to be expensive for explanation and introduction costs, and startups with weak capital capabilities are likely to struggle.

However, after talking with the representatives from the conglomerates, such concerns have been lowered. I felt like in the current age we cannot compete overseas (especially with Amazon and Alibaba) if we don’t market-in early (in Thailand) and support reverse innovation in Japan.

Souco

Kunehito Nakahara, Founder and CEO, Souco

Souco is a logistics sharing platform that has built an online database of warehouses and matches companies that want to lend warehouses with those that would like to rent them. The company simplified the procedures necessary to complete before using the space and made it easy to begin using warehouses with a “small lot” for a “short period” in 3 days minimum from the application date. Since the service launch, user growth has been steady and registered users have reached more than 300 companies.

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Hacobu

Masaru Sakata, COO, Hacobu

Hacobu offers a shared logistics platform called Movo. Thanks to the cloud and hardware such as the IoT devices managing moving vehicles, the company solves problems like vehicle dispatch (as an integrated logistics management solution, solves the problem of the difficulty of finding trucks to dispatch), operation management (solves the problem of not knowing location information of the trucks), and berth management (solves the problem of using trucks efficiently because of waiting time).

From left: Polapatr Suvarnazorn (SVP, Thai Beverage), Takatsugu Kobayashi (Ground Chief Data Officer and Head of Global Innovation, Ground), Naoki Tonogi (Managing Director, Abeja Singapore)

Following their pitches, there was a networking opportunity where talks about collaborations between Thai conglomerates and Japanese startups were lively. Thai executives also had positive comments to share about joining Rock Thailand.

Pichairat Jiranunrat, Director of Robotics AI & Intelligent Solution at PTT, says:

Thailand has long established good relationships with Japan and Japanese companies, and I think of Japan as a “good friend”. Based on this trust, perhaps we can create something even more new?

I felt that it’s important to incorporate technology (like that introduced today) into our company.

Yojiro Koshi (center), CEO of TalentEX, also also participated in the networking party.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Kyoto’s Ship&co raises $920K to help more e-retailers easily ship and export goods

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See the original story in Japanese. Kyoto-based Bertland, offering a SaaS (Software as a Service) based shipping and invoice issuing platform named Ship&co, announced ealier this month that it had fundraised 100 million yen (about $920,000) from Spiral Ventures in its pre-series A round. The money will be spent for recruitment of human resources and additional development of the system. BERTLAND was founded in November of 2008 by French entrepreneur Bertrand Thomas whose base for his activity is in Kyoto. Thomas came to Japan in 2003 to study at Kyoto University, and started writing a blog around 2005. His blog, dealing with Japanese culture, gradually became popular as to acquire 800-1,000 daily visitors. One day, Thomas wrote a post about Bento (Japanese lunch box). The post was received favorably by French readers and his friends, but it was pointed out that there is no means to purchase beautiful Bento boxes for people living abroad and that they have to depend on mail orders like eBay. Thomas sensed a business opportunity in this comment, and three weeks later, he launched an online marketplace dealing in Bento boxes named Bento&co using Shopify, with support from his wife and friends. Subsequently, he opened…

Bertrand Thomas, CEO of Ship&co
Image credit: Ship&co

See the original story in Japanese.

Kyoto-based Bertland, offering a SaaS (Software as a Service) based shipping and invoice issuing platform named Ship&co, announced ealier this month that it had fundraised 100 million yen (about $920,000) from Spiral Ventures in its pre-series A round. The money will be spent for recruitment of human resources and additional development of the system.

BERTLAND was founded in November of 2008 by French entrepreneur Bertrand Thomas whose base for his activity is in Kyoto.

Thomas came to Japan in 2003 to study at Kyoto University, and started writing a blog around 2005. His blog, dealing with Japanese culture, gradually became popular as to acquire 800-1,000 daily visitors. One day, Thomas wrote a post about Bento (Japanese lunch box). The post was received favorably by French readers and his friends, but it was pointed out that there is no means to purchase beautiful Bento boxes for people living abroad and that they have to depend on mail orders like eBay.

Thomas sensed a business opportunity in this comment, and three weeks later, he launched an online marketplace dealing in Bento boxes named Bento&co using Shopify, with support from his wife and friends. Subsequently, he opened a real shop Bento&co Kyoto in the Shinkyogoku area of Kyoto in 2012, and also started to exhibit products at various overseas events. The online shop has grown bigger as to receive orders from more than 100 countries.

One of the big problems that most e-commerce operators faced when their businesses have grown is the remarkable increase of product dispatch work. Especially for e-commerce operators who have to handle a lot of orders from overseas, it is common to reduce shipping fees by choosing suitable delivery companies according to transport destination. However, since each transportation operator has a unique format as to the invoice to be attached to a package, it is complicated to issue an invoice in handwriting or to properly use multiple invoice printing software provided by transportation operators. Additionally, customs invoices are needed for shipping overseas.

Ship&co (click to enlarge)
Image credit: Ship&co

Thomas also considered a way to simplify the complicated work, and then he himself constructed a system, as Ship&co. The delivery companies that Ship&co cooperate with through API (Application Programming Interface) include Japan Post (international post / Yu-pack), FedEx, DHL, UPS, Sagawa and Yamato Transport (currently only its invoice-issuing system ‘C2’ is supported but ‘B2’ will also be supported from next month). It also covers e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, eBay, Base, PrestaShop, Magento, Amazon Marketplace, Rakuten, Next Engine, Stripe and WooCommerce, and plans to support Yahoo Shopping of Japan from next month.

Japanese delivery companies had been providing discount services to their customers in exchange for large-lot delivery orders. However, due to labor shortage in the delivery industry and the resulting rise in price therein, overseas shipping fee eventually becomes comparatively expensive as dependence on a certain transportation operator was born even for discount services.

Looking at global trends in this field, Shippo which raised $20 million in series B round last October, ShipStation which was purchased by Stamps.com (NYSE:STAMP) or ShippingEasy have gained power in the U.S. and Temando which was purchased by Neopost (EPA:NEO) appear to be in ascendancy in Australia, but Europe and Asia including Japan are still blue ocean markets.

Ship&co plans to cover La Poste of France in addition to Singapore Post and Australia Post, and will launch API enabling third-party developers to incorporate Ship&co into their own services around this summer. Looking to start overseas expansion, the firm is aiming for series A round fundraising in early 2019.

Ship&co is the first service listed on Shopify’s app store as a Japanese startup and is also recognized as the first FedEx Compatible Provider in the Asia-Pacific region. The firm aims to acquire approval of UPS Ready Provider as well in the future. The service will be showcased at E-commerce Fair 2018 Tokyo which will be held in Tokyo Big Sight, February 13th through 14th.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Famione wins Open Network Lab Demo Day with app that helps couples get pregnant

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab earlier this month held Demo Day for its Seed Accelerator Program 15th batch. From among 89 teams both inside and outside of Japan which entered this batch, six teams were chosen to receive mentoring and various support over a three-month period. Of the six teams, two teams were not shown then and four teams gave pitches at the Demo Day. They were examined through voting by major mentors and audiences. The judges for the pitch were as follows: Kaoru Hayashi (CEO / Group CEO, Digital Garage) Shonosuke Hata (CEO, Kakaku.com) Atsuhiro Murakami (Director, Kakaku.com) Adam Lindemann (CEO, Mind Fund) Naofumi Tsuchiya (CEO, Goodpatch) Top Award: Famione by Famione Famione is a platform to support married couples trying to get pregnant. Assisted by staffers of the University of Tokyo and St.Luke’s International University, this service analyzes users’ lifestyle using its own algorithm which received high evaluation by learned societies, in addition to providing a chat-based communication support between husband and wife such as schedule arrangement for having sex. Famione has been running services focusing on the trying-to-conceive support including the community website Flipp or the owned media Famit, and…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab earlier this month held Demo Day for its Seed Accelerator Program 15th batch. From among 89 teams both inside and outside of Japan which entered this batch, six teams were chosen to receive mentoring and various support over a three-month period.

Of the six teams, two teams were not shown then and four teams gave pitches at the Demo Day. They were examined through voting by major mentors and audiences. The judges for the pitch were as follows:

  • Kaoru Hayashi (CEO / Group CEO, Digital Garage)
  • Shonosuke Hata (CEO, Kakaku.com)
  • Atsuhiro Murakami (Director, Kakaku.com)
  • Adam Lindemann (CEO, Mind Fund)
  • Naofumi Tsuchiya (CEO, Goodpatch)

Top Award: Famione by Famione

Famione is a platform to support married couples trying to get pregnant. Assisted by staffers of the University of Tokyo and St.Luke’s International University, this service analyzes users’ lifestyle using its own algorithm which received high evaluation by learned societies, in addition to providing a chat-based communication support between husband and wife such as schedule arrangement for having sex.

Famione has been running services focusing on the trying-to-conceive support including the community website Flipp or the owned media Famit, and holds 1,860 users related to these services. The team aims to monetize through charged program for trying-to-conceive, data sales for drug development and user transfer to medical organizations.

Audience Award: Logi-kura by NewRevo

The Logi-kura warehouse management platform tackles excessive stock problems at small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is supposedly 5.4 trillion yen in scale (approximation) in Japan. Many persons in charge of ordering at SMEs order merchandise depending on their experiences and feelings, and that causes excessive stock. Logi-kura provides a data-driven ordering environment through forecasting demand for merchandise based on economic trends, weather, competitor information or breakage rate.

Since there is no similar service covering from warehouse management to demand forecast in succession within Japan yet, Logi-kura is ensured of its superiority in that point. The team provides this service at 600,000 yen (about $5,200) annually at the lowest according to the scale, aiming at a 30% reduction of domestic excessive stock and the beta version of the service has already been introduced in 11 companies. In the future, the team plans to construct a marketplace function allowing trade of excessive stock / stock shortage between users.

Hideout Club by Hideout Club

Hideout Club is a community app for whisky lovers, where 12,000 users has already been attracted. The app was launched one year before by two whisky experts who formerly worked at Rakuten, aiming to bridge a gap between bars and users.

Users can gain a free drink on a day designated, from registered 80 bars in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ginza, by paying 1,500 yen (about $13) monthly. For bar users, user retargeting becomes possible by registering new customers to the ledger, and bar information is displayed in users’ search results by registering whisky brands they can serve.

Most of its promotion activities to bars depend on introduction from other bar owners and the rate of successful acquisition of new bar users reaches 50%. Targeting 6.5 million whisky lovers in Japan, the team is going to expand the service coverage range to all parts of Japan, like inbound customers or high-grade resorts, aiming to acquire one million users by 2021.

Better Engage by BtoA

Better Engage supports preventing employees’ turnover by a data-driven approach. Linking with various cloud services and APIs, it acquires employees’ data about attendance, years of service, performance and survey results. Based on these acquired data, the service evaluates each employee’s engagement by five indices: relationship with superiors, relationship with co-workers, degree of satisfaction with work, degree of satisfaction with offices, and growth feels.

Among the five indices, relationship with superiors / co-workers are evaluated not only by surveillance but also communication log on in-house tools. Since its launch back three months before, this service has been introduced into 12 companies as trial and 25% of them indicate their intention to use the paid service. The monthly charge is 800 yen (about $7) per employee.

According to Masahiko Sarukawa, Director of DG Incubation organizing Open Network Lab, the accelerator has produced 85 startups in total with the completion of this 15th batch. The rate of successful fundraising by startups being produced through 14 batches reached 56.7%.

Coinciding with the holding of this 15th Demo Day, Open Network Lab hasstarted accepting applications to the 16th batch. It will provide 10 million yen (about $92,000) maximum as activity funding for this batch over three months. Also it plans to provide the right to use three bases (in Daikanyama of Tokyo and Kamakura, plus San Francisco) gratis for a year, and mentoring by managers of startups that came out of the past Seed Accelerator Program. The application deadline for the 16th batch is noon on November 27th.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japanese renowned investor launches $9M fund to nurture drone startup ecosystem

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See the original story in Japanese. Kamakura Investment Management along with Japanese renowned investor Kotaro Chiba announced DroneFund, an investment fund focused on investing in drone startups, at a press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. June 1st marks the date of establishment of the fund on a scale of 1 billion yen (about $9 million US). There are six board members including Chiba and a number of drone experts; Yoshichika Sakamoto of ORSO, Motoaki Nishiwaki of Microsoft, Souki Oomae of Creative Hope, Daisuke Imai of Asratec, Shintaro Takahashi — special lecturer for Keio University’s Department of Media Studies, and Kazuhiro Obara — former executive director at Rakuten and former senior manager at Google Japan. At the time of establishment they are set to fund 11 drone startups: Drone Japan, Clue, Drone Department, iRobotics, Dron ë motion, Aerial Lab, Orone Iplab, Yodayoda.Inc, Kamomeya, FPV Robotics Inc., and Aeronext. Chiba had the following to say with regards to the circumstances behind the creation of DroneFund. I believe that from now drones will become an integral part of society. But, it will require the investment of risk money, internet based management methods, and the collaboration and production of good technology. The plan…

Kotaro Chiba, the man behind DroneFund, which is set to take the drone world by storm

See the original story in Japanese.

Kamakura Investment Management along with Japanese renowned investor Kotaro Chiba announced DroneFund, an investment fund focused on investing in drone startups, at a press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. June 1st marks the date of establishment of the fund on a scale of 1 billion yen (about $9 million US).

There are six board members including Chiba and a number of drone experts; Yoshichika Sakamoto of ORSO, Motoaki Nishiwaki of Microsoft, Souki Oomae of Creative Hope, Daisuke Imai of Asratec, Shintaro Takahashi — special lecturer for Keio University’s Department of Media Studies, and Kazuhiro Obara — former executive director at Rakuten and former senior manager at Google Japan.

Board Members of DroneFund

At the time of establishment they are set to fund 11 drone startups: Drone Japan, Clue, Drone Department, iRobotics, Dron ë motion, Aerial Lab, Orone Iplab, Yodayoda.Inc, Kamomeya, FPV Robotics Inc., and Aeronext.

Drone startups funded by DroneFund

Chiba had the following to say with regards to the circumstances behind the creation of DroneFund.

I believe that from now drones will become an integral part of society. But, it will require the investment of risk money, internet based management methods, and the collaboration and production of good technology.

The plan is to clear these hurdles with the fund and disseminate Japanese drone technologies and services to the world.

In addition to investing in drone startups, the fund will also hold a drone version of a startup support community called Chiba Dojo in collaboration with Keio University SFC Institute’s Consortium for the Co-creation of Drone Collaborative Society.

See also:

Also, through a business collaboration with R&D company Leave A Nest, of which every member has a PhD., they will utilize a network of 3,500 small factories and university researched development technology. The company has already carried out a project to research and develop a manned hover bike (think flying motorcycle).

In terms of the technology related to drones developed through research, DroneFund revealed their plan to acquire patents through cooperation with the intellectual property management institution initiative Drone IP Lab, whose investment/establishment was also announced during this press conference.

According to Chiba, we can think of the fund as a kind of “Japanese Drone Co., LTD.”

In our image it will balance investment in all four layers: the development of core technologies, service offerings, software apps, and the hardware encasement to create one large company.

In his explanation, the drone market will reach about 140 billion yen (around $1.3 billion US) by 2022, and a 900% growth is expected, but Japan is lagging. Following these market backgrounds, the fund aims to increase the number of drone startups that can compete around the world by cooperating with them in terms of both hardware and software, and by promoting alliances with enterprises in Japan.

11 funded startups are as follows:

The following are summaries of three out of the companies that struck me the most.

Drone Japan: Agricultural remote sensing for rice

Aigamo: the drone for managing water quality (under development)

Drone Japan develops agricultural remote sensing specialized in rice. They are promoting using drones to produce rice.

The company aims for an IT conversion of the agricultural field, and creates a system that uses drones to carry out agricultural production all the way through to its promotion. As opposed to on-site management, the company manages water quality and the conditions of rice growth through data collected by drones, and then implements work such as the application of fertilizer. They also record the growth of the rice and take pictures of the farmer who produced it and include this information through the QR code attached on the package to increase PR.

The founder and CEO Kiichiro Katsumata aims to use drones as the opening to deliver Japanese rice to the world.

See also:

Aerial Lab: Developing a 1-man hover bike

Prototype of the 1-man hover bike “Shippuu”

Aerial Lab develops a flying bike. The prototype made an appearance during the press conference.

It has a length of 4.3m and a breadth of 1.5 m. It is 1m tall and has a dry weight of 55kg. It can hold a maximum weight of 100kg. It is powered by a 2-stroke gasoline engine and is propelled through the air by a fan.

Although a projected date of sale and price are undecided as the project is under development, a future where people can fly in the sky by motorcycle may be close at hand.

Kamomeya: Land, sea, and sky drones for remote islands; comprehensive control system development

Kamomeya is a drone startup hailing from Japan’s western city of Takamatsu, Kagawa. They are developing a delivery system for remote islands using drones.

The company aims to provide transport services by drone for remote islands that it takes time to deliver goods to. They are creating a system capable of transporting parcels by unmanned transport ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, and unmanned transportation vehicles which are controlled by an integrated control system called Kazamidori. After asking the company, it appears they can currently transport one package of oranges.

At the time of the demonstration in the spring of 2017, their future development is underway with the goal to deliver medicines to remote islands combined with remote medical treatment.

At the press conference Chiba remarked, “Market development is expected in the areas of agriculture, inspection, and surveying.” With the establishment of DroneFund, I look forward to seeing what services will be provided and what their impact on the market will be in the future.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japanese UX design firm Goodpatch raises $3.6M in series C to better serve FinTech businesses

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese UX/UI design agency Goodpatch, based out of Tokyo, Berlin and Taiwan, revealed on Wednesday that they have raised 400 million yen (about $3.6M US) from SBI Investment (through SBI FinTech Fund) and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital in a series C round. This is the third round of funding for the company following $1 million (series A round) raised in December of 2013 and $3.5 million (series B round) raised in February of 2016. In addition to receiving the funds from SBI Investment, Goodpatch announced along with the funds raised this round that they are undertaking of a project to improve the UX/UI design of SBI Investment’s SBI Securities. From this month, Goodpatch launched an in house UX/UI design team specialized in the area of FinTech, and they are planning to open a lab to dispatch and share useful design and development knowhow to both the FinTech and design industries in the future. Goodpatch’s UX/UI portfolio in the FinTech world includes Money Forward’s public release in May of 2014, MYDC’s public release in January of 2017, and the public release of Quick’s Shinkly in 2017 (only those that are disclosed). Goodpatch was founded in…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese UX/UI design agency Goodpatch, based out of Tokyo, Berlin and Taiwan, revealed on Wednesday that they have raised 400 million yen (about $3.6M US) from SBI Investment (through SBI FinTech Fund) and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital in a series C round. This is the third round of funding for the company following $1 million (series A round) raised in December of 2013 and $3.5 million (series B round) raised in February of 2016.

In addition to receiving the funds from SBI Investment, Goodpatch announced along with the funds raised this round that they are undertaking of a project to improve the UX/UI design of SBI Investment’s SBI Securities. From this month, Goodpatch launched an in house UX/UI design team specialized in the area of FinTech, and they are planning to open a lab to dispatch and share useful design and development knowhow to both the FinTech and design industries in the future.

Goodpatch’s UX/UI portfolio in the FinTech world includes Money Forward’s public release in May of 2014, MYDC’s public release in January of 2017, and the public release of Quick’s Shinkly in 2017 (only those that are disclosed).

Goodpatch was founded in August of 2011. Prior to the company, CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya worked as an intern at San Francisco’s digital agency Btrax, and founded Goodpatch after returning home to Japan. The company’s name comes from the incubation space Dogpatch Labs in San Francisco. Their prototyping tool Prott, which was officially launched in October of 2014, has been introduced in major IT companies, startups, design farms, and so on.

See also:

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s Goodpatch snags $3.5M to increase global sales of online prototyping tool

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This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. We’ve recently heard many stories making us think about the future form of a design firm. Japanese ad agency Hakuhodo DY Holdings (TSE: 2433) recently took a 30% stake in Ideo, a world-renowned Silicon Valley-based design consulting firm while Japanese video ad network provider Open8 recently acquired The Clip, a Tokyo-based design production startup. See also: 3 Japanese internet companies to launch mobile video ad network targeting females Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today that it has fundraised 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) from DG Incubation, Salesforce Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital, SBI Investment, and FiNC. DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service giant Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while FiNC is a notable weight-loss advisory startup based in Tokyo. For Goodpatch, this follows their previous $1 million funding from DG Incubation back in December of 2013. After the previous funding, the company launched cloud-based prototyping tool Prott. While the company has about 80 staffers in Tokyo and Berlin with about 20 people out of these being involved in developing the Prott platform. The company claims that the platform has acquired 55,000 users…

goodpatch-office-1

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.

We’ve recently heard many stories making us think about the future form of a design firm. Japanese ad agency Hakuhodo DY Holdings (TSE: 2433) recently took a 30% stake in Ideo, a world-renowned Silicon Valley-based design consulting firm while Japanese video ad network provider Open8 recently acquired The Clip, a Tokyo-based design production startup.

See also:

Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today that it has fundraised 400 million yen (about $3.5 million) from DG Incubation, Salesforce Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital, SBI Investment, and FiNC. DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service giant Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while FiNC is a notable weight-loss advisory startup based in Tokyo.

For Goodpatch, this follows their previous $1 million funding from DG Incubation back in December of 2013. After the previous funding, the company launched cloud-based prototyping tool Prott. While the company has about 80 staffers in Tokyo and Berlin with about 20 people out of these being involved in developing the Prott platform. The company claims that the platform has acquired 55,000 users to date, which though not yet profitable has sales on the increase because more freemium users are being converted to paying users.

Goodpatch founder and CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya says that the funds will be primarily used to further develop the Prott platform, as well as to establish sales offices in Taiwan and North America. In terms of competing globally, it means that Goodpatch will be forced to compete other players like InVision.

We will be tackling the market with a different focus from other prototyping tools. By adding features allowing users to grasp the structure of a prototyping object as well as exporting to UI design and product specification documents, we will make our platform easier integrated with tasks before and after the prototyping.

In addition to Prott, Goodpatch launched a mobile condo/apartment finder app called Talkie last year in association with At Home, a Japanese property information company. In this round, Goodpatch fundraised from two financial companies and a healthcare startup since they expect to explore synergies in the fintech and healthcare sectors respectively.

See also:

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Goodpatch founder and CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

FiNC, Japan’s weight-loss advisory startup, fundraises from eight listed companies, others

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See the original story in Japanese. FiNC is a Tokyo startup that provides online weight loss and dietary advice based on a scientific approach such as genetic testing. Corresponding to the stress check guideline recently implemented by the Japanese ministry of health and welfare, FiNC launched in November a new online stress check service called Welness Survey Stress. The company has introduced a variety of services such as the FiNC online diet coach service, healthcare news app Wellness Post, as well as a 60-day group weight-loss program in partnership with Wellness Frontier, the company behind the Joyfit sports club chain in Japan. FiNC announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from several companies. Participating investors are ANA Holdings (TSE:9202, passenger flight service), All Nippon Airways Trading, Credit Saison (TSE:8253), Dai-ichi Life Insurance (TSE:8750), Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Yoshinoya Holdings (TSE:9861, beef bowl restaurant chain), Rohto Pharmaceutical, Kewpie (TSE:2809, mayonnaise manufacturer), Golf Digest Online (TSE:3319), Neo Career (recruiting), Fenox Venture Capital, and Good Patch (UI/UX agency). For instance, Rohto Pharmaceutical, whose mission statement is to increase life expectancy, aims to introduce more healthcare services to meet the needs of people’s daily lives by combining Rohto’s know-how in medicine and cosmetic…

finc_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

FiNC is a Tokyo startup that provides online weight loss and dietary advice based on a scientific approach such as genetic testing. Corresponding to the stress check guideline recently implemented by the Japanese ministry of health and welfare, FiNC launched in November a new online stress check service called Welness Survey Stress. The company has introduced a variety of services such as the FiNC online diet coach service, healthcare news app Wellness Post, as well as a 60-day group weight-loss program in partnership with Wellness Frontier, the company behind the Joyfit sports club chain in Japan.

FiNC announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from several companies. Participating investors are ANA Holdings (TSE:9202, passenger flight service), All Nippon Airways Trading, Credit Saison (TSE:8253), Dai-ichi Life Insurance (TSE:8750), Mitsubishi Estate (TSE:8802), Yoshinoya Holdings (TSE:9861, beef bowl restaurant chain), Rohto Pharmaceutical, Kewpie (TSE:2809, mayonnaise manufacturer), Golf Digest Online (TSE:3319), Neo Career (recruiting), Fenox Venture Capital, and Good Patch (UI/UX agency).

For instance, Rohto Pharmaceutical, whose mission statement is to increase life expectancy, aims to introduce more healthcare services to meet the needs of people’s daily lives by combining Rohto’s know-how in medicine and cosmetic development with FiNC’s technology.

By joining forces with big companies representing the Japanese market, FiNC aims to be the world’s best wellness solution provider by accelerating business expansion. In October, the company partnered with Softbank and started developing a new healthcare service leveraging user personal data and IBM Watson. Expect to see the launch of similar joint projects with participating investors in the future.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson

Japan’s Counterworks launches Shopcounter, Airbnb for retail spaces

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Counterworks recently launched in full Shopcounter, an online marketplace focusing on retail counters. Upon launch, Counterworks also announced that Kento Yamamoto of The Clip [1] joined the team as CCO (Chief Creative Officer) from June, who has been collaborating with various startups in designs. Online marketplace handling pop-up spaces for retailers Shopcounter is an online marketplace handling pop-up spaces for the purpose of displaying, selling or promoting products, where user retailers can complete the rental procedure online including search, inquiry, reservation and payment. Overseas, San Francisco-based Storefront and UK-based Appear Here are offering similar services, indicating that it is a sector noteworthy of the limelight. Counterworks CEO Naoki Mikame had been working for Japanese adtech startup FreakOut until last August. After that, he started this new company on his own and launched Shopcounter due to his original interest in the real estate business. Mikame notes, I have been interested in the real estate business in part since my parents’ company deals in real estate and construction. However, the management style for real estate has been changing lately as indicated by Airbnb. Considering this situation and leveraging my experiences, I came to launch…

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From the left: Counterworks CEO Naoki Mikame, CCO Kento Yamamoto

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Counterworks recently launched in full Shopcounter, an online marketplace focusing on retail counters.

Upon launch, Counterworks also announced that Kento Yamamoto of The Clip [1] joined the team as CCO (Chief Creative Officer) from June, who has been collaborating with various startups in designs.

Online marketplace handling pop-up spaces for retailers

shopcounter-screenshot-2-620x450

Shopcounter is an online marketplace handling pop-up spaces for the purpose of displaying, selling or promoting products, where user retailers can complete the rental procedure online including search, inquiry, reservation and payment.

Overseas, San Francisco-based Storefront and UK-based Appear Here are offering similar services, indicating that it is a sector noteworthy of the limelight.

Counterworks CEO Naoki Mikame had been working for Japanese adtech startup FreakOut until last August. After that, he started this new company on his own and launched Shopcounter due to his original interest in the real estate business.

Mikame notes,

I have been interested in the real estate business in part since my parents’ company deals in real estate and construction. However, the management style for real estate has been changing lately as indicated by Airbnb. Considering this situation and leveraging my experiences, I came to launch Shopcounter, while also keeping in perspective a social background where the number of vacant storefronts has been increasing.

Real spaces for e-Commerce

shopcounter-shop-inside
Space available at a Harajuku shopping mall

Mikame explains that growth now in the e-Commerce market is another factor behind the birth of Shopcounter, in addition to the surplus of available pop-up spaces.

Mikame says,

The e-commerce market size is expanding as the number of online trading users increases. A sizable number of consumers constitutes the e-commerce end-user pool intent on directly touching the products in order to confirm the details before purchase, so that even web-originated stores require marketing plans that utilize real spaces.

Today it has become much easier to establish a small business. Those who want to open stores can own their spaces by utilizing vacant stores or empty commercial spaces, and we hope to support them upon gathering customers online.

Shopcounter is seen being suitable as well for active marketplaces that cater in handcrafted goods.

Considering the characteristics of Shopcounter, it is important that many people can easily visit the pop-up spaces. Hence, most of the rental properties listed on the website are located in areas with much traffic or good accessibility. By focusing on the retailers, it can likely be differentiated from other marketplaces handling rental spaces.

Designer taking part in management

shopcounter-screenshot-1-620x462

Another announcement in addition to this official launch of the service noted that Kento Yamamoto, who is a designer of The Clip, will join the team as CCO.

Yamamoto explains:

I have been involved in design of Shopcounter from the early stage, however development had been delayed in spite of the pre-launch in February. Being interest in business content, I came to think of joining the team on my own.

I have participated in a lot of matters related to newly establishment of startups as a designer so far. There are still only a few designers who understand management as much as the product owners, even less with skills of actually designing and coding hands-on. It would be interesting to develop a new role model for designers, by joining startups as a board member who owns the company stocks as well.

Recently, we had reported that Mikihiro Fujii, an UX (user experience) designer, had joined Tokyo-based Goodpatch as a corporate officer. We should keep an eye on Counterworks and see how the management team which adds a designer will impact the entire organization.

Offers different approach for retailers

According to Mikame, Shopcounter has set the goal of some 300 spaces to be registered in Tokyo alone by next March.

We are now at the stage of proposing plans to rent out counters or sections available. There we explain to store owners that customers differing from former ones would visit the store as a result of collaborating with other types of business or brands.

He adds,

Also we tell owners prior to registration that they can refuse to rent the space, and should rent only to retailers having concepts that match the entire store. Store owners will be charged intermediation fees if the rental contracts are concluded.

Recently some cafés or coffee stands attached to apparel shops can often be seen in Japan, in an effort to approach target users from different perspectives or to extend their in-store time. Shopcounter also appears to be angling for such demands.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy


  1. The Clip is a prototyping and engineering team focused on developing web services and mobile apps. The Bridge logo was designed by The Clip team. 

Japanese UX firm Goodpatch expands to Berlin, hoping to import more diversity in designs

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This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today that it will launch the first overseas office in Berlin, called Goodpatch Berlin. The company’s executive officer Boris Friedrich Milkowski will be appointed as head for the new office. Goodpatch is well known for having served notable Japanese mobile apps such as news app Gunosy and accounting app Money Forward in improving user experience. The company launched a prototyping tool called Prott last year. See also: Japanese UX design firm Goodpatch raises $1M from Digital Garage Tokyo Office Tour: At new office, Goodpatch preparing official launch of prototyping tool Germany has a profound history of design as represented by the Bauhaus. Goodpatch selected Berlin as the location for its first overseas office because the city has a high profile as a global startup hub. Compared to UK or France, Berlin is easier to live in because of cheaper house rent and living expenses. So many people from all around Europe have moved into Berlin upon expanding their business to different markets in the entire region. Goodpatch CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya loves the UI designs of web services born out of…

goodpatch-berlin_featuredimage

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.

Tokyo-based user experience and interface (UX/UI) design agency Goodpatch announced today that it will launch the first overseas office in Berlin, called Goodpatch Berlin. The company’s executive officer Boris Friedrich Milkowski will be appointed as head for the new office.

Goodpatch is well known for having served notable Japanese mobile apps such as news app Gunosy and accounting app Money Forward in improving user experience. The company launched a prototyping tool called Prott last year.

See also:

Germany has a profound history of design as represented by the Bauhaus. Goodpatch selected Berlin as the location for its first overseas office because the city has a high profile as a global startup hub. Compared to UK or France, Berlin is easier to live in because of cheaper house rent and living expenses. So many people from all around Europe have moved into Berlin upon expanding their business to different markets in the entire region.

Goodpatch CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya loves the UI designs of web services born out of Germany, and he has written about many of them on his company’s bilingual blog called Memopatch. Boris found Tsuchiya’s article on the blog and applied to join the team while he was attending Keio Media Design (KMD), the graduate school of media design at Keio University.

Tsuchiya told The Bridge why they have chosen Berlin:

We have been eager to open our overseas office. Initially we were thinking of San Francisco, but the city is already a trending spot, meaning it is not so high priority.

Then Boris graduated from KMD last year and started working with us on a full-time basis. In charge of global marketing of Prott, he had been holding our workshops in Europe and San Francisco. While he is from Munich, we decided to set up an office in Berlin because the city is more interesting.

Goodpatch plans to rotate their employees between the Tokyo headquarters and the Berlin office, aiming to let them experience more diversity and inspiration in designs. Going forward, the company wants to help Japanese companies expand their business to the European market.

Goodpatch shares its Berlin office with Mimi, the Berlin-based startup developing an app for the hearing impaired. The address is Neue Schönhauser Straße 19, 10178 Berlin.

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From the right: Goodpatch CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya, Head-designate for Goodpatch Berlin Boris Friedrich Milkowski

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy