Based out of Tokyo’s neighboring city of Chiba and Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Japanese startup Spiker has been developing and deploying a solution called Alert-Monitor, comprising of the artificial intelligence (AI) focused on analyzing fetal heart rate labor chart data and its central monitoring software. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 83 million yen (about $600,000) from Inclusion Japan and DG Incubation in a pre-series A round. The AI technology is capable of analyzing medical data measured by delivery monitoring equipment and providing on-time support for appropriate medical decisions. As many as 3.9 million babies die annually in developing countries, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is equivalent to 95% of the world’s perinatal deaths. To solve this problem, appropriate use of cardiotocography (CTG) data is expected. However, it is difficult to provide all midwives and nurses with the training necessary to analyze CTG data in developing countries because of a serious shortage of medical personnel. The Alert-Monitor solution help them make appropriate medical judgment without the need for instruction and training of skilled physicians. It can lead to realizing appropriate intervention at medical institutions suffering from a shortage of personnel. Engineers from Rwanda, India, and…
Image credit: Spiker
Based out of Tokyo’s neighboring city of Chiba and Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Japanese startup Spiker has been developing and deploying a solution called Alert-Monitor, comprising of the artificial intelligence (AI) focused on analyzing fetal heart rate labor chart data and its central monitoring software. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised 83 million yen (about $600,000) from Inclusion Japan and DG Incubation in a pre-series A round.
The AI technology is capable of analyzing medical data measured by delivery monitoring equipment and providing on-time support for appropriate medical decisions. As many as 3.9 million babies die annually in developing countries, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is equivalent to 95% of the world’s perinatal deaths.
To solve this problem, appropriate use of cardiotocography (CTG) data is expected. However, it is difficult to provide all midwives and nurses with the training necessary to analyze CTG data in developing countries because of a serious shortage of medical personnel. The Alert-Monitor solution help them make appropriate medical judgment without the need for instruction and training of skilled physicians. It can lead to realizing appropriate intervention at medical institutions suffering from a shortage of personnel.
Engineers from Rwanda, India, and Japan are engaged in developing the AI technology at Spiker. In addition to repeating demonstration tests in Africa, where the number of deliveries is about five times that of Japan, the team is conducting speedy collaboration with Japanese engineers. The company plans to use the funds rto make necessary preparations for sales activities in Africa, AI development, and medical device certification.
Orange Fab Asia, a startup accelerator run by French telecom giant Orange in the region, came to an end in October after nine years of activity. We had been wondering what was going on with Hiroshi Nishikawa (西川浩司), who has been supervising the program, and others involved, but as for Nishikawa, we learned that he had joined MoBagel (行動貝果), the Taiwanese founder-led startup offering an AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) platform. MoBagel was founded in March of 2015 and is currently headquartered in Santa Clara, US. The company has secured about $20 million in total to date, mainly backed by Taiwanese VC firms and others. Some of our readers may recall that they delivered a pitch at Slush Asia, Rising Expo as well as having been selected by AppWorks and SparkLabs Taipei for their respective acceleration programs. We learned that MoBagel has established a Japanese subsidiary called Solve AI while Nishikawa has been appointed as its CEO to launch a cross-border open innovation program called the Solve AI Challenge. The program aims to connect enterprises (partners) seeking ideas and startups that want to propose ideas on topics such as AI and data collection and analysis. According to Nishikawa,…
Image credit: MoBagel
Orange Fab Asia, a startup accelerator run by French telecom giant Orange in the region, came to an end in October after nine years of activity. We had been wondering what was going on with Hiroshi Nishikawa (西川浩司), who has been supervising the program, and others involved, but as for Nishikawa, we learned that he had joined MoBagel (行動貝果), the Taiwanese founder-led startup offering an AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) platform.
MoBagel was founded in March of 2015 and is currently headquartered in Santa Clara, US. The company has secured about $20 million in total to date, mainly backed by Taiwanese VC firms and others. Some of our readers may recall that they delivered a pitch at Slush Asia, Rising Expo as well as having been selected by AppWorks and SparkLabs Taipei for their respective acceleration programs.
We learned that MoBagel has established a Japanese subsidiary called Solve AI while Nishikawa has been appointed as its CEO to launch a cross-border open innovation program called the Solve AI Challenge. The program aims to connect enterprises (partners) seeking ideas and startups that want to propose ideas on topics such as AI and data collection and analysis. According to Nishikawa, the name of the program was inspired by the Startup Challenges program at VivaTech, an annual startup conference in Paris to which Orange Fab Asia’s selected teams were often invited.
It has not yet been known what companies will participate as partners, but we have been told that one major Japanese tech company has been confirmed to join so far. In the program, every partner will individually set their Challenge topic while startups are requested to propose methods and ideas for solving it. Partners will offer some benefits (financial rewards, invitations to startup events, business collaboration opportunities, etc.) to the startups with the most highly evaluated proposals.
Image credit: MoBagel
According to Nishikawa, when Orange Fab Asia was about to end, Adms Chung (鍾哲民), CEO of MoBagel, also one of the alumni from the program, heard about it and proposed Nishikawa to launch an open innovation program in MoBagel. The new company, Solve AI, will focus on building a startup ecosystem around AI and data, with the intention of finding potential users for MoBagel in the future.
The Solve AI Challenge will make full use of the vast network that Nishikawa has cultivated at Orange Fab Asia. Danny Han and Clare Fan, former directors of Orange Fab Asia in Seoul and Taipei respectively, will participate as advisors for the new program. Taking advantage of their global presence with offices in Santa Clara, Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Singapore, MoBagel will fully assist operating the Solve AI Challenge with considering offering MoBagel products free of charge to startups participating in the program.
In the program, each partner will evaluate and select startups to work with on their respective conditions. After several months of PoC (proof-of-concept), the Demo Day is expected to take place to showcase their results. The approach of inviting startups from different partners in the same industry to collaborate on a specific topic is similar to what Plug and Play and others have been running. Solve AI is currently inviting partners for the program while details will be announced in the future.
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 SpaceData, the Japanese startup developing artificial intelligence that can create a Digital Twin of the Earth from Satellite Data, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.42 billion yen (over $10 million US) in a seed round. Participating investors are Spiral Capital, Sparx Innovation for Future, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, GREE Ventures, The Creative Fund, Headline Asia, MZ Web3 Fund in addition to three angel investors: Jo Hirao (CEO of Zigexn), Hiroshi Tomishima (Co-founder of Mercari), and Yusaku Maezawa (Founder of Zozo). SpaceData was founded in January of 2017 by serial entrepreneur Katsuaki Sato, also known as the founder of Japanese tech company Metaps (TSE:6172) and running several startups. The company has developed AI-based technologies that can generates virtual worlds (digital twin) using satellite data and 3DCG technology. Using machine learning on geostationary images of the ground and terrain data from satellites, the platform can automatically detect, classify, and organize objects on the ground, and generate their 3D models with detailed texture using 3DCG technology. The company’s algorithm excels at automatically generating 3D models from a human perspective, which is something that conventional 3D globe tools (such as Google Earth) are not very good at. This makes it easier…
Image credit: SpaceData
Tokyo-based SpaceData, the Japanese startup developing artificial intelligence that can create a Digital Twin of the Earth from Satellite Data, announced on Wednesday that it has secured 1.42 billion yen (over $10 million US) in a seed round. Participating investors are Spiral Capital, Sparx Innovation for Future, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, GREE Ventures, The Creative Fund, Headline Asia, MZ Web3 Fund in addition to three angel investors: Jo Hirao (CEO of Zigexn), Hiroshi Tomishima (Co-founder of Mercari), and Yusaku Maezawa (Founder of Zozo).
SpaceData was founded in January of 2017 by serial entrepreneur Katsuaki Sato, also known as the founder of Japanese tech company Metaps (TSE:6172) and running several startups. The company has developed AI-based technologies that can generates virtual worlds (digital twin) using satellite data and 3DCG technology. Using machine learning on geostationary images of the ground and terrain data from satellites, the platform can automatically detect, classify, and organize objects on the ground, and generate their 3D models with detailed texture using 3DCG technology.
The company’s algorithm excels at automatically generating 3D models from a human perspective, which is something that conventional 3D globe tools (such as Google Earth) are not very good at. This makes it easier to be adopted into applications such as VR (virtual technology), games, and video production, where people move around in 3D space from a human perspective. The company claims that the generated digital twin data can meet the rapidly growing demand for metaverse in various industries, including entertainment, autonomous driving, urban development, disaster prevention, and defense.
Tokyo-based LegalForce announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 13.7 billion yen (over $101.6 million US) in a Series D round. The round is led by by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Sequoia China, Goldman Sachs, WiL (World Innovaion Lab, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and others. WiL, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital followed their previous investment. The latest round brought the startup’s funding sumup to approximately 17.9 billion yen (over $132.8 million US). LegalForce has been offering two SaaS tools: LegalForce and LegalForce Cabinet. LegalForce uses natural language processing and other technologies to offer functions such as reviewing contracts according the type of agreement, detecting clauses that may be omitted or risky in addition to prevent omissions and oversights. Sine its launch back in April of 2019, the service has been serving more than 2,000 companies and law firms. Regarding LegalForce Cabinet, when you upload contracts/documents into it, its artificial intelligence will automatically read titles, names of contracting parties, and contract expiration date to create a ledger of them. As of June, the service is used by over 450 companies.
The LegalForce team Image credit: LegalForce
Tokyo-based LegalForce announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 13.7 billion yen (over $101.6 million US) in a Series D round.
The round is led by by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Sequoia China, Goldman Sachs, WiL (World Innovaion Lab, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and others. WiL, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital followed their previous investment. The latest round brought the startup’s funding sumup to approximately 17.9 billion yen (over $132.8 million US).
LegalForce has been offering two SaaS tools: LegalForce and LegalForce Cabinet.
LegalForce uses natural language processing and other technologies to offer functions such as reviewing contracts according the type of agreement, detecting clauses that may be omitted or risky in addition to prevent omissions and oversights. Sine its launch back in April of 2019, the service has been serving more than 2,000 companies and law firms.
Regarding LegalForce Cabinet, when you upload contracts/documents into it, its artificial intelligence will automatically read titles, names of contracting parties, and contract expiration date to create a ledger of them. As of June, the service is used by over 450 companies.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based Soda, the Japanese startup behind a marketplace specializing in sneakers and streetwear called SNKRDUNK (pronounced as Sneaker Dunk), announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum in a series D round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (SBVF2), which brought the company’s valuation up to 38 billion yen or $340 million US. This follows the company’s series C round back in July where it secured 6.2 billion yen (about $54 million US), meaning that their valuation became 1.6 times in just 4 months. The previous round was led by Korean tech giant Naver’s Kream with participation from Altos, SoftBank Ventures Asia, JAFCO Group, and existing investors including basepartners, Coloplast Next, and The Guild. The funds raised in the latest round will be used for expanding into the Asian markets such as Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong in addition to strengthening business expansion effort in Japan, AI-based logistics, authenticity assessment, and customer support. This is SBVF2’s second investment in a Japanese startup following cash injection into biotech startup Aculys Pharma. SoftBank Vision Fund 1 (SBVF1) had been investing 100 billion yen in each startup on average, mainly focused on…
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Tokyo-based Soda, the Japanese startup behind a marketplace specializing in sneakers and streetwear called SNKRDUNK (pronounced as Sneaker Dunk), announced today that it has secured an undisclosed sum in a series D round from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (SBVF2), which brought the company’s valuation up to 38 billion yen or $340 million US.
This follows the company’s series C round back in July where it secured 6.2 billion yen (about $54 million US), meaning that their valuation became 1.6 times in just 4 months. The previous round was led by Korean tech giant Naver’s Kream with participation from Altos, SoftBank Ventures Asia, JAFCO Group, and existing investors including basepartners, Coloplast Next, and The Guild.
The funds raised in the latest round will be used for expanding into the Asian markets such as Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong in addition to strengthening business expansion effort in Japan, AI-based logistics, authenticity assessment, and customer support. This is SBVF2’s second investment in a Japanese startup following cash injection into biotech startup Aculys Pharma.
SoftBank Vision Fund 1 (SBVF1) had been investing 100 billion yen in each startup on average, mainly focused on US-based unicorns which are valued over $1 billion. However, the average ticket size of the second fund (SBVF2) has been reduced to 20 billion yen ($177 million), and some of Japanese startups have been gradually becoming the fund’s potential investees.
In an interview with Forbes Japan, SBVF2’s managing partner Kentaro Matsui shared his fund’s five investment principles: 1. market size, 2. innovativeness of services, products, and technologies, 3. accelerating growth through AI (artificial intelligence) and data utilization, 4. entrepreneurs and management team with a clear vision, and 5. sustainability of the business and a clear path to profitability.
In the statement, Soda claims AI-based logistics as one of what the fund is used for. By optimizing the logistics process leveraging cutting-edge technologies, the company expects to allow customers to experience the new standard of trading – sell today, receive tomorrow. It’s unnecessary to say technology is the key to breakthroughs here.
According to the SoftBank Group’s financial results for the second quarter ending March 31, 2022, SVF1 and SFVF2 have 81 and 157 portfolio companies respectively.
Citadel AI, the Japanese startup developing automated AI quality maintenance tools, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $900,000 US) in a seed round from UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC) and Anri. For the startup, this is the first funding from external investors. They launched Citadel Rader in beta in May, aiming to help companies protect themselves from AI-specific risks by automatically monitoring their AI systems, detecting, blocking, and visualizing anomalies. Citadel AI was launched in December by CEO Hironori “Rick” Kobayashi and CTO Kenny Song. Prior to Citadel AI, Kobayashi served Loyalty Marketing as president, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas) as SVP, and US-based meat processing firm Indiana Packers Corporation as CEO. Meanwhile, Song led the development of TensorFlow and AutoML as a product manager at Google Brain, the tech giant’s AI research and development unit. Unlike traditional hardware-based software, AI systems are exposed to an ever-changing real-world environment that degrades their accuracy and quality day by day. It is important for businesses to maintain the quality of AI functions by automatically detecting anomalies before they are misrecognized and misjudged, resulting in business losses and compliance issues. Citadel Rader has an XAI (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence) function that…
Image credit: Citadel AI
Citadel AI, the Japanese startup developing automated AI quality maintenance tools, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $900,000 US) in a seed round from UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC) and Anri. For the startup, this is the first funding from external investors. They launched Citadel Rader in beta in May, aiming to help companies protect themselves from AI-specific risks by automatically monitoring their AI systems, detecting, blocking, and visualizing anomalies.
Citadel AI was launched in December by CEO Hironori “Rick” Kobayashi and CTO Kenny Song. Prior to Citadel AI, Kobayashi served Loyalty Marketing as president, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas) as SVP, and US-based meat processing firm Indiana Packers Corporation as CEO. Meanwhile, Song led the development of TensorFlow and AutoML as a product manager at Google Brain, the tech giant’s AI research and development unit.
Unlike traditional hardware-based software, AI systems are exposed to an ever-changing real-world environment that degrades their accuracy and quality day by day. It is important for businesses to maintain the quality of AI functions by automatically detecting anomalies before they are misrecognized and misjudged, resulting in business losses and compliance issues. Citadel Rader has an XAI (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence) function that automatically detects and blocks AI input and output anomalies and visualizes them in a form that humans can understand.
Kobayashi says,
In the development stage, AI reads only clean data, but when it moves to actual operation, it receives a variety of data, including those with input errors. Basically, people think that computers will give correct answers, and even if they give wrong answers, it is difficult to point them out.
Since it is difficult for companies to allocate human resources to monitor the output of AI, our tool may help AI engineers who are usually busy with their daily work find the time to concentrate on their original work.
Image credit: Citadel AI
When a system integrator receives an order for an AI system, they will typically implement the system but not provide services to automate the operation and maintenance afterwards.
Kobayashi continued,
If the accuracy and quality of the data deteriorates, in the worst case scenario, it could lead to errors in sales forecasting, or in credit approval. For example, think FATF (Financial Action Task Force, the global organization working with money laundering regulators in various countries). A single node with poor security in determining a money laundering case could lead to the vulnerability of the entire global network, which could lead to the node not being allowed to join the organization.
He added that Citadel Rader is currently used by more than 10 companies on a trial basis and is in talks with more than 100 companies as potential users. The company plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team for the product’s official launch which is scheduled next spring.
Tokyo-based Telexistence, the Japanese startup developing remote-controlled robots, announced today that it has secured about 2.2 billion yen (about $20 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors include Airbus Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund (KOIF), Deepcore, UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC), and several unnamed investors, in addition to Monoful, a digital transformation-focused subsidiary of global logistics giant GLP. This follows a previous round (estimated to be series A1) in December of 2018 when some of the investors participating in the latest round such as KOIF, UTokyo IPC, Deepcore, and Monoful also participated. With the Series A1 (previous round) and A2 (the latest round) rounds combined, the company has secured about 4.5 billion yen (over $40 million US) in a series A round. Telexistence has been developing tele-controlled robots using a variety of technologies including tele-presence, robotics, communications, virtual reality (VR), haptics, and artificial intelligence (AI). They plan to use the funds to expand its product development team as well as accelerating product development and implementation to the expanding customer base in the retail and logistics sectors. The company has partnered with Monoful to develop the Augmented Workforce Platform (AWP) for logistics facility operations. AWP allows operators to control…
The Model-T robot Image credit: Telexistence
Tokyo-based Telexistence, the Japanese startup developing remote-controlled robots, announced today that it has secured about 2.2 billion yen (about $20 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors include Airbus Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund (KOIF), Deepcore, UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC), and several unnamed investors, in addition to Monoful, a digital transformation-focused subsidiary of global logistics giant GLP.
This follows a previous round (estimated to be series A1) in December of 2018 when some of the investors participating in the latest round such as KOIF, UTokyo IPC, Deepcore, and Monoful also participated. With the Series A1 (previous round) and A2 (the latest round) rounds combined, the company has secured about 4.5 billion yen (over $40 million US) in a series A round.
Telexistence has been developing tele-controlled robots using a variety of technologies including tele-presence, robotics, communications, virtual reality (VR), haptics, and artificial intelligence (AI). They plan to use the funds to expand its product development team as well as accelerating product development and implementation to the expanding customer base in the retail and logistics sectors.
The company has partnered with Monoful to develop the Augmented Workforce Platform (AWP) for logistics facility operations. AWP allows operators to control robots installed in warehouses via the Internet and participate in tasks such as loading and unloading pallets while operators are working from home.
The company also announced that it has tied up with Japanese office furniture giant Okamura Corporation (TSE:7984) for joint research and development of fixture products optimized for carrying and displaying by robots.
ANSeeN is a startup spun out of Shizuoka University and has been developing x-ray image sensors and color cameras. The company announced on Monday that it has secured 1.08 billion yen (about $10.1 million US) in a series B round. Participating investors in this round are Cyberdyne (TSE: 7779) and its subsidiary CEJ Capital, Environmental Energy Investment, Drone Fund, Shinkin Capital inn addition to Shizuoka Capital. The amount raised includes debt financing from the Shoko Chukin Bank and Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank, as well as a grant from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). This follows the startup’s series A round in November 2018 when they secured about 300 million yen (about $2.8 million US). Shizuoka Capital and Shinkin Capital participated in the previous series A round as well. ANSeeN’s X-ray camera has a higher resolution than conventional ones, which makes it easier to identify the shape of the content in a an inspection object. The company aims to develop a system that can be used for automated and unattended baggage inspection in conjunction with artificial intelligence. The company claims that this system can make it possible to visualize cast metal parts, such as automobiles and trains,…
Image credit: ANSeeN
ANSeeN is a startup spun out of Shizuoka University and has been developing x-ray image sensors and color cameras. The company announced on Monday that it has secured 1.08 billion yen (about $10.1 million US) in a series B round. Participating investors in this round are Cyberdyne (TSE: 7779) and its subsidiary CEJ Capital, Environmental Energy Investment, Drone Fund, Shinkin Capital inn addition to Shizuoka Capital.
The amount raised includes debt financing from the Shoko Chukin Bank and Hamamatsu Iwata Shinkin Bank, as well as a grant from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). This follows the startup’s series A round in November 2018 when they secured about 300 million yen (about $2.8 million US). Shizuoka Capital and Shinkin Capital participated in the previous series A round as well.
ANSeeN’s X-ray camera has a higher resolution than conventional ones, which makes it easier to identify the shape of the content in a an inspection object. The company aims to develop a system that can be used for automated and unattended baggage inspection in conjunction with artificial intelligence. The company claims that this system can make it possible to visualize cast metal parts, such as automobiles and trains, which have been difficult to visualize in the past.
AnSeeN will use the funds to install a facility to mass-produce X-ray image sensors and X-ray color cameras, aiming to establish a mass-production system by the end of 2021 to use them for non-destructive testing and dental inspection equipment. The company partnered with Cyberdyne to promote the application and commercialization of the camera in the cybernics industry.
AnSeeN was selected for the second phase of Tokyo-based railway company JR East’s incubation/acceleration program in November 2018 and then won the top prize for the team eligible for the program’s incubation course at the Demo Day event.
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Medmain, the Japanese MedTech startup behind the PidPort telepathology solutions and the Medteria cloud for medical students, announced on Monday that it has secured 1.1 billion yen (about $10 million US) through the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that Hike Ventures has set up for this round. The company has not mentioned the stage of the rounud but it’s believed as a series A round. The latest round follows the 100 million yen funding back in August 2018, and brought the total sum of funding to date up to 1.2 billion yen (about 11.3 million US). Participating investors in this round are Fukuoka Wajiro Hospital Group, IHW Group from International University of Health and Welfare (IUHW), QTnet, Hike Ventures, Innovations and Future Creation, Deepcore, Dogan Beta as well as unnamed angel investors. Deepcore and Dogan Beta participated in the previous round. SPVs have advantages for startups, including lowering the time and effort required to raise funds, and some of our readers may recall that Japanese HRTech startup SmartHR used this scheme for their Series B round. Medmain said it adopted the scheme this time to streamline raising a large sum of funding from multiple…
The Medmain team, CEO Osamu Iizuka stands on the center. Image credit: Medmain
Fukuoka-based Medmain, the Japanese MedTech startup behind the PidPort telepathology solutions and the Medteria cloud for medical students, announced on Monday that it has secured 1.1 billion yen (about $10 million US) through the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that Hike Ventures has set up for this round. The company has not mentioned the stage of the rounud but it’s believed as a series A round. The latest round follows the 100 million yen funding back in August 2018, and brought the total sum of funding to date up to 1.2 billion yen (about 11.3 million US).
Participating investors in this round are Fukuoka Wajiro
Hospital Group, IHW Group from International University of Health and
Welfare (IUHW), QTnet, Hike Ventures, Innovations and Future Creation,
Deepcore, Dogan Beta as well as unnamed angel investors. Deepcore and
Dogan Beta participated in the previous round.
SPVs have advantages for startups, including lowering the time and effort required to raise funds, and some of our readers may recall that Japanese HRTech startup SmartHR used this scheme for their Series B round. Medmain said it adopted the scheme this time to streamline raising a large sum of funding from multiple investors including hospital managements.
The Fukuoka Wajiro Hospital Group has 24 medical institutions and seven medical education institutions in Japan, while the IHW Group from IUHW is made of medical, educational, and welfare groups with about 60 facilities nationwide. With the participation of these groups, the company intends to accelerate product development involving the clinical environment.
In partnership
with the Kyushu University School of Medicine and Kyushu University
Hospital, the company has been using supercomputers to conduct
high-speed learning for artificial intelligence (AI). Launching the
alpha version back in winter in 2018 followed by the official version in
February this year, it is conducting joint research with over 50
medical institutions in Japan.
Medical care and computer vision are considered to be a good match. Among many medical applications (e.g., radiological and endoscopic images), the company has chosen pathology as a focus because it believed this area was particularly behind in digitalization. In pathology, a doctor takes tissue samples from a patient’s body and a pathologist uses a microscope to check them. Medmain provides pathologists with an environment so that they can remotely complete this process by checking scanned images. In addition, the more images and learning data are collected, the more precise diagnosis the platform can provide. This may contribute to solving the delay in diagnosis due to the shortage of pathologists.
PidPort viewer’s image Image credit: Medmain
Because of the restrictions of medical-related laws, PidPort is used only on a research basis at this point in Japan, but it is used for actual medical diagnosis in other countries. In countries and regions where pathologists are scarce, pathologists in Japan have provided consultation and advice to a local doctor based on images of the latter’s patient’s tissue using the platform.
In addition, the spread of the novel coronavirus has restricted the movement people including even pathologists, but the platform allows pathologists to make diagnoses online without traveling multiple hospitals, which becomes a good opportunity to advance digital pathology.
Medmain plans to use the funds to enhance its AI algorithms, investing in image scanning equipment in addition to hiring talents for global business expansion effort. In Japan, the AI-powered diagnostic function is currently limited to research use due to legal restrictions, so the company will highlight the potential of remote pathological diagnosis leveraged by digital scanning and cloud storage functions for domestic sales.
artificial intelligence 
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Takeshi Hirano
