THE BRIDGE

Junya Mori

Junya Mori

Junya is an editor at The Bridge. He writes about the Asian tech scene, focusing on innovation. Previously, he was the deputy editor of greenz.jp.

http://blog.junyamori.com

Articles

Japan’s LeapMind snags $3.4M to encourage deep learning use for IoT and robotics

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based LeapMind, providing business solutions with deep learning technologies for enterprise users, has secured a total of 340 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Itochu Technology Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Archetype Ventures. LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now. The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields. LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly. The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies: For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes…

leapmind_featuredimage
Image credit: LeapMind

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based LeapMind, providing business solutions with deep learning technologies for enterprise users, has secured a total of 340 million yen (about $3.4 million) from Itochu Technology Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Archetype Ventures.

LeapMind has conducted provisioning of systems solutions using deep learning technologies and joint R&D with major companies or universities until now.

The firm holds technologies enabling calculation / compression and optimization of network even under a frugal computing environment. Making deep learning environment compact enough to work in a coin-sized CPU setting the firm aims to apply it in the IoT (Internet of Things) and robotics fields.

leapmind-blackstar
Black Star
Image credit: LeapMind

LeapMind developed a low-energy micro-miniature external deep learning computer called Black Star. Just by downloading prepared recipes to devices via a platform — Juiz Platform — currently under development, users can utilize deep learning technologies very quickly.

The secured fund will be spent for R&D on another platform named Juiz System in order to encourage more enterprises to use deep learning technologies. CEO of LeapMind Soichi Matsuda explains what kind of products will become available when enterprises utilizes deep learning technologies:

For example, an intelligent refrigerator can be expected; it recognizes interior contents and proposes cooking recipes for using leftover foodstuff.

leapmind-juiz-system
Juiz System
Image credit: LeapMind

With Fujitsu (TSE:6702), LeapMind has cooperatively made a 20,000 dining photo data to marketing data by automatic analysis, so that various services becomes possible even at this stage as far as I see from case examples on the website.

The firm plans to launch the platform within this year.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Meet Blincam, mini-camera mounted on glasses for enabling snapshots with eyeblinks

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It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this. Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending. The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development. The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less…

blincam_featuredimage

It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this.

Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending.

blincam7

The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development.

blincam-makuake

The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less than a few hours after launch. The company will conduct a sample test and marketing in August, while also planning to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September (in San Francisco); these are to be followed by a Kickstarter campaign beginning in November.

Regarding the production lot for pre-orders received on the Makuake crowdfunding site at this time, they will start shipping the device in December, meanwhile introducing a mobile app for it. In 2017, they intend to make a shift to the mass-production phase after exhibiting at international showcase events like Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and South by Southwest (SXSW). After these, the company will launch sales at Amazon and electronics retail stores from next spring.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Veldt secures seed round funding to boost production of analogue smartwatches

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See the original story in Japanese. As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well. Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps. First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami. The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users. At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much…

veldt-feature1

See the original story in Japanese.

As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well.

Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps.

veldt-feature3

First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami.

The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users.

At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much attention as a ‘wearable brand’ overseas. After this, it established a project at Japan’s crowdfunding website Makuake and has already started pre-sales.

veldt-BlackHorseRed_woLED

In the spotlight, Veldt had last week secured its seed round funding from Accord Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures. The money will be spent for development of its own brand Veldt Serendipity, development of new devices or service expansion for business use.

Veldt was originally developed with so-called ‘executive athletes’ as targets. The team is also considering development of devices such as activity tracker focusing more on grasping health condition, while continuing development of the higher-grade productline.

Also, the team will modify Veldt Serendipity to make it thinner and improve it to be a device which will be easily selected by women.

veldt-with-headphone

Coinciding with this fundraising, the team had also announced a plan for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supply and software licensing of IoT products, excepting Veldt’s brand offered jointly with Japanese electronics company SMK (TSE:6798). The team and SMK have also been jointly developing a circuit for Veldt’s next-term products.

There are so many hurdles upon creating IoT devices. You have to find engineers for development of software as well as hardware, while considering separately both prototyping and mass production. The cost-curve can hardly be lowered through small-lot outputs.

The need to be involved in IoT products development is gradually spreading among players other than electronics companies. While business or services utilizing IoT have seen increased demand, there are obstacles such as the securing of development resources beyond fields including software / hardware / designing / engineering, in addition to ensuring product quality upon commencing mass production or implementing cost control.

Veldt aims to lower the hurdle of the IoT project by investing its knowledge as to development of IoT products / software plus its resource network, and utilizing SMK’s design know-how and production technology based on sufficient past accomplishments in the electronic components field.

As the wearable brand Veldt attracts more attention, demands for its service upon business use is expected to increase as well.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Sorabito gets $4.7M to enhance global marketplace of used heavy machinery

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Sorabito, the company behind the global marketplace for used construction machinery from Japan, has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.7 million) from several investors. This follows their previous 100 million yen (about $940,000) funding from GMO Venture Partners, Fumiaki Koizumi and Hidetoshi Takano back in September last year. In addition to these existing investors, Gree Ventures, JA Mitsui Leasing, Opt Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital joined this round. The Allstocker marketplace allows businesses to buy and sell used heavy construction and farm machinery of Japanese origin online. On top of the marketplace function, it offers a unique payment solution in partnership with SMBC, not to mention a global logistics system which enables delivery of the purchased heavy machinery from sellers to buyers around the world. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

allstocker_featuredimage
Image credit: Allstocker.com

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Sorabito, the company behind the global marketplace for used construction machinery from Japan, has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.7 million) from several investors. This follows their previous 100 million yen (about $940,000) funding from GMO Venture Partners, Fumiaki Koizumi and Hidetoshi Takano back in September last year. In addition to these existing investors, Gree Ventures, JA Mitsui Leasing, Opt Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital joined this round.

The Allstocker marketplace allows businesses to buy and sell used heavy construction and farm machinery of Japanese origin online. On top of the marketplace function, it offers a unique payment solution in partnership with SMBC, not to mention a global logistics system which enables delivery of the purchased heavy machinery from sellers to buyers around the world.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s social recruiting startup Wantedly unveils portfolio platform to attract creators

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Wantedly, the Japanese startup offering a social recruiting platform under the same name to connect startups with their potential employees, has launched a portfolio showcase platform called Case, aiming to connect creators and companies via products or artworks. Coinciding with the launch, products made by various startups or creative companies in Japan such as Party, Bascule, Bracket, 1->10design, Fablic and Vasily have as launch partners been displayed on the Wantedly website. Case allows users to team up and submit ‘projects.’ Any team already formed at Wantedly can submit projects as that team. When submitting projects, names of people concerned in the artworks or products can be put in the ‘credits.’ Although that is common practice in the advertisement field, names have not been visualized in product development so far. Visualization of names on Case will be appreciated by designers or engineers. Case aims to assist creators upon gaining inspiration or finding companies that provide excellent works through the displaying of products or artworks. However, there already have been many websites available for exhibition of creators’ portfolios or acquisition of inspiration. To distinguish Case itself as a later player from others, Wantedly will hold…

case_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Wantedly, the Japanese startup offering a social recruiting platform under the same name to connect startups with their potential employees, has launched a portfolio showcase platform called Case, aiming to connect creators and companies via products or artworks.

Coinciding with the launch, products made by various startups or creative companies in Japan such as Party, Bascule, Bracket, 1->10design, Fablic and Vasily have as launch partners been displayed on the Wantedly website.

Case allows users to team up and submit ‘projects.’ Any team already formed at Wantedly can submit projects as that team. When submitting projects, names of people concerned in the artworks or products can be put in the ‘credits.’ Although that is common practice in the advertisement field, names have not been visualized in product development so far. Visualization of names on Case will be appreciated by designers or engineers.

case3-620x841

Case aims to assist creators upon gaining inspiration or finding companies that provide excellent works through the displaying of products or artworks. However, there already have been many websites available for exhibition of creators’ portfolios or acquisition of inspiration. To distinguish Case itself as a later player from others, Wantedly will hold the key to success.

Previously on the Wantedly webpages, it was not easy for user companies to provide information about their products or artworks visually. By displaying their own products on Case, these companies can promote their activities more easily. On each company webpage at Case, a button for ‘view job’ is available, in addition to the follow button within Case. Accordingly, user companies will obtain more opportunities to acquire new customers or to recruit creators that match them.

Due to this launch, about 300 pieces of products were collected. The service plans to increase the number of users as targeting creators by having many opportunities to create products, and to attract 2,000 products within several months.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s automatic pet feeder Petly wins Red Dot Design Award, plans global rollout

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See the original story in Japanese. A current model of the pet smart feeder named Petly from Tokyo-based Rinn has received one of the world’s most prestigious design awards, Red Dot Design Award, of Germany. See also: Japanese hardware startup Rinn introduces automatic pet feeder Petly The Red Dot Design Award is one of the largest design awards recognized globally, offered by the German Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen to designs of products which have been manufactured within two years. Awards are made based upon nine criteria such as design innovation, functionality, human engineering, ecology or durability. As for 2016, 5,214 products were considered for the awards from designers or companies in 57 countries, and Petly was awarded the Product Design Award 2016 from among these. The award winning products will be displayed at the Red Dot Design museum as well as website. In Japan, some products labeled ‘Red Dot Design awarded’ are found in interior product and brand item stores. For products like Petly, winning this award will help the team in the future. Rinn had launched the original Petly in July of 2014. After that, it began publishing a life-style magazine entitled MILL Magazine, which focuses on life with…

petly_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

A current model of the pet smart feeder named Petly from Tokyo-based Rinn has received one of the world’s most prestigious design awards, Red Dot Design Award, of Germany.

See also:

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the largest design awards recognized globally, offered by the German Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen to designs of products which have been manufactured within two years. Awards are made based upon nine criteria such as design innovation, functionality, human engineering, ecology or durability.

As for 2016, 5,214 products were considered for the awards from designers or companies in 57 countries, and Petly was awarded the Product Design Award 2016 from among these. The award winning products will be displayed at the Red Dot Design museum as well as website.

petly-reddot-design-award-winner-2016

In Japan, some products labeled ‘Red Dot Design awarded’ are found in interior product and brand item stores. For products like Petly, winning this award will help the team in the future.

Rinn had launched the original Petly in July of 2014. After that, it began publishing a life-style magazine entitled MILL Magazine, which focuses on life with cats, while starting a branding business called Mill Creative, for products related to cats.

mill_screenshot
MILL Magazine

Masahiro Ryohara, CEO of Rinn, commented on his prospects for the future:

Within this year, we will start sales of Mill overseas including EU, Asia and the US, and also will enhance sales of Petly globally. We had planned from the onset to expand sales of MILL for cities seen having large demands for Petly as well. In 2017, we will be placing an IoT (Internet of Things) product on the market too.

While emphasizing the design properties, Rinn has been developing various products and businesses. We look forward to further details of the IoT product planned for launch.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Iichi, Taiwan’s Pinkoi join forces to make handmade marketplaces more vibrant

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See the original story in Japanese. According to Japan’s Hobby White Paper 2014 published by the Hobby Association of Japan, the market size of domestic handicraft items is estimated to be 867.3 billion yen (about $7.8 billion). Among these, the market size of handicrafts traded through C2C (consumer to consumer) transactions via the Internet has been reported at 69.8 billion yen (about $627 million). In Japan, various players such as Minne, Tetote or Creema have been competing on this market. See also: Japan’s Creema launches iOS app, gives users instant access to handmade items sellers Thai handmade marketplace Blisby raises $300K from DeNA, East Ventures, 500 Startups Handmade item marketplace Anders brings new Japanese-flavored designs every Monday Under such a situation, a game change has been wrought by Japan’s Iichi, running a handicraft e-commerce platform under the same name, and Taiwan-originated Pinkoi, the latter running one of the biggest designer markets in Asia. The two outfits announced last week an agreement as to a business partnership. With this partnership, Iichi implements a capital increase through third-party share increase with Pinkoi as the subscriber. As a result, Pinkoi becomes the top shareholder of Iichi, with Iichi CEO Kentaro Iinuma joining Pinkoi…

kentaro-iinuma-peter-yen
L to R: Kentaro Iinuma (CEO of Iichi), Peter Yen (CEO of Pinkoi)

See the original story in Japanese.

According to Japan’s Hobby White Paper 2014 published by the Hobby Association of Japan, the market size of domestic handicraft items is estimated to be 867.3 billion yen (about $7.8 billion).

Among these, the market size of handicrafts traded through C2C (consumer to consumer) transactions via the Internet has been reported at 69.8 billion yen (about $627 million). In Japan, various players such as Minne, Tetote or Creema have been competing on this market.

See also:

Under such a situation, a game change has been wrought by Japan’s Iichi, running a handicraft e-commerce platform under the same name, and Taiwan-originated Pinkoi, the latter running one of the biggest designer markets in Asia. The two outfits announced last week an agreement as to a business partnership.

Iichi
Iichi

With this partnership, Iichi implements a capital increase through third-party share increase with Pinkoi as the subscriber. As a result, Pinkoi becomes the top shareholder of Iichi, with Iichi CEO Kentaro Iinuma joining Pinkoi as a board member and named CEO of Pinkoi Japan.

Iichi started service under a business support program among Hakuhodo DY (TSE: 2433) group companies, and was officially established in 2011 with financial support from Hakuhodo (ad agency), Hakuhodo DY Media Partners (ad agency), Murashiki (cross-border e-commerce operator) and Kayac (TSE:3409, Yokohama-based internet service giant).

Iichi plans to globally develop its handicrafts marketplace business as a joint venture between Pinkoi and the Hakuhodo group. It will engage in the management of both Iichi and Pinkoi Japanese version services.

Pinkoi
Pinkoi

Pinkoi is a Taiwan-originated startup established in 2011. As a marketplace for design products to connect designers and customers throughout the world but mainly in Asia, it has grown to be one of the biggest Asian players with 2 million monthly users.

Pinkoi has expanded its service in 77 countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US, China, Japan and Thailand, covering 5 languages and 12 currencies. It has fundraised a total of $11.1 million from Sequoia Capital and Infinity Venture Partners.

See also:

So, how did this cooperation begin?

Iinuma explains:

Since we wanted to develop our business overseas from the onset, we had already prepared an English version. But some difficulties in local marketing came to light.

Although espying the difficulties, I recognized that high value placed on products from Japan and saw the Asian market as a business opening for cross-border EC services. Peter and I talked about such things over two days last October.

Meanwhile, Pinkoi had been thinking of ways to expand into Japan.

Notes Pinkoi’s CEO Peter Yen:

Since around 2014, we had gradually started research activities in Japan. Making teams and meeting designers, we started to investigate what issues they had and what we could do for them.

In these process, I met Iinuma-san and decided to cooperate with Iichi for our larger vision. We are going to support designers in Japan to advance into the world, not just remain domestic.

Iinuma adds:

Pinkoi’s ability to create services and to advance globalization is what Iichi needed. On the other hand, while Pinkoi wanted to access Japan’s manufacturing market, it is not easy to directly access Japanese creators from overseas. As Iichi plays that part, we can create an ideal complementary relationship.

After this agreement, Iichi’s team will handle the management of both Iichi and Pinkoi in Japan. Since the characteristics of users differ between the two, the team has to develop services in each category. As for marketing in Japan, it aims to improve user recognition together with Hakuhodo.

If the two manage the services hand-in-hand henceforth, the synergy in the context of not only business but also the companies’ culture may become rather important.

Yen agreed on this point:

We both have two cultures. The first one is being a ‘people-first’ community. We are providing value to design-conscious people seeking products with good design.

The second one is the quality of design. Not anybody can sell one’s products on Pinkoi. It is not open but is being curated. Specifically, only one in ten can be registered as a crafter.

Through the curation for designers, Pinkoi is filled with various products where design-conscious people can find what they are really looking for.

A community formed by both designers who have high quality and users who seek their products leads to the value of Pinkoi. The Pinkoi CEO told me that the most important thing for maintaining this status is to have passion to support designers.

Sharing such similar mindsets as to treating crafters kindly, and an attitude to pursue design quality or passion in the team, Iichi and Pinkoi were able to reach this agreement.

The emphasis on the community and the quality of design which is common to both companies will translate into a competitive edge of the services.

Peter continued:

We get top designers in various countries to participate in Pinkoi’s community, so that the community can gain unifying power and attract more designers.

As a result, a lot of design-conscious users are attracted to purchase these designers’ products. While they have good eyes for fashion, good designers want to sell the products to the users as well.

Our advantage is having both the top designers and the design-conscious users.

Iinuma continued:

I think Japanese crafters or designers excel in their abilities. As they enter Pinkoi’s community, the unifying power of the community will be raised further.

In Asia including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand, handicrafts or design products have been gathering more attention. Pinkoi and Iichi empower designers in Japan, and assist them to advance into the emerging Asian market.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s iCARE raises $880,000 to help companies better care for employee health

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See the original story in Japanese. The awareness of “Health and Productivity Management” in which corporations can expect better results in management upon focusing on employees’ health, has recently been enhanced. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has tied up with Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and announced “Health and Productivity Stock Selection”: corporations considering employee health in terms of management and strategically work thereupon. Meanwhile, employee stress check-ups have been mandatory since last December in Japan. Corporations have to deal with various health items but most of them do not have sufficient measures against these due to lack of resources. Tokyo-based healthcare startup iCARE has released Carely, a newly developed healthcare platform for corporates in resolving this situation. In addition, the company recently announced that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund. iCare was founded by three students at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. Launch back in June of 2011, the company had been conducting the activities for the iCARE platform for over the first two years while continuing their previous jobs. They subsequently introduced a medical record management platform called Catchball in 2013. At that time,…

carely_featuredimage
The Carely platform

See the original story in Japanese.

The awareness of “Health and Productivity Management” in which corporations can expect better results in management upon focusing on employees’ health, has recently been enhanced. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has tied up with Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and announced “Health and Productivity Stock Selection”: corporations considering employee health in terms of management and strategically work thereupon.

Meanwhile, employee stress check-ups have been mandatory since last December in Japan. Corporations have to deal with various health items but most of them do not have sufficient measures against these due to lack of resources.

Tokyo-based healthcare startup iCARE has released Carely, a newly developed healthcare platform for corporates in resolving this situation. In addition, the company recently announced that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund.

iCare was founded by three students at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. Launch back in June of 2011, the company had been conducting the activities for the iCARE platform for over the first two years while continuing their previous jobs. They subsequently introduced a medical record management platform called Catchball in 2013.

At that time, people were still less interested in health management and cloud tools.

recalls Yamada Yota, CEO of iCARE. Yamada, an occupational physician, general internist and psychotherapist, asked corporates to adopt the Catchball platform when offering the medical service.

The awareness of health management or cloud tools has changed with the times. At the same time, they have developed the Carely platform. The team’s awareness of the issues has not changed since they launched the Catchball platform. Health information of employees is dispersed and discontinued if the representative changes. They aim to improve this inefficiency which even occupational physicians cannot understand, and to visualize such health information.

Carely dashboard
Carely dashboard

Carely offers centrally integrated management on cloud, visualization and analysis of employees’ health information. Companies can manage personnel / labor information including their attendance, results of medical / stress check-ups and information of occupational physician’s consultation.

By visualizing employees’ personal health information, Carely can specifically respond to users’ needs via chat function based on the health data when a problem occurs or they need to consult a specialist. With this chat function, doctors and public health nurses respond to employees’ health issues based on personal health data. They also provide the content of health-related information such as health guidance after medical checkup or stress check-up via chat.

Carely is, so to speak, an “online infirmary.” Corporates can use the platform for tiresome scheduling of employees’ medical checkup with medical centers or conducting stress check-up and it becomes a medical touchpoint for the employees. In addition to these system uses, iCARE provides Carely PRO which offers health agent service or consulting for health and productivity management. To promote the practical use of Carely they carry out the tasks related to the medical checkup and the stress check-up that are the company’s obligations.

Checkup data is managed on Carely as health information and is utilized for health consulting chats. Moreover, it thoroughly supports the industrial hygienic activities contributing to the health and productivity management such as starting up a system of industrial hygiene or operating daily health committee. Health items are largely divided into the physical and the mental, and each of these are divided into three steps: medical examination task, related task like agent services and consulting task. To date, there is no other platform which covers all of these tasks, told Yamada.

The field of ‘related task’ including agent services is a very difficult part to improve in terms of efficiency and systemization as the task is mostly within the purview of medical centers and thus can be communicated only by fax. Therefore, health platform developers have not worked on this field. We will brush up on our operation in this sector while offering Carely service.

iCARE’s Yamada (left) receives an award at Rising Expo 2014, the annual startup showcase event by CyberAgent Ventures in Tokyo.

The management team at iCARE has experience dealing with business improvement or in enhancing efficiency for the medical sector and leading companies. By optimizing their experience and know-how, they aim to improve their operation of Carely. Their business model has several operational weak points that need to be improved. The related task as mentioned above is one of these, and how the doctors as well as public health nurses respond to chat consulting is also an important point which requires meticulous improvements.

Yamada says,

The time slots employees consult via chat are not during business hours but before/after work or during break time. Therefore, we offer the consulting service for those time periods in addition to holidays upon arranging the work schedule of doctors.

Currently we are repeating the tests to ensure the quality of our service. The advantage of this chat consulting is that we can implement PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) by leveraging the history of chat text. It becomes easier to improve the service by visualizing the ‘black boxed’ points of telephone consulting.

Carely has already been introduced into several companies. Rizap, a well-known Japanese chain of weight-loss gyms, is also one of them. According to Rizap, the consultation rate of employees’ medical checkups has been improved from 50% to more than 90%, since they introduced Carely.

iCARE is prioritizing the brush-up of their service for the moment, and will aim to acquire 100 companies. Carrying out a medical act is not part of iCARE’s goal; the fact is under Japanese law they cannot engage in medical practice. The company has a concept of “cloud hospital” which offers programs related to “prevention and improvement” via cloud. They consolidate the health care data held by corporations, and conduct medical consulting via chat based on health data. In the future, they estimate that they will be able to recommend solutions that meet user’s demands.

By brushing up on Carely, this cloud service will enable small and mid-sized companies that cannot afford to invest in employee health issues, to carry out health support activities. With this fundraising, iCARE will enhance their system of management, development and marketing, while improving their service.

Translated by Minako Ambiru via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Appliv, mobile app discovery platform, expands to India and Singapore

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Nyle (previously known as Volare) has been providing a mobile app discovery platform called Appliv since 2012. The company announced earlier this month that it will launch Indian and Singaporean versions of the platform during this month. Nyle unveiled in September that it would start working on the global expansion of the platform. Followed by launch of the platform in Japan, UK, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Kenya and Ireland, the latest addition will allow them to have a presence in nine different markets. See also: Japan’s Appliv, app discovery platform for mobile users, preparing for global expansion The platform is now available in English only but localized by country because every country has a different language system and unique market circumstance. In our previous interview with Nyle, they claimed that they were to acquire several million users by this spring. English articles reviewing mobile apps are primarily being prepared by the employees at Nyle Asia Pacific, a Filipino subsidiary founded last year. According to the statement, Nyle wants to increase the number of review articles to 10,000 in every market by this summer, to achieve the aforementioned milestone by publishing as many review…

appliv_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Nyle (previously known as Volare) has been providing a mobile app discovery platform called Appliv since 2012. The company announced earlier this month that it will launch Indian and Singaporean versions of the platform during this month.

Nyle unveiled in September that it would start working on the global expansion of the platform. Followed by launch of the platform in Japan, UK, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Kenya and Ireland, the latest addition will allow them to have a presence in nine different markets.

See also:

The platform is now available in English only but localized by country because every country has a different language system and unique market circumstance. In our previous interview with Nyle, they claimed that they were to acquire several million users by this spring. English articles reviewing mobile apps are primarily being prepared by the employees at Nyle Asia Pacific, a Filipino subsidiary founded last year.

According to the statement, Nyle wants to increase the number of review articles to 10,000 in every market by this summer, to achieve the aforementioned milestone by publishing as many review articles as possible.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

C Channel, Ookbee join forces to launch video fashion media for girls in Thailand

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This is part of our coverage of The Bridge Fes 2016. See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based C Channel, a video-based digital fashion media for young women, announced on 19 February that it will launch C Channel Thailand in association with Ookbee, a Thai startup operating e-publication and UGC (user generated content) businesses in Southeast Asia. Launched by Line’s former CEO Akira Morikawa in April 2015, C Channel has been attracting lots of attention because of a unique screen specification adopting vertical video layouts and a content curation system leveraging “clippers,” or aspiring TV stars and fashion models. Their video clips have been played more than 37 million times in the ten months since the launch. Galaxy, the globally renowned smartphone brand from Samsung, was recently appointed as an official sponsor for the C Channel video portal. Known as Amazon in Southeast Asia, Ookbee has been serving 6.5 million users with e-publications, games, apps and others since its launch in 2011. In the C Channel session at The Bridge Fes 2016 event, Ookbee founder and CEO Natavudh Moo Pungcharoenpong spoke before a packed audience: More than half of Ookbee users are teenagers and they are eagerly adopting Japanese make-up…

ookbee-c-channel

This is part of our coverage of The Bridge Fes 2016.

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based C Channel, a video-based digital fashion media for young women, announced on 19 February that it will launch C Channel Thailand in association with Ookbee, a Thai startup operating e-publication and UGC (user generated content) businesses in Southeast Asia.

Launched by Line’s former CEO Akira Morikawa in April 2015, C Channel has been attracting lots of attention because of a unique screen specification adopting vertical video layouts and a content curation system leveraging “clippers,” or aspiring TV stars and fashion models.

Their video clips have been played more than 37 million times in the ten months since the launch. Galaxy, the globally renowned smartphone brand from Samsung, was recently appointed as an official sponsor for the C Channel video portal.

Known as Amazon in Southeast Asia, Ookbee has been serving 6.5 million users with e-publications, games, apps and others since its launch in 2011.

In the C Channel session at The Bridge Fes 2016 event, Ookbee founder and CEO Natavudh Moo Pungcharoenpong spoke before a packed audience:

More than half of Ookbee users are teenagers and they are eagerly adopting Japanese make-up and hairstyles. Thailand is the second-largest country following Japan in terms of the population of Line users, which indicates a high affinity for Japanese culture. We would like to grow together with C Channel in the ASEAN market.

Signing with selected local girls in Thailand as “clippers” through Ookbee, C Channel will provide Thai users with original content curated by them in their local language, anticipating to expand to the shopping business using video clips online.

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C Channel (desktop version)

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson