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

Misoca, Japan’s invoicing startup, reportedly to be acquired by software giant Yayoi

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See the original story in Japanese. Yayoi, a Japanese major accounting software developer and a subsidiary of leading Japanese financial services company Orix (TSE:8591), is reportedly to acquire a whole stake in Japanese cloud-based invoicing startup Misoca for 1 billion yen ($8.9 million). The deal may be completed in this month. While Misoca has been offering participial integration with Yayoi’s cloud-based accounting platform since November 2014, the acquisition will accelerate the mutual integration between Misoca’s invoicing platform and Yayoi’s accounting software solutions. The Misoca platform lets a user edit and manage estimates, invoices, statements of delivery using a handy dashboard. A user can even ask the startup to print and mail these items to clients on the user’s behalf. Since their launch in June 2011, Misoca has acquired more than 58,000 corporate users. Previously known as Standfirm, Misoca secured a 30 million yen ($300,000) seed funding from Incubated Fund in September 2013, followed by securing a 70 million yen ($653,000) funding from SMBC Venture Capital and Incubate Fund in October 2014. In the latest funding round in May 2015, the company fundraised 20 million yen ($178,000) from several angel investors. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson

bookkeeping

See the original story in Japanese.

Yayoi, a Japanese major accounting software developer and a subsidiary of leading Japanese financial services company Orix (TSE:8591), is reportedly to acquire a whole stake in Japanese cloud-based invoicing startup Misoca for 1 billion yen ($8.9 million).

The deal may be completed in this month. While Misoca has been offering participial integration with Yayoi’s cloud-based accounting platform since November 2014, the acquisition will accelerate the mutual integration between Misoca’s invoicing platform and Yayoi’s accounting software solutions.

The Misoca platform lets a user edit and manage estimates, invoices, statements of delivery using a handy dashboard. A user can even ask the startup to print and mail these items to clients on the user’s behalf. Since their launch in June 2011, Misoca has acquired more than 58,000 corporate users.

Previously known as Standfirm, Misoca secured a 30 million yen ($300,000) seed funding from Incubated Fund in September 2013, followed by securing a 70 million yen ($653,000) funding from SMBC Venture Capital and Incubate Fund in October 2014. In the latest funding round in May 2015, the company fundraised 20 million yen ($178,000) from several angel investors.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson

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

Japan’s SmartHR, cloud-based personnel management platform, secures seed round

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See the original story in Japanese. Kufu is a Japanese startup behind SmartHR, a cloud-based personnel management platform. The company recently announced that it has secured funds from East Ventures, DG Incubation, and Beenext. The exact amount is yet to be announced but it is said to amount to several tens of millions in Japanese yen (hundreds of thousand US dollars). SmartHR automates procedures related to social insurance and unemployment insurance. It was developed to free up managers or human resources representatives from tiresome and time-consuming personnel management. Launched back in November 2015, this release was announced during the “Startup Battle” pitch competition of TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 where they were victorious. This service gained a great response right after its release, and 2 months later the number of companies using the company’s service has grown from 200 to 450. Noted Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata upon the funds, It has been growing much larger than we expected. It’s grown 170% from the preceding month so we are re-calculating profit and loss. Although the majority of SmartHR users are companies with 50 to 100 employees, there are also large companies with some 400 to 500 employees. He also commented: We have huge…

kufu-shoji-miyata
Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata

See the original story in Japanese.

Kufu is a Japanese startup behind SmartHR, a cloud-based personnel management platform. The company recently announced that it has secured funds from East Ventures, DG Incubation, and Beenext. The exact amount is yet to be announced but it is said to amount to several tens of millions in Japanese yen (hundreds of thousand US dollars).

SmartHR automates procedures related to social insurance and unemployment insurance. It was developed to free up managers or human resources representatives from tiresome and time-consuming personnel management. Launched back in November 2015, this release was announced during the “Startup Battle” pitch competition of TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 where they were victorious. This service gained a great response right after its release, and 2 months later the number of companies using the company’s service has grown from 200 to 450.

tctokyo-2015-top-prize-winner-smarthr
Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata (right) receives the award from TechCrunch US writer Kim-Mai Cutler.

Noted Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata upon the funds,

It has been growing much larger than we expected. It’s grown 170% from the preceding month so we are re-calculating profit and loss. Although the majority of SmartHR users are companies with 50 to 100 employees, there are also large companies with some 400 to 500 employees.

He also commented:

We have huge demand and numerous inquiries. That also accelerates the improvement of the product.

With the funds raised this time, Kufu plans to strengthen development and the support service system. Keiko Umino, a certified social insurance labor consultant at SmartHR, established a social and labor consultant corporation to deal with the legal procedures under Act on Public Consultants on Social and Labour Insurance; the two companies will cooperate and offer complementary services to users.

See also:

smarthr_screenshot

Miyata says:

At this moment our service is only for the enterprises but in the future we are thinking about providing the management displays to consultants as well. The response from the users made us consider this. SmartHR aims to enable anyone to handle the simplified tasks so certified social insurance consultants can effectively commit highly-valued consulting time.

Upon reflecting on the response from users, Miyata commented that “2016 is the year to brush up on the product!” and has set his target for this year – introducing 3,000 companies – which has remained the same since the site release. However, he has revised the target for 2017 upwards to 30,000 companies.

It looks like SmartHR can alter this industry for the first time in ages and we bid godspeed to this endeavor.

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

News curation app Gunosy buys Game8, Japan’s leading game strategy wiki guide

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See the original story in Japanese. Here a new young entrepreneur has taken another step forward. Gunosy (TSE:6047), the Japanese company behind a news curation app under ths same name, in December announced an agreement to take over Game8, one of Japan’s leading game strategy wiki guides, from its parent company Labit. Gunosy will acquire a 100% in Game8 and turn it into a subsidiary. Game8 started as a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Labit which had developed a schedule app for university students called Sugoi Jikanwari. After transferring the app business to Japan’s Job Direct in 2014, the firm started its game media business led by an employee, Kentaro Nishio, and it showed strong performance. At the stage of recruiting human resources, the game business was spun-off as Game8 where Nishio became CEO. See also: A new service gives Japanese students key info about their classes and profs For a year and four months since its launch, Game8 has grown into a sizeable media with more than 10 million monthly unique users. Looking ahead to further growth, the firm has made the decision to become affiliated by Gunosy. Nishio explained: I could not decide between IPO and M&A, but in the…

game8_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Here a new young entrepreneur has taken another step forward.

Gunosy (TSE:6047), the Japanese company behind a news curation app under ths same name, in December announced an agreement to take over Game8, one of Japan’s leading game strategy wiki guides, from its parent company Labit. Gunosy will acquire a 100% in Game8 and turn it into a subsidiary.

Game8 started as a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Labit which had developed a schedule app for university students called Sugoi Jikanwari. After transferring the app business to Japan’s Job Direct in 2014, the firm started its game media business led by an employee, Kentaro Nishio, and it showed strong performance. At the stage of recruiting human resources, the game business was spun-off as Game8 where Nishio became CEO.

See also:

For a year and four months since its launch, Game8 has grown into a sizeable media with more than 10 million monthly unique users. Looking ahead to further growth, the firm has made the decision to become affiliated by Gunosy.

Nishio explained:

I could not decide between IPO and M&A, but in the end I chose M&A. As a reason for that, what we need is not funding but resources for our business growth or management.

Game8 has already achieved profitability in a single month based on the ad network as its main profit center. On the other hand, website development is handled almost exclusively by Nishio himself, and is facing development resource shortage.

Through this acquisition and becoming able to utilize development resources, not only improved development speed but also enhanced back office environment or joint development of ad products can be expected. Game8 will leverage Gunosy’s accumulated know-how about ad business, while Gunosy aims to acquire new ad clients from the gaming industry.

tetsuya-nagashima-kentaro-nishio
L to R: Gunosy Executive Officer Tetsuya Nagashima, Game8 CEO Kentaro Nishio

With this buyout, Gunosy CEO Yoshinori Fukushima and CFO Mitsushige Ito will join the management board of Game8. While Nishio continues to lead Game8 as its CEO, he joins Gunosy to supervise the web media gunosy.com.

Nishio elaborated:

I am thinking of a way to utilize the data obtained from apps to web media. There has been no service successful for both app and web. Examining the data, I will look for a way under the trial-and-error method. An integration plan of both growth teams has been suggested, so that I think I am supposed to use my time at Game8 and Gunosy equally.

Tstsuya Nagashima, Executive Officer at Gunosy, commented on this acquisition:

We won’t just paste ad banners but will adopt various measures that are beneficial to each user by sharing technical and advertisement know-how.

Gunosy earlier on acquired shares in Pikicast, a Korean startup offering a mobile content curation platform under the same name. Gunosy made clear its intention to continue investing in media having as many monthly active users as Game8.

In the game industry, not only content development but also other related activities including media, video distribution and e-sports have been gaining momentum recently. How will Game8 act in such an environment?

Nishio replied for this question:

I feel that the social status of the game industry is regarded as being lower than other entertainment sectors such as music or fashion. Game8 intends to improve this situation to a level equal to others.

To do so, we must spend more time on it to realize this. While running a web media that’s easy to expand at present, we may need to run other types of business in the future so are preparing teams to do that. We want to build a resilient system that matches our vision.

Nishio has steadily been expanding his media; let us see what further plans he has, what he will do next.

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

Japan’s Moff Band wearable smart-toy lets you play Pac-Man with your body motion

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Moff, offering a wearable smart toy Moff Band, showcased a preview of ‘Pac-Man Powered by Moff’ to be launched this spring, jointly developed with Japan’s major game developer, Bandai Namco Entertainment (TSE:7832). This preview is given this week at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. This is the first app by Moff based on its gamified fitness platform. This preview version allows users wearing the Moff Band connected with Bluetooth to play Pac-Man remotely. For the official version, fitness elements will be added, while the basic game design of Pac-Man where players evade ghosts or eat power-cookies will be kept. The launch of the game at this time, which is associated with the well-known Pac-Man character, should boost Moff’s name recognition in the US. The app was developed through a cooperative business arrangement between the two companies, subsequent to Bandai Namco Entertainment’s investment in Moff last September. Moff CEO Akinori Takahagi said: PAC-MAN Powered by Moff brings a brand-new user experience, while allowing enjoyment of games from olden days and exercising actively for families including children. Our aim is to build new relationships between families and wearable technologies by leveraging our gamified fitness technology…

PAC-MAN-Powered-by-Moff-620x259

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Moff, offering a wearable smart toy Moff Band, showcased a preview of ‘Pac-Man Powered by Moff’ to be launched this spring, jointly developed with Japan’s major game developer, Bandai Namco Entertainment (TSE:7832). This preview is given this week at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. This is the first app by Moff based on its gamified fitness platform.

This preview version allows users wearing the Moff Band connected with Bluetooth to play Pac-Man remotely. For the official version, fitness elements will be added, while the basic game design of Pac-Man where players evade ghosts or eat power-cookies will be kept.

The launch of the game at this time, which is associated with the well-known Pac-Man character, should boost Moff’s name recognition in the US. The app was developed through a cooperative business arrangement between the two companies, subsequent to Bandai Namco Entertainment’s investment in Moff last September.

Moff CEO Akinori Takahagi said:

PAC-MAN Powered by Moff brings a brand-new user experience, while allowing enjoyment of games from olden days and exercising actively for families including children. Our aim is to build new relationships between families and wearable technologies by leveraging our gamified fitness technology through cooperation with leading companies in the entertainment field.

See also:

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson and “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Secual, smart home security startup, ties up with major vacation rentals agencies

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Secual, the Japanese startup developing smart home security solutions under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised about 60 million yen (about $500,000) from two vacation rental agencies  / apartment rental companies in Japan: Adventure and Ambition. In addition to the funds, Secual has tied up with these two companies for a potential business synergy such as utilization of smart locks, home security cameras and other smart home products. Secual has successfully raised more than six times its initial goal of 1 million yen ($8,300) on the Makuake crowdfunding site this year. The company recently started receiving pre-orders for their products on AppBank Store, the e-commerce outlet of a leading iPhone/iPad service review website in Japan. They are also running a Secual giveaway campaign for users of Ietty, a Japanese apartment hunting platform. In our previous interview, the company asserted that they would expand their approach to the areas where they can find potential chemistry with users. Using the latest funds, they are expected to strengthen human resources for sales and development. Secual is now trying to start shipment of their first product from February next year. Translated by Masaru Ikeda…

secual_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Secual, the Japanese startup developing smart home security solutions under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised about 60 million yen (about $500,000) from two vacation rental agencies  / apartment rental companies in Japan: Adventure and Ambition. In addition to the funds, Secual has tied up with these two companies for a potential business synergy such as utilization of smart locks, home security cameras and other smart home products.

Secual has successfully raised more than six times its initial goal of 1 million yen ($8,300) on the Makuake crowdfunding site this year. The company recently started receiving pre-orders for their products on AppBank Store, the e-commerce outlet of a leading iPhone/iPad service review website in Japan. They are also running a Secual giveaway campaign for users of Ietty, a Japanese apartment hunting platform.

In our previous interview, the company asserted that they would expand their approach to the areas where they can find potential chemistry with users. Using the latest funds, they are expected to strengthen human resources for sales and development.
Secual is now trying to start shipment of their first product from February next year.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s smart-toy startup Moff ties up with PBS KIDS, launches learning app in US

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Moff, offering a wearable smart toy called Moff Band, has made a further progress in North America, followed by fundraising 1.6 million yen (about $1.3 million) from Japanese gaming giant Bandai Namco Entertainment (TSE:3832), mobile gaming developer Orso, investment company TomyK, and other angel investors in September. Moff recently announced the launch of its first intellectual training app called PBS KIDS Party, jointly developed with America’s major educational media brand PBS KIDS. Connecting with Moff Band, Moff’s flagship smart bracelet device, the new app allows users to play games such as freeze dance, Piñata burst or countdown to launch a rocket by swinging their arm. It’s an educational content developed as a compilation of PBS KIDS’ knowledge on creating learning content and Moff’s product offering gamification experience through the connected smart device. Upon launch of the new app, Moff CEO Akinori Takahagi made the following comment: While this partnership gives us a number of merits, the most significant part of it is that we could create the content considering the cultural background and characteristics of the US. Thanks to PBS KIDS taking on all tasks in the content creation, we were able to…

pbs-kids-party_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Moff, offering a wearable smart toy called Moff Band, has made a further progress in North America, followed by fundraising 1.6 million yen (about $1.3 million) from Japanese gaming giant Bandai Namco Entertainment (TSE:3832), mobile gaming developer Orso, investment company TomyK, and other angel investors in September. Moff recently announced the launch of its first intellectual training app called PBS KIDS Party, jointly developed with America’s major educational media brand PBS KIDS.

moff
Moff Band

Connecting with Moff Band, Moff’s flagship smart bracelet device, the new app allows users to play games such as freeze dance, Piñata burst or countdown to launch a rocket by swinging their arm. It’s an educational content developed as a compilation of PBS KIDS’ knowledge on creating learning content and Moff’s product offering gamification experience through the connected smart device.

Upon launch of the new app, Moff CEO Akinori Takahagi made the following comment:

While this partnership gives us a number of merits, the most significant part of it is that we could create the content considering the cultural background and characteristics of the US. Thanks to PBS KIDS taking on all tasks in the content creation, we were able to focus on engineering and technology development. Using the app, children can learn with their familiar characters under the highly-reputed mega brand, which gives them and their parents a sense of security.

In the joint app development process between Japan and the US, he said that his team had been struggling upon communication due to language barriers and time difference but they appointed a bilingual project manager to surmount these issues.

Takahagi then elaborated his plan and prospect for the future:

We will continue developing more intellectual training apps. Compared to passive desultory viewing of displayed content, inculcation utilizing gestures will better benefit kids. Since wearable devices are becoming more commonplace, we foresee a huge demand from content holders. Looking ahead, we want to explore more partnerships with various businesses.

See also:

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

Japanese deli delivery service Okan raises from Yahoo Japan subsidiary, others

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Okan provides an on-demand delivery service for Japanese deli foods for corporate customers. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised an undisclosed amount from YJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, and CA Mobile. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) while CA Mobile is a mobile-focused subsidiary of Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from CyberAgent Ventures and food delivery company Oisix (TSE:3182) in June of 2014. With the service Office Okan, corporate customers will receive Japanese deli once a month, since the deli lasts about a month. These can be refrigerated, and users can buy it by dropping coins to the collection box on the fridge and prepare it in about minutes. Having been attracting many local businesses since its launch back one and a half years ago, the service is now adopted at many offices without massive promotion efforts. In addition to people’s raising awareness of health, the company claims that this was supported by the recent transition about how companies provide welfare for their employees; the shift from providing recreation facilities and other asset-based services…

okan_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Okan provides an on-demand delivery service for Japanese deli foods for corporate customers. The company announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised an undisclosed amount from YJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital, and CA Mobile. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) while CA Mobile is a mobile-focused subsidiary of Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from CyberAgent Ventures and food delivery company Oisix (TSE:3182) in June of 2014.

With the service Office Okan, corporate customers will receive Japanese deli once a month, since the deli lasts about a month. These can be refrigerated, and users can buy it by dropping coins to the collection box on the fridge and prepare it in about minutes. Having been attracting many local businesses since its launch back one and a half years ago, the service is now adopted at many offices without massive promotion efforts.

In addition to people’s raising awareness of health, the company claims that this was supported by the recent transition about how companies provide welfare for their employees; the shift from providing recreation facilities and other asset-based services to providing the service that employees can use on a daily basis.

Okan CEO Keita Sawaki says,

Not only specific sectors like IT venture companies but also many companies from various industries, including listed companies, are using our service. We believe that our service can be a ‘defacto standard’ to companies to improve their work environment and support employees’ lives.

In addition to Office Okan, we will develop more solutions to support companies and their people in various ways. We want to keep making efforts to lead the industry providing B2E (business to employees) solutions.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s Ietty secures $1.6 million in funding to improve your apartment hunt

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The movement to promote the utilization of IT in the fields of legacy has been increasing in a couple of years. Real estate is one of the fields where various players are acting to try to assimilate with technology. The movement of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is one of the backgrounds which is activating the players’ activities. The ministry has established an investigation committee to enable non face-to-face explanation of important matters, which had to be done face to face so far, by using the Internet and other tools. The committee had been held repeatedly in 2014. The Japan Association of New Economy, led by founders of Japanese internet businesses including Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures, also has been making some actions such as makin proposals in the committee. As a result, social experiments focusing on the ban of online real estate transactions have been started since this August. A movement is also following among startups as if corresponding these movements. Ietty, the Japanese startup behind an online real estate platform under the same names, has now secured a total of 200 million yen (approximately $1.6 million) from Investors Cloud (cloud service provider for apartment investors),…

ietty-taihei-ogawa
Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa

The movement to promote the utilization of IT in the fields of legacy has been increasing in a couple of years. Real estate is one of the fields where various players are acting to try to assimilate with technology.

The movement of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is one of the backgrounds which is activating the players’ activities. The ministry has established an investigation committee to enable non face-to-face explanation of important matters, which had to be done face to face so far, by using the Internet and other tools. The committee had been held repeatedly in 2014.

The Japan Association of New Economy, led by founders of Japanese internet businesses including Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures, also has been making some actions such as makin proposals in the committee. As a result, social experiments focusing on the ban of online real estate transactions have been started since this August.

A movement is also following among startups as if corresponding these movements. Ietty, the Japanese startup behind an online real estate platform under the same names, has now secured a total of 200 million yen (approximately $1.6 million) from Investors Cloud (cloud service provider for apartment investors), Sansei Capital (the investment arm of Mitsui Life Insurance), Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mizuho Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital.

A business synergy by cooperation with each subscriber is also expected. Since real estate is often related with insurance and finance, there is a potential of cooperation with Mitsui Life Insurance, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, and Mizuho Bank. Investors Cloud has a business synergy as a real estate company which is strong in the Internet, and Dentsu as a company which has knowledge to reach the masses.

iettyhouse
The Ietty website

Since the beta launch of its platform in June of 2013, Ietty fundraised $500,000 from I Mercury Capital, or the investment arm of Japanese mobile gaming giant Mixi, followed by another $1.9 million funding from YJ Capital (the investment arm of Yahoo Japan), and Incubate Fund. The company started expanding its business range such as providing Ietty Biz , the welfare service for corporations while also setting up a real store in Tokyo.

Ietty initially started as a recommendation service of real estate. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gradually replace recommendation function though our readers might know. Even in Ietty, about 80% of proposals of properties are performed by the algorithm. When the environment over real estate changes as introduced in the introduction, the replacement of existing works, making network of people who have real-estate and building license and ordering business by cloud sourcing for example, will be possible.

Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa explained:

As online system of real estate develops, AI replaces salespeople and cloud sourcing is going to be used actively. Then, the cost of operation side decreases and a commission competition will occur.

The real estate world was not facing users so far. Ietty focuses on the attitude of user first thoroughly. The business model is going to be different than what it is now from now on. Nothing will be more important than telling no lies to users for sustainable grow up. We attend to users as a 24-hour real estate agent in smartphones anytime.

If a commission war occurs, Ogawa predicts that some companies among online real estate agent survive and the different shades of services are expected to be made. For Ietty, being ”user first” might be a feature of its service. On the other hand, it will be difficult for real estate agents in town, the business model of labor intensive, to remain if commission fees are lowered. How does ietty ,who has been providing its service by building network with real estate agents in town manage?

In response, Ogawa says,

Certainly, the service which was provided by agents in town thus far is going to be completed online. However, locality might be lost with that kind of service-providing. No one can beat local real estate agents at the information such as what the town is like and what kinds of stores are around. We want ietty to keep the network with local agents and vary the relationships.

Ietty plans to have a service renewal around next February and is going to perform enhancement of service development, repletion of sales structure and enhancement of marketing function based on this funding. Ietty currently expects to have over 100 million yen ($810,000) annual sales and aims positive balance within this year.

Translated by Azusa Murano via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

NES cartridge-like device Picocassette to offer novel gaming experiences on mobile

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See the original story in Japanese. Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983. However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone. Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette. See also: Beatrobo raises $1.1M, has ambitions to replace the CD The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims…

picocasette_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983.

However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone.

Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette.

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The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims to nurture this into its mainline business.

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From the left: Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda, Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama

Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama comments:

Once license management of a game has been permitted, Sirok optimizes the property for playing with smartphones. By adopting touch operation or swiping, we can fine tune the product offerings from the game feature perspective. Development of original games is also planned for the future.

While some “old favorite” game remakes for smartphones tend to be avoided by game geeks due to differences in the operation feel, their optimization may reduce mismatches in platform porting.

Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda outlines the vision of Picocassette:

To provide games as smartphone apps, we need to have users search them from among a million titles on App Store or Google Play. Being limited to this market alone is too restrictive. Picocassette enables game sales at a variety of locations. It can also be used as a premium for making a certain purchase so the purchasers for play it on a trial basis. I foresee future use of Picocassette as a sales promotion tool too.

Asaeda added that it would be interesting if games within Picocassette can be sold at events like Comiket (“flea markets” for comics buffs in Japan); it could possibly be handled like CD-Rs of yore.

Today, when just a smartphone and apps are needed to play games, the Picocassette approach of aiming to develop a game software device may appear irrational. Yet, the goal set by Asaeda and Ishiyama appears to be the redesign of the “game purchase” experience itself. Godspeed!

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy