THE BRIDGE

Masaru Ikeda

Masaru Ikeda

Masaru started his career as a programmer/engineer, and previously co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms. He’s been traveling around Silicon Valley and Asia exploring the IT industry, and he also curates event updates for the Tokyo edition of Startup Digest.

Articles

New Japanese travel curation site achieves 600K pageviews just 10 days after launch

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Based on the original article in Japanese We’ve been seeing many flavors of curation media here in Japan recently, including Iemo, focused on interior design, and Mery, focused on women’s interests. Those entities aim to compete with other online media by providing selected information and presenting it with sophisticated design, rather than creating their own content from scratch. We’ve seen popular curation media thrive in the US, and Upworthy was a prime example of that. Back on February 22, a travel curation media site called Tabilabo was launched. It was started by Yuki Naruse and Shotaro Kushi, both of whom studied in the US and have traveled around the world, and each has experienced starting a business more than once. We spoke to them about how and why they launched Tabilabo. Naruse: There are many books and media that introduce world culture or show pictures of beautiful scenery from around the world. But on the other hand, when you visit a travel agency or on online reservation site, they have very small amount of information, perhaps just a thin brochure. There is often no connection between motivating people to travel and the place (on a site) where users actually take…

tabilabo_screenshot

Based on the original article in Japanese

We’ve been seeing many flavors of curation media here in Japan recently, including Iemo, focused on interior design, and Mery, focused on women’s interests. Those entities aim to compete with other online media by providing selected information and presenting it with sophisticated design, rather than creating their own content from scratch. We’ve seen popular curation media thrive in the US, and Upworthy was a prime example of that.

Back on February 22, a travel curation media site called Tabilabo was launched. It was started by Yuki Naruse and Shotaro Kushi, both of whom studied in the US and have traveled around the world, and each has experienced starting a business more than once. We spoke to them about how and why they launched Tabilabo.

Naruse: There are many books and media that introduce world culture or show pictures of beautiful scenery from around the world. But on the other hand, when you visit a travel agency or on online reservation site, they have very small amount of information, perhaps just a thin brochure. There is often no connection between motivating people to travel and the place (on a site) where users actually take action. We want to make these two points more seamlessly connected.

There are three categories on the website: “feel the world,” “know the world,” and “travel the world.”

Users can see curated content in the “feel the world” section and Talilabo’s own content in “know the world” section. They are planning to sell travel packages in the “travel the world” section, where they aim to monetize the business.

Kushi: Consider how Uber stands between users and taxi companies, and matches the supply and demand. But the important part is that Uber handles the payment part, and they can expand their business by utilizing a vast amount of payment information. We have not decided yet if we will get a license to run our own travel agency, or if we’ll tie up with other companies – but either way we believe handling users payment on our own is very important for business.

Co-founders of Tabilabo, Yuki Naruse (left) and Shotaro Kushi (right)
Co-founders of Tabilabo, Yuki Naruse (left) and Shotaro Kushi (right)

The company will target users ranging from their late teens to early thirties, or digital natives to be more specific. They want to attract not only those who have a great interest in travel, but also those who haven’t travelled much before. I expected to hear they were targetting people earning above a certain salary, but they have a different approach. They’ll try to change the way people decide to go travelling.

600K pageviews 10 days after launch

The user interface of Tabilabo is very similar to that of US-based digital news site Quartz. It implements some promising aspects from other successful cases both inside and outside Japan.

Naruse: Currently we post about two articles a day, but we always have dozens of articles in stock. We believe that the titles of articles are very important to reach as many readers as possible, so we get support from 120 people we called “ambassadors” who choose the best title out of about 50 ideas for articles.

Only 10 days after their February 22 launch, they reached 600,000 pageviews. They hope to eventually reach 100 million monthly pageviews.

The company plans to reach an exit resulting in billions of yen in about two years. They are currently looking at possibilities of fundraise from a few angel investors, so don’t be surprised if we bring you more good news from them in the near future.

Tokyo Office Tour: Japan’s Sansan wants to evolve how the world does contact management

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Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals). Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants. One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts…

Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals).

Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants.

One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts or exporting profiles for use in other apps.

In order to make it easier for Eight users to scan business cards from new contacts, Sansan has announced new services today in partnership with some business solution providers. The company has tied up with 10 co-working spaces in Tokyo, where entrepreneurs and SME owners can easily save the profiles of their contacts onto Eight using scanners at those sites. They will also provide a similar service at certain printing outlets.

Sansan has been intensifying its promotional efforts in the North American market as well, and it will be interesting to see how their solutions are accepted in regions beyond Japan.

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The Eight team
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At reception, you can call them using the digital board for an appointment.
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A nice soft sofa for employees when they get a little tired.
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This gong is rung when a significant announcement is made, if they achieve a sales milestone for example.
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A scanner for the Sansan and Eight solutions
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Hiroshi Senju, director of marketing for ‘Eight’
Flowers sent from well-known entrepreneurs and investors celebrating Sansan’s office relocation

  1. Previously known as Link Knowledge.

Japanese startup Translimit raises $100,000 to launch social quiz app

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Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced today that it has raised 10 million yen (about $100,000) from Genuine Startups [1] and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app with social competition features. The app will be called BrainWars, with an iOS version coming in mid-April, and an Android version to follow in June. BrainWars pits players against one another, playing three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs better. Since these games require no verbal response [2], and users around the world can play and compete against each other regardless of language. The match is arranged to let you to play in real time, but if you can’t find anyone available to compete with, you can compete with someone you know according to their past results. In this space, we’ve already seen US-based Plain Vanilla Games, the startup behind trivia app QuizUp, which secured series B funding of $22 million from Sequoia Capital late last year. Here in Japan Namco Bandai has been selling a brain exercise app called Zen Notore. There’s Colopl Quiz RPG which has seen some success as well (iOS/Android). Translimit was initially launched back in January by Hiroki…

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Translimit CEO Hiroki Takaba

Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced today that it has raised 10 million yen (about $100,000) from Genuine Startups [1] and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app with social competition features. The app will be called BrainWars, with an iOS version coming in mid-April, and an Android version to follow in June.

BrainWars pits players against one another, playing three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs better. Since these games require no verbal response [2], and users around the world can play and compete against each other regardless of language. The match is arranged to let you to play in real time, but if you can’t find anyone available to compete with, you can compete with someone you know according to their past results.

battlehome

In this space, we’ve already seen US-based Plain Vanilla Games, the startup behind trivia app QuizUp, which secured series B funding of $22 million from Sequoia Capital late last year. Here in Japan Namco Bandai has been selling a brain exercise app called Zen Notore. There’s Colopl Quiz RPG which has seen some success as well (iOS/Android).

Translimit was initially launched back in January by Hiroki Takaba and Takuma Kudo, both of whom previously worked at CyberAgent companies. They have been involved in several game projects together, including the virtual avatar service Ameba Pico (which shut down back in 2012) and mobile social game Girl Friend BETA. The Translimit team is participating in Movida Japan incubation program here in Tokyo.


  1. Genuine Startups is an investment fund spun off from Movida Japan.
  2. It could be a mathematical equation where you have to fill in the operator, for example.

Home design marketplace Suvaco raises $1.2 million

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Tokyo-based Suvaco, a home design marketplace startup, announced yesterday that it has raised $120 million yen (or about $1.18 million) from Fuji Startup Ventures and Mobile Internet Capital. [1] Since their launch back in July, Suvaco has been providing a market place focused on home designs, where you can easily find interior or exterior designers by browsing their portfolio photos. Through a partnership with 200 home construction companies, to date the marketplace has acquired more than 8,000 examples of home renovation. Fuji Startup Ventures’s sister company is media entity Fusosha. Coinciding with these funds, Suvaco has partnered with this publishing company to jointly launch a website that lists home renovation examples and connects potential customers with partnering construction companies. Suvaco will charge the construction companies on a monthly or sales performance basis. Fuji Startup Ventures is the investment arm of Japan’s leading private broadcaster Fuji TV. Mobile Internet Capital is an investment firm founded by former Intel Japan CEO Ikuo Nishioka. ↩

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Tokyo-based Suvaco, a home design marketplace startup, announced yesterday that it has raised $120 million yen (or about $1.18 million) from Fuji Startup Ventures and Mobile Internet Capital. [1]

Since their launch back in July, Suvaco has been providing a market place focused on home designs, where you can easily find interior or exterior designers by browsing their portfolio photos. Through a partnership with 200 home construction companies, to date the marketplace has acquired more than 8,000 examples of home renovation.

Fuji Startup Ventures’s sister company is media entity Fusosha. Coinciding with these funds, Suvaco has partnered with this publishing company to jointly launch a website that lists home renovation examples and connects potential customers with partnering construction companies. Suvaco will charge the construction companies on a monthly or sales performance basis.


  1. Fuji Startup Ventures is the investment arm of Japan’s leading private broadcaster Fuji TV. Mobile Internet Capital is an investment firm founded by former Intel Japan CEO Ikuo Nishioka.

New partnerships announced in Japanese payments processing space

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Recruit Life Style, a subsidiary of Japan’s Recruit Holdings, and US-based payment processing company Square announced yesterday they will integrate Recruit’s register tablet app AirRegi and Square’s payment service Square Register later this month. Both companies jointly started accepting applications from store owners for a combination of these services. At the same time, Japanese payment company Coiney also announced yesterday that it has partnered with NTT East. Coiney’s card-swiping solution will be integrated NTT East’s tablet-based register app Raku Regi, and through this partnership store owners using a combination of their technologies will no longer need to enter the billing amount into two different terminals. On a related note, tabled-based register app Yubiregi partnered with cloud-based accounting solution Freee last October, providing convenience for their users in a somewhat similar way. These integrations can reduce time-consuming work when closing the register at the end of the day, helping retail store owners concentrate on more primary tasks.

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Recruit Life Style, a subsidiary of Japan’s Recruit Holdings, and US-based payment processing company Square announced yesterday they will integrate Recruit’s register tablet app AirRegi and Square’s payment service Square Register later this month. Both companies jointly started accepting applications from store owners for a combination of these services.

At the same time, Japanese payment company Coiney also announced yesterday that it has partnered with NTT East. Coiney’s card-swiping solution will be integrated NTT East’s tablet-based register app Raku Regi, and through this partnership store owners using a combination of their technologies will no longer need to enter the billing amount into two different terminals.

On a related note, tabled-based register app Yubiregi partnered with cloud-based accounting solution Freee last October, providing convenience for their users in a somewhat similar way. These integrations can reduce time-consuming work when closing the register at the end of the day, helping retail store owners concentrate on more primary tasks.

Mixi partners with Tencent to expand into Chinese gaming market

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Tokyo-based Mixi announced today that it has partnered with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring its popular Monster Strike game to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao. Mixi’s Monster Strike is an RPG for iOS and Android, and since its launch last October, the title has acquired over three million users. Our readers may recall its rapid growth has helped the company return to profit, with Mixi’s game department general manager Hiroki Morita moving up to take on the CEO role. Coinciding with the Tencent partnership, Mixi will start an aggressive promotion of Monster Strike in Japan tomorrow, including a new TV commercial (see below) broadcast on many networks.

monsterstrike-mixi-tencent-logos

Tokyo-based Mixi announced today that it has partnered with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring its popular Monster Strike game to mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao.

Mixi’s Monster Strike is an RPG for iOS and Android, and since its launch last October, the title has acquired over three million users. Our readers may recall its rapid growth has helped the company return to profit, with Mixi’s game department general manager Hiroki Morita moving up to take on the CEO role.

Coinciding with the Tencent partnership, Mixi will start an aggressive promotion of Monster Strike in Japan tomorrow, including a new TV commercial (see below) broadcast on many networks.

Translation app Waygo wins HackOsaka pitch contest

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See the original article in Japanese HackOsaka 2014, held earlier this month in Osaka, featured a pitch contest where 10 startups pitched their services and products. I’d like to introduce the prize winning startups below. Gold Prize: Waygo Awarded 500,000 yen ($5000), a round-trip ticket to London sponsored by British Airways, a Pebble Watch. Waygo is a translation app using that uses OCR technology. When the user scans Chinese sentences with their smartphone camera, the app will translate that sentence into English even without an internet connection. We previously mentioned this app when we covered Echelon 2013 and Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2013. Last year, the startup took part in 500 Startups’ incubation program, and subsequently raised $900,000. CEO Ryan Rogowski shared two updates at the event. The first is that they are going to release a new version of their app that translates Chinese into Japanese. The other (and perhaps the most interesting one) is that they are now developing a prototype app for Google Glass. Silver Prize: TransferGo Awarded 300,000 yen ($3000), Pebble Watch Many people need to make international money transfers. But service charges at banks can be expensive, as are other transfer services like Western Union….

hackosaka-2014-competition-final

See the original article in Japanese

HackOsaka 2014, held earlier this month in Osaka, featured a pitch contest where 10 startups pitched their services and products. I’d like to introduce the prize winning startups below.

Gold Prize: Waygo

Awarded 500,000 yen ($5000), a round-trip ticket to London sponsored by British Airways, a Pebble Watch.

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Waygo CEO/founder Ryan Rogowski

Waygo is a translation app using that uses OCR technology. When the user scans Chinese sentences with their smartphone camera, the app will translate that sentence into English even without an internet connection. We previously mentioned this app when we covered Echelon 2013 and Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2013. Last year, the startup took part in 500 Startups’ incubation program, and subsequently raised $900,000.

CEO Ryan Rogowski shared two updates at the event. The first is that they are going to release a new version of their app that translates Chinese into Japanese. The other (and perhaps the most interesting one) is that they are now developing a prototype app for Google Glass.

Silver Prize: TransferGo

Awarded 300,000 yen ($3000), Pebble Watch

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TransferGo co-founder/CEO Daumantas Dvilinskas

Many people need to make international money transfers. But service charges at banks can be expensive, as are other transfer services like Western Union.

TransferGo, a startup based in Lithuania and London, offers international money transfers service at reasonable price. The transfer flow goes like this:

  • A user transfers money to the local TransferGo account, thus paying only a domestic transfer fee
  • TransferGo will then send the money from the TransferGo’s local account to a TransferGo account in the recipient’s country, and then on to the recipient.

The transfer fee is £2.50 plus 1.5% of the total amount of transferred. The company’s real rate of return is pretty high at 70%, and they have acquired licenses from authorities in the countries where they offer the service.

TransferGo was launched in May of 2013, and the number of the transfers in the first month was 941. But in January of 2014, that number shot up to 6,837. Currently they have 21,000 users and 98% of them said they want to recommend the service to friends. TransferGo is currently only available in Europe, but the startup aims to expand to other areas, including Asia.

Bronze Prize: StudyPact

Awarded 100,000 yen ($1000), Pebble Watch

hackosaka-2014-competition-studypact

StudyPact is a service that lets users to set a study goal and monetary stakes as as sort of bet with themselves. For example, you can set a goal of studying English for two hours a week, and then set the target stakes at $5. If you reach that goal, you get $5, but if not, you have to pay $5. In the event that you have to pay, the fee is split in half among users who supported the goal and the rest will go to StudyPact.

To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx. The prototype that implemented Anki is expected to be released in early March, and there are plans develop apps for Android, Chrome, FireFox and iPhone. They’re now participating in an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab, so let’s wait and see what they present at the demo day in a few months.

Crosscorp Prize: Slumbor

Awarded 1-year free pass to co-working spaces run by Crosscorp in Singapore, Jakarta, Delhi, and Ho Chi Minh City.

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AnSing Technology CEO Dr. Hu Junhao

Slumbor is a Singapore-based startup producing a sort of smart mat designed to be put under your pillow. The mat has sensors that acquire various data, which are then transferred to the user’s smartphone via BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The startup currently attends a program run by the IoT incubator, HAXLR8R. They plan to raise funds at Kickstarter later on.

In addition to these four prize winners, I’d like to introduce two more startups that stood out for me in the competition.

Ontrox

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Ontrox CEO, Kazuki Arita

Ontrox is a startup aspiring to reduce traffic jams by using big data. The CEO says that by using such data, you can see certain patterns of traffic jams in cities. The advantage of Ontrox, he says, lies in their unique technology that can visualize the pattern of traffic jams and shorten the processing time for visualization.

The same technology can be used for other purposes such as analyzing and optimizing computer network data, or analyzing users’ online behavior on e-commerce sites. The startup was selected as one of 10 startups to participate in SVIP (Silicon Valley Innovative Program) hosted by the Japan External Trade Organization, which aims to launch global services from Silicon Valley.

Warrantee

hackosaka-2014-competition-warantee

Warrantee, an Osaka-based startup, aims to digitalize product warranties. When you buy a product, you typically have to fill out information on a paper form to validate the warranty. But because this is a time consuming process, many users skip it.

Warrantee proposes a one-stop process, registering personal data in advance on their service. In this way the user can quickly register warranties for different products or from different companies. There are many cases where retail stores offer additional paid warranties, so the startup plans to earn a service charge from retailers by motivating users to opt into such additional warranties. Another business opportunity lies in tying up with retailers, allowing them to utilize user data accumulated on Warrantee for the retailer promotions.

hackosaka-2014-networking

Japan’s Line announces the launch of three new services

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Tokyo-based Line, the company behind the messaging app of the same name, held a press event today called “LINE Showcase 2014”, where it unveiled the launch of three new services. Line Creators Market This feature allows users to sell their own stickers on Line’s marketplace. To date Line has been providing stickers made by the company’s own designers. But this allows all users and third-party developers to make money by creating their own stickers. Your stickers will be reviewed before they make it onto the marketplace. You can participate in the marketplace for free, and a set of 40 different stickers can be sold for 100 yen (approximately $1). 50% of those sales will go to sticker designers. The feature will be launched this coming April. Line Business Connect This feature allows corporate users to engage your customers more effectively using the messaging app. By providing an API, it allows you to connect to your customers using your own CRM (customer relationship management) solutions or other in-house tools. For example, users could place an order for pizza by sending a designated sticker to a pizza delivery chain, or hail a cab by sending your geographical location using the app. Line…

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Tokyo-based Line, the company behind the messaging app of the same name, held a press event today called “LINE Showcase 2014”, where it unveiled the launch of three new services.

Line Creators Market

line-store_screenshot

This feature allows users to sell their own stickers on Line’s marketplace. To date Line has been providing stickers made by the company’s own designers. But this allows all users and third-party developers to make money by creating their own stickers.

Your stickers will be reviewed before they make it onto the marketplace. You can participate in the marketplace for free, and a set of 40 different stickers can be sold for 100 yen (approximately $1). 50% of those sales will go to sticker designers. The feature will be launched this coming April.

Line Business Connect

line-business-connect_screenshot

This feature allows corporate users to engage your customers more effectively using the messaging app. By providing an API, it allows you to connect to your customers using your own CRM (customer relationship management) solutions or other in-house tools.

For example, users could place an order for pizza by sending a designated sticker to a pizza delivery chain, or hail a cab by sending your geographical location using the app.

Line Call

(This is a literal translation from its Japanese name)

line-call_screenshot

This feature is similar to Skype in that it lets users call landline or mobile phones at affordable rates. All you need to pay is the connection charge which starts at 2 yen (or about 2 US cents) per minute. The service is planned to be launched in March, and will be available for calls to Japan, the US, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, some news sources recently reported that the company would be possibly acquired by Japanese telco Softbank. But the company’s COO Takeshi Idesawa denied that rumor at the conference today.

[Source: CNet Japan]

Can Osaka be a startup hub?

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This is an abridged version of the original report in Japanese. The HackOsaka 2014 conference recently took place here in Japan, with the aim of boosting the startup community in Japan’s Kansai region. This year Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky and Berg CEO Matt Webb were invited as special guests. Pebble, of course, is the smart watch developer that was funded by Y-Combinator. Berg is based in London, offering an ‘Internet of Things’ cloud platform for third-party developers. Together with Masahiko Inada, the CEO of Kabuku [1], they participated in an panel discussion moderated by journalist Tsuruaki Yukawa. While many major companies in Japan have their headquarters in Tokyo, many CEOs are originally from Osaka. Yukawa explained a little about Osaka’s history of entrepreneurship: My father was a merchant. In fact, when I was a kid, all the parents except maybe one were merchants. Even though there are strong entrepreneurship roots in Osaka, the city is not the startup hub in Japan. Everyone goes to Tokyo. What should we do? Matt noted that the situation is similar to what London previously experienced: A lot of startups in London left for the USA. Because we didn’t have funds, there was no way…

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This is an abridged version of the original report in Japanese.

The HackOsaka 2014 conference recently took place here in Japan, with the aim of boosting the startup community in Japan’s Kansai region. This year Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky and Berg CEO Matt Webb were invited as special guests. Pebble, of course, is the smart watch developer that was funded by Y-Combinator. Berg is based in London, offering an ‘Internet of Things’ cloud platform for third-party developers. Together with Masahiko Inada, the CEO of Kabuku [1], they participated in an panel discussion moderated by journalist Tsuruaki Yukawa.

While many major companies in Japan have their headquarters in Tokyo, many CEOs are originally from Osaka. Yukawa explained a little about Osaka’s history of entrepreneurship:

My father was a merchant. In fact, when I was a kid, all the parents except maybe one were merchants. Even though there are strong entrepreneurship roots in Osaka, the city is not the startup hub in Japan. Everyone goes to Tokyo. What should we do?

Matt noted that the situation is similar to what London previously experienced:

A lot of startups in London left for the USA. Because we didn’t have funds, there was no way to tie up with big companies. We didn’t have a community.

Of course, community plays an important role in any startup scene. And Eric stressed the benefits that the startup community provides in Silicon Valley.

hackosaka-2014-iot-ericWhen you develop a minimum viable product, you can get both positive and negative feedback from the community. Taking that feedback into account, and continuing development in a constructive manner is important.

At a large company, a CEO can get feedback from his or her board members. But at a startup, a founder often has to rely on himself or herself. Because of this, community support can be just as important as fundraising and market chance.

Matt said it is important to name a community if you want to develop it. The area around Old Street station in East London had been called Silicon Roundabout, but later the UK government named the area TechCity with the intention to invite more startups there. This has helped to raise public awareness. People started thinking about entrepreneurship, getting together in order to create a community.

Matt: Organizing events is important as well. In London, events related to hardware startups are held about twice a month. Job events and networking events are held almost every week.

Eric: People in Osaka have already started doing important things. This event has a pitch contest. This is quite important to help build a community.

TechCity in London took a much different path than Silicon Valley. In the same way, I’m optimistic that Osaka can develop it’s own unique startup culture, something different from Tokyo or Fukuoka.


  1. Kabuku operates 3D printing marketplace Rinkak.  ↩

8 Japanese startups join Orange’s new accelerator program

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Photo by Orange Labs Tokyo See the original article in Japanese Last November, we reported that the Japanese edition that France’s major telecommunications corporation Orange would launch a startup accelerator program in Tokyo. Dubbed Orange Fab, its first batch of participating startups was announced on February 12th. The eight startups below were selected out of a group of 50: Abeja: IT solution for stores that uses video recognition technology Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology. livepass: Push-ads platform Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores (Related) Mushroom: Telecommunications device for touch-screen devices NetLED: Network LED control system pigmal: Push button interface for smartphones (Related) sMedio: Screen-sharing service for smart devices These startups will have a three-month mentorship and the possibility to explore business collaboration with Orange group in the future. The batch is officially named “Orange Fab Asia 1st Season”. I asked Hiroshi Nishikawa, the partnership manager of Orange Labs Tokyo, why the name specifies Asia instead of Tokyo or Japan: The startups for this first batch are all Japanese startups. However, we plan to expand the program to the other Asian countries, so we called it Orange Fab Asia. Orange Labs Tokyo spans other Asian countries too, so in the future,…

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Photo by Orange Labs Tokyo

See the original article in Japanese

Last November, we reported that the Japanese edition that France’s major telecommunications corporation Orange would launch a startup accelerator program in Tokyo. Dubbed Orange Fab, its first batch of participating startups was announced on February 12th.

The eight startups below were selected out of a group of 50:

  • Abeja: IT solution for stores that uses video recognition technology
  • Jin-Magic: Internet traffic optimization technology.
  • livepass: Push-ads platform
  • Locarise: Analytics service for retail stores (Related)
  • Mushroom: Telecommunications device for touch-screen devices
  • NetLED: Network LED control system
  • pigmal: Push button interface for smartphones (Related)
  • sMedio: Screen-sharing service for smart devices

These startups will have a three-month mentorship and the possibility to explore business collaboration with Orange group in the future. The batch is officially named “Orange Fab Asia 1st Season”.

I asked Hiroshi Nishikawa, the partnership manager of Orange Labs Tokyo, why the name specifies Asia instead of Tokyo or Japan:

hiroshi-nishikawa_portraitThe startups for this first batch are all Japanese startups. However, we plan to expand the program to the other Asian countries, so we called it Orange Fab Asia. Orange Labs Tokyo spans other Asian countries too, so in the future, we’d like to call on startups in countries like Korea and Taiwan to join the program.

While we have previously reported on the startup scene in Paris (for our Japanese edition), Japanese startups have little relatively little presence in Europe. Perhaps Orange Fab Asia can help Japanese startups establish more of a footprint in Europe.

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